My much loved and abused 96 Alpina B3 3.2 touring. I bought her on 187,000 miles from a dealer in my town with a cracked cylinder head who wanted to break her up for parts. I fixed it ran it for 10,000 miles and then performed a manual conversion to 6 speed with an M3 box and 2.93 LSD as alpina offered them in LHD from factory, also fitted e36 M3 front brakes. Shes now on 235,000 miles and i can't part with it. Its one of 5 RHD tourings ever produced but its out in all weathers and its value is low.
I can't honestly think of anything that can beat it as an all round car for daily duties which i guess is why i've had it 4 years now which is the longest by far for me as a daily duty car!
My wife drives this as her daily, 2004 Alpina B3s touring. Totally stock, i bought it with the typical headgasket gone which turned into a full engine rebuild but 20,000 miles later and a new torque converter this thing is animal if a little juicy but its an ideal family car which is desperate for a manual conversion also but its not my car yet!
I drive a Mitsubishi shogun for local stuff nowadays, I don't commute (based at home) so it's use is local journeys, and purely to avoid the M5 getting scratched to pieces on the single track roads around where I live - but - I still always use the M5 for all non local / longer journey's.
Here is my Celica GT4, it was about 2 years old in this photo (excuse low quality, it's a scan of an old print).
My how they changed the look of the car from this model to Matt's !
iirc it was 202 hp, 54% front 46% rear permanent 4wd, and very little turbo lag for that era.
Looks like an ordinary car really, but, on motorways in those days people moved out of it's way by default when I arrived behind them, it actually had a lot more "road presence" than this photo brings out.
note my Westfield in the background - also nice and shiny back in those days!
My daily driver since 11/2011 is one of the last (11/2003) built E39 530i touring's. It replaced a 10/2001 Mercedes Benz W203 C180 Avantgarde Kombi because we wanted a more spacious, more powerful and more fuel efficient car with manual parking brake and automatic gearbox.
Since then, we have added almost 60000 kilometers meaning around 15000km per year. She now is little short of reaching 200000 kilometers and the UOA's show that the engine still is very healthy.
She is mostly used by my wife as day to day transport within the village (average fuel consumption 12,4ltr/100km) with the occasional long distance trip to the Alps
She hasn't been entirely troublefree, but repair cost and maintenance is very reasonable. Note, most of the work I do myself. Early in 2014, she was spend a premium service by ZF in Dortmund, which transformed the behaviour of the gearbox completely. This was the best 500 Euro's that I ever spend. The results were immediate and their assessment of the gearbox was very good.
We now have her for four years. Yes, she has aged a little, but mostly cosmetic, but what can one do if its a daily car ? Replacement is still out of the question because the E61 isn't an improvement (especially not the interior) and the F11 only has whizzle blowing four-pots as replacement and the V8 will not be approved by my wife. But because the E39 still is rust-and trouble free we intend to keep her for another decade or so.
Early in 2014, she was spend a premium service by ZF in Dortmund, which transformed the behaviour of the gearbox completely. This was the best 500 Euro's that I ever spend. The results were immediate and their assessment of the gearbox was very good.
I wish you took a picture from the oil pan Magnet and the oil pan !!!!
I wanted to see how much clutches material is on the magnet surface.
I replaced on our E53 X5 3.0 M54 the automatic gear box oil few days ago. I dont pass more than 40k miles on oil change intervals.
On the 40k miles magnet I was able to wipe some amount of cluthes material...I think this is very normal and I think no matter how mellow you are to the gear box it will always ware out. My wife is driving the engine with low rpm and still some on the magnet from the previous oil change.
After I poor the first 3 liters then start the car and then wait till the temp is about 80c or so dont remember exactly then continue to add oil till the oil start overlowing from the fill plug.
Anyway, what amazed me is how much the gear box oil got Hot while the car was on idle on the lift.
I cant imagine when we are on uphill with AC and 42C temp outside.
Definitely for next summer will install huge transmission oil cooler to reduce some temperature.
I used OEM Dealer Oil Filter and oil came Dextron-6. My previous oil change was red line ATF it worked fine.
I always thought the oil for the transmission is Pentosin but according to the dealer book its says it does not match this gear box.
Because the service was performed at ZF in Dortmund, there was little opportunity for proper documentation, however the chief-mechanic gave us a brief update during their coffee-break.
I was told that despite the 177k kilometers on the first oil-fill, the metal-wear that they found on the magnets was within the normal margins for these gearboxes.
They also replaced the internal valves, springs and seals from the electromagnetic control unit. This is not part of a normal service, but very well worth the effort.
Currently 2011 Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo E92 coupe, owned since 2011. It will be replaced by 2015 F10 M5 currently scheduled for delivery last week of December so hoping it is brought forward to be before Christmas.
Spec of the D3 is fairly traditional with 6sp Manual box, no iDrive or Navigation. Manual seats.
Having said all that it has been a brilliant car, I never thought I would enjoy a diesel.
It has often given a huge shock to boy racers, handles brilliantly. Shame I never got it to Nordschliefe to see how it compared to my long gone E30 M3.
Also has been amazing practical transporting all our gear, inc tent gazebo,etc etc to Le Mans.
We put a 528i Touring to good use for 4yrs, great car which towed the M3 to/from Nurburging many many times, in the end electronic gremlins made it a real challenge
ah i see, Charlie who runs surrey rolling road is in camberley and has a tatty daytona 5 speed saloon. My old mans mate has a tidy but pink 3.6 M5 and i've sold the b10 and have an avus 6 speed saloon. So thats 4 in cambo!
Me and wife are in alpina tourings for daily stuff the M5 is for fun
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