OV9

That's rotten.

Any shops with cctv cameras nearby?

DeskJockey wrote: Tue May 19, 2026 11:02 pm That's rotten.

I guess it saves having to sell it when the Abarth arrives! I can't imagine it will be anything other than a write off once the insurance company price up a wing, paint to the bumper and bonnet, headlight bracket, possible wheel and suspension components. Similar cars are £4300-£5500 on autotrader.

oh what an absolute arse

IanF wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 7:20 pm

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 5:47 pm

Sundayjumper wrote: Wed May 06, 2026 9:39 amFor your next BMW project I recommend an N63 / S63 with leaky valve seals. An utter fcuking engine-out mission and I want someone else to suffer too.

Finished it off today and took it for test drive. Successful trip - I was able to buy paella, beer, nuts, and some brioche for tomorrow.

Drove near you today but couldn’t find your number in my phone.. we need to organise a meet with Jon (and anyone else obvs)

Great idea. And well done @Sundayjumper that sounds like a significant undertaking (fixing the engine I mean, not going shopping).

Jimexpl wrote: Tue May 19, 2026 9:54 pm

Mito Man wrote: Tue May 19, 2026 11:31 am Surprised it took you this long to buy an EV when you’re based in London. You’ve missed out on the days of free parking!

Clearly a van driver thought the same today and decided to modify the current city car and drive off without leaving a note…

Ugh that’s horrendous what an absolute arse. This is the one reason why the rise of ring doorbells can be useful. Is it a report to the police thing with the driving away from the scene of an accident?

M5 update now I've passed 3,500 miles. It's amazingly calm and relaxed on the motorway but the electric motor means it responds instantly if you want to accelerate - that's quite a change from my Audi which obviously had a bit of turbo lag in comparison. It's also as economical as the Audi on my longer commute:

What that doesn't show is that there is still 27 miles' remaining electric range, from a starting range of 40 miles.

Looking forward to taking it out for a fun drive this weekend rather than just piling on the miles to get places.

JonMad wrote: Wed May 20, 2026 12:26 am

IanF wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 7:20 pm

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 5:47 pm

Finished it off today and took it for test drive. Successful trip - I was able to buy paella, beer, nuts, and some brioche for tomorrow.

Drove near you today but couldn’t find your number in my phone.. we need to organise a meet with Jon (and anyone else obvs)

Great idea. And well done @Sundayjumper that sounds like a significant undertaking (fixing the engine I mean, not going shopping).

Yes, keep us updated!..

Impressive, Jobbo!

Jimexpl wrote: Tue May 19, 2026 9:54 pm
Clearly a van driver thought the same today and decided to modify the current city car and drive off without leaving a note…

FFS! what a cvnt.

Alex88 wrote: Fri May 22, 2026 2:50 pm

Jimexpl wrote: Tue May 19, 2026 9:54 pm
Clearly a van driver thought the same today and decided to modify the current city car and drive off without leaving a note…

FFS! what a cvnt.

I generally don't agree with them, as they put all insurance costs up, but in this instance I'm now with a third party company who have supplied a temporary vehicle and will chase the van driver's insurance company to accept responsibility, cover the hire charge and excess and engotiate a settlement.
Rental Audi A3 dropped off yesterday. Waiting for Copart to collect the BMW and determine if it is economical to repair, but 99% it will be written off.

Sometimes not always a bad outcome. If it is written off, they might offer you a cash settlement for the value of the car (minus salvage fee)

You can repair the car privately and pocket the difference

Only downside is that the car has a category mark against it. But depending on age/value, can work out for the best.

928 performed admirably over almost 1100 miles of driving in Ireland. However, not long into the trip, I had a coolant light come on one morning when I started the car. It was pissing down with rain so couldn't tell if anything was leaking. Topped it off and carried on. This became a regular feature of the drive, but the coolant loss was never consistent. Popped the car down to Strasse this afternoon and put it on a ramp. The bottom of the rad has rotted out and is leaking. New ones from Porsche are £1700 RadTec make an all alloy replacement for £495 + VAT. I've emailed them for price and availability. I've also bought some new injectors and engine bay fuel hoses to go on, but I'll sort the rad first.

Radweld. If it’s good enough for Mat Armstrong’s Bugatti…

Delphi wrote: Fri May 22, 2026 4:59 pm 928 performed admirably over almost 1100 miles of driving in Ireland. However, not long into the trip, I had a coolant light come on one morning when I started the car. It was pissing down with rain so couldn't tell if anything was leaking. Topped it off and carried on. This became a regular feature of the drive, but the coolant loss was never consistent. Popped the car down to Strasse this afternoon and put it on a ramp. The bottom of the rad has rotted out and is leaking. New ones from Porsche are £1700 RadTec make an all alloy replacement for £495 + VAT. I've emailed them for price and availability. I've also bought some new injectors and engine bay fuel hoses to go on, but I'll sort the rad first.

Good news it didn't go completely on the trip! Are we getting a trip report with some photos?

John wrote: Fri May 22, 2026 6:25 pm Radweld. If it’s good enough for Mat Armstrong’s Bugatti…

Back in my youth, I used sooooo much radweld.

Looks like I’m going to the tyre shop tomorrow to have this nail patched up

Sharing some photos now I've decompressed and the car seems to be running well again.

It was a ridiculously long job. I didn't keep a detailed log but it must have been 90-100 hours or so. Apart from one Saturday when we had people over for lunch, I worked on it every day for 19 days straight. Not full days, I'd start late morning and keep going until I got to a sensible break point. Sometimes a short day of 4 hours. Sometimes right through to 7 or 8pm. A low average of 5 hrs per day x 18 days = 90 hours. I'd expect a professional to do it in half the time. It's just so complicated:


My first job was actually not the valve seals, but the turbo oil return cover. It's down in the vee and tends to leak. Oil accumulates there and eventually drains out down the back of the block through the bellhousing. Quite a lot of stuff to remove first. Turbos out of the way:


Then with the heatshields & alternator & manifolds out of the way. Ick.


Puddles of quite fresh oil. The oil return cover is the block at the bottom of the pic. You can't buy the gasket alone unfortunately, so about £50 for the whole thing from BMW.

The vee cleaned up slightly. You can now see the drain hole at the back. That dumps oil into the bellhousing every time you accelerate, and makes it look like the crank seal is shot.


I skipped over the exhaust manifolds earlier. This was the state of them, and the exhaust ports on the heads, as a result of the leaky valve seals. Ick.


Strangely it was only the immediate area of the head / manifold join that was like this. An inch further into the manifold it was all clean, as were the turbos & cats. There's a bit of a step where they join, that seems to encourage it all to accumulate there.

Day 6: engine out.

I'd already removed the complete exhaust & the gearbox along the way. It's not that difficult to remove.


The entire cat-back exhaust is in one piece: