Eagle

5 hours ago, Cement said:

I wonder if BMW New Zealand would see an opportunity here to pick up the hosting cost (sponsorship) and provide an easy mechanism plus sharp pricing on parts for members ? When asked I got some not shocking prices out of them and was easy enough to deal with. I think they are missing an opportunity in the parts space.

Plenty of nerds here that could do the admin / infra management.

🤔

They already do that to an extent and more with the BMW NZ club. Cant see them ever being affiliated with another club.

I think generally forums aren't popular enough these days to provide a good financial incentive, hence the decline of most of them along with sponsors. I feel like forums these days tend to be used like libraries, you only go there when you need some information and leave. Unless the next generation alpha reinvigorate forum popularity or at least the concept of them, its just un-intelligent social media for the foreseeable future.

Business equivalent of yes men. Local dealer here did the same for my control arm bushings on my W140. I asked if they had the special tool, said they did then proceeding damage one of them when installing one of them because they didnt have the tool.

My Mercedes never tracked properly after after a local tyre shop touched it, even the dealer couldnt get it right after that. 

7 hours ago, Vass said:

Had tried doing some data logging a while ago and noticed the long term fuel trims sitting at 8.5%

Brake booster is another possibility. I heard mine but you could try to smoke test it if you remove the one way valve or make a test hose.

Seems about right to me, its a buyers market at the moment with people spending less on stuff. These cars are common and aren't exactly cheap to run either so you really go to price them to sell.  

Hard to imagine ever seeing one in NZ that would beat this. The wheels, msport kit and alpine white really make it, somehow the head lights look great now haha.  

Struts and shocks sure to be well worn if they are original. Bilstein B4's front and rear from Spareto are $700 shipped. Less than 1k you can replace the entire suspension - subframe bushings, trailing arm bushings, sway bar links & bushings, front control arm bushings and struts\shocks. Very easy to do and makes a big difference.   

Shipping for multiple small\light stuff usually only $20 euro. Arrives quicker than average US parcel too with less stops.

Penrite product selector is a good general go to and is usually fairly accurate. Plenty of aftermarket fluids available for all of that with everyone has their own preferences. I generally use Penrite as they make good products at reasonable prices and are easy to source. 

I bought an online Haynes manual awhile back and it was ok but it they can vary alot in quality. Bentley publishers make good BMW manuals based on official BMW literature, but i dont think they make one for your car. Usually with BMW's you can find enough info on whatever is required without paying though.

Id class those brands in the same tier as Michelin, Dunlop and Falken probably at the bottom for street rubber at least. I find Michelin is a very consistent brand, never the best at everything but do everything to a decent standard whatever the product. Easy to source, heaps of sizes with a easy to follow product names also helps. 

4 hours ago, gjm said:

They manage to feel hard, squidgy, unfeeling and yet blocky, all at the same time

Just another rubbish tyre with a dumb name category, not the worst maybe but its like comparing a dog crap with cow crap. We sell both at work and lots of customers have switched over to Continental UC6's, just regular drivers and most are happy with the extra cost for very noticeable difference. When you got old and worn vehicles the tyres do a lot of work.

3 hours ago, Vass said:

$15,000 agreed value, $570 yearly premium,

Around the same as mine was with that value. No restrictions?

3 hours ago, Vass said:

Christchurch

Seems to be a recurring theme down there. Do you have any paper evidence or tag to say its been been completed and passed? If so then id be driving in the mean time and putting it on him if i was ever pulled up on it.

21 hours ago, Cement said:

Negative, went with the Powerflex bushings all round. Are the mono balls supposed to offer some big advantage ?

I tested them for about 50km vs OE M3 bushings + limiters, same setup both using lower M3 spherical joint instead of non M rubber bushing. Its certainly a obvious improvement for rear end tracking, much more controlled for sure. If you dropping good money on coilovers its probably worth it given the fairly low cost to extract additional performance id reckon. Installation is a bit harder especially on the car and harsher over sharp bumps, but not things that i would expect to matter at that point. 

I will be in Auckland in couple of weeks so if you want you are welcome to have a drive. Im basically a stock setup now with these and solid mounts.

"Condition: Unrestored, close to factory delivery condition". Didnt know they came from the factory with wear on seats, shift boot, gear knob and the rest that cant be seen.

Doing toe\camber adjusters? Looks like it could use them  

If you doing trailing arm, diff bushes and hoses its not much more work to drop the whole subframe and makes doing the bushings way easier. Ive got a spare subframe with all new bushings, too bad you are a bit far away and probably expensive shipping otherwise id offer it.

Lots of Bosch ones ive seen are remanufactured, could well be one of them, they probably re-use certain components.

What was the battery doing over the 12 mths?

12 hours ago, adro said:

Don’t think so, they looked fine

Yeah they dont look that worn. Having 'rebuilt' one of these anything beyond the regulator\brushes and the slip ring replacement is a major ramp up in time\effort (if you can find the parts).

Wasnt just worn brushes was it?

Need to clear all codes, drive the car for a bit then rescan to see what comes back. A lot of those are probably from battery going flat.   

Replaced lots of alternators on E90's compared to the older stuff so probably pay to test that if you have a multimeter. Also need to code\register the new battery. 

Are the current faults the highlighted ones?

Design flaw. If you keep it clean and dry it out now and again it's not usually an issue. Could probably modify it i suppose.

9 hours ago, Cement said:

I assume the rear rates are high due to being a divorced setup and the additional leverage the design has on the spring ?

Yeah im just comparing their rates to other setups, Ohlins for example is 7\12kg (similar to their comfort model) and suppose to be fairly compliant for a coil over. Street to me is a wide spectrum and im sure Australian road are far better than ours, then you got individual preferences and adjustment side of it, who really knows what its like until you try it is basically what im saying. No doubt massive just in performance from OE once thats all done.

You running monoball rtabs?

9 hours ago, Cement said:

MCA Pro Sport coilovers

Frist time ive heard of them. They seem good value for money compared to importing from afar and black is nice. Be very interested to see what you think of them when you have them setup, the rear spring rate looks quite high but im guessing you can always change it if needed.

Yep tends to be the 80's-90's stuff in my experience.

1 hour ago, Hazzy said:

I wouldn’t be able to find a replacement for the car at all since the tourings aren’t very common

Even if you found one it would likely be in worse condition. Always going to loose to insurance with these type of cars if you have anything that better than average.