cleanish_e46

E46, E90, E91, E39, E60, E61, E53, E83, or what have you got for a family of four plus the dog? Budget: $5k give or take. Expectations are realistic, but something that can be relied upon daily, and capable and safe enough to chauffeur the family when needed. Pic for attention:

New job and commute is much further than the previous five minutes down the road, but thankfully against the traffic. Still daily driving this, and it’s still great. Not sure I’ve had a car that handles better…

What is this? 😍

Does anyone local (North Shore, Auckland) have this trim piece going spare? I’ve ordered one but keen to keep it covered in the meantime. Cheers.

Let’s fix the window, it’ll only take a couple of hours… Easy enough, let’s replace the door lock actuator while we’re at it… everything working on the test fit. Closed and locked my door, unlocked it and the mechanism jammed. Door wouldn’t unlatch. All of the above work is less fun to do crouched in the drivers footwell, but I did become somewhat of an expert on E36 door locks, sing out if you’re ever in the same situation! I ended up having to punch through the case and pick the lock. Shout out to @HELLBM for sourcing a replacement door lock, great to deal with as always. Good to have everything working as it should again!

The answer was… air hammer.

Even easier if your door’s not locked shut. Can’t remove the door handle without removing the window rail and can’t remove the window rail if the door is locked shut. Actually at a loss here, need to break into my own car 😂

$3k! I’ve got one in a drawer. Really looking forward to taking everything apart again!

I did get it to release once, stuck again now and have ran out of daylight unfortunately. I replaced the door lock actuator not the door lock mechanism, did you have to replace both together @Eagle?

Replaced window motor, bushing and lubed up regulator and everything else that should be. Replaced the door lock actuator, and now everything works. Windows go up and down at the push of a button, they drop a little bit when you open the doors, they drop halfway when you put the roof up and down. Central locking works on the key… it works so well on the drivers door that I can’t open the f***ing thing now! Door locks and unlocks but neither handle, interior or exterior will open the door. Option 1: Climb over from passenger side Option 2: Put roof down from passenger side and jump in Option 3: Have a BMW bonfire, and a beer Replaced bonnet badge, bonnet and boot struts, some trim pieces. Car’s looking great, just can’t get in it which is sub-optimal.

Shout out to @BM WORLD for sourcing the correct window motor, easy to trade with and reasonable price!

The one issue that came with this car is the drivers window does not work. It worked once during a WoF, but I have not been able to roll it up or down since. It hasn’t bothered me, but I have to go to North Shore Hospital regularly and it is a pain because I have to open my door and get out for a parking ticket each time I go. All I get when I press the button is a *click* noise. All the other windows work so I have swapped the switches to check it’s not just a bad switch, same result. FullSizeRender.MOV It doesn’t seem as though you can replace the motor without removing the regulator, which is riveted in. Is that correct? If I have to drill this out, what else should I be doing while I’m in there? There is something connected to the yellow socket (above), but nothing to the white, does anyone know what the white socket is for? Thank you in advance for any advice. I miss wind up windows!

“She’ll be right”, has never been uttered by a German. I don’t think people are as inclined to keep them around. Our inclination, mine at least, is nostalgic. The E30 is a good example, there were lots of them in the UK where I grew up. They were between sixteen and twenty-six years old when I was finishing school, more ‘old car’ than ‘classic car.’ They were well loved due to their BTCC pedigree and popularity on the nations roads, Frank Sytner had one, your grandad had one, and you wanted one. Well, you could have one and they didn’t cost an arm and a leg, they were fun to drive and you could fix them with a knife and fork on your dads driveway. That’s harder to do now so people aren’t getting the same experience, and it’s hard to get nostalgic about something you can’t remember because it didn’t happen.

Successful trip to the WoF man. There was an E30 in for some / quite a lot of rust repairs, hard not to want them even when you can see all the issues isn’t it ha

This is pleasant, glws

Sort of took my eye off it thinking anything under $16/17k was dreaming. I can get behind a buyers market after the 2021/22 boom years haha

This seams reasonable considering prices of other listings, if it’s really as good as the photographs.

Unreal, glws.

So it has been slow today, and I like lists... M: E30 M3 E46 M3 CSL E26 M1 E28 M5 E39 M5 E36 M3 E12 M535i E24 M635CSi E34 M5 AC Schnitzer: Not for me. Alpina (some great pre-M era cars): 1600-2 Alpina Alpina A4S (2002) Alpina B7S Turbo (E12) Alpina C1 2.3 (E21) Alpina B3 2.7 Touring (E30) 1802 Alpina Alpina B10 V8 S (E39) Alpina B10 3.0 Touring (E34) Hartge: H35-24 (E30) 335i (E21) Hartge M5 (E28) H6SP (E24) 3.5 M3 Evo (E36) H5S (E34) Combined (one model code): BMW E30 M3 BMW E46 M3 CSL Alpina 1600-2 Alpina A4S (2002) Hartge 335i (E21) Alpina B7S Turbo (E12) Hartge M5 (E28) Hartge 3.5 M3 Evo (E36) Hartge H5S (E34) BMW E26 M1 Hartge H6SP (E24) Alpina B10 V8 S (E39) ... or something like that.

This seems like something to tackle on the next slow workday. Would any AC Schnitzer, Alpina or Hartge cars make their way into anyone's lists?

I know what you mean @Goose, I think we all have cars we regret selling. I would have kept most of the cars I've had if I had the space and didn't need to sell one to buy another. They are great cars, and that's a nice looking E24.

Six months of trouble free daily driving. Grabbed a coffee with @nath and his B3 yesterday. Only Alpina I’ve seen in NZ since leaving the UK almost ten years ago, worth the wait.

That show is so good. How painful is it looking at old advertisement prices?!

Hi Warren, how did / are you getting on with this? 👀

That's the story brother!