G4VHD

If they past it through the mot, then legaly they should be ok for a while. Just change them, there easy and quite cheep. I can do a how to if you like.

I do :o

ooops lol...he aint seen it yet has he...

Deffo left, the puff lol

Umm that seem unusualy, though I am in the UK. Welcome along too

Stick a pin in the hole???? :blink:

I like pics....:rolleyes:

Not so funny but this man has got way to much time on his hands.... http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/Borrowed/wacky_jack.htm

Have a good one

One basic tune-up procedure for just about any car on the road is the replacement of your spark plugs and spark plug wires (where applicable). On the BMW E36 six-cylinder engines, BMW has eliminated the use of spark plug wires by integrating six small spark plug coils that sit on top of each spark plug. While this configuration may be a bit more expensive than the typical single coil, single capacitive discharge box configuration, it makes the car's ignition system more reliable by removing a component that constantly wears out and fails (spark plug wires). It's a pretty cool setup, not commonly found on older cars. As manufacturing components has become increasingly inexpensive, ignition setups like these have become more common. I recommend replacing your spark plugs every 10,000 miles, or about once a year. In reality, you can probably go longer than that, however, you never really quite know how long the plugs are going to last, or you may forget to do it if you don't setup a yearly schedule. Needless to say, replacing your spark plugs is one of the easiest tasks to do on your BMW - provided you have the proper information, which I will provide here. Begin by prepping the car. The only thing that you really need to do is to make sure that the car is cold. If you try to remove or install spark plugs in a hot car, then you may encounter problems with the spark plugs gumming up or damaging the relatively delicate threads in the aluminum cylinder head. Just make sure that the car is cold, or at the bare minimum, only slightly warm to the touch. Let's talk about the six cylinder cars first. The first step is to remove the top plastic covers from the engine. These serve no mechanical purpose - they are there only for decoration and to prevent dust and debris from getting into the recesses of the engine. On the six cylinder cars, there are two covers, a long thin one on the top of the car, and a wider one towards the left. Speaking of left, for the purpose of this particular tech article, I will refer to the left side of the engine as being on the left as you are standing in front of the car looking at the engine. The right side would, of course, be opposite to that. For reference, the windshield washer bottle would then be on the left, and the air filter would be on the right. On the two plastic covers, there will be two small, snap-in plugs on the top. Carefully remove these plugs (don't drop them into the engine) with a small screwdriver, prying them up as you grab them (Figure 1). Underneath you will find a nut that holds the cover onto the top of the engine (Figure 2). Remove the four nuts on these two covers, and they should both simply slide up out of the way. Figure 3 shows the engine with the center cover removed. Underneath the left cover, you will see the six spark plug coils that sit on top of each of the plugs (Figure 4). You need to remove each of these carefully, in order to gain access to the plugs. Using a screwdriver, release each connector from each coil. There is a metal retaining ring on the rear of each one that fastens it to the coil (Figure 5). Once you lift up on the retaining clip, then the connector should simply slide out of the coil. Carefully remove all of the connectors from each coil (Figure 6), taking care not to bend the wire harness too much. These wires are stiff, and generally don't take well to being bent in multiple directions. Just be gentle with them. To assist with your maneuvering of the wires, detach the center clip that holds the wires that come from the center channel. This clip is shown in Figure 7. Gently place the wires off to the side and out of the way, without bending them terribly. With the wires detached and placed slightly out of the way, you can now remove each of the six coils. Each coil is fastened to the valve cover using two screws. On two of the coils, there are two small ground straps that connect the coil to the stud on the cylinder head. Take note of these ground straps - they must be installed properly when you are finished, otherwise your car may encounter problems. These two ground straps are shown marked by the greens arrow in Figure 8 and Figure 9 (coil already removed in this photo). Remove each of the two nuts that hold each coil to the valve cover. At this point, the coil should be able to be easily pulled right off of the engine (Figure 10). The coil has a small coil pack on one end, and a spring-loaded spark plug connector on the opposite end. Simply remove the coil/plug assembly and place it off to the side. All of the coils are the same, so it doesn't matter which cylinder bank it came off of - unless you are specifically trying to troubleshoot a bad coil fault code that was displayed by the main computer. With the coil removed, you should be able to look down the hole and see the spark plug hiding in there. Figure 11 shows what the top of a normal looking spark plug looks like. However, as you remove the plugs, you may discover something peculiar. The way that the ignition system is designed on these BMWs, there is the opportunity for the spark plug holes to completely fill up with oil, if you have a leaky seal on your valve cover. When you pull out the spark plug connector / coil combo, you may find that it is completely submerged in engine oil, as shown in Figure 12 and Figure 13. Looking down the hole, you may not even be able to see the spark plug because the entire hole is filled up with oil (Figure 14 and Figure 15). While common sense says that this is not a good thing, the reality is that this is actually quite common, and doesn't seem to affect the performance of the car one bit. If you do find this oil in your spark plug holes, I would suggest that you go one step further and replace the valve cover gasket. This replacement procedure is very simple, once you have the coils removed, and should only take you about 20 minutes more, providing you have the actual gasket on hand. If you find oil in your spark plug holes, then you should definitely replace the gasket. If you find that you have oil in your spark plug holes, I suggest that you take some paper towels and attempt to soak up as much of the oil as possible, before removing the spark plug. If you don't get rid of the excess oil, then it will leak into the cylinder head through the spark plug hole when you remove the spark plug. This will cause your car to run sooty when you first start it up, and it may even foul your brand new spark plugs that you just installed! Spark plug removal is easy - you just need the right spark plug wrench. I have one that I love - it's a spark plug socket with a rubber insert that catches the plug. In addition, it has a built-in swivel on the attachment end. This is especially useful when trying to remove plugs in hard-to-reach places, as they are always located on Porsche engines (BMW engines aren't really that bad with respect to spark plug access). Using a breaker bar, grip the plug and turn it counter-clockwise until it is loose. Then pull out your tool and grab the plug. When the plug comes out, you may want to take a close look at it. The spark plug is really the best way to visually ‘see’ what is going on inside your combustion chamber. You need to pull out all of the spark plugs to replace them, so you might as well take a close look at them while they’re out. While today’s modern fuels make plug-reading much more difficult, you can still glean a lot of information from looking at them. A good, well-balanced engine will produce a plug that is light brown in color, and dry. If the engine is running too rich, the plug will often be coated with a lot of extra carbon. Keep in mind that the rest of your combustion chamber probably looks the same. An engine running too lean will have a powdery white coating on it, and the outer porcelain ring may have a burned appearance. When reading spark plugs, pay close attention to the white porcelain ring around the plug. This white area will give you an excellent background to inspect the color of the plug, and to help determine how your combustion chamber looks inside. If the plug is wet with oil, then that indicates that there is significant leakage into the combustion chamber past either the valve guides or the piston rings. This is generally a bad sign, and an indicator that a future compression test may not yield good results. Figure 16 shows an unusual spark plug with all four of its electrode eaten away. I would hazard a guess that this plug was improperly plated from the factory, and as it progressed through it's life, the repeated sparking slowly ate away at the electrodes until they were gone. A plug in this condition would misfire often (if at all), and would generate poor performance for this particular cylinder. Surprisingly enough, none of the rest of the spark plugs in this set exhibited this type of damage. This is what leads me to believe it was defective from the manufacturer. Figure 17 shows a brand new Bosch Platinum spark plug. While I don't have any specific preference for any specific manufacturer of plug, you should definitely make sure to get the proper ones for your car. Spark plugs have varied over the years as engines have been changed slightly due to smog regulations. The important thing to remember is to get the proper ones for your car (they are scaled by electrode type and also by heat range), otherwise you may encounter odd ignition problems. Spark plugs are cheap - I would go with a brand name like Bosch or NGK, choosing to avoid the no-name brands. Make sure that you measure the spark plug gap (if single electrode) with a spark plug gap tool before you install the plugs. Install your new plugs using a torque wrench to measure the amount of torque applied to the plug (Figure 18). This is very important, as it is easy to over or under-tighten spark plugs. Make sure that the plug is firmly seated in your spark plug socket as it is very easy to insert the plug into the head and have it cross-thread. This means that the threads of the spark plug don't mesh properly with the ones in the head, instead choosing to "cut their own path." This damages the threads on the head, and in extreme cases, may destroy the threads in the cylinder head entirely. Trust me - you do not want this to happen. Proceed carefully and cautiously here. Install each plug into the cylinder heads without using any anti-seize compound. Torque the spark plugs to 25 Nm (18.4 ft-lbs). While writing "How to Rebuild and Modify Porsche 911 Engines", I discovered that Porsche doesn’t recommend the use of anti-seize compound, as detailed in Porsche Technical Bulletin 9102, Group 2, identifier 2870. The bulletin applies retroactively to all Porsche models and the theory is that the anti-seize tends to act as an electrical insulator between the plug and the cylinder head. This could have detrimental effect on the firing of the spark due to the loss of a good, consistent ground connection. Keeping those findings in mind, I would make the same recommendations for the BMW cars. With the new plugs installed (Figure 19) and properly torqued, you can replace the coils (don't forget the small ground straps shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9) and reattach the coil connectors (Figure 20 and Figure 21). Snap the wires back into their center holders (Figure 7) and replace the top two plastic covers. When you're done, your engine should look back to normal (Figure 22) Changing plugs on the 318 4-cylinder cars is a bit different and a bit easier. You remove the spark plug cover in a similar manner (Figure 23). There should be a handy little blue spark plug wire pull tool under the cover. Use it to remove the plug wires from the ends of the spark plugs (Figure 24). With the wires disconnected, remove and reinstall the plugs in a similar manner to how I described the procedure for the six cylinder cars. You will also want to replace the spark plug wires every 30,000 miles or if they look cracked and worn out. Info from http://www.pelicanparts.com

One of the most common tasks to perform is replacing your engine oil. Frequent oil changes are supposedly the most important thing you can do to maintain and prolong the life of your engine. With the better oils that are available today, the requirement for frequent changes is diminishing. Even though BMW now recommends oil change intervals that are much farther apart than in the past, I usually recommend that you keep the changes under the 5,000-mile limit. If you don’t drive your car too often, you should change the oil at least once a year to keep things fresh. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have everything that is required for the job. Nothing is more frustrating than emptying your oil, only to find out that you don’t have a replacement filter or enough oil. You will need an oil filter, a wrench, a roll of paper towels, a very large oil pan or bucket, and between 4-7 quarts of oil. The E30 cars require between 3.5 - 4.2 quarts, and the E36 cars require 5 quarts for the four-cylinder cars, and 6.0-6.5 for the six cylinder cars. You'll also need a 17mm or 19mm wrench to remove the drain plug from the bottom of the engine sump. Start by driving the car around, and letting it heat up to operating temperature. You want to empty your oil when it’s hot, because the heat makes the oil flow a lot easier, and more particles of metal and dirt will come out when the oil is emptied. Once you get the car parked, place the oil pan bucket underneath the oil tank of the car. At the bottom of the engine sump there is a plug that is used for draining oil (Figure 1). Remove this plug carefully, and make sure you have a very large oil pan—about 7-quart capacity—under it, with a drip pan under the oil pan in case you underestimate. The oil will be very hot, and will empty out extremely quickly, so be careful not to burn yourself. There will be no time to grab any more buckets or oil pans, so make sure that the one you choose is big enough. This is a good time to remove the oil filter. You want to make sure that you remove the filter with the oil pan still under the oil tank because the oil filter is full of oil, and this oil will have a tendency to drip down out of the filter into the tank and out the drain hole. On E30 cars, the filter is a complete unit with a outer metal housing. This filter should only be screwed on finger tight, but you may need a filter wrench to remove it. If the filter is really on tight, you may need to resort to more drastic measures. One sure-fire way to get the oil filter off is to poke a long screwdriver through it and use the handle of the screwdriver for leverage. It doesn’t matter that you are destroying the filter, because you are going to install a new one. Be aware, though, that this method will leak oil out of the filter into your engine compartment, so have some paper towels handy. On the E36 cars, the filter is a cartridge-type filter which is contained within a metal oil filter housing (Figure 2 or Figure 3). There is a cap that is located on top of the housing (it may require a small socket, or a large one depending upon your year). Remove the top (Figure 3 or Figure 4), and underneath you will see the cartridge filter. Simply remove it from the oil filter housing (Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8 and Figure 9). Have plenty of paper towels on hand, as oil will spill from the filter if you're not careful. While all of your oil is draining, take the plug from the engine, and carefully clean it with a paper towel. The plug at the bottom of the engine is magnetic, and attracts all the little bits and pieces of metal that get trapped in the engine oil. When both plugs are clean, replace them in the car with new metal gaskets around the plugs. If you don’t use the gasket, they will leak oil. Torque the two plugs to 25 Nm (18 ft-lbs) for the 17mm or 60 Nm (44 ft-lbs) for the 19mm drain plug. Now head back into the engine compartment, and install the new oil filter (E36 Filter - Figure 10). For the E30 cars, install the oil filter with the seal wet—wipe a small bit of oil on a paper towel, and use it to make sure there is oil on the seal all the way around the filter. Screw on the filter and make it snug tight. No need to use the iron grip of death when tightening the oil filter—these don’t have a tendency to leak. For the E36 cars, you should clean out the inside of the oil filter housing before installing the new oil filter cartridge. In your oil filter kit, you should also have two o-rings and a replacement copper gasket for the long bolt that attaches the top of the housing (early E36 cars). Replace the o-ring at the bottom of the long bolt (Figure 11), and also replace the large o-ring underneath the canister top (Figure 12). Insert the new filter into the housing (Figure 13), and reinstall the long bolt and the canister top. Tighten the top of the canister to 25 Nm (18 ft-lb). Now it’s time to fill up your BMW with motor oil. A lot of people aren’t really sure what motor oil to use in their car. Traditionally, the characteristics of motor oil were linked closely to its weight. Heavier-weight oils protect well against heat; lighter-weight oils flow better in cold. In general, if you live in a cold climate, you should use a 10W-40 or similar oil. This oil is a 10-weight oil that behaves and protects against heat like a 40-weight oil. In warmer climates, you should use a 20W-50 oil. This oil doesn’t flow as well at the colder climates, but gives an extra “edge” on the hotter end. The question of whether to use synthetic or traditional “dinosaur” oil often comes up among car buffs. Consumer Reports (July 1996) ran an extensive test on the two types of oil, altering amongst many different brands. The testers installed freshly rebuilt engines in 75 taxis, and then ran them through the harshest conditions on the streets of New York City. Placing different brands, weights, and formulations in the cars, they racked up 60,000 miles on the engines, tore them down, measured, and inspected the engine components for wear. The oil was changed at 3,000 miles in half of them, and the rest were changed at 6,000 miles. results: regardless of brand, synthetic or dino, weight, and oil change interval, there were no discernable differences in engine component wear in any of the engines. Their conclusion? Motor oils and the additives blended into them have improved so much over the years that frequent oil changes and expensive synthetics are no longer necessary. Still, some people swear by synthetic oil. In practice, I don't recommend using synthetic oil if you have an older car with old seals in the engine. There have been many documented cases in which the addition of synthetic oil has caused an otherwise dry car to start leaking. If you own an older BMW that doesn’t have fresh seals in the engine, I would stick to the non-synthetics. Fill your oil tank from the oil filler hole in the top of the valve cover (Figure 14), located in the engine compartment. Add about 4 quarts to the engine, and check the dipstick. Continue to add about a half a quart at a time and keep checking the dipstick. Fill it up until it reaches the top mark of the dipstick - the engine oil level will automatically lower when the oil filter fills up with oil. Make sure that you put the oil filler cap back on the top of the valve cover, otherwise, you will end up with a messy engine compartment when you drive away. Now, start up the engine with the hood open. The oil pressure light should stay on for about a second or two and then go out. Hop out of the car and look at the engine compartment, then take a quick look underneath the car. Verify that there's no volumes of oil seeping out of the engine. Now, take the car out for a drive and bring it up to operating temperature. Shut the car off and then recheck the oil level (careful, the car will be hot). At this point, I like to top the oil off at the top point on the dipstick. Make sure that you dispose of your old oil at a respectable recycling station. Info found at http://www.pelicanparts.com

I was going to buy these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E46-All-Diesel-Coupe-Models-Suspension-Coilover-Kit-/230566344983?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item35aed33917

One of the routine maintenance items that you should perform on your BMW is the checking and replacement of your accessory drive belts. The belts are driven off of the crankshaft and power accessories such as the water pump, power steering pump, alternator and air conditioning compressor. There are typically two belts on the car - one that powers the air conditioning compressor and another that powers everything else. Both should be checked periodically (every 3,000 miles, or when you change your oil), and particular attention should be paid to the main belt. The car can run fine without the air conditioning belt installed. Some of the early E30 cars use a standard v-belt design, and some of the later cars use what is known as a poly-ribbed belt (having many channels or ribs on the underside of the belt). The poly-ribbed belt setup utilizes a spring-loaded belt tensioner pulley that provides the proper tension for the belt at all times, making adjustment unnecessary. The traditional style v-belts need to be tensioned using standard types of clamps and tensioners. When inspecting your belts, the one thing that you want to look for is cracks (yellow arrow - Figure 1). If you see any cracks at all, you should replace your belts. The cracks will usually occur on the inside of the belt (the surface that typically rides on the surface of the pulley). With the poly-ribbed belts, this is the grooved surface. With the v-belts, this is the surfaces on the legs of the 'V'. With the poly-ribbed belts, replacement is a snap. The tensioners that hold the belt tight can be easily released using a socket and or 8 mm hex tool. Different tensioners turn different directions, so you may have to rotate the tensioner clockwise or counter-clockwise depending upon your particular car. The description of this process is one of those things that is difficult to describe, but very easy to do. First, pry off the small plastic cap that covers the tensioner (green arrow Figure 1). Then, place your tool into the tensioner and try rotating clockwise or counter-clockwise - will become immediately apparent how the tensioner releases the belt (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Removal of the two belts is easy - you do not have to remove the fan. Simply release the tension on the belt from the tensioner, and then the belt should simply slide off. Release the tension, and then you should be able to unwind the belt from the engine. The belt should be able to be maneuvered around and through the fan - you do not need to remove the fan to swap out any of the belts (Figure 4). It is important to note that if your BMW has air conditioning, you will need to remove this belt first, as it typically blocks the other belt. Another tip - if the belt is worn, simply snip it with some large tin cutters and pull it out of the car, after you have released the tension on it. Installation of the new belt is easy. Simply slide on most of the new belt onto the pulleys, release the tension on the tensioner, and slide the belt onto the tensioner. Check to make sure that the belt is securely seated in all of the pulleys. Verify that the ribbed portion of the belt is set against the crankshaft pulley. The proper orientation of the belt is shown in Figure 5. Replace any plastic caps that you may have removed from the front of the tensioner pulleys. Now, start the car and peek in at the belts. Verify that they are turning smoothly on all of the pulleys. For engines with the older-style v-belts, the procedure is nearly identical, except for the tensioning. The alternator is mounted on a bracket that rotates and is used to keep tension on the belt. In addition, there is a small rack-and-pinion device on this bracket that allows you to crank up the tension on the belt (Figure 6). The first step in setting or releasing tension is to release the nut on the back of the bracket that keeps the whole assembly secure. Do not attempt to turn the geared bolt without first releasing this nut on the rear - you will most likely damage the bracket. With the nut released, you can now turn the geared bolt counter-clockwise, releasing tension on the belt. Belt replacement is nearly identical to the poly-ribbed belts. Guide found at http://www.pelicanparts.com

Did the wifes Uncles budget wedding in the bimmer on Saturday, done me proud :-) Got totaly wasted Satuday night at the wedding reception!!!! Went with monster in law to pick her new bathroom, which I have to fit in April :-( Been playing building a website this afternoon...

Depends on the year Hoff, how old do you want to go?

Who..me??? na..

Nice one Dabs ;-)

Weido.....:D

Welcome along...

Trick

Val your always welcome my fellow yam yam friend

OMG, LOL, When me meet in a show one day, please don't ask if you can have a go in mine, I wouldn't want to offend you...:P

I love mine because: It looks good on works car park next to the Fords and VauxhallsIts fast :DRWD, drifting, got it down to a 'T' nowHandles as good as my old Megane (and that was like on rails in the dry)The immense feeling of satisfacition when I sit in it..You have to press a button to get warning lights on the dash (Traction control)....warning lights came standard on my Megane!!!The complements of shiney it is every Monday morning after a day detailing Sunday.It blows the bosses 2.5l deisel Audi A4 quattro out the water in every way

Are you flirting with me Caz? :-)