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My 330i thread is here; This one starts a little messily. The N52 in the 330i is notoriously difficult to get power out of unless you turbo it or fit a blower (of which I did consider). I knew this when I bought it, but its primary task at the time was as a commuter. It started to grate on me last year that I wanted more power and I wanted forced induction again. I'm now working from home every day so my requirements in a car had changed. The replacement car wasn't up for negotiation. I wanted an N54 powered 335i. Twin turbo and 300HP but as the sedans never came with a manual, I'd need to put up with the auto (which is not a big deal once flashed and with paddles - lightning shifts!) In the beginning of December I saw a very cheap 335i on carsales at a stealership 4 planets away. So, my mate (who is also a bit of a BMW guy) and I jumped into the dirty 30 and went to have a look. It was fairly rough in the body but suspension was solid, as was the engine. With 140,000 k's it didn't feel a day over 80,000. The interior was in really good nic, it rode well, the engine response and boost was strong. It did have a rattle on cold start but I was pretty sure it wasn't the typical N54 wastegate rattle as it didn't happen on boost or off boost or when revs dropped, which is when you're supposed to hear it. The brakes were rooted and the steering wheel shook when braking hard. The tyres were shot too. So, I made an offer and it was accepted. As the car needed a blue slip, the shop was able to provide one and replaced front discs and pads along with a new set of tyres. We were to go down the next day to get it but they called to say it wouldn't be ready. I organised another time to pick it up in a few days. On the way down we were called 10 mins out to say car wouldn't start and needed an alternator. So they replaced that too. We went down 2 days later to pick up. It came home fine. New one on the left. Its been a confusing few weeks with these two.

So, theres a few of us here who no longer have Japanese vehicles, so, lets see what you've got! I have two VWs; a B6 TDI Passat wagon and a Bora 4Motion V6. Both cars are very cool, I love them! The Bora has a surprising amount of squirt (150kw) and handles really well (I put Bilstein B8's in it.) The Passat is less lumber-like that I thought it would be. Its still very 'soft' in how it goes about things, but thats what makes it a perfect family car. Its totally unexciting. I'll post pics soon.

Hi All, This is going to be my restoration thread. It might turn into a build thread in the future if I get the car to a good place where I can start upgrading and not fixing. Last week I picked up my E90 330i with only 50,000k's on it. I'm totally in love with it but there are a number of things that need my attention. I haven't got many pics yet. The body and mechanical are immaculate. It has a solid service history from BMW and its only bits and pieces causing me grief. Here is my current list of things to fix; The seal/trim around the rear window has disintegrated The same around the windscreen also Both front door seals are falling apart The rear passenger window won't go up when put the whole way down - looks to be catching on something and triggering the anti-pinch Bluetooth not working (MULF) - i have bought a BT interface to use in the interim Headlight washers don't go the whole way in and the passenger fell out when I was looking at them the other day. I'm scared to use them in case it falls out on the road. Drivers side cup holder does not come out without some persuasion. Boot struts are gone (have already ordered new ones after almost being killed by my boot) The electric rear sunshade has broken in one of the arms. It looks like a big inflatable person when I put it up, limbs everywhere When I'm happy with those being fixed I'm going to consider; Wheels. Some M-Sport ones maybe. Mine are ok but a bit too tucked for my liking and I don't want to use spacers New sport front seats. The current seats are in great nic and do a good job but lacking a little in support. Something with iDrive. The screen is pretty nice but it does bugger all. Maybe an after market reverse cam or even a new interface or something. I believe the car was not used by passengers, or at least not regularly. The only floor mat missing from the car is the drivers one and the others look mint. The passenger seat was super hard like it hadn't been used and theres no evidence of the rear seats having much use either. This meant that the passenger seat belt was putrid with mould. It took lots of hot water, car wash and vinegar to get it looking presentable. The pics don't do it justice. It was thick enough to stop the belt bending properly.

I have a mk5 gti and trying to mod it and make it look nice im hoping to get a pandem mk7 wide body kit for it but i dont know if the demensions will be correct or if its even possible at all here is a picture of the body kit

hi guys i have a bmw 4 cylinder diesel with a biturbo bmw 535 286cv the car injects almost 98mg. but the big turbo (k26) does not exceed 2.3 bar. I was told to spool diesel. what is it about?

I love the guy, I LOVE the car, I especially love the sound.

I'm assuming thats just a boost controller but whatever, 287 is pretty good. The R makes 292. Looks like some stance on the wheels and an 'Edition 25' style decal at the bottom. I'm a fan. It looks awesome. More on Autoblog.

Autoblog is stating that VW is going to put the Golf R 400 into production. That is an AWD Golf R with 400HP from the factory. Pics are below. I'm not sure I like the green line and I definitely don't like the exhaust tips. What do you think? God I love these wheels. Theres more info on Car Mag.

I love this thing!! THE KEY IS A LITTLE PORSCHE!!!! I still think I like the 911 Classic better with that spoiler and the big Fuchs wheels. What do you think?

I have been a member of this site for quite a while (2005, sweet Jesus), some cars ago I abused a 230rwkw (Racepace tuned) AUTO R33 S1.5 GTS-T - good times. The Sour Kraut About 13 months ago I hunted down and purchased what I thought was a good example of an AUDI A8 D3 4.2 Quattro with only 103000km. In my defense I was under time pressure after my previous car was written off. I had looked at some others, D2s were all thrashed out and other D3s had S8 badges and dodgy fixes or were very over priced. I had done quite a bit of research, knew the common faults, picked up a VAG-COM and was confident that should some of these common issues arise I could handle them. Instead I learnt a lessen in German over-engineering. You see, most Euro cars seem to be like onions in that each system and subsystem is layered on top of each other and other unrelated systems. The more layers you have to peel back to even inspect something the more you cry and or cry about paying labour for. I had had the car inspected in QLD (never buy interstate if you can't inspect personally - first lesson) and it came back with a near clean bill of health bar the A/C heater valves, a common VAG issue. The whole heater valve box was changed out prior to the car being shipped down. A/C didn't work properly after I picked up the car - which was entirely due to the retarded monkey that replaced the heater valves. Pinched wires had damaged the loom, all the tabs were broken off the unit and it was glued in, ECU covers were broken or missing (layers). Jeremy Clarkson with a hammer could have done a better job. Ended up just bridging the passenger valve to the driver controls as after the dash was out and half the engine bay still couldn't find every break. Car came with a single key - never buy a car with a single key (no shit guy), especially a euro. $700 later I had a spare. MMI screen struggled to move from closed to open - extremely common issue due to the weak as piss plastic gears. Picked up replacement metal gears and never got around to installing them. Taking more of the dash out for something that mostly worked did not appeal. The auto boot could not auto itself without some help, another common fault which was resolved with an uprated motor in later years. Water would pool inside the boot lid. Actually a common fault due to inexplicably poor workmanship on the boot lid construction where gaps could be left in seams behind the tail lights in the boot lid. Solved with any all purpose sealant. Starter motor would almost randomly say f**k you and the car would not start. Not really a "common" fault but the more you look into it the more common you realize it is. The car would start every time - as long as the battery was near 100% so it had the juice to kick the starter in the guts. Battery was not being charged enough. I would have to charge the battery every one-two weeks so the car would start consistently. The alternator in these is water cooled because f**k you that's why. The battery was also enormous, the same unit that goes into a Porsche Cayenne which I lucked out and picked one up at cost price from Battery World, naturally the battery had partially collapsed en route to Melbourne, required two truck batteries to get started when it arrived off the train. Front suspension collapsed. This is a common fault for all cars that use air struts which is a list of very expensive and never kept past warranty cars. Replaced the lot with DGR coilovers from Otaku Garage - surprisingly good. Put the fronts in myself because when they go the front is very very low, not Tesla on the ground low but close enough that driving or getting a tow were pretty much out of the question. Engine was misfiring, never got around to fully investigating, suspected it needed a new valve cover gasket, happens to the V10s a fair bit and can on the V8s. Oil gets into the spark plug tube and fouls the plug. ZF 6 speed would "hoot" and sometimes hunt a bit when in slow but not quite stop start traffic. There is actually a service bulletin for this not that Penfold AUDI had any idea. Picked up the filter and gasket from the US because Australia still believes the lifetime fluid lie, never got to changing over the filter and fluid. Firmware was all original versions and should have been updated by AUDI when it was serviced. Couldn't find the interim version I needed to then update to the latest firmware. Penfold AUDI told me not to get them to do it and to download the discs myself instead. The thing that really killed it was the leaks. After a weekend away I came back to a drivers footwell full of water. The sunroof drains had blocked and some water had got in that way but if the volume that was in the footwell had come in through the roof the car would have been a write-off, there are tales of this on VAG related forums because again an inexplicably shit design for something has managed to exist for 20+ years and water pours all over the MMI controls and gets into the loom which you'll be quoted near $20,000 to replace. Near impossible to clean out and requiring many layers to come off to do anything about. The rest of the water must have come in the AC vents. Two causes for this, weather guard at the top if the bonnet missing or the plenum drains are blocked. Easy check right? Just jump under the car and inspect? NOPE. The correct procedure to check the inexplicably crimped plenum drains is to remove the engine and gearbox. FU AUDI, FU. Even with all that and I have likely forgot many more issues, the A8 was a brilliant car to drive, even better with the coilovers. So it was with equal measure frustration and regret that I began the search for a different car and different I found. The Swede For some reason I was drawn to something opposite, much smaller (A8 is ~5.2m long and that's the SWB) with less stuff but still comfortable and with...something. It had to have something about it and not just be a snoozefest A-B all the time. Some people don't get that at all. "Why don't you buy something common?" indeed, why buy clothes when I could wear a hessian sack? Why live in a house when I could gut a horse and crawl inside? My search criteria kept turning up a lot of cheap shit which was of no interest to me but interspersed in all the crap I kept seeing Saab and Volvo. The 9-3, 9-5, S40 and S60 grew on me as I hunted around. A turbo-X would have been nice but they are extremely rare in Australia and about $30k which was a bit more than I wanted to spend. My first child is about to arrive too so part of the criteria was fairly cheap and cheaper to run. My biggest issue ended up being I needed to trade in the A8 which limited my options quite drastically, mostly because there was no way I would sell a car I knew was about to implode to a person instead of an entity of the same type that screwed me in the first place. If I could have bought private I would likely be in a 9-3. Instead I found a nice little S40 D5 the "performance" diesel. It's not optioned up apart from being a D5 but it's clean and comfortable and based on a pretty great platform that it shares with the Focus and Mazda 3. Some idiot put OptiLife tyres on it which is great if you hate grip because they are totally inadequate in a FWD car with over 400nm of torque. But still the car has been great fun so far. The BMW attached to the dealer I bought the S40 at was supposed to perform a minor service - but being a dealer instead they topped off the oil and probably did nothing else. Being the ignorant twats they are they did not realize this would cause a DTC due to the oil level being too high as most dealers will put 6L into a D5 engine when it should have at most 5.8L (5.5 recommended). It says so on a sticker under the bonnet... How hard can it be. I extracted the extra oil. So now after much oil specification research and finding the right stock I'll be changing the oil and the ATF this long weekend. Recently managed an easy 680KM for under $50 which is fine by me. The S40 goes really well but would go even better if it wasn't strangled by Euro IV emissions gear which it could have been sold here legally without but now that it's on I definitely won't be tampering with the DPF... There is not a whole lot that I want to change with the S40 which is probably a good thing. The adventure continues. TL;DR Common problems are common. Used car salesman are dicks. If you can't run a diagnostic scan on a euro yourself and it's out of warranty you probably shouldn't buy it. I drive a Swedish tractor. That was cathartic.

AMG Hammer Wagon Oh man.... So much cool.

DIY make Arch for mini with WordArt Part1 Part2

So this is my 92 320i e36 im currently tearing the front apart as you can see for a 25/30 engine swap and i think this is probably the best place for this build to be posted. it doesn't need too much outside of the conversion but i defiantly need a few things so here is the list of things to do or at least i hope to do at some point ? e46 purple tag rack new wheels probally the 2 im missing to match the front euro tailights decent seats possible m3 front bar the obvious missing engine any ideas on other things that are nice things to have on e36s

What do you think? Those seats!!! More info at the link below. Images sourced from Autoblog.