BMW DIY advice, and the occasional critique of the company
This past weekend I attended a car show at River Farm, located off the George Washington Parkway in Alexandria. It’s a beautiful property on the banks of the Potomac river, and is the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society. The focus this morning however was cars, and there were some beauties. All makes were welcome. […]
Welcome to part two of my interview with BMW enthusiast Paul Valliere. (You can listen to part one here.) In this conversation Paul and I hypothesize about the future for old-school BMW enthusiasts like ourselves. Here’s a heads up on my take written in 2011, and Paul raises some issues I hadn’t considered. We also […]
Today I’m publishing part one of my interview with Paul Valliere. Paul is a long-time BMW enthusiast who owns three classic BMW M cars, one of them being the Euro-spec E36 M3 pictured above. Only 45 of these vehicles were imported to North America in 1994, and Paul has the official number one. Bimmer magazine […]
This past weekend I repaired a small but annoying issue on my 2002 BMW M5. The rear corner sunshade on the driver side had cracked and lost all tension, leaving the shade flopping loose. Not the most serious of issues that could crop up on this car by a long shot. But it looked sloppy […]
I’ve been publishing Work, Wine and Wheels articles since 2008. I started the site in part to acquire the hands-on skills necessary as the nature of communications work changed dramatically. I counsel clients on how to become online publishers, so I needed to learn how to do it myself. The site has been very successful […]
Last weekend I did an easy but important piece of DIY maintenance. I removed, cleaned and reoiled the Conforti cold air intake (CAI) on my 1999 BMW M3. Two years ago I had to replace the foam filter as part of a full DIY tuneup. I needed to replace it because I never cleaned it, […]
This past weekend I gave my 2002 E39 M5 a thorough inspection. I also changed the oil and swapped the tires side to side to even out the wear. All the fluids were changed last year, so I knew I was in good shape on that front. I’ve now owned the car for over three […]
The numbers are in and BMW’s sales in the U.S. continued to climb in May. Sales were up 17.3 percent May to May, with 29,602 units sold. For the first five months of 2014, sales are up 12.2 percent. The overall trend is the same, but some things have changed since I wrote about BMW’s […]
This weekend I replaced the High Intensity Discharge (HID, also known as Xenon) headlight bulbs in my 2002 M5. My old bulbs still worked, but my amazing wife had bought me replacement bulbs reputed to be the best on the market. She purchased them from TheRetroFitSource, a great resource for auto lighting needs. The bulbs […]
This weekend I gave my 1999 M3 a thorough checkup. The car is running great but it also turned 15 years old this month. In performing the inspection I was greatly aided by these excellent videos from Bavarian Autosport. An important area I wanted to focus on was the suspension bushings. Bushings connect the suspension […]
BMW sales numbers are out and the company had a big month in March. For BMW brand vehicles month to month sales were up 18.6 percent and YTD sales up 11.5 percent. Mini sales are reported together with BMW in the United States and they were down almost 40 percent as that brand awaits new […]
I’ve enjoyed my 1999 BMW E36 M3 for more than 10 years. When the car was introduced back in 1995, it sparked criticism from some BMW enthusiasts. The E36 M3 wasn’t as raw as its E30 predecessor, a truly iconic car. The version sold in North America also did not have the more exotic and […]