GeeDog

My E92 was pretty bad on poor roads, have now replaced all shocks with Bilstein B4's and it has improved a lot. I'm still debating replacing the 19" wheels with 18's to further improve ride. I'll need new rear tyres soon, so will decide before I buy them. Auto hi beam dips the lights automatically when a car comes towards you - your car may not have it. There is a sensor behind the internal rear-view mirror. Have you run your VIN through a checker to see what options are installed? There are a number of free sites - google is your friend. My latest job was to pull the hard disk out of the CIC, and image it to a new disk. I've had a couple of issues of the CIC getting into a reboot cycle, and I'm pretty sure it's the disk failing. I've got an SSD on order - interface is IDE so not common. At the same time I've also managed to update my maps to 2018.

I bought a modified sump from Lewis Race Engines at Callington. He takes a standard sump, adds wings on the sides and baffles around the pickup. He does it on a swap basis - you give him your sump & some money, & he gives a modified sump. This was originally on an RB25, and is now on an RB30 bottom end. I can't remember the price, but I am happy with the product.

I bought some silicone blanking plugs, in a couple of different sizes, to seal both cooland and vaccuum/boost pipes. They have been working fine, no leaks.

If you decide to rebuild, I have both a crankshaft and a harmonic balancer for sale...

No love for the N54?

Mine has a black vertical line separating the inner 2/3 and the outer 1/3 (maybe it's 3/4 & 1/4). Everything on the car side of the line is flat, the other side of the line is partly convex to give a wide-angle view.

Mine's ok - it has a "split" glass, where half is normal, and the outer 1/3 or so is convex. As a motorbike rider I mostly do head-checks instead of using the passenger mirror anyway.

The other day we set the air recirc setting - default is that it goes back to fresh, but I wanted it to remember the last setting, set the nagging low fuel messages to the lowest km left setting, set the windscreen wipers to complete a sweep when the car is turned off (like every other car I've ever owned does), and disabled the headlight washers. Previously we changed the light settings when locking & unlocking the car, set a digital speed display on the dash, removed the legal disclaimer on the NAV, coded a new battery, and several other things that I can't think of at the moment. Carly can also reset service reminders, although this can be done without any outside assistance, using the buttons in the car.

I fixed my headlight washer not retracting properly - disabled it with Carly.

Just spoke to him, and he said that somewhere around $75 rings a bell. He bought it a few years ago. I paid an extra $20 or so to get the battery coding module a few months ago. He also bought the OBD adaptor from Carly.

I'll find out for you when I see my son - probably tomorrow.

I didn't think it was that much. My son has it on his phone (for his car), and I paid for an upgrade so he could code a new battery for me. Pretty sure the upgrade was less than $20, but not sure how much he had already paid. I've changed quite a few things, including lighting when unlocking & locking, digital speed display on the dash, new battery, getting rid of the nav disclaimer, seat-belt handovers (you won't have these) etc, and have a few other things to change when I see him. I assume you have the CCC idrive. Mine is a bit newer so has CIC which is a fair bit better.

The Carly app & a suitable OBD adaptor are probably better value - there is a shit-load of things that can be re-coded on these cars.

Nice. I've got an E92 335i and love driving it. One of my headlight washers doesn't retract properly sometimes - haven't tried to fix it yet.

I had mine off the other day, so the process is fresh in my mind. I think it would be harder, and take longer, to do it all from underneath, but it is probably doable (is that a real word?). If you want to check that the wastegate flap doesn't foul on the new dump pipe, you'll have to take the heat shield off anyway.

It would be hard to do from underneath. The top 2 downpipe bolts also secure the heat shield bracket, so would probably be hard to get back in from below. You'll probably want to confirm that the wastegate flap doesn't catch on the dump pipe, which means you have to remove the actuator arm circlip. This will need the heatshield off anyway.

Only in Nankangs it would seem - have never had issues with Nittos, and now Toyos are readily available & well priced. Not sure about awkward either - 8" is a very common rim width, and 245 is the widest that can (should) go on an 8" rim.

Thanks Dan - contacted them today and they want $310 for 245/40R18's. I know this is a new(ish) size for Au, I was looking earlier this year and could only get 235 in 18's. There are several different width 18's on ebay that are considerably cheaper - 265/35 for $240 & 225/40 for $224, but 265 won't fit my front rims & 225 is too skinny.

Thanks - had a look at the tyrecompare website but no pricing listed for the AR-1's in SA.

Cheapest I could find for 245/40R18 AR-1's was $310 each, plus fitting. Other sizes are cheaper, but we want to run the widest tyre we can on our 8" front rims, so that means 245. Bought the same size in R888R for $250 each, and could have had NT01s for a similar price. Nankang pricing was taken from Sleekaspares in Adelaide (and on Ebay). Where was this from?

Was looking for some new fronts for our track car today, and was surprised that in our size (245/40R18) the AR-1's were more expensive than both NT01's & R888R's - by a fair margin. I ordered a pair of the R888R's.

Looking good. Where did you get the drip tray that fits over the engine stand - looks like a good idea.

My ball joints were in good condition when I installed the lock bar, but are now stuffed. No idea if the wear rate was the same.

Because not only were the ball joints shagged, so too were the inner joints - it was easier & cheaper to replace the lot with an eliminator (especially after I sell the lock bar). Just a correction for anyone reading this in the future - the circlip doesn't need to be cut off, as it's on the shock absorber side (ie towards the front of the car, which is where you are pushing the ball joint). The flange of the ball joint (on the side facing the rear of the car) has to be cut off.

The lock bar won't have any play, but it only replaces the Hicas steering rack, and still uses the stock tie rod ends & ball joints. This is where the play usually develops. An eliminator replaces these with new arms & bushes.