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Woohoo! Glad it's fixed. Hope it doesn't happen again. Forgot to mention that maybe you should make sure you have your radio code if it happens to require it after disconnecting the battery.

I was just talking to lidistick about it, we don't think it's a genuine S5, especially since they say '540i S5' instead of 'ACS S5'. Reckon it's just an S5 lookalike.

If the brake lights and third brake light are on through the night I would expect the battery to be dead by the morning. I think at this point you should do what Greg said, disconnect the battery, at least you have an excuse for doing so And reconnect the battery in the morning, the computer will have reset by then. Wondering why the lights still work if the fuse is out. Maybe there's another fuse?

Sounds like the wiring got mixed up during the conversion and it's an open circuit when the ignition is on? Did the windows also roll down with ignition off before the conversion? (Haven't had experience with E30s but on E36s they roll down whenever the 2 front doors are open regardless of whether the key is in the ignition)

Hey Mike, This sounds serious. I have never heard or read of anything like that, electrical problems on an E39 doesn't really surprise me but this one sounds really bad. Since it's under warranty I suggest you bring it to the dealer before touching anything lest they decline your claim if you do something. If you really wanted to try something I'd go pulling fuses related to the cluster (if there are any), or perhaps even unplugging the connectors on the back of the cluster. The way I see it, the computer has frozen and you need to reboot it.

That's terrible. Was the cyclist okay? Any more details on the car? Must have stood out if you were admiring it.

Maintained well high KMs on a BMW should be no problem. Though I think the 540s have more issues than the 6 cylinder E39s, you'll be able to find a list on the net. Seeing as it's NZ New the service records will probably be available. Do it.

Who needs a house anyway? Sell it and buy this and many other nice cars. One for you to live in and one for wifey.

I really don't see how that would work, but you could try

I've cleaned my E36 headlights. There are two layers of glass - the outside rectangular one and the two round glass lenses inside that resemble the E34 ellipsoids. I have not done an E34 before but it should be similar, get the lights out, take off the lenses and clean the reflector (preferably with a good microfibre cloth or something that will not scratch, the reflector is very delicate and the chrome scratches easily and will come off if you rub too hard). If possible test a non-visible surface first. Then go for the projector lense itself - for the E36 it was hard to clean the inside of the lense, but I managed to do it bending my fingers inside and doing a little bit at a time. I used newspaper to clean the glass lenses. There will be dust and what seems to be oil build-up through time. I used Mr. Muscle glass cleaner on both - not sure if that's the best option but it has seemed to work fine. A few weeks after I cleaned mine one of them fogged up one night when left out in the cold but it rarely happens. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the Mr. Muscle. Maybe you could try washing the lenses with dishwashing liquid and dry them with newspaper. Here's my write up for the E36, you can see the difference cleaning makes. DIY Write-up: Cleaning E36 Bosch Ellipsoid Lenses

I have no idea, but if it really is stock I have to hand it to the Supra. Even though I love BMWs and would prefer to drive home in the M3, blah blah blah.

So you have two resonators + the exhaust now? Is this one of those exhausts from TradeMe? Would the exhaust not be a muffler too? If it's still too loud for you I say remove it - especially if it's causing droning at low RPMs, that is really annoying. Just my 2 cents.

camera doctor, did you ask some questions about your headlight awhile back when you first joined? I'm assuming you didn't have much success cleaning the light so you're posting this now. There are two ways to get HID: 1. Do it the right way by getting headlights made for HID bulbs. Such headlights were designed with the HID bulbs in mind. The projector will be different and will take HID bulbs only. HID bulbs come in a few types, for example reflector headlights usually take D2R while projector headlights like the E39 take D2S. A headlight designed for HID will not cause glare if aimed properly. If you drive a car that has proper HID headlights, you'll notice the beam pattern is even. 2. Do it the wrong way, like you said - get an aftermarket kit that uses a halogen base, ie: H1, H3, H7 etc and plug it into a halogen headlight. These kits are rebased - they take the bulb and install it on to the halogen base of your choice. You can then plug it into your headlights. But note when they rebase bulbs it could result in the bulb being a different length to normal halogen bulbs. This will result in improper light output. It's not to say that ALL halogen headlights with HID kits put out a bad beam pattern, some are better than others. But you can safely say that an E39 HID headlight will put out a better beam pattern than a E39 Halogen headlight with a HID kit. Aftermarket HID kits are what give HID a bad name. Look at the amount of cars on our roads using kits and causing glare to other drivers, now the average person thinks HID are stupid and cause glare when they are actually a superior light technology and improve safety. Once you have driven a car with PROPER HIDs you won't want to go back to halogen. Also note that OEM (ie: Philips, Osram) HID bulbs are around 4300k in temperature. They are a bit of a warm white and put the most lumens on the road compared to other lights. If you go aftermarket you will almost never see 4300k bulbs, instead you'll see 5000k, 6000k, sometimes past 10,000k. The higher the kelvin the less lumens. You might have seen people on the road with literally purple headlights (really high kelvin)- they think they're cool but they cause fatigue to their own eyes and others on the road. HID bulbs do go up in colour temperature through time - so OEM do sell ~5000k bulbs to match any old ones if one dies. So please do it the right way and get a proper pair of HID headlights if you want to go HID. To be honest I am still surprised your E39 headlights are not good enough, are they aimed correctly, do they have broken adjusters, is the glass hazy? Have you cleaned them from the inside? If the light housing is already bad, putting a HID kit inside it won't help. You may want to take this opportunity to upgrade to facelift headlights (angel eyes) with xenon. Hella sells a conversion kit for this purpose. It's not cheap, but it might be worth your while... try taking an E39 with xenon for a test drive. A cheaper option would be to get pre-facelift headlights with xenon, you'll also need a conversion kit but I'd imagine it would be cheaper. Proper E39 HID headlights will have brackets to mount the ballasts, while if you go with a halogen headlight and an aftermarket kit, you'll have to mount the ballasts somewhere in the engine bay, usually using double sided tape. kiwi535: Have you tried cleaning your E34's headlights?

Looking forward to see how good this is

Results? What does the butt dyno say? I agree, you should get a heat shield made up.

Good to hear they're good, definitely look like fun little cars. Martyn I guess the Touring will have to go in to the dealer more regularly now... Or maybe not

FWIW, my E36 320i was a Japanese import, production date 91/8, had the Jatco A5S300J transmission.

Woohoo! It definitely looks like a fun little car.

Welcome, love both the new and the old F4LLEN.

I've encountered tight bulb holders before and always got then out by pushing the holder inwards, towards the tail light, and just turning them hard (make sure it's the right way).

Good to hear you've got it sorted. Forgotten about the whole thermostat housing issue - my E36 had a metal one being an early model. People like to change the thermostat housing to the metal one as part of preventive maintenance, so if you do overhaul your cooling system next time you might want to do that. How much did the plastic one cost you?

Yes don't think the Supra was stock. Must be light though. Looked like Sabine driving the M3?

Welcome to the club Sam, nice cars

Welcome Alan, I thought I recognised your nick from the FI forum in BFC. Looking forward to reading more about your project

So beautiful and so clean. Great photography Josh!