OV9

SJ is a different breed.

I would take a chance at scrap money but £2k for a car with 204,000 miles lol

Glad it's worked out for you

@BeansterMcBeanyTheBeanface - have you got any F20 wisdom you can share, to save me the pain of visiting an F20 Facebook group ?

Carlos wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2026 9:51 pm I would take a chance at scrap money but £2k for a car with 204,000 miles lol

£2k IS scrap money for these ! This one is almost identical but with 130k miles, for £4.5k:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 6173393904

And Autotrader says that’s £878 below average.

Matty wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2026 9:44 pm I can only imagine the horrific messages, offers and types of buyers you get selling a <£2k BMW on eBay.

I have dealt with many <£2k BMWs in my time, both buying & selling

There’s some decent folk out there. But also others.

Sundayjumper wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2026 10:04 pm @BeansterMcBeanyTheBeanface - have you got any F20 wisdom you can share, to save me the pain of visiting an F20 Facebook group ?

Nothing specific, mine was a petrol turbo auto so not much to say on a TD manual, and I don't evern remember getting the car through a bloody MOT before it got thefted/written off - I really didn't have it long.

I mean, they're fairly comfy, a bit more wind noise than you'd like, audio ain't great even with HK, but otherwise drive cleanly enough. I had the adjustable shocks on the M135i and never was that happy with the secondary ride in comfort, and basically never used sport, it was pretty crashy, more than it could justify from the additional presumed poise it gave it - it always seemed to thump over expansion joints etc. It also couldn't really handle putting 300bhp down on a backroad even in sport suspension mode, the common fix being to polybush the rear subframe to stop it moving around as much, but I never got around to that before the car got fuckered. Unless you were properly thrashing it though, it was pretty composed, just 'niggly', even without runflats.

The F-series were super modular though, to the extent that an F20 1-series (and 2-series) is basically an F30 3-series with a foot lopped out of the floorpan and some different panels/glass and a slightly smaller engine bay; AFAIK other than track width and brake sizes, almost every other major component that isn't length-impacted (prop, handbrake cable etc) is near as damnit a direct swap, and a recode if it's a module.

As I'm sure you're aware, that gen of 5,6 and 7 series are similarly mechanically joined at the hip, maybe to a lesser extent though - I've not really looked as 5/7-series are a bit above my pay grade, darling

The main thing would be, as with all TDs that don't get regular use or do short runs - oil changes, early and often (and make sure to give it a chance to do it's DPF once in a while) - I guess it'd be similar advice as per the M5, just be strict about it given how mucky diesel engine oil gets, and how tight remotely modern turbo lumps run. Oh, and do the gearbox oil, the Z4 is much nicer from cold now, and it's mostly gonna be a shopping shitter, that sort of QoL thing matters. BMW manual gearboxes are 'fine' at best and need all the help they can get and I rather regret not doing it on the E46.

All sensible advice, ta.

I'd noticed the suspension felt a bit vague, although not actually loose or banging around, some slightly squishy subframe bushes would make sense. That's a fairly big job though so I'm not rushing into it.

Oil & filters is a given on any car I buy, so that's in hand. Oil's suddenly got a lot more expensive though, hasn't it ? All thanks to someone <glares at whitehouse>. He's just made up some more new tariffs today, coincidentally I'd not considered gearbox oil but it's a simple job and if they still use ATF in their manual gearboxes I'm pretty sure I have some in stock already.

It's been used for long distances all its life - you don't clock up 200k miles popping out to Lidl for snacks ! And I'll be doing 40 miles each way to work along the M3/A303 so the DPF should get cleared out quite regularly. No worries there.

I'm looking forward to driving this

Same tariff, just a different legal body or something.

I've been trying to figure out why the Norwegian Kr and GBP have made such a jump of late.

The ML needs both diffs and transfer box oil change along with the engine so after what you just said, I'll ignore the price for a bit

ML I am really struggling to find the transmission noise, if it's the gearbox then I think it will have to go but I really don't want to change it. The only thing that appeals is a NA ML63 but that has its own issues with running costs and a good one is the same price as a 166 ML63 but that has an overcommitted engine with a hot V which I really don't like.

I think I'll rebuild the front diff and cross my fingers.

Dave!

Mmm, crispy:


And quite a variety under the back seat:


Why don’t normal people remove their seats when they hoover ?

Carlos wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2026 9:51 pm SJ is a different breed.

Oh.

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 10:44 am Why don’t normal people remove their seats when they hoover ?

Why indeed.

I've only taken the seats out of the Galaxy twice: first time to clean up vomit (DJLet3 threw up voluminously, covering herself and the seats while in the queue for the Eurotunnel during lockdown. Suddenly the nonstop drive to Copenhagen seemed three times as long), second time to retrieve a crucial bit of Lego that couldn't be reached otherwise. I did take the opportunity to hoover while I had them out.

Meh, we can all work on cars SJ. Today I've changed the mirrors on the Caterham

Anyone who has driven one will know how utterly hopeless the standard mirros are, you really would be better with none at all as they are just an ugly distraction. The mirror glass is flat on the standard mirrors rather than convex so you have an almost non existent field of view which is a nightmare when reversing past obstructions or joining roads etc. The answer to this is to fit a pair of Spa or Lifeline mirrors complete with a 3D printed base supplied by a fella on the owners club. I went with the Lifeline mirrors and now I have proper rearward vision, excellent

Nice. I wasn’t aware the OEM mirrors were crap. Assume @Mito Man and his dad know of this setup?

Although…. upgrades before you’ve shared an e-start vid? What’s this place coming to?

I made an adapter/mount to fit the aero mirrors in place of the originals.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/180937 ... Id-1930080

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 8:26 am All sensible advice, ta.

I'd noticed the suspension felt a bit vague, although not actually loose or banging around, some slightly squishy subframe bushes would make sense. That's a fairly big job though so I'm not rushing into it.

Oil & filters is a given on any car I buy, so that's in hand. Oil's suddenly got a lot more expensive though, hasn't it ? All thanks to someone <glares at whitehouse>. He's just made up some more new tariffs today, coincidentally I'd not considered gearbox oil but it's a simple job and if they still use ATF in their manual gearboxes I'm pretty sure I have some in stock already.

It's been used for long distances all its life - you don't clock up 200k miles popping out to Lidl for snacks ! And I'll be doing 40 miles each way to work along the M3/A303 so the DPF should get cleared out quite regularly. No worries there.

I'm looking forward to driving this

Oh it should be fine then. That blow sound might just be a shitty gasket or similar.

Yeah, as domestic appliances I can see a TD being absolutely fine, apart from the fact they're no easier to park than a three series due to them being similar widths (5cm in it) and not much shorter (30cm) - I'm sure you've noticed that for a 'small car' they ain't that small.

https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compar ... dan/front/

The Z4 is a doddle in comparison, it's MX5-sized

https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compar ... -roadster/

Mito Man wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 12:51 pm I made an adapter/mount to fit the aero mirrors in place of the originals.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/180937 ... Id-1930080

Very good

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 8:26 am All sensible advice, ta.

I'd noticed the suspension felt a bit vague, although not actually loose or banging around, some slightly squishy subframe bushes would make sense. That's a fairly big job though so I'm not rushing into it.

Oil & filters is a given on any car I buy, so that's in hand. Oil's suddenly got a lot more expensive though, hasn't it ? All thanks to someone <glares at whitehouse>. He's just made up some more new tariffs today, coincidentally I'd not considered gearbox oil but it's a simple job and if they still use ATF in their manual gearboxes I'm pretty sure I have some in stock already.

It's been used for long distances all its life - you don't clock up 200k miles popping out to Lidl for snacks ! And I'll be doing 40 miles each way to work along the M3/A303 so the DPF should get cleared out quite regularly. No worries there.

I'm looking forward to driving this

New rear shocks made a massive difference to our 125i. In my experience BMW seem to be pretty good at using dampers that can be just good enough to pass an MOT with no signs of leaking, but otherwise are completely knackered! Obviously swapping them out is also minuts rather than hours compared with the subframe bushes.

Jaguar XF S 3.0 Diesel

Nothing to report. It's just worked since I bought it. Nothing has broken, rotted away or mysteriously turned into a rattly mess. I bought it at 64,700 miles in May last year and it's just tipped over 81,000.

I vowed to half the 12k oil service intervals in an attempt to be kind to the Jaguar Gods so I popped out in my lunch hour yesterday and in 30 mins flat changed the engine oil, oil filter, air filter and cabin filter.

These really are the easiest things to service; pump the oil out, oil filter on top of the vee. Job done.



I still need to get around to a gearbox service at the specialist in Norwich, but been very busy with various other "projects"...

Audi A1 Sport 1.4 TFSI

My g/fs daughter turned 17 a week ago, so about a month back we started looking for her first car. She found this lovely A1 at a dealer near Southend so we went to have a look, it checked out and I drove it home. 115k miles, but absolutely spotless inside and out save for some incredibly scabby alloys and... lollest of lols... a different brand of ditchfinder tyre on every corner. Who the fuck does that?! One of them was a winter ffs.

I'm guessing it had lived it's life at the foreign-wash with liberal treatment of acidic wheel cleaner and the previous owner just considered tyres to be round and black and all the same thankyouplease. Completely at odds with the rest of the car.

Anyway we got it back to mine, and I got it up on axle stands gave it a good once over, replaced the rear pads and discs and then took the wheels to local wheel refurb experts, AeroCoat. I also had a new set of Toyo Proxes sent to them from BlackCircles. 4 days later I went and picked them up, freshly painted and diamond cut and with new tyres. They look better than new!

Anyway it looks like this now, is a cracking drive and handles like a go-kart.



1997 BMW R1100RT

I should probably put this in the motorbiking thread but I'm here now. My £600 ebay project bike is finally running sweet as. It took a fair number of stripping down/replacing bits/rebuilding/riding cycles to fully iron out all the rough running issues, and I've now probably spent as much again on it but it's still a bargain I think and is a lovely lovely thing to boxer around on. My g/f also loves riding pillion which was an unexpected bonus.



2023 BMW R1250GS TE Triple Black

Much like the Jag, it just works in a very pleasing way. Recently had it's 18k service and now just tipped over 20k miles. Will be keeping this for many years to come I think.

I had a long weekend in the peak district a few weeks ago with some RoSPA mates. Was ace.



2015 KTM RC125

Will's bike. Where do I fucking start with this. This is the short version.

Obvs I spent a lot of time and money rebuilding it to begin with. Then it ate a chain, home on a low-loader. I put a new chain on. He put it in a drainage ditch. I fished it out of the ditch, hosed it down and put a new mirror on it and then it sat for a bit while his fractured vertebrae fixed itself (about 4 weeks until he could ride again). Lucky lucky escape. Engine went bang on the way to college. Home on a low-loader. Took the head off and it had broken a valve spring and smashed the shite out of the piston. So I bought a used engine from a breakers and put that in. Two weeks later it just wouldn't start late on Saturday night whilst he was out. Home on low-loader. Luckily the breaker gave a warranty and was happy to take it back and refund - had dropped a valve. It sat for a bit while I contemplated mine and his life choices and then I bought another engine last week, which we've just finished putting in. Test ride later and he's away again. If it goes bang again it's going on fire somewhere.



I think that's it.

I wish the E91 had a dipstick tube so I could use a pump extractor

I thought they had a tube but no dipstick ?

Dave!

V8Granite wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 3:19 pm I thought they had a tube but no dipstick ?

Dave!

Nope