hunter

Came across an interesting but annoying issue this week, where the car wouldn't go into Drive. it felt like the something was stopping the gear stick from moving backwards into Drive.

I removed the auto gear lever boot, nothing looked broken or missing. and have verfied this with youtube videos and RealOEM diagrams.....highly technical!

I tried shifting the can into drive with the boot up, so i could see the mechanism. I noted the little  metal prong that engagees into a plastic slot was hitting the side of the plastic slot. With a jiggle, Drive was engaged, i repeated this with a little pressure towards the drivers side of the car and drivewas engaged successfully. Without the pressure applied, the prong still hits.

ive applied a little grease to ease the insertion and its doing the job, but the areas didnt appear to have been greased previously....

Has anyone encountered this before and keen to hear how to resolve or, if this is simply a wear issue with a 20 year old car.

Today I refitted my black kid eyes grilles, they needed some jiggling and clips re inserted. They now sit much flushed to the bonnet. 

Also received a package from a facebook group member in sth island containing a full back seat of msport fabric. Bargain really at 30$

I will be using the material to reupholster the drivers seat side bolsters in the future. 

On 1/13/2020 at 9:20 PM, TermiPeteNZ said:

. At this point I need to decided if I bother with an oil analysis, or put the money I'd spend on this towards just getting the rod bearings done as a preventative measure, just as @aja540i did with his E61 M5 Touring (such an awesome vehicle!)

• Turner Motorsport and ECSTuning recommend bearing replacement at 60-80,000 miles
• On the Facebook M5 owners' group - the consensus seems to be 'get it done' 

Check this series out Pete vid 2 and 10 for the restoring of the iconic V10 E46 M3 where they discover bearing isues (vid 2) and what was done and root cause in vid 10

Car visited Supreme Panel and Paint Works this week to have a dent in the side skirt removed. 

Totally my fault it was the when I knocked my roof rack over, and it struck the car. 

Being sealed to the under body meant proper attention from the pros was required. 

Massive thanks to Murray and the team. 

Trade me has a few options both from those wrecking car and new 3rd party options

noice, what cosmetics do you have on the cards?

i must admit, its grown on my (not like a fungus) but i think it's realy agressive. the front end design wont be for all models i'm sure so as a distinctive design queue it really works, and that booooty - ohh wee

bump...still looking, hoping i dont have to go e bay

11 hours ago, Kiwi_BMW said:

Sorry, unless someone fitted them it just has std exterior mirrors

would u mind taking a pic of one, the stadard and dimming look wquite simialr in good ocndition. tell tale sign is the little tab on the bottom for releasing the glass locking mechanism , and the extra plugs on the back.

On 1/12/2020 at 6:47 PM, Kiwi_BMW said:

Yes it's M-tech 2 all round (judging by the way it rides, but will check tomorrow), I would like to sell all the M/sport suspension as a packages if possible, so front & rear shocks, springs and swaybars.

The way a M-sport with m-tech 2 rides compared to a std or even a sport is the thing that really makes the m-sport worth having.

Mpsort 2 Suspension is the shizz and agree, sell as a package 

does it havethe auto dimming mirrors? im after a passengaer side one.

Took the car, and the Family around Hampton Downs international circuit this past weekend, as part of the BWM Festival, sponsored by the BMW Car Club NZ and Coombes Johnston. 

It was a cool event and the kids (4 and 11 months) loved going out on the track, for 1 lap, then they both fell asleep   with 3 to go...

Car handled well, with no sign of spongy brakes of the past. I manged to wind 3rd out a few times despite the crowded cruise session. With radio off (and kids asleep) its nice to hear the 3 liter sing.

onlything i can think of that would make it better (it is a family car in M Sport trim after all) is better tires. the Altrenzo (yuck) and old Eagle F1s offer different handling characteristics and once they are up for replacment i'll be looking at all 4 - something sporty yet quiet. 

Thanks, trying to avoid  4 and 5 - i had doscounted them for now as last resort.

given texture of the trim and coverage of paint option 2 and 3 might be best 

Hi Team, I have noted some silver overspray on the textured  black bumper trim from a previous respay on my front bumper.

What is the best way to remove this?

Spot light covers also had some, have cleaned those up wit ha clay and re-spray. The textured surface of the trim needs a different apporach....

Removed spotlight covers last weekend to give them a clean up and remove some overspray from a previous masking miss. Front bumper has been repainted at some stage. 

After a degrease and clay bar most of the silver had gone. At this point I decided to respray in black as I'd found a can of duplicolor in my recent garage clean up. This has worked well and they are all black again. 

Wtb. E39 auto dimming mirror in excellent condition. Passenger side or driver's side. Must be clear and blemish free with all clips etc intact

As requested by some of you  a stand alone projectthread for my E39 530i - this will stop me spamming the WDYDTYC thread lol 

Backstory - April 2019 I decided to look fo an E39, 530i to replace my mint E46 320i, the E46 had served me very well for 9 years, i had modded it to the end of my wishlist and after a BME Club trip to Tokaanu with a 3 year and 5week old, my theory about needing a bigger sedan with the arrival of Bodhi, was proven correct. upon my return home - the search began.

After looking at a few as "do ups" i decided as mint as i could get for 7k ish was the way to go. I wont go too deep into the unicorn i let go the previous year, as it still burns me - and was recently sold again - a mint individual grey 530i, nz New, with color matched interior stitiching.

After some further searching and a well timed post on the BMW Car Club NZ Facebook page a local example was coming up for sale, a couple of views, a test drive and it was mine. it was mint enough for the 6k price tag including a full service history, with a few things needed doing to fit my desire for a "Project "

Since picking the car up in April i have done (all in the WDYDTYC thread) some optional other maintenance / replacement of worn parts

- brakes rotors and pads

-recon ABS pump & booster

- GROM Bluetooth adapter

- refurbished parcel shelf and installed child seat anchors

-new rear suspension links, top hats, spring pads etc to even the rise height out

-panel beating to the drivers side frot shock tower (under bonnet) to straighten it out

-new "Pork chops" to replace smashed ones incl dnew hardwas for the centre undertray also ( this cobined with other wrok makes me think the car was nose dived at some stage or repeately abused leaving an angled driveway

- new arm rest inserts and handle

- Bavsound speaker upgrade (awesome)

- tinted windows

-Replaced front and rear windows gaskets - made hard in the front by a misalinged windscreen and lots of glue used by whomeeer did that job

- spark plug change

-gear box flush

- oil change and all filters, cabin etc...

- new camshaft intake angle sensor

- 2nd hand mint drivers side auto dimm mirror

- paint correction at Auto Niche, Hamilton

- claybar and degrease wheels

- replaced center caps in wheels

Future works

- 2003 sterring wheel with multifunction and paddle shift ( in the garage just need ot sort install)

- refurb the style 42s

- new passenager mirror or great 2nd hand one

- fix rip in drivers seat side bolster ( on the look out for material from good condition m psort rear seat)

- new windscreen cowel

- newA pillar trims (middle clipswere borken whe nwindscreen replaced, i beleive)

Any further updates will be sposted here in due corse 

Cheers 

the old E46

The new to me E39

Replaced the mo money mo problems busted liquid crystal  drivers side electric auto dimming mirror with a ridiculously good one from @BozzaFC 

Still on the hunt for an equally good second hand one for passenger side too. 

Learnt They are interchangeable but it means the wires have to go around the other way on the back and the locking tab switch moves from bottom to top if charging sides. 

Did the spark plugs today, service history reports them last done 4.5 years ish ago. All 6 were exactly the same condition as the one pictured. no oil on them so that's good. 

New ones in ready for a burn up to and around Hampton Downs this weekend for Caffeine and Gasoline. 

Summer spruce up pt2

Front wheel cleaned inside and out as per previous post, and guard liners aka pork chops replaced with new Latvian, non cracked ones. 

Made a few discoveries today, first was the mint and well used Japanese spanner in the passenger side guard liner, no doubt dropped in there before the car was imported. 

The being that the drivers side under tray is misaligned due to mashed brackets and a missing section of bumper where the porkchop slots in, all screw holes etc are accounted for so it is secure but could  be better,  will address in a future mission. 

Really like how the spanner is worn on one end of the text, potentially shows a lot of use by the mechanic who eventually lost it. 

 The summer spruce up initiative started today with rear wheel off the car (BBS style 42 on an E39) for a inner barrel degrease, wash, clay bar and wax. Not sure it has ever been done ? so hasn't come up perfect by any means. But a good stop gap until I can get a full wheel refurbishing done. Will do fronts later this week.

Also gave the guard liners a bit of a scrub, very dirty also. 

I have a lumpy idle on mine from cold, at times. Scanned it with my bluetooth obd2 scanner got a camshaft sensor fault, so replaced that, helped slot plus other odd habits when driving. 

It's still present at times, Going through service history,  plugs were done years ago. So will be hitting the super cheap boxing day sales for some. 

Yep.

Cheers man.

My left (passenger) is far worse that my right. If your left is ok I may consider it. 

On 11/15/2019 at 6:10 PM, BozzaFC said:

. The driver's side was still the original auto-dimming, and surprisingly had no leaks and functioned perfectly. But the inconsistency annoyed me, plus I like the classic BMW blue tint. Found a cheap blue mirror glass off Ali Express for $25 and swapped it in.

Do you have a link to these @BozzaFC Mine also have the auto dimming both have leaks / defects and BMW want 350, each for the galss.....?