Twistee

@EagleThanks for reminding me, I went and did the basic pull the dipstick check idle speed vacuum test and nothing changed. Do you know if there is meant to be an o-ring seal on the dip stick tube where it attaches to the steel pipe coming out of the block? I checked the oil level when I was in Wellington and the orange plastic pipe came straight out with the dipstick. It was obviously newly installed judging by the condition of it. My guess is the PCV valve was not actually changed, or may have been changed years ago. I had forgotten what a pain the VAG parts breakdown can be when so many cars share the same short block with different packaging.

Agree, the interiors don't hold up like jap cars - I can't think of a single 2006 era BMW that isn't a basket case either though and for the money it was worth every cent, plus I have a decent when it sh*ts itself fund because it cost next to nothing. With RE003's it can put "some" of the power down before just lighting up in first and second, so your Swift may still be in with a chance. The bucket seats are fantastic, they are better than the MK6 Golf GTI that my wife used to have. I have two broken vertebra and was half expecting to be in agony by the time I'd spent 8 hours behind the wheel, I've really taken to it and look for any excuse to go for a quick fang. This was a bit of a semi barn find car, the previous owner had it for almost a decade, did minimal miles, but had it maintained. Once the weather clears up I'll rip the seats out and wet and dry vac the interior. Other than the headliner sagging the rest of the interior is just dirty.

Was told PCV had been done, I had planned on doing it anyway.

Having given up on finding a reasonably priced EV / Hybrid that wasn't completely thrashed I changed tack and found this : A phone call on Saturday, a one way ticket to Wellington on Sunday and 8 hours later it was home. Please ignore the headlight fluid, I topped that up after finding the rubber boot lying in the engine bay. For the $4k I spent on this I'm very happy, other than needing a service and fixing some of the vacuum lines that have perished it's in great shape for a 19 year old car. Being a 2 door, it just feels stupidly small and with the remap that a previous owner had done it's plenty fast enough - according to my OBDlink it's turned up from 8psi to 25psi of peak boost. Best of all it's a manual, so I get to row through the gears.

Can anyone recommend an electroplater that does Gold Zinc Passivate? I have a pile of nuts, bolts, pipes etc that I would like to have re-plated.

Tried the Turtle Wax headlight kit on the original headlight that was not replaced by insurance. The kit includes a heavy duty polishing compound for lighter UV damaged headlights in addition to the wet sanding kit, being conservative I just went with the polishing compound option with the sealant and I'm very happy with the result. It's not perfect but for the level of effort vs result I'm more than happy to recommend the product, from memory it was one of the cheaper restoration kits.

Finally all the items that I bought from FCP arrived, changed out the belts, tensioner and offset idler bearings. After watching a couple of tutorials I went for it, once the radiator shroud and fan were out the front end got a bubble bath. Followed by a rinse and blow out Replaced various broken clips along the way and found that the radiator shroud had not been fitted correctly. I don't know if it was removed when the AC condensor was replaced. I mention this as the low oil temp issue that I've been having appears to be almost resolved, behaving far closer to what I would consider normal that it has in the past 12 months. I don't know how that would have driven the cold oil temp issue - someone with a bigger brain can point that out to me, not convinced there is a connection.

Looks like a Eurofighter bodykit DIY clone - real DIY....

Pretty sure I've seen this done before......

I have read the same, and I'm also hesitant to go to the 5w30.

From what I can tell 10w60 Supercar has been discontinued, Castrol is rebranding that range and it looks like in APAC there will only be 10w60 Edge. Does anyone know if this is the case? I guess the next question is what to move to as a replacement, while not cheap Supercar was at least affordable when compared to Motul or Liqui Moly.

Order arrived today. happy times ....... Missing the offset idler, box smashed up and open on one end ? WTF. Had a look at the last "Congrats your order is on its way" email at the item list, some idiot at FCP had removed the offset idler. So, first and last order with FCP, what a ball ache.

Anyone brave enough to play in a 300's engine bay has my respect! Welcome.

Once they did start to respond to support emails it became clear the issue was not the shipping estimate. To bump up the order to a discount level I grabbed a tube of sunroof grease (listed as in stock), turns out the sunroof grease was not in stock and the expected delivery from the supplier was causing the delay. Order is now on its was minus the $10 tube of grease. No doubt the package will sit in the clearing depot in Auckland for a week before it starts to move.

Thanks gents, lesson learned. I've contacted them, no response yet.

Does anyone have any experience with typical order turnaround from FCP Euro? I bought an accessory / AC belt and bearing service kit yesterday, the shipping estimate went from the end of next week to the 7th of March after I completed the order!!!! Is this just a BS automated estimate and the reality is they are typically good with fast shipping?

Routine daddy daughter time at Western Springs, because motorsport memories are awesome

Post quick polish shot, love me some crystal clear headlights (excuse my white legs in the reflection ) And just a reminder that this is my ownership thread, these are my experiences and my opinions - your mileage may vary as they say.

There was NO issue with the handbrake other than some underpaid BMW tech who was adamant that there had to be a problem because he couldn't apply a handbrake properly when using a Tapley meter.

Last year when I took the car to them for a WOF and to recover the BMW service history their WOF inspector was convinced that there was a handbrake issue and proceeded to charge a fair chunk to "investigate". VTNZ down the road from them an hour later passed the car with no "issue". Pay peanuts, get monkeys........

Just got a WOF from Apex (thanks for squeezing me in this close to shutdown @BMTHUG !), not a single issue with the M5. Given that an actual brake test machine was used rather than an assometer like East Auckland BMW the handbrake showed no issues (what a shock). Anyway last thought for the year before everything hits the fan (If you know, you know....)

Doing some forward planning, any recommendations on where to purchase replacement rotors? At the moment it's $500 (or more) per corner from the usual suspects.

I think this article sums it up nicely : Branding experts have reacted with confusion and bafflement at Jaguar's new rebrand - which has shed the iconic 'growler' badge amidst a technicolour marketing push that doesn't feature any cars. The British sports car marque has been fiercely criticised over its most dramatic rebrand in decades, which swaps the roaring big cat badge for a roundel containing two letter 'J's and swaps the imposing font of the logo for a softer typeface. It comes as Jaguar puts its entire range out to pasture and pauses new car sales for an entire year as it develops its entirely new range of all-electric vehicles, to go on sale from 2025 with a much younger audience in mind than in the past. The redesign attracted fierce criticism. Californian designer Joseph Alessio said it would be 'taught in schools as how not to do a rebrand,' while another designer labelled it 'one of the most destructive marketing moves ever attempted.' And public relations experts have told MailOnline they are stumped by the firm's decisions - from the 'vandalism' of the company's iconic logo to the apparent casting off of decades of motoring heritage to attract new buyers. Brand and culture expert Nick Ede says he was 'baffled' by the marketing push - which featured precisely no cars - while Oli Garnett, co-founder of creative design agency Something Familiar, called the rebrand a 'dog's dinner'. Jaguar, meanwhile, has doubled down on the rebrand, sending sassy and saccharine replies to detractors on social media who question the wisdom of moving away from the kind of thinking that birthed iconic vehicles such as the E-Type. Some owners have even threatened to end their car deals early to, in the words of one social media user, 'avoid the humiliation of being seen in one again'. And in case you had not seen the majestic new roundel :

I don't know what they are, but clearly Jag does..................

This is as close as I have ever seen anyone come to creating a proper DCT setup without having to rewire half the car and throw the factory DME in the bin. I'll be following this, if nothing else it gives owners more options than a manual swap. I love my SMG and it's something you have to embrace if you want to enjoy your ownership of these beasts, if I had to choose DCT or manual I'd go DCT all day long.