Wow...it's quiet on here.

[jeffbebe 1559]

There are enough like-minded folks to make it well worth while IMO. Our monthly coffee and cars meeting is proof of that. It's not massive but it's growing and there are no dicks and all bimmers (apart from Mike's Soarer but he obligingly parks around the corner). We mostly talk about the cars, what we've done, what we plan to do, etc and it's less about show and shine.

Amber's Euro Car Club seems to be going really well and meets the needs of a different crowd and is a great opportunity to 'show-off' your hard work and there's also Caffeine and Classics at Smales Farm which is open to all cars and is great fun too in a different way.

The forum's plenty big enough to support all of these things and there are some plans behind the scenes to get some other activities going, so don't be put off if someone doesn't "like" your post within 10 seconds of posting.

[Neal 543]

^that is exactly what I did,

BMWCCNZ weren't interested in my invite,

however the enthusiasm here made me think i could do it for you, but ended up loosing over $3000 due to people pulling out.

Bimmersport has held about 5 track days since i have been a member here, more before that I am sure. Not a single one has broken even, let alone make a small profit to pay for the organisers time etc.

Sorry Andy, got a bit caught up at the time you asked the Bmwcc club to join in. When I checked your thread it appeared that you had a full grid, hence didn't advertise.

Apologies for that.

Booking track days is quite a financial risk. It's hard to fill enough places to meet hirer costs .Typically they require cross subsidies or a few clubs or groups to bankroll the event. I think all but a few car enthusiast groups are having the same issue.

[Auzeras 28]

I'm lucky, my flat in Wellington has no garage space (parking on the street SUCKS) but my mum's place is close, double garage with no cars in it and plenty of driveway space. I don't have a lot of tools more than screwdrivers, sockets, ring spanners and assorted other "toolbox tools" but as you go you slowly build up a pretty decent collection of stuff.

If anyone ever wants to spend a day or so stripping things off a bimmer and making emergency runs to the nearest parts store for unexpected bits, let me know. I've got a list of "to do's" a mile long for my car, any extra people make it more fun to work with.

Also very lucky to have access to a mate's fully kitted workshop (he races so, well laid out shop) they usually have a car or three in every saturday. Haven't been in a while but it's good to hang out and talk with the lads.

@Miss BM - Understand what you're saying, It was hard for me starting out as young bloke at work on the ship, because I was young no one thought I was capable. I figure things out pretty fast once I have been pointed out in the right direction. Everyone's sweet now they know what I can do, but I imagine being in a similar situation plus being a female would have been difficult.

My uncle still tells me to take the car to a shop, no way I could afford that! Plus it's much more rewarding to spend hours under a grime covered engine wrestling with a power steering pump than to have a nice cuppa whilst someone else does it. Pretty sure he dies a little inside when I tell him about the next thing I intend to fix

[kiwi535 538]

Seems thete is some kind of reverse snobbery going on here.Just cos I am older with a bit of cash and dont do any of my own work I am not good enough for bimmersport.An interest and passion for BMW is not enough?

[Ahmedsinc 414]

I spend what seems countless hours trying to help with free advise that many have to pay for through my business, i give up most of the time on here cause everyone has an opinion but never done it themselves plus hate the fact i do what i do to bmw for god sake its a bloody car get over yourselves.

Meet me in person and im 1000 times worse but, im honest and will bust my butt to help those in need and dont expect a bloody thing in return

And im sure there's a few that'll take offence to this but the Bimmersports events ive been to ive found people to have their heads well and truly planted up their butt's unless your part of the "in crowed" ive been to a few "caffeine and classic's" park ups and mixed and mingled without an issue expect for the other Beemer ( may not be from on here) guys they wont even look at you,much prefer to hang with my customers and do my own thing.

A grumpy old (?) fart you might well be, but you know what you're talking about - it's that depth of knowledge that helped get the forum to where it is now. Along with Glenn, Ray, Hotwire and every other bugger that either comes from xy years of workshop experience or have had to figure out the latest problem with their cars themselves. And then had the decency to share their experience with guys & girls like me. sh*t, look through some of the project threads on here. Then think about how many hours of sweat & swearing it took them to get to that point. Massive kudos to the lot of ya!

I do more wrenching than posting. So I am hopeless in regards to posts. I try to be helpful where I can.

Is some of the stuff I do interesting to others? Maybe, maybe not, should I post stuff in the hope someone may be interested...maybe maybe not. It's hard when you have to take photos download and stuff and you just think to yourself, is this any good to anyone.

I have learnt heaps from this site, and I cant possibly imagine learning anything remotely helpful to me on a social media site unless there is a fundamental change in the way they currently operate. If I don't get what I am looking for on this site...I go to the other forums. Facebook? Hardly.

If we had a clubrooms....now that would be the ticket

Hey, not every idiot can swap a B30 for a B44 and drive away. Good work dude, you'll be in a very small group of people that own a manual V8 E34. Probably the only one with a 5-speed too

To be honest I put it down to a decline in people willing to work on their cars. The [insert ricer suburb near you] lot are all on facebook complaining about cops harassing them in their hondas, and the rest of the car inclined people get their mechanic to do it or do it themselves.

Basically there's not many people left doing decent projects in the driveway, they're either good enough to do it themselves with little help or wanna be jap street racers (glad they're not here) of course it's made more extreme by the fact this is New Zealand and then add to that the small portion of BMW owners and from the BMW owners, those who actually want to do their own car work. That basically leaves us.

Social media will never replace a forum, when I search "E32 IHKA" I get a bunch of forums serviced by highly knowledgeable groups of people, not one social media account. I have asked things on Facebook and got nothing but idiotic replies. Forums are easy to navigate records, and they keep good historical data. Ever tried to find an old post in facebook? It's a nightmare.

Overall though there appears to be a global decline in willingness to work on your own car, even the big international forums are getting quiet with the "old timers" keeping the likes of me around by being able to instantly diagnose a poorly described rattle from the AC unit as a loose blower motor mount and linking me to a 5 year old forum post on how to fix it. That sort of glorious knowledge is why I love a good forum. Sadly it seems that people are scared to even look at an engine. For me, once you know the working principals you can fix it. Of course there are the finer points of how a specific system goes together and how to handle it but in general, if you research things you can do it yourself.

I find the NZ forums to be very helpful, the Americans and Euro guys are pretty much "buy the part that fits" type people, whereas us kiwi's tend to reply with "well, the fitting costs $150 but with a bit of brass, a tap & die kit from repco and a few beersies you can make on for $12" - That sort of workaround, do it from anything is what I love about most NZ forums and that's not just cars - metalworking, fabrication, RC you name it, there's a Kiwi saying "bog it together" and an American saying "just buy a $50 part, spend $75 in shipping and wait for a week"

I think there are still a bunch of folks doing cool stuff in their sheds. Just not many of them bother with posting their progress anymore. First four off the top of my head are Polley, Westy, Andy & Jon the Pom. Perhaps this is more a sign of the economic times than folks losing interest in working on their cars?

Given the modern cars are designed to not be DIY friendly it's hardly surprising that the bulk of the advice given is "get it scanned & order the replacement part". There's not really much else you can do!

One does wonder if the forum is turning towards actually meeting people and talking to them - the monthly Sunday meets at Qubes cafe seem to be becoming a regular event. Hardly a bad thing Maybe the start of a BMW NZ club that is less exclusive than the BMWCCANZ?

[yng_750 247]

I joined an alfa forum once. Got two generic answers. Ring the dealer amd buy a factory part. Or get a bank loan then ring the dealer for the factory part. I got banned for showing how i glued a light lens back on.

I find it funny how some of the "key knowledge base guys" as good as they are get pissy when people dont take their advice to the letter. When much of their experiance was gained by going against advice and trying new things to find better solutions.

Im sure many of those guys were taught by guys who scoffed at efi now they are tuning shift points on smg modules.

Mistakes breed ingenuity so dont knock it.

That being said the lowest point i think is members new or old who steal from other members. Hellafunktional and that cut springs douchebag pop to mind.

[Auzeras 28]

I joined an alfa forum once. Got two generic answers. Ring the dealer amd buy a factory part. Or get a bank loan then ring the dealer for the factory part. I got banned for showing how i glued a light lens back on.

I backed into an Alfa once, insurance agent asked what the damage to my vehicle was, told her I might have scratched the tow bar but it should buff out. She thought that was hilarious. Luckily I knew the owner and he was very decent about the whole situation.

But yeah, that attitude is one I don't appreciate. Some people have more time than money, or prefer to take the hard road in fixing instead of replacing. Not to say having the cash and not wanting to get dirty is a problem, hell no if you've got the money why would you bother with workarounds? At the end of the day, unless the person is likely to destroy their car or injure themselves by doing a stupid DIY job they clearly are not able to do I would support all attempts.

For my older car parts are hard and expensive to find in NZ (especially interior) the mechanical side isn't too bad. My first port of call is "what can I adapt, scavenge or make to replace" - I'm perfectly happy to try rebuild my AFM because if I screw it up I'll have to buy a new one anyway. If I fix it, problem solved, money saved, experience gained. If I had a million dollars of course I wouldn't think twice about just replacing it with a MAF upgrade or a brand new OEM AFM.

Don't need to cut the springs on the 7, it's all ready sacked out from 26 years of use.. I should probably rebuild the suspension, front and rear

[Driftit 2078]

Back in my teenage to mid twenty years just about everyone I knew was into cars of one type or another.

We all did our own repairs. Went on our own cruises. Went to every track day we could even the drag strip.

Queen street on the weekend nights would be dead stopped both ways chock full of done up cars. It would take an hour to get to the bottom.

Everyone behaved pretty well too.

Even the car events like the 4 & Rotors would back SH1 up from Meremere Drag strip to the Bombays and take hours to get there.

Now days. It is dead. Event car parks are only half full. Queen Street only sees a handful of cars.

Numbers look like they have dropped right off everywhere. I see a fraction of done up cars that I once saw when driving around.

[michhod 26]

expense.. ova policing.. cars are electronic devices these days.. folks who used to run around like crazy modifying cars etc in the old days, are now the law makers putting a stop to these activities.. maybe these things are lending to the decline...

As far as this site is concerned, this place is like family... not always in touch, but there when you need to get in touch and always there when you need something, advice, a hand, whatever... so I wouldn't sweat it to much

[kiwi535 538]

One does wonder if the forum is turning towards actually meeting people and talking to them - the monthly Sunday meets at Qubes cafe seem to be becoming a regular event. Hardly a bad thing Maybe the start of a BMW NZ club that is less exclusive than the BMWCCANZ?

What is the BMWCCANZ?

[Auzeras 28]

I'd say modern cars have put a brake on the modding community. You can't really do much to a modern car that makes a difference without putting yourself back at least $500

Back in the day so to speak there were a lot of things you could really tinker with to coax a bit more street power out of the car. That and cars were cheaper and easier to work on. I'd go to a car meet but my car is 98% stock, so really not worth showing to be honest. I just go with my mate in his Mazda ute.

[yng_750 247]

I dont know of any carbs you can tune with the click of a mouse

[eliongater 718]

I dont know of any carbs you can tune with the click of a mouse

An opportunity for a new product!

A computer controlled carb.

[yng_750 247]

Consider it patented.

[Ahmedsinc 414]

What is the BMWCCANZ?

BMW Car Club NZ. Added an extra 'A' by mistake. I blame the pilseners

[kiwi535 538]

in my experience the BMW car club is no different to any other club.There are cliques,there may be some snobs and there are plenty of normal people,but you have to make some steps too.

Most of the people that belong to the car club are not your normal BMW buyer,they are BMW nuts.Some are the anorak wearing types who insist on total BMW but it is the BMW car club.

When i fist joined the car club in 2002 iwas on the commettee in wellington the next year.My 1990 E34 was the NEWEST car on the committee.

[Nobimmer 694]

Bring back sparkle and hi tower and watch bimmersport skyrocket in the ranks m

[Apex 693]

Back in my teenage to mid twenty years just about everyone I knew was into cars of one type or another.

We all did our own repairs. Went on our own cruises. Went to every track day we could even the drag strip.

Queen street on the weekend nights would be dead stopped both ways chock full of done up cars. It would take an hour to get to the bottom.

Everyone behaved pretty well too.

Even the car events like the 4 & Rotors would back SH1 up from Meremere Drag strip to the Bombays and take hours to get there.

Now days. It is dead. Event car parks are only half full. Queen Street only sees a handful of cars.

Numbers look like they have dropped right off everywhere. I see a fraction of done up cars that I once saw when driving around.

The good old days aye bro. I used to spend every Friday and Saturday at the "drags" was fun.

I think technology is a huge distraction, we didn't even have cell phones back then, nothing was organised and the excitement was finding the pack and getting amongst it... you couldn't simply keep track online or txt your mates. Was exciting.

The modern technology the Police have makes it harder, CCTV etch, your always being watched.

I think general congestion and population / couture growth muddy's things a bit to.

And cars are generally faster these days, back when I was a boy racer (still am really) cars with 300bhp were monsters, now days your mums mini van is packing that.

Oh, and fuel was 80c a liter, that helped.

90% of modern BMW's are hardly inspiring, as someone said above, this doesn't help things.

[Ahmedsinc 414]

The good old days aye bro. I used to spend every Friday and Saturday at the "drags" was fun.

I think technology is a huge distraction, we didn't even have cell phones back then, nothing was organised and the excitement was finding the pack and getting amongst it... you couldn't simply keep track online or txt your mates. Was exciting.

The modern technology the Police have makes it harder, CCTV etch, your always being watched.

I think general congestion and population / couture growth muddy's things a bit to.

And cars are generally faster these days, back when I was a boy racer (still am really) cars with 300bhp were monsters, now days your mums mini van is packing that.

Oh, and fuel was 80c a liter, that helped.

90% of modern BMW's are hardly inspiring, as someone said above, this doesn't help things.

^^^ This

It's far easier to just buy a car that does everything you want than build it. When an E36 M3 can be had for 15 grand why bother turbocharging / swapping engines / paying for certs etc?

There will always be a subset of the population that tinker because we love it. Hopefully the majority will keep posting what they're up to here

[hybrid 1043]

Or people could stop moaning and get on with it...

Seriously, All it takes is a bit of willing intent to mod a car. The biggest problem I see (and I have done it many times before myself) is peoples eyes are bigger than their stomach so to speak.

Bite off only what you can chew, be very happy with what you have, even if its not the fastest, best looking vehicle around.. who cares ? just enjoy getting into it.

When I joined bimmersport I was pretty much the biggest noob when it came to modding cars, but I learnt by doing things and making mistakes. Most of my success in modding came from careful research into what I wanted to do. Am I some guru, no ... just a dude who likes to approach things practically.

This weekend, Westy decided that hes gonna try and give it a crack at the wiring thing for his e30 / v8. He got the whole thing started, despite some pretty interesting hurdles to get over. A bit of determination is all that was needed and some research.

One thing cars have taught me is how to understand engineering and problem solving from a pratical point of view. Instead of problem solving in a computer. This is why I love it.

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2132]

Or people could stop moaning and get on with it...

Seriously, All it takes is a bit of willing intent to mod a car. The biggest problem I see (and I have done it many times before myself) is peoples eyes are bigger than their stomach so to speak.

Bite off only what you can chew, be very happy with what you have, even if its not the fastest, best looking vehicle around.. who cares ? just enjoy getting into it.

When I joined bimmersport I was pretty much the biggest noob when it came to modding cars, but I learnt by doing things and making mistakes. Most of my success in modding came from careful research into what I wanted to do. Am I some guru, no ... just a dude who likes to approach things practically.

This weekend, Westy decided that hes gonna try and give it a crack at the wiring thing for his e30 / v8. He got the whole thing started, despite some pretty interesting hurdles to get over. A bit of determination is all that was needed and some research.

One thing cars have taught me is how to understand engineering and problem solving from a pratical point of view. Instead of problem solving in a computer. This is why I love it.

well said Josh

teaching yourself is also a lot more rewarding than being taught, and seems to stick better too

[Auzeras 28]

Well I just got on with rebuilding injectors and my intake manifold gaskets. It's been 4 hours of rain, cursing and bloodied knuckles.

Things learned so far:

- The last bolt, it's a royal pain

- Just because it is sunny today doesn't mean tomorrow will be, clean the garage out and put the car in, instead of doing the job outside at the bottom of driveway.

- You will need more parts than you bought

- You need more tools

- the exhaust will rust though and fall off your sisters car which you have borrowed whilst yours Is disabled meaning you're stuck in town for 3x hours waiting for a ramp truck because of course she doesn't have a tool box it and on Sunday the workshops are closed.

- After doing it the the hard way someone will inform you of the easier way

So after sitting on the side of a road, working in the rain because even if I cleared the garage out now I can't get the car up the hill, destroying my knuckles, nearly destroying my intake (nearly dropped it) and hours scraping old gasket crud off very hard to reach spaces..I'm happy!

[Michael. 2313]

I'd say modern cars have put a brake on the modding community. You can't really do much to a modern car that makes a difference without putting yourself back at least $500

Back in the day so to speak there were a lot of things you could really tinker with to coax a bit more street power out of the car. That and cars were cheaper and easier to work on. I'd go to a car meet but my car is 98% stock, so really not worth showing to be honest. I just go with my mate in his Mazda ute.

How modern are you talking? 2000+ ?

[Auzeras 28]

 

How modern are you talking? 2000+ ?

Depends, but yeah most mid 2000+ not all, but anything after 2008 I feel wouldn't be all that fun to work on.

[polley 916]

The good old days aye bro. I used to spend every Friday and Saturday at the "drags" was fun.

I think technology is a huge distraction, we didn't even have cell phones back then, nothing was organised and the excitement was finding the pack and getting amongst it... you couldn't simply keep track online or txt your mates. Was exciting.

The modern technology the Police have makes it harder, CCTV etch, your always being watched.

I think general congestion and population / couture growth muddy's things a bit to.

And cars are generally faster these days, back when I was a boy racer (still am really) cars with 300bhp were monsters, now days your mums mini van is packing that.

Oh, and fuel was 80c a liter, that helped.

90% of modern BMW's are hardly inspiring, as someone said above, this doesn't help things.

Yeah and the cops have cracked down on it pretty hard, cant even park up without being hassled.