Eagle

330i's pricing vary wildly - Not hard to find a reasonable sedan around the same price as an 130i auto, ive seen a few sell in 2k range lately (usually rough but same as any old car that cheap). 130's may have lower average mileage but they are all older cars now so condition is really what clued people are looking at. Significantly lower performance is debatable - brand new vs brand new i dont believe it would be a huge gap on a track, but even if it were its going to be much less in average driving. E46's are way more DIY friendly\modifiable with a massive community which is what makes them great. 3.0L Z4's always seemed overpriced to me and limited practicality, always heaps of sale.

Most of the ones on trademe look pretty average price wise. I dont really follow pricing but 5-6k for an auto and 7-8k for manual is what ive always thought the average ones was worth?. The white manual looks the best bet, but would need the usual cash injection to sort it no doubt.

Typical from them. You'd think they would have systems to update it on the order status for everyone's sake. Yeah they arent perfect but pretty close. The amount of $ ive spent with them, they surpass everyone ive used by a large margin for overall performance. DHL helps alot too.

LLL parts is another one ive started to try for genuine. Yep BMW dealerships.

That's Aramex for the most part, your lucky if get an item delivered within a week nationally.

Yeah FCP aren't as good as they use to be in general, seems hit or miss if they update you if a delay occurs. If its not shipped within a few business days then emailing them is probably a good idea, they do respond in timely fashion i will give them that. Spareto covers most of your typical wear items for the best value and fastest shipping, then Schmeidmann and NZ dealers for genuine only parts. FCP will sometimes fill a brand or stock gap the others have missed, but generally i dont see the point of using them these days.

The timing chains themselves are usually reusable in most cases, failed chain guides the will cause an obvious rattle. Tensioners also go bad and a loss of pressure\rattle at cold start which accelerates the wear. You usually do the guides etc as preventative maintenance. Not too hard with the correct tools @hqstu has the tools and has done a few of them.

More powerful, more reliable\less things to go wrong. M62tu its a technical downgrade, no reason you'd pick it over the non vanos. Some of PFL modules\electronics probably arent quite a reliable as facelift cars eg LKM and ABS Touring's have their own little issues due to trunk\boot\tailgate and sunroof IMO the biggest weak point by far with all E39 540i autos is the 5HP24 transmission, over 1\2 the price of that car if you have to rebuild it

LPSR purple tag - The used one he send me had a preload issue so he gave me a discount on a new rack with his rebuilt one. CMP front brace - Was debating whether to install it but ive never used the fold down seats since owning the car so i figured why not. Haven't really pushed it hard since installing as i need a alignment but it appear to give at least a subtle improvement in rear end feel. Meyle HD bushings - Only found out recently looking in the Bentley manual that there is a distance spec for these to be fitted (~289mm +\-1mm from inner ball joint to rubber bushing). Mine had been re-used which wasn't ideal and weren't pressed on near enough. I made a similar tool to proper ones to ensure i got them on properly this time around. Ive always felt the car wasn't as stable and lacked steering feel it should have and this was very likely the main cause. Even with the wheel alignment off its day and night especially combined with the above tweaks.

E46 'vert front underbrace, a part i didn't know i wanted until i spotted it, always annoyed me the most E46's dont have a factory jack pad. This vert brace is reinforced\heavier than your std one and namely has a suitable round dimple\hole to mount my own pad on into. I used a X8R E46 jacking pad reduced to a round press fit and some Sikaflex for insurance, the E46 M3 jacking pad may also work?. Such a great QoL improvement that i wish i had done ages ago.

After donating a Dinan CAI to @Vass we had to figure out what parts they used for their additional cold air source since they dont sell them easy. I know Dinan use alot of OE parts for their mods so i eventually closed in on the likely parts. A quick confirmation with Vass concluded they were indeed E39 6 cylinder airbox boots\grommets. I decided to semi mod mine to re-create theirs after i found some suitable pipe from NZ safety. An additional cold air source cant hurt and im not exactly sure why BMW did not source it from there like the M3 etc, possibly a space or cost issue. Pictures basically explain it, grommet pops out the airbox so its easily removable from the car. As far as temperature goes i didn't do enough logging in varying circumstances to say whether i has a measurable reduction, it wasnt apparent in normal highway driving with a 20 degree air temp and 30-35 IAT with both setups. For what its worth IAT temp reading was only ~5 degrees hotter than ambient air temperature with this installed once you pushed a bit past stuff the license speeds.

Around the same time last year i did a 4 runs with Draggy out of interest, so id thought a do a few more under similar conditions. @Harper mentioned NPD100 so thought id give it a go instead of the Gull 98 in previous runs. Other changes with these runs are the TMS O\D pulleys, wheels\tyres, M52 manifold, cleaner engine and launching in 'M-track mode(thought had DSC disabled for some reason). Previous 0-100 was 6.59s and 14.8s 1\4. No doubt there is 6.XX and 14.XX with improvements and more runs, but at least its in lower end of the spec range now.

Biggest issue for me would be the used auto box gamble. You'd probably do a service, mechatronic seals etc and probably a few drain and fills so that's another $700-800 on top. Then you kinda have to hope the rest is ok because they do have quite a few potential faults that can occur. Getting one from a damaged working car or something the you can at least test drive, check adaption values and fluid condition would be good, or even having it inspected\rebuilt.

What did they think the issue was?

OE ones seem to last 20+ years and were probably heat cycled far more often being a new car at one point,. To me the issue with the aftermarket metal ones is the usual quality control gamble. They are quite a new product so haven't really been time tested for any other faults that may surface either. They are on Aliexpress for way cheaper atm and at that sort of price you can take the gamble.