e38king

Great to hear from your Glenn, I work in Highbrook so will pop in and catch up with you in the next day or so provided you aren't too busy

Hi everyone, The wife has decided she would like an X3 as her 'new' vehicle. I have seen a few on trademe for the 14-17k mark. From my limited research it seems we should look for the facelift version with the 160kw engine. Any thing else we should be looking for? Any issues to look out for ? Cheers.

As has been mentioned, firstly check for locating rings. IE the wheel should sit snugly on the hub without any movement up and down with the wheel bolts removed. If the tyres are correctly balanced it will more than likely be the control arm bushes. It is a very common problem on E46's. I used to come across it alot when customers were upgrading from 15's and 16's to 18's or 19's.

if you have any spares that you don't want send them to Starship Hospital. Always great to help out kids who are not as fortunate as our own.

Locating rings are easy enough to buy and then they will fit perfectly without the rangi mods

This ^ If they are genuine they will have the markings cast into the back of one of the spokes. It should also have a TUV on it somewhere. TUV and JWL standards are pretty much the same except it costs an arm and a leg to get TUV certification. This is the reason replica's don't use it, as it would make the cost of them too prohibitive.

a bit late but they are not mismatched rims, they are from a 7 series. All 7 series run a slightly higher rear offset. They best way to get the wheel off is to hit it with a rubber mallet. Can you spin the rim around at all by putting the car in neutral. If so this will let you bang it at different points around the rim. I would also be putting down an old blanket under the rim as Murphy's law says it will pop off at the wrong moment and land on the face putting bug scratches on it.

have only just come across, looks awesome Jon! Looking forward to the updates.

It was a promotional vehicle for Unique Tints, obviously they do car wrapping as well

Not to sound rude but maybe you need to think about it...... out of that $70k has to come rent ( jump on Trade Me to see how much a workshop costs a year to rent), Wages, GST, ACC Levies, Insurance, depreciation on equipment (or leasing of equipment if you can't afford the initail outlay).. the list carries on and on. Buying or renting specialist equipment is not cheap, especially all the latest diagnostic equipment. Now see how much you have left over. Ask Glenn, I bet he wouldn't open his doors for $35 an hour.

Have you ever run a business? How much do you think a good mechanic is paid these days? $35 wouldn't cover the wages, let alone the associated expenses, etc

Not to sound too negative but I doubt you will have much luck, especially on the 01/01. I wouldn't want to be doing labour only on either of those two days, or if I was it would be at a pretty decent rate. You are effectively cutting them out of business by supplying your own tyres and brake pads and the double whammy is you are asking them to do it on almost a public holiday.

bump

where are you located? If you can let us know then someone will be able to recommend a local repairer

Assume what you like Unfortunately, the only way to tell is to go and visit the factories. Most of the A factories in China actually make OEM wheels for a lot of major car companies. I have seen Mazda, Toyota and Honda wheels being made. You could also assume that all the worst replacement parts are also exported to NZ. I have to agree with the tyre comment made above. Having worked in the tyre industry for over 10 years, you find that most people simply do not know the differences between tyres. Unfortunately they see something that is black and round and assume they are all the same. At the end of the day you always get what you pay for. I have had a number of people ask me why there is a difference in price in tyres. My most common response is that to get something made cheaper you have to leave something out. These cheaper tyres tend to have less rubber, less steel and less denier cords in the sidewall. Less money spent on research and development etc.

Wheel factories in China have A through to D ratings with A having all the relevant structural testing facilities incl x-ray and are required to test at least one wheel in every 40. B rating is one in every 100. D rated needless to say do not have x-ray or are required to test any wheels, so in fact there are differences in quality. Having visited wheel factories in China you will be amazed how many actually make OEM wheels, as well as aftermarket wheels. The majority of OEM wheels now are actually cast, not forged due to the prohibitive cost in making OEM forged wheels. Specialist models like the M3 etc still use forged wheels due to their limited production run. A lot of people on here seem to be bagging "replicas" yet how many of these same people use aftermarket brake rotors, control arms etc which technically also are replicas. Take a lot at the tyres that some of the members use, I bet they are not all running OEM replacements. Brakes and tyres are probably more important to safety than a wheel. I am not defending the "replica market", just offering a balanced point of view.

Having a big clear out in the shed and actually forgot I had these. Standard Personalised Plate reads Too Tempting. Replacement cost now $899 - will take $600 ono

They look like some kind of aftermarket wheel. Definitely not a factory wheel

done, cheers

I enjoy looking and occasionally contributing to the forums here but there are a few members on here who's opinions are so one eyed, negative and a waste of time. I can't be bothered entering into a 'keyboard warrior' scenario and I realise they are entitled to their opinions. However, it would make my time on here so much more enjoyable if I didn't have to read their posts and could just block it out. My question is: Is there any way to do this?

Looks awesome, everything ties together nicely. I am not normally a fan of black grilles, but in your case it works Well done!

they should bolt on without any issues

I agree there is not much difference between the Bridgestone/Dunlop, but after having owned a set of Cooper's I would not go to anything else. Sure, they initially cost more, but when you work out cents per km, the work out far cheaper. I met a guy the other week who was well over 70,000km on a set of the CS4 road tyres, he reckoned he would get 100+. Just because they don't do a tyre that is suitable for your application, it hardly makes it marketing bullshit as you so eloquently put it. I have got a couple of mates who will get well over 80,000km on the AT3. One mate had the 20" LTZ on a new Hilux, sold it at 95,000km and the tyres were still warrantable. BTW - nice work on recommending tyres that are not available in a 265/65R17, which is what the OP was after.

Take a serious look at the Cooper range. They are made in America and by far the best in the market, they even come with a warranty up to 80,000km and not much more than a Bridgestone or Dunlop. Outhandle and outperform both of those brands in every way.