Eagle

Sure had lots of positive things to say about it, i kept thinking that's because its had a lots of money spent on it unlike the average one. I think old used car reviews are more about the example being reviewed rather than the car itself.

Turners arent bad per se but i wouldnt recommend them. Spareto.com is my goto these days and FCP Euro if they dont have it. Typical refresh is water pump, thermostat, expansion tank, top and bottom radiator hoses, plastic water pipes\fittings and maybe radiator. Maybe other recommended hoses to replace in your particular engine im not sure.

My old E30 had the same issue. Rarely ever happened luckily. Given the milage on your car it probably deserves a bit of a mechanical birthday. E30s aren't too hard on the wallet.

Yeah that is the main issue for just about all BMW parts suppliers in NZ and why i rarely use them. No one seems want to invest in a basic ecommerce platform.

Yeah suspect it may of given the roof and front end and roof are slightly different shade of Estoril

IRP solid subframe mounts installed. Froze them over night and they went in very easy. While i had to had the subframe mount i decided to check some spot welds in areas that CMP mentioned. Found a couple of failed ones i had missed as they are covered in seam sealer. Also got messy with a wire wheel and angle grinder to shave my mess i had previous made with the seam sealer. Much tidier now. Left the car out in the rain for 24hrs during that wild weather we had a couple of weeks ago and it did not like it. It had previously had a very small strip of clear coat failure near the front of the bonnet but now its really fubar. Can only assume water has got under into it combined with the heavy rain\ wind caused it to sh*t itself. Never seen anything like it and to fail so quick. I regret not leaving it in the garage now as it makes the stone chips look pleasant. I predict at least a front end respray in my very near future.

Damn. Wasnt it 30 degrees down there today or something?. Keep up the gentrification

Mk-motorsportteile.de alloy mounts in black for a pleasant look. More suited to lowered cars for roll center correction as they are 6mm shorter than factory mounts Made in Germany $500 shipped

That regulator failure is something. Motorcycles do it a bit but cant say ive come across the failure on a car.

Could be the inspector wrote the sticker wrong. Its probably 12 months in the system.

Friend got his 318is back for the panel beaters. Brand new OE fender, fender lining, side skirt, trims, side indicator and engine mounts, all repainted with a 2nd hand door. 7k bill (paid 10k for ~14 year ago). Very lucky it was through an unusual insurance outfit and wasn't written off. Getting hard to find tidy ones these days.

Spareto.com will be way cheaper id bet. Fastest and cheapest place ive found these days by a good margin.

Reminded me of this a R6 rider post to a forum a couple of years back. Very similar performance.

Wonder why they didnt paint it all black. I can tell you why but you already know. Yeah they always appreciate tidy vehicles in a sea of sh*t

Not as bad as i expected.

The shipping and tax on that Birds suspension must be a bit.

DHL express are great. DHL parcel are rubbish. Mines been stuck at the infamous IPZ Frankfurt for nearly 3 weeks because the German sender cheaped out. Lucky its not urgent.

I dont know much about photography but they don't look good to me (certainly far worse photos out there mind you). They lack clarity\sharpness\detail. Interior shots are the worse, very blurry, light may not be helping with those.

Add awful photos to the list

Yeah the N43 is the 'reliable' version if such a thing exists. One i sold had 273,XXXkm on it with the original chain - NZ new manual, lived on the open road and fairly well serviced, opposite of most N4X engines. But yeah i dont see the point. If you do the chain then you have to all the coolant fittings, hoses, pcv, seals. List keeps going and bill goes up and they arent worth anything.

The cats are part of the exhaust manifold on these cars. Its not legal but people do hollow them out. Still going to have codes though. Don't know what your mechanic has done to diagnose it's the cat, could be a bad sensor or a leak etc. Either way if it is actually the cat then its likely something has caused it to fail, burning oil is very common in those engines. Id just keep driving it, as long as its not blocked then shouldn't have any major drivability issues. These engines arent worth spending any major money on.

10,000km\1 year is a good compromise for most driving assuming a good quality oil I dont what your suburban roads are like, but city driving is typically worse for engine wear as you are doing more idling\engine run time, start\stopping, low rpm driving etc. Modern diesels tend to suffer carbon build up issues from people doing this and not enough highway\higher rpm driving to help keep it clean. 80,000-100,000km is a good time to change the transmission fluid. Seems to be what manufacture ZF recommends as well 100,000km\8 years.

Given the extent you have gone to it should be a very very long time. The M54 isn't too bad for leaks in my book and most are easy fixes anyway. I bet and you got a lot of new sensors etc. It would be interesting to see a before and after engine re-build dyno. If i ever do mine in the future i think ill have to do it.

Sounds like drivetrain slop made worse by the diff ratio. Once you do the subframe, rear bushings and swap the diff it should be much improved.. I assume you preloaded the center support bearing? Damn. At least you figured it out. Worse case you may have to pull the transmission back slightly. I reckon you can tick that one off having done 100km and gotten it nice and hot.

Agreed. The amount of effort and hours you have put into is certainly commendable. Basically a bench test by starting it without the flywheel, not a problem. When you say lubed what are we talking about here?. Bendix and pinion cleaned?. Could record the noise next time you start it. Im assuming you dont think its engine related? By lurching and you saying its bucking forward and back when accelerating in lower gears?, when going on\off the throttle? or is a just an initially lurch when re-applying throttle?. Yeah first gear can be a little jerky on\off throttle a low speeds with drivetrain movement and im sure that 3.38 diff doesnt help. New clutch and flywheel shouldn't give any issues assuming they are working correctly. Sounds like one of those things you really want to drive it yourself to experience.