HMC architecte britannique

[r.welfare]

Stiff throttle will be the cable, I just changed one on a 323Ci.  Bit of a fiddle but makes a hell of a difference.  Bought one from ECP and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a genuine BMW part (and for the right car).

[Schaefft]

As mentioned before, it'll be leaky airbags in the back, definitely something you can expect at this age, and not particularly expensive or hard to fix (and they'll last another 15 years again). And no, 523i aren't fast in any version, you'd need a 528i for that at least, especially in the Touring. At least its no auto? Vanos probably needs fixing as the seal rings will be worn out by now, you lose a bit of torque under 3500rpm because of that. Your's has dual vanos so it'll probably be quite noticeable.

[LimitedSlippedDisc]

Long time lurker here, however couldn’t resist to dig out my old account to say I’ve just bought an E39 523i manual myself - but in saloon flavour.  Can’t understand the comments that a 523i manual is slow - compared to my usual old chod it feels positively rapid.  Official stats seem to suggest 0-60 leptons in 8.2 secs for a manual - not too shabby!

[LimitedSlippedDisc]

Also - congrats on your purchase - excellent taste!

[HMC]

The 940 had an FTP the other day- about a minute after a cold start I stalled it at a busy junction- much cranking and embarrassment later and I gave up and coasted backwards into a lucky parking space. My gut feeling was crank sensor or fuel pump. Ten minutes later it started and has run fine since. Intermittent mechanical issue or simple case of flooded engine? I’m thinking the latter

 

Otherwise its fine and is currently faster than the e39 which currently has a sensor fault (I think) that is cocking up the Vanos variable timing which is making it flat as a pancake, especially when warm. It has variable inlet and exhaust cam timing “twin Vanos” Usually on a cold start it’s pretty punchy but once fully warm it goes to pot. My theory as it has a new genuine maf, is that the sensors regulating one aspect of this is breaking down when hot. I think I’ll need to get a code reader thing. Can anyone recommend one suitable that doesn’t need a laptop?

 Funny how less ambitious, less complex engineering has a habit of going wrong less often #940 respekp

[Tadhg Tiogar]

^^
Liked for the horse head tow ball cover. Think I might buy one for the CX.......

[Marm Toastsmith]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

 

Funny how less ambitious, less complex engineering has a habit of going wrong less often. 

Simple is good.

so which is the favourite?

[HMC]

2 minutes ago, marm said:

Simple is good.

so which is the favourite?

Probably right now the 940, but if I can make the bmw run properly I think it will be a dead heat. I think they’re different enough attempts to answer a similar question; practical and contrasting. 

[cort16]

The 520's I've had have been absolutely gutless to the point of being dangerous until about 4000 rpm when the v-anos kicks in and they it takes off.

The vans is oil pressure controlled, could that be related to it warming up? The setup can be a bit of prick on these I hope it's not a fault vanos unit.

[HMC]

The Volvo continues to plod on and lurch round corners, the only news is from the dvla.

When purchased the vendor was keen to keep the (valueless IMO) Northern Ireland cover plate. Once that went through and then the keeper change I’ve just got the details of the reg it’s been given.....

Odd as it’s a clearly cheap “cherished” reg that the car has been given. I assume that is what it used to be on (no documents to hand to verify this) I would normally expect them to hold on to something like this in case mike f Parkinson wants to splash out on a cheap cover plate? Maybe it will turn out to be non transferable and hence essentially valueless?

Also- purple lacquer peel?

[BorniteIdentity]

Didn’t realise this Ovlov is Purple. 

Arousal increases... 

[Alan_Green]

[Alan_Green]

That's not very clear.  Try this instead:

 

[xtriple]

What a result, new plate is better than the 'old' plate the guy wants to retain! 

[Saabnut]

The P3 plate will be what was on it before the NI plate, and will be non transferable

[LightBulbFun]

Looks like P3MFP is what it was issued originally  (ie from the factory or dealership, however it works with private cars, im used to handling Invacars )

however the databases are clearly still updating, as I had to shove XXI7704 into the website I use for it to throw up the Volvo 940

[HMC]

^ Great thanks for looking into it!

[Lord Sterling]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Looks like P3MFP is what it was issued originally  (ie from the factory or dealership, however it works with private cars..... )

however the databases are clearly still updating, as I had to shove XXI7704 into the website I use for it to throw up the Volvo 940

Not necessarily; I looked up an E46 2004 BMW 318iSE with this reg:

I used the reg finder and source cide as you suggested and it came up that this cars previous reg was; F648 JWD which is a 1989 registration on a 1989 registered 5.0 Mercedes and the site is about find out about the car, not the reg ?

 

[LightBulbFun]

3 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Not necessarily; I looked up an E46 2004 BMW 318iSE with this reg:

I used the reg finder and source cide as yiu suggested and it came up that this cars previous reg was; F468 JWD which is an a 1989 plate. So its either wrong or was wearing another "cherished" plate ?

F648JWD comes up as a 1989 Merc on the DVLA so something screwy is up with that!

I know the website will generally list all the different regs a car has had if its had a few in its life

for example RM999 got plate raped but then got its plate back which you can see here  

so the website will list more then 1 reg change i know that much

[Zelandeth]

Be curious to see what the site makes of my Xantia...think it's on its fourth plate currently...P***OPV, then N2XAN, back to the original plate, then onto XAN71A which it currently wears.  If it can keep up with that we know it's smart...

[LightBulbFun]

9 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Be curious to see what the site makes of my Xantia...think it's on its fourth plate currently...P***OPV, then N2XAN, back to the original plate, then onto XAN71A which it currently wears.  If it can keep up with that we know it's smart...

the Xantia was actually one of the first cars I shoved into the website just out of curiosity

[Joey spud]

It's all a bit confusing this.

I had a Eunos roadster reg no H623NRD and changed it to KEX56N as her indoors thought the original plate spelt out Nerd.

But when i decided to sell the car and put KEX on to it's replacement the DVLA didn't give me back the original plate or even another H plate instead they issued  J???CDC.

[HMC]

That does sound odd- obviously originally it was given a plate related to its date of manufacture, maybe an admin error?

Harking back to how they used to do it (a long while ago) imported vehicles would be given a plate current to the date of importation. 

19 plate dry state Chevy stepside anyone?

[Skizzer]

4 hours ago, Joey spud said:

It's all a bit confusing this.

I had a Eunos roadster reg no H623NRD and changed it to KEX56N as her indoors thought the original plate spelt out Nerd.

But when i decided to sell the car and put KEX on to it's replacement the DVLA didn't give me back the original plate or even another H plate instead they issued  J???CDC.

And kex is better than nerd?

Kex means underpants in my world.

[Joey spud]

Yep me too as in "get your kex off".

Wife has an odd sense of humour. 

[HMC]

Spent an age cleaning the 940 today - on and off over 4 hours. No snow foam was used (what is that?) in fact I spent all my time on the interior. To be fair to the vendor they said it was filthy inside...... 

They had dogs and it’s fair to say it was probably never vacuumed whilst they had it. Hence 4 hours on and off was spent removing dog hair from every possible nook and cranny. Stickers need not state the outdoorsy credentials- there was plenty of the outdoors smeared on the carpets.

End result Quite demoralising as it looks tidy but not 4 hours worth of tidy; it looks no different on the outside. Probably the dirtiest interior of any car I’ve bought. Why no before pics? I’m embarrassed to admit I drove it around for a week in that state so avoided taking the pics. Reading this back I sound like a clean freak; not in the slightest it was just grim.

[Steve79]

On 8/17/2019 at 4:57 PM, LightBulbFun said:

Looks like P3MFP is what it was issued originally  (ie from the factory or dealership, however it works with private cars, im used to handling Invacars )

however the databases are clearly still updating, as I had to shove XXI7704 into the website I use for it to throw up the Volvo 940

What website do you use to get the previous reg details?

[LightBulbFun]

10 minutes ago, Steve79 said:

What website do you use to get the previous reg details?

Page 62 of my Invacar thread  

for those interested in such reg in info out sites I recommend keeping on top of my thread, Im always digging up such sites as I use the information they provide to further my Invacar research  

[Zelandeth]

I'd never even seen the J plate before...every day is a school day.  Guess I don't actually have every bit of paperwork associated with the car.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

18 hours ago, HMC said:

Spent an age cleaning the 940 today....They had dogs and it’s fair to say it was probably never vacuumed whilst they had it. Hence 4 hours on and off was spent removing dog hair from every possible nook and cranny. .....

Pointless exercise trying to hoover a car that carries dogs. The first time I carried a friend's dog in the back of the diesel Borat, we spread towels over the seats. This still wasn't enough, as the dog was constantly shedding. That was in 2015. It is now 2019, the dog is deceased, and I'm still finding dog hairs.

Dunno why I'm giving out about this; both the CX and the Borat interiors have accumulated horsehair, hay and straw so it's not like I'm unfamiliar with hairy upholstery.