So the Civic has gone.....

[dave87]

....and this has replaced it:









It is a 2001 (facelift) 530i Sport Auto with Black Leather - oh, and it only has 62k on the clock (1k of which I've done ). I'm loving it

[jim]

And it snowed specially

[finlay666]

Should get some shots of my a4 up now I have washed it and have a chance

[Gerrard]

....and this has replaced it:
It is a 2001 (facelift) 530i Sport Auto with Black Leather - oh, and it only has 62k on the clock (1k of which I've done ). I'm loving it

Except the overheating problems you had 4 weeks ago at the LAN?

[dave87]

Turned out to be a cracked radiator - pissed fluid out at quite a rate

New one fitted and it has been good as gold

[digit]

Was guy involved at all, I suspect some arm twisting was performed? Also surprised you've left diesel behind, were you not covering the miles to warrent it? Very nice purchase

[r_j_k_p]

nice!
i'm sure you'll be handing over the keys to me when i'm next in the area!!

did you sell on the civic then?

[finlay666]

Was guy involved at all, I suspect some arm twisting was performed?

Dave managed to crack the radiator all on his own

[jimborae]

Great minds think alike, i replaced my Civic with a BMW!

[dave87]

Was guy involved at all, I suspect some arm twisting was performed? Also surprised you've left diesel behind, were you not covering the miles to warrent it? Very nice purchase

Guy may have been involved - but it didn't take much arm twisting Having cut my mileage down from circa 15k a year at one point to probably 4k next year, I didn't think a diesel was worth the extra expense. That said, I will miss the car - I really did enjoy owning it.

nice!
i'm sure you'll be handing over the keys to me when i'm next in the area!!

did you sell on the civic then?

Given your history with cars, the keys will have to be prised from my cold dead hands

Dave managed to crack the radiator all on his own

Aye, that I did. Seeing the coolant piss its way down the m1 was not fun

Great minds think alike, i replaced my Civic with a BMW!

I can't believe how much car you can get for so little - this may not be the most fully loaded of BMs, but it still has a decent level of kit

[dave87]

I also decided to fit a Parrot Kit as I had done in the other car - it was a pain in the Civic, but what made this especially fun is that I had the wrong SOT lead first time - deja vu? (The same may have happened with the Civic when Guy & I tried to install the same model of kit in the other car).

I followed a guide prepared by a member on BMW5 - linky - which despite a few variations due to his car being a prefacelift and mine a facelift - was exceptionally helpful.

Anyway, the end results:

The screen and remote installed and in place:



Closer shot of the Screen:



and how I eventually got it to stick onto the textured dash:



I ran the cables to the glove box, using a cable tie and a couple of small holes to make sure the wire wasn't going to get trapped as I opened & closed the glovebox:



I probably left too much cable, but thought it preferable to have too much than too little. As it looks with other bits in the glovebox:




The install was relatively simple after following Raymond's guide - which was excellent I might add. The differences in location (for the leads) is just personal preference I suppose - and I was being lazy - I had the glovebox out already, where as disassembling the centre console could have been a bit of a pain!

[dave87]

Thought it worth doing an oil change as the car was previously used (almost) exclusively around town - so I went shopping and a few days later this package arrived:



I'd originally intended ordering 7litres (1x4l 3x1l bottles) as the 530 takes 6.5 litres of oil, but that worked out only marginally cheaper than the 10 litres I've purchased. Opie Oils were (are?) running a promo whereby when you buy a 4l bottle of Castrol Edge, you get a 1l bottle, pouch and oil change kit(?) free. Then as a member of certain forums (a lot of owners clubs etc) you get 10% off the order. Oh, and they gave me a half price shipping voucher - which was mightily nice of them



So two of these:



Then I also got two of these:



As a freebie.

So for £80, I got 10litres of good oil and a couple of pouches/oil change kits. Not bad when a single litre bottle of this oil costs just over £15.

So roll on Wednesday when it gets an oil & filter change.

[Zak33]

tell me you used a BMW oil filter... please

[bledd]

How much was the car?

[ehhhhhhh]

Nice car, it looks very good.

I have a 525d (ECU modded) with the same body and colour (pre-facelift though)...I wonder it would fit a bumper like yours

[dave87]

How much was the car?

I got a bit of a deal because I was buying from a family friend (I bought at what they were getting in PX) - that said ones of this spec (even with only 60k on the clock) can be had for as little as 5k....

Nice car, it looks very good.

I have a 525d (ECU modded) with the same body and colour (pre-facelift though)...I wonder it would fit a bumper like yours

I'm not sure - I know you can easily update the SE (facelift) with the Sport bumpers - whether prefacelift/post are the same mountings & bits. Is it the prefacelift Sport you've got?

I've wondered a couple of times after having the 2.2 Diesel in the Civic, whether I should have gone for the 530d....that said I can't stop enjoying the petrol straight 6 growl