MadMMX

Actually not easy to find the stuff. Zippo won't work as its not pressurized. Have been looking for some myself to refill my portable heat gun but not easy to come across the stuff. Can't seem to locate the old petty kade's that used to refill gas lighters a long time ago and supermarkets don't carry the pressurized fluid refills anymore. Would anyone know any shops in Maligawatte that may have them ? Cheers,

Just a suggestion as well. One area really lacking in most garages nowadays is good electronics diagnostics. There are plenty of good diags options that run on a laptop and the interfaces for say Nissan / Toyota ...etc and even the BMW's are freely available on ebay and quite cheap. Save you a load of time in diagnostics and the setups are generally very accurate with diagnostics. Keep a BMW DIS at home purely for the purpose of not needing to get heart attacks when I go to the agent and knowing whats up with the car and not needing to rely on anyone. Simply laugh when the agents suggest changing this, that and the other now Cheers, MadMMx

hmm not great but on the plus side once you're done with the repairing you can be sure of the car If you know what I mean. Cheers,

Hey VVTi, Off topic hows the alfa doing ? Cheers,

Hi, Actually having used both (though the diesel was a pre-facelift) can say that their both decent cars. The 318i with the N42 valvetronic engine actually does much better than 7 (currently am running one) and does about 8.5- 9.5 in colombo - No bs on the economy meter of the car. Actually the petrol is easier on the purse and the diesel's potentially can have few turbo issues when they get older - however if you do you maintenance on time their shouldn't be any major issues but change the swirl flaps as mentioned by rukster. Cheers,

Actually membership isn't a total ripoff - they have a pretty good subsidized car washing service that actually works on sunday as well (try getting a high pressure car wash for less that 150 bucks !!), the towing service is also available and there are a few pluses to the membership. All in all the yearly sub costs peanuts so I don't think its a bad thing to have. Just my two cents. Cheers, Madmmx

Actually you're right. That M5 was a E34 if I recall right.

Yeap - have seen that M5 though haven't seen it recently.

Actually me thinks both movies totally bombed out .. !! Complete flops..

Also for the electrical wiring especially under the dash which heats up a lot - try to use heat shrinking tubing as far as possible over normal electrical tape which won't come apart when it heats up. Much neater job and better protection. Only thing is that you need to put the heat tube piece into the splice before actually soldiering the joints together. Strangely the BMW standard for all wiring joints is only using double ended crimps of varying sizes and heat shrinking. They don't use soldiering strangely. Cheers,

Whoa. !! That's interesting - this would be the GS registered one ? Was it rebuilt by the expert ? Have seen some pretty messed up cars repaired by the chap - but his repair seems pretty good and its done on an alignment rig so it can't be bad ? There was a pretty bad E60 320d 5 series new model that he did a complete front end rebuild on. Thought the work was very decent and he actually flew back to Germany to get instructions on how to rebuild it !! He was also rebuilding Jay's E36 M3 a while back though that repair seemed to be taking forever. Rule of the thumb is that quite a few E36's out in the market have had major repairs done on them at the experts Cheers,

Actually to add to rangerover - yes stick to super diesel - more pull and pickup and better economy but try to stick to reliable sheds - I used to always go to LauXXs Kohuwela for super diesel when I had the 320d - too many horror stories to do with some of the other smaller sheds with regard to chucking engine oil into their diesel

Actually to add to that its yes and no - the filter costs and change intervals are higher than the petrol but the economy on the diesels is staggering. I would guess sort of cost neutral weighing more to diesel On the older ones apparently the injectors are a pig to take out but on a 2002 which should be a facelift common rail it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I do hear that tiptronics need to be taken care of properly but they're quite durable. You know you also have the option of wiring and fitting in the paddle shift (F1 style) on the tiptronics !! Cheers,

Before you buy it - take it to the agent and have him check the injector pump pressure (high pump in the engine). At new its about 5 bar gradually decreases (common failure) and the moment it drops below 3 bar you have to get ready to fork out 75-120k on a second hand pump. Unfortunately its a recurring problem with this model and there's no permanent fix.

Actually the fear here is that the cars will get into the hands of ...lets say undesirables .. the us embassy by policy does this - and have done so to a no of landcruisers ...etc (all of the bullet proof type) but the cars are essentially stripped of all ancillaries and its the shells that are dumped to create artificial reefs into deep water (so that they can't be retrieved) I guess you wouldn't want Bin Laden going around in a bullet proof car formally used by the US embassy However a few bullet proof cars were disposed of into the local market - one famous R.D. S... is supposed to be using the car formally used by the Swedish or some Scandinavian embassy that closed down Cheers,

Actually agree totally. Only use genuine BMW parts on my baby which my dealer friend sends down to me from UK. The UK list price + his dealer discount actually isn't bad at all (waaaaay less than what the local buggers charge you and usually much cheaper than what the expert charges you for non genuine oem parts) . I'm a bit weary of the Singapore import option as sometimes they give you the option to get non genuine parts down and also asia being flooded with fakes. The UK option is pretty safe and on the whole not too bad. Some time ago before I had the diagnostics I busted the front left ABS sensor as well. Mind you Pre*... were pretty decent and diagnosed the fault for me and I declined to buy the part from them. Charged me a nominal amount for diagnostics and I got my friend to send it down to me Royal Mail signed for from UK. Usually takes about a week. Mind you its perfectly safe to drive without the ABS/ASC - pres* were also of this view - brakes work fine - only no ABS and TC. But really its good having the diagnostics - total peace of mind. And its damn accurate too. Actually I feel the biggest problem with the agents is the dopes hardly use the diagnostics and have the bass mentality. I used to sometimes push the buggers and get them to plug the car into the DIS. But on the whole they're quite sporting. Haven't really used the other experts diagnostics - when I had just got the car many years ago I wanted to add the on board trip computer and he told me that if he coded it on his DIS - he would have to charge me 12K because of some arrangement he had in buying the DIS system (which actually costs about Rs 7 lakhs to a mil) and suggested I take it to the agent. Actually was quite decent of the chap to say so. Now of course no issues as I code the bugger at home - and do so for a few friends of mine who also have E46's. The car's onboard diag's is actually extremely advanced and it generally tells you exactly whats wrong with it ! Unlike most jap cars that have 1 or 2 CPUs the average BMW and Merc will have 6 - 12 computers placed on board and they talk to each other using their own computer network called the IBUS (now replaced with the MOST bus on the newer cars) Its quite an interesting subject with lots of information posted on the forums. Cheers,

It all depends on what you're looking for and your budget. Have used Yokohama ES100's - Fabulous tyres - super grip but are soft and they tend to wear out fast. Currently using Bridgestone Adrenalin Potenza RE001 - 225/55 X 16 at the back and 215/55 X 16 at the front. The tyres dont seem to be as grippy as the yoko's but appear to be more durable than them. No complaints with the grip level at all though !! And I do tend to thrash them around a bit

By the way does the expert have a DIS system now with the yellow head ? Or what exactly does he use to scan now ?

Man !!! You could have come over to my place and scanned it for free !! Did quite a few abs sensors for friends. My bro is also using a E46 318i. The left front ABS sensor is a common failure on the E46. Keep a couple of spares for the front myself Is your car ASC or DSC ? Cheers,

@RangeRover You need to get an INPA interface - thats the one that really allows you to do a lot - THOUGH word of warning you can also totally screw the car up if you're not careful Cheers,

Yes the 5.7M was the repair bill only for the 2nd X5

Hi GMI, Actually mine is the full setup from a Jap mini transferred into the car - all wiring and all bits so can I just ask >>No this is untrue. I'm a daily Mini runner since 1998. You will not face any over heating issues if you use; 1. 74C thermo --> Am using the one that came with the engine - no change do u need to change it ? 2. a good secondary electric exhaust fan with a genuine mini fan switch --> The jap car came with the electric secondary fan - fan switches on fine - direction is also correct (fan comes on a little higher than 50% on the heater gauge) 3. a good fan leaf (without bends) --> The primary fan is the 16 blade yellow fan is this ok ? 4. good radiator coolant --> Used wurth 5. have the rubber like cover between body and radiator --> Thats there so no airflow going out problems 6. have the correct and genuine radiator cap - put a new cap 7. have the over flow canister - This I don't have as its a 1000cc engine. Are you refering to the one that is sealed and fits under the wing on the outside ?(ie over the wheel) 8. engine is well tuned - tuned by various people and last tuned by lucky 9. correct spark plug. I tried a set of NGKs (BPR6ES) which i bought from the popular mini store here and removed as it increased the heating limit. Denso seems good. --> AM using a set of iridium denso's which seem fine Whats the model you're using? 10. radiator is cleaned - radiator was cleaned prior to fitting it 11. have the correct radiator. 3 core/2 core depending on the engine - engines a 998 a+ radiator came with the jap car assume its correct ? 12. A/C is regulated - all the a/c fittings are from the original car 13. no slipping fan belts - fan belts are all new - correct size - only one fellow I know has the small alternator belt 14. use the correct alternator. if you're using a Jap alternator, make sure that it does not create an extra load to the engine. -> Alternator also came with the jap engine should be correct ? 15. a good water pump -> water pump is brand new Bottom line is still when hitting heavy traffic the engine heat does go up quite a lot - so much so that I would normally turn the a/c off. Is urs fine in traffic ? Would appreciate the advice and help. Another close friend of mine has similar issues and he's is a 1275 EFI SPI. Fairly frustrating not being able to get this right. Thanks,

I think prestige does and believe me their repair department runs courtesy of the accidents that the gov vehicles have. !! There was a busted X5 there the other day belonging to the convoy of the big man - 5.7M repair bill - and it was an armoured vehicle. Repairs courtesy of us poor citizans of Sri Lanka. And the accident had been caused because a dog had run across the first X5 in the convoy and he had braked and been hammered in the tail by the 2nd X5. :)

No actually they have embedded plates and are foam/gel filled as well. Each tire is supposed to cost 8 lakhs !!!!!!!

Actually got a good showing of the inside of one once The boot is chock full of electronics. Lots of other gizmo's. I wonder whether the fellows driving them know how to use half the stuff in it - and this was an older model 7 series like the one that got blasted in Kollupitiya. Apparently the drivers are specially sent to Germany and trained on how to use the systems before they start driving them