Eagle

Welcome. Looks like your well prepared to handle it.

8k seems excessive, probably doing it the long way. Someone who has proper tools and done the job before should be much cheaper, there was a thread in 2018 which the job cost someone ~$3000. Obviously prices have gone up since then and part brands can vary the price some what, but pays to shop around as they were quoted $5000 to do it via another workshop. There is another Wellington member @Spinner99 who did the job in that thread and bought tools so maybe he can help you out.

Facebook groups are probably the most active, Simply BMW probably being the main one. Official BMW NZ club is also reasonably active. It's mostly meet ups and cruises which is fine but personaly I found gets stale after awhile.

Haha, is this is first rodeo or something?. Fully restored in his dreams along with the asking price.

Hey welcome back. Yeah i do recall ive met you at some point. Not 100% sure but didn't you or your partner buy my E39 540i msport manual ages ago Sadly the community is pretty dead like most forums these days.

What a tool. No surprise its rolling on Hifly tyres either.

Yeah i cant see it being worth even half that for a modified converted 318i, trying to recoup costs pricing. Who knows how good mechanically it is either as most of what he's listed is cosmetic stuff that isn't for everyone. As above nothing looks very meticulously done either which for the price isn't realistic even during peak covid times.

With the amount of ideas they have stolen over the years i dont think anyone would care My SMG has both of them for a reference. I wish i didnt delete my exhaust flap, i have a feeling that would of help with my resonance in ~2k range. Im pretty sure all my have been Mahle ones on any BMW with plastic housings Getting flashbacks of VW's when going in for a simple bulb change. Liquid tape can help to some degree but its a bit messy. Re-wiring is the only proper fix. Must a be a wagon thing at the point, more insulated with exhaust further away?

A couple of times to get rid of an airlock on some Japanese stuff but found our work one fiddly and not worth the hassle to use normally. I don't see the value for $ in that kit for casual use on older BMW's which are easy to do. You can get those chinese vacuum\pressure tester kits for cheaper than that which would do the job well enough and a pressure tester is more useful to have. Draining then flushing\reverse flushing with hose or hose\compressed air is much better for dirty systems, even on clean ones id still prefer it for DIY given the long change intervals.

116's are unreliable. If it were a 6 cylinder if it would of made it.

If it has EWS 2 then the relay is part of the EWS module behind the glove box. You can test it by bridging the 2 larger gauge power wires together then trying to start the car, if it cranks then you indeed have a EWS bad relay\module .

For a 5k BMW it is good buying. Classic example of service history vanishing when the new owner makes no effort to record\retain it.

Id recommend against poly in RTAB based on my experience. I found no real performance benefit, added noise and anywhere poly rotates will need to be re-lubed at some point, not something you want to do with trailing arms. I think solid mounted subframes are generally great with no major downsides, problem is on the E30 the diff is not isolated\part of it so you do run into issues especially if raising it. If you can find one on an old diff, run a OE solid rubber diff mount or even softer poly, makes a big difference in rear end control over the typical one. Adjustable toe\camber plates is worth doing if you have the subframe out and have to cert it.

I didn't think this generation of BMW's contained them but Sachs aftermarket ones may contain an internal spring. If you secure the strut body and pull on the shaft hard you should be able to overcome some of the spring tension and extend the shaft to some extent. You'd probably need 3x spring compressors to compress them enough, or just pay a shop to do it with a proper wall mounted compressor. As above Sachs are known for combining many versions into one product. I assume they do this for reducing costs but it causes issues like these along with suboptimal dampening being universal(E46 rear shocks being a good example). The genuine BMW unit would match your old one but people generally arent paying the big premium for those. Bilstein B4, Koni SRT or TRW etc have equivalent options to the Sachs aftermarket that work better. Also if you bought new front strut mounts for these then Lemforder\Boge\Sachs one tend to be a newer taller design and increase ride height. Id recommend E90 iX ones which a stronger and lower.

Yeah it looks like Sachs have done the aftermarket special and merged all the versions at some point. Have fun compressing the spring.