jochen

For your car: OIL LEVELLING SENSOR Part Number 12617508003 Price USD $130.57 In my experience, the local NZ is the USD retail price x 200% (double US retail) NZD400 for a USD130 part is pretty standard for NZ BMW shops... Just in case I got the wrong sensor: OIL PRESSURE SWITCH 12611710509 $11.61 Jochen

Here's the pinout for the RNS-E Read the other posts on that site as well, especially the ones stating the difference between USA and Europe versions of the RNS-E

Ah, you already have a Euro nav unit. I just looked up some piccies of the RNS-D Try the swap - pray that the manufacturer used the same wiring and same pinouts for the Jap and the Euro nav. Have a go :-) Don't get an RNS-E until you know the RNS-D works. I see the RNS-D is made by Blaupunkt. That means a BMW VDO map won't work in it :-(

Basically the Jap navs (in BMWs anyway) use completely different map discs and formats and nav units from a Euro car. So to make a Jap car with nav work here, you have to change it to Euro spec. Because NZ follows Euro specs. If you can get the local maps of course... So the procedure is: 1. Can you get an NZ map from Audi NZ? If no, stop right here. If yes, then take a photo of an NZ New Audi with the NZ factory nav in it. Figure out the model number. Try talking to someone who knows nav systems (don't expect to find anyone who knows though...) 2. Get all the wiring diagrams and determine if any wiring differences exist between Jap market and Euro market Audis. If they do, determine what needs to be done to change it to Euro spec. 3. Armed with the photo, troll eBay for a Euro nav unit to see what the 2nd hand price is. Or, if you have lots of $$$$$ lying around, just buy a new one :-). And buy a map too. 4. Take a deep breath, and remove the Jap nav and fit the Euro one. Do it carefully, so that you can reverse what you've done 5. Pray that the car requires no reprogramming :-) 6. Insert the map and see if it works. If it does, shout 'hooray', pat yourself on the back, have a beer, then and go and show Audi NZ (but don't drink and drive). When they look at the nav in a Jap car, they'll probably say 'no, that's impossible ' - how'd you do that?' (which is what BMW say...) 6. If it didn't work, revert what you did, and sell the 2nd hand nav on eBay again. Sell the Audi, and buy a BMW - with working nav :-) PS: I've changed loads of BMWs, but never touched any other car. Mainly because no other manufacturer ever made maps for NZ. And the map discs are proprietary format, you can only fit VDO-format maps into VDO nav units (BMW, some VW, Seat, Skoda, Porsche, Peugeot, etc). There is no common nav map disc format. Good luck!

Resler Interface

Yes. You can puchase interfaces from www.reslers.de

Hi, I used my NavCoder interface on my E39 V8, and drove to work Afterwards, I plotted the trip in Excel and graphed the engine warmup curve, and the stop-start drive vs RPM Very interesting :-) PS: a few more logging details added, especially with regards to vehicle coding type, and a few bugs fixed. I'll release the next version tonight Still working on adding more LCM features, although these are only valid for E38/E39 at the moment, until I can breakdown the E46 data I always wondered if I should add a KML Google Earth file format, so that you can then load your trip into Google Earth and see location, speed, RPM, etc :-) Regards, your friendly NavCoder Author

No. Mk3 and Mk4 nav is OS9000, and has built in HTML web browser :-) Linux/Unix is needed to run the diagnostics tools in the workshop

www.bmwecu.org

Yuen, don't forget: you are in Auckland, so you live and drive in a very strong signal coverage area. FM is broadcast from the Sky Tower, and from the Bombays to Orewa is generally a good strong signal. But head out of town into the country, like in the Waikato, and then you really notice the difference between a proper NZ radio and a Jap radio with a band expander. When the FM signal gets weaker, this is when you need the good receiver performance. And this is where band expanders really show how crap they are. Jochen

eBay.de is your friend here :-) Hunt on TradeMe, maybe you find one there. Tip1: make sure you know if you need a NewGen (NG) radio or an OldGen (OG) radio Radio design, and car wiring, changed late 2001. Post 2001 uses NG radio, different connector, different antenna amp If you try and fit NG to an OG car, you need to add wiring loom adapters and change the antenna amp. If you want to (eventually) add MP3 ID3 text etc then get the newest NG radio you can find. Otherwise, if you are happy with plain CD, get the matching radio for your car. Tip2: NG radios have the twin-display, and are world models. You can buy ex-Japan, USA, or Europe. OG radios are regional-specific, you need to buy from an NZ, AUS new car, or from Europe. Do not get an ex-Japan or ex-USA OG radio, the tuner is different, and wrong, for NZ. Japan OG radio has a 'TRAFFIC' or 'TRF' button, so leave well alone. Jochen

OK; so no trouble for you :-) You'll have fun doing this.... are you familiar with linux / unix / VMware? Interfaces can be bought as cheap chinese copies... I'll PM you with some more info...

That's what I have in my factory turbo-charged car at the moment. In stop-start driving I got 860kms on the last tank Currently I have 290kms and just over 1/4 of the tank used. And that's all with city and a bit of motorway driving. If I hold the revs low so the turbo doesn't kick in I can apparently get more.....

NavCoder clicky

You can if you want. Get the BMW software from the 'net, loadup a laptop, and do the diagnostics yourself You'll need the usual laptop and OBDII interface of course, and you will also need to know how to drive a computer It's easier to work on a BMW if you are a computer engineer, rather than a mechanic :-)

Band expanders ... ...reduce sensitivity by about 10dB (makes it harder for the radio to receive stations) ...reduce selectivity heaps (makes it harder for the radio to distinguish between strong and weak stations close together) ...do not provide full band coverage (you have some frequencies you cannot receive) ...create user confusions (display doesn't match tuned frequency) ...generate interference (they radiate signals that cause interference with other radios) They are a cheap piece of shitty crap. I hate them. It makes a WORLD of difference to remove the band expander and have a radio designed for NZ

If you cannot receive anything then check a) TP is turned off, as maybe noone in your area is using RDS-TP (TP=Traffic Program) make sure you have removed any band expander, if fitted c) check the antenna and antenna amp are OK. Tip: remove radio, stick a short piece of wire in the antenna socket. See if you receive anything. Easy way to tell if antenna amp is defect d) make sure you don't have a >2001 radio in a <2001 car, where they didn't fit the antenna adapter (I've seen this!) Remove radio to check antenna connectors. early cars have 2 x coax - thicker coax is antenna lead, thinner is diversity control. Newer cars have 1 x coax = antenna & diversity control in one. REG = RDS Regional mode, noone uses Regional mode in NZ, so you want it off. Google RDS if you want to understand what it is.

BMW does body updates every 2nd year and engine updates every inbetween year The E39/2 appeared after PU98 - check the WDS to be sure :-)

Nope. Look at the manufacturer data on the changer. States Made in Japan. Alpine. Part number starts with AL Easy.

Check the following: Is it an E39/2? the E39 had a major upgrade at end of 1998 - updated engine, drive-by-wire, many updated electronics, make sure you get a 1999 or newer E39 Crazed headlight lenses. I replaced mine at 10yrs old, they were hazy from road grime sanding away the lens. Non-working pixels on the check display - very common. Can be fixed with DIY if you want. Squeaky/creaky suspension due to worn bushes - I had this, needs new bushes Idle control valve will need cleaning if >8yr/>100,000miles or kms - easy to do, I did mine. Will cause poor idle or idle difficulty under load (A/C, in D or R but not moving). Clean it regardless so you know its good. On the pre 1998 V8 (mine) was super easy to do. Misfiring - coils break down and fail with time. 90% reason for all misfires. I had one faulty coil. Hard to find, easy to replace. Had to diagnose using BMW GT1 tester to find it. Check all coolant seals - I had a seeping O-ring. Minor repair but need to do it to keep the cooling system in 100% condition Check all underbody protection and repair /replace if necessary to protect vehicle. I had missing bolts. Worth while, protect your car as much as you can :-) Check toolkit and all aaccessories supplied with car are complete. I was lucky and had everything. Car is delivered with 4 x keys: 2 x master, 1 x valet, 1 x emergency. Check all work. Check all 3 x air filters are in good nick (one for engine, 1 for driver, 1 for passenger air). My interior filters had not been changed in years, were very filthy. Check the high-intensity washer fluid reservoir. The pump gets knocked when the diagnostic connector is plugged in and out (on pre 2000 cars) , causing the pump to crack and leak. I had to replace my pump (easy) Check drivers seat plastic cover - it breaks with the constant movement in and out of car. Only solution is replacement. Mine was broken. Check for creaky leather. Condition leather with leather conditioner to make it soft and supple again. I used genuine BMW leather cleaner, well worthwhile. Check type and version of nav fitted - best is Mk4. I upgraded from Mk1 to Mk3 then to Mk4 Current software version was released about 3 weeks ago, and is 4-1/00 (v10.0) Check version of nav map supplied with car is recent for your area. Current will most likely be a 2008 map. Check all controls work and illumination works - my sunroof switch illumination didn't work, I replaced 1 x faulty LED and 1 x broken resistor. Very common. Check EDC system if fitted - replacing failled EDC shocks is VERY expensive. You don't want to replace EDC (electronic damper control) shocks @ $1,600 NZD each shock. Maybe a car without EDC is better... Check self-levelling rear suspension, most 540i wagens have this. You will know if one side fails :-) The top of the line 540i generally had: a) full navigation system including TV, this is an awesome system, and works well. Only real upgrade you can do is change the speakers, change display to 16:9 (if not fitted), add TV (if not fitted), add telephone (if not fitted) everything else is totally integrated Telephone - was an option in some countries, try and find a car with phone, it is cool. these days everyone uses bluetooth and the 540i can as well. But you need the phone system wiring in place first. c) sunroof - these often leak, so you may prefer to have no sunroof and hence a dry car... d) leather upholstry, was generally standard on 540i's e) electric memory seats f) seat heating, was generally standard g) PDC - option on some years, but very good to have. You want front and rear PDC h) rear roller blind. Is cool :-) Make sure you check all controls are working. Evrything can be fixed, there is a huge amount of info on the net. The E39 is considered today as one of the best 2nd hand cars you can buy because of the awesome technology and performance. You will never regret buying an E39... The best e39 is a late 2003 (Nov 2003), which was when production stopped. Then you will ahve all updates, corrections, fixes, and the latest of everything in the car. Enjoy!

Yes, for real. BMW NZ quote the BMW factory line "do it our way" But there are other ways.... call Guido at BMW Workshop, he's done a few. The hardware in your car will work in NZ, it is a software change that is required. The change will stay in place even with future recoding. Worthwhile to do it this way, as a band expander is utter, total crap. Two issues wrong with this statement: "impossible" - nothing is impossible :-) "most of the brain" is wrong. The correct statement is "all of the brain" :-) And the $$ is about right. But your E60 was cheap because it was Jap, right? I bet more than $6k cheaper... In terms of the factory build sheet, you are basically correct.

Its an Alpine CD changer Go to a car audio shop and buy a replacement Alpine magazine

BM Workshop in Auckland can reprogram the radio tuner for you so that it is proper NZ frequencies, no band expander required. Nav system cannot be changed without changing hardware To reset the car, disconnect battery, need to select Computer, not Nav to access the trip comp

You can adjust the reading if you have the high IKE. Go into service mode, go to test 20, and adjust the consumption factor as follows: TEST-NR. 20 KVBR: 1000 This "test" is actually a way to adjust the OBC's fuel consumption factor. There's a sensor in the fuel injector system that indicates fuel consumption back to the OBC. This "KVBR" value is used to calibrate that sensor using the following process: Reset one of the OBC mileage indicators and the trip odometer, and fill your tank. Record the actual fuel consumption for your car over a long period (one to two months at least). Divide this reading into the trip odometer value to calculate your actual mileage. Divide this result by the OBC indicated mileage over the same period and multiply by 1000. You now have your fuel consumption factor. To enter the factor into the OBC, get into Test 20 and press Reset. This will start the KVBR value counting down. It will count down to 750, then start over at 1250. A crude user interface to be sure, but it works. You probably don't need to change the KVBR value; the default value of 1000 should be accurate. And if your calculated fuel consumption factor is outside the 750–1250 range, there's probably something wrong.

What do I do? Make sure all my emails and forum posts are written using 100% fully recycled electrons I even save leters every nw n thn when i'm feeling even grener