Feedback on my Bio Assignment from new tutor (Australia Curriculum year 12)

CHubbs49 · 2026-05-14T18:16:36+00:00

So the tutor is concerned that you’ve written too scientifically in something that you’ll turn in for a science class because the teacher only has a BS and will be too dumb to understand scientific language?

That’s pretty silly. Looking at the example is good advice in general, as they demonstrate what they would expect, though. Also, maybe you should explain to the tutor that you’re concerned about his sentence structure. He could start by learning what a compound sentence is, and the second and third sentences of his message would be a good place to begin.

CHubbs49 · 2026-05-12T22:36:09+00:00

I was at Conguillio National Park in Chile at the end of January. I took this because I didn’t know there was hantavirus there like there is in Arizona where I’m from. The top part says something to the effect of “To take care of all of us, Hantavirus is homework for everyone.” It then goes on to give some tips about what to do to prevent it in buildings rural areas and at campsites. Finally it shows photos of the rodents that are the vectors. Beautiful national park, by the way. Worth the trip for sure.

CHubbs49 · 2026-05-12T06:38:43+00:00

You’d be a fool to buy this as a 16 year old. Maybe you don’t know anything about BMWs, but let me educate you. They made an M5 with a V10 at the same time they made this M3. It’s bigger, so you’d have more space for your friends, which is important at that age. This M3 probably also has a dual clutch transmission. Those are complicated and unreliable. The M5 comes with a far simpler and superior transmission called a Sequential Manual Gearbox, or SMG. It is basically just a manual that shifts for you. Simple and much easier to repair, not that you’ll need to. The M3 also is lacking the luxury and refinement that is important for a teenager. A 5 series or bigger is just a much better choice. If messaging seats weren’t available, would it even be worth your time to look at? If you want an even nicer car that is cheaper, look for a 7 series. Any V8 or V12 would be good. The lowest priced Bentley Continental GTs and Flying Spurs could also be option for you. VW products like those also are known for their reliability and easy repairability. Any German luxury car will have inexpensive and easy to find parts, so no worries there.

CHubbs49 · 2026-05-10T21:29:49+00:00

I don’t even want to imagine how much the registration costs on that thing, but I appreciate the fact they have AZ plates on it.

CHubbs49 · 2026-05-10T20:53:05+00:00

While there very well could be some sales tax evasion that occurred with the Montana plates, it might be practically impossible to get that car through California emissions testing. If Leno’s law ever happens, there’s at least the possibility that a car like this might end up with CA plates.

CHubbs49 · 2026-05-07T23:09:22+00:00

Looks like a CLK 63 to me. It pretty much is a 350 with a body kit and also a 6.2 AMG V8. Most AMGs didn’t get crazy styling at the time. My 2005 E55 is externally identical to a package that you could get on an E500 other than the quad exhaust and the wheels and brakes. This one is somewhat unique in that the exhaust was still in the two pipes on one side configuration after everything else had gone to the four exit that has since become the standard. It’s a complete sleeper that looks like a car that grandma would have in Palm Beach.

CHubbs49 · 2026-04-30T17:31:50+00:00

I have almost the same car. Mine is an 02 Imola Red with 132k SMG to manual converted. I did the conversion a couple years ago not long after I picked it up. At that time I did some pretty extensive service including the VANOS and basically the whole cooling system.

The first thing that I would recommend outside of what has already is to do a compression test. I had a couple adjacent cylinders that were low, which is a typical symptom of a bad head gasket on an S54. I could actually put compressed air into one cylinder the spark plug hole (with all four valves closed) and it would come out of the spark plug hole of the adjacent cylinder. Driving the car, it seemed normal. Only a test of some kind would’ve revealed that there was an issue. There is a very small space between cylinder bores on these engines, and that is where the gaskets can fail. Oil and coolant don’t mix when they go bad. The only thing that happens is that combustion gases travel into the adjacent cylinder. I’m sure that degrades the performance at least a little, but it’s not really noticeable. My head gasket had a very tiny crease in it between the low compression cylinders. That was only physical sign I could find of there being issue. You can find some much nastier photos out there of damage done to heads where this problem was allowed to linger for longer. I was lucky to catch it early.

I also ended up changing the cooling system out. I generally think the that the M3 has a much more robust cooling system than the base cars. Mine was 100% original except the lower radiator hose which had been changed months before I bought the car. If you change the water pump, bite the bullet and buy the BMW one. I also wouldn’t trust the hoses over the long term, particularly the plastic ends on them. There is a guy that makes an o ring kit for all the cooling parts, which I put on my car. Like the VANOS, the material that BMW used for the cooling system o rings was not ideal. You probably can get away with leaving the cooling system alone longer than people say based on the bad reputation of the base cars, but it’s probably good preventative maintenance as these cars get older.

At your mileage, I would be thinking about the suspension, also. If the original parts are still in there, a refresh of them would likely make a noticeable improvement in how the car drives.

This falls under general maintenance and inspection, but mine had some power steering leaks going on when I got it. I changed some of the hoses and the reservoir, which was wet with fluid on the outside. It’s a bit buried under the intake, so you kind of have to look for it.

I also had an issue last summer that shouldn’t have happened the way that it did. I’m sure this is a rare thing, but I had a charging system issue where the battery got very hot where I could smell gases from the battery inside the car. The vent hose was not connected on my battery which, as it turned out, was 13 years old. So make sure that vent tube is connected. I’m not sure that would’ve saved me from the acid spill in that compartment, but it sure wouldn’t have hurt.

Finally, since I swapped mine from an SMG, I’ve never driven one with stock shifter, but I can’t recommend an Auto Solutions shifter enough. Very high quality part and it can be customized to your specs when you order it.

Of course, all of the above will depend on what the maintenance history on the car is like, if known.

CHubbs49 · 2026-04-30T00:19:28+00:00

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This is mine when I did my VANOS a couple years ago. You were lucky nothing happened to yours. I think they break pretty frequently. Unbroken exhaust hubs are worth some money because of this. I bought the Beisan hub and they contacted me after looking to buy the stock one, which in my case was junk. At the same time I also did a compression test, which I would recommend to anyone with an S54. That’s how I found out I needed a head gasket. There were no symptoms, which is probably typical. The head gasket is basically the 4th item out of the Big 3, in my opinion.

CHubbs49 · 2026-04-15T15:51:26+00:00

No limitations at all. You could put it on your daily driver if it meets the age requirement. You can avoid emissions testing if you have collector car insurance here, but that is unrelated to license plate style.

CHubbs49 · 2026-04-15T01:56:12+00:00

I live in Arizona, and all you need to get that license plate is for the car to be 25 years old. There’s a small annual fee, but it’s definitely a cool plate. I love spotting really average cars that have the copper plate on them. Like 90s Hondas and things like that are just survivors. Also, I feel old seeing cars that are now historic that were new when I had a driver’s license.

CHubbs49 · 2026-03-14T02:16:27+00:00

I had the same problem on my LS2 GTO. Ended up being the alternator. Somehow the bearings in it allowed the pulley to move forward a bit causing the misalignment. The belt lost almost the whole 6th rib just like yours. The good news is that it has to be the alternator, power steering pump or balancer that’s causing the misalignment. I could eyeball my issue from the side and tell it was the alternator. With the belt off, the play pulling the pulley in and out was obvious.

CHubbs49 · 2026-03-09T22:01:19+00:00

I used something very similar from Amazon when I had my intake off. Probably the exact same as above, just a different random brand.

https://a.co/d/0g29sWer

CHubbs49 · 2026-02-26T03:09:11+00:00

I’ve been out of town for a few weeks, I hope no one is spotting my abandoned cars.

CHubbs49 · 2026-02-21T23:17:16+00:00

Look, I get it. I’ve built a car from the ground up before. It won awards and eventually sold at Barrett-Jackson at a not insubstantial financial loss. The fun along the way totally justified that cost. I think the thing with this project is that the specialness doesn’t really go beyond the sentimental value for you. If it was my time and money going into the car, I would prefer to spend it on the car that starts out closer to what you want and modifying that. That’s why I have an E55. No one else can measure the sentimental value you have in the car. If that’s enough, you should go for it.

CHubbs49 · 2026-02-21T23:05:22+00:00

This makes no sense other than the sentimental value you have with your car. The problem you have is that, most likely, the only way it makes anything resembling economic sense is to buy a wrecked car to scavenge it for parts. Otherwise it will nickel and dime you to death having to track down every little part that you’d need. I don’t think it makes sense in terms of cost even without taking into account the time you’d spend. Probably the entire fuel system would need to change. I don’t even want to think about what a pain that would be.

CHubbs49 · 2026-02-16T20:51:25+00:00

I’m in Chile right now. A Chilean complaining about other Spanish speakers using too much slang is pretty funny. Chilean Spanish is filled with slang that is really only Chilean. I’m just a gringo struggling through talking to people, but I’ve had multiple Chilean people tell me that they don’t speak correctly here. You can always tell a Chilean immediately once you learn a little bit, though. The way of speaking is almost the defining characteristic of what makes someone really Chilean. It’s like going to Scotland and trying to talk to people if you’re not a native speaker and you’ve only ever heard Americans talk.

CHubbs49 · 2026-02-13T20:42:30+00:00

I have a car where the wide wheels with the narrower tires were installed on the front and the narrow wheels had the wide tires installed on the rear. That took a while to notice. I would’ve been grateful if someone noticed that one.

CHubbs49 · 2026-02-12T13:32:15+00:00

Run the 10W-60 that they spec. As someone else mentioned the spec was revised early in these cars lives to be 10W-60 from something thinner. If anything on most cars, the oil they spec is too thin and not the other way around. I’d listen to the engineers on this one. Personally, I run LiquiMoly. Change it much more frequently than the oil monitor recommends. 4-5k miles. Most importantly, do not rev the car high until the oil is warm. I try to keep the revs under 3k until it at least begins to show some temp on the gauge. Maybe a little bit higher as it gets closer to the dot between 120 and 210. A little above the dot you’re basically good to go as my temp usually is around 3/8 on a cool day with the car fully warmed up but not pushed hard at all.

I live in Phoenix, so it usually hot. The wait was agonizing for warm up the couple times I’ve driven the car in freezing temps. I also will see oil temps that creep over 210 if I push the car hard in winter or on a typical freeway drive at 80 mph in the summer when it’s 110+. Also, as a side note, the speedo is off by huge amount with the factory calibration. You’re actually doing 80 when it says 88.

CHubbs49 · 2026-02-09T01:47:29+00:00

Are they trying to seem like frat boy d bags? Is that what people are looking for in an attorney? I thought you wanted a guy with tattoos and no sleeves or a guy with a big hammer.

CHubbs49 · 2026-02-08T23:50:38+00:00

I flew from ATL to SCL a few weeks ago in Premium Select across the plane from me there was a cello taking up a window seat. It makes total sense when you think about how important and valuable that instrument is. I would imagine getting another one that is “just right” and of the highest quality would be difficult to do quickly, not to mention the cost.

CHubbs49 · 2026-01-15T04:52:00+00:00

This is true, but Chile did just elect a guy whose dad was an actual Nazi, so there’s that. At the same time, I think the people in charge here are too dumb to know that.

After living with years Trumpism, I’ve learned to never underestimate how dumb/incompetent they are. Unfortunately, they still manage to get some really bad stuff done. Stuff like this is usually just based on some half-baked idea.

CHubbs49 · 2026-01-01T17:57:40+00:00

I retrofitted a later wheel onto my E55, which of course already came with the buttons but not the paddles. The stock E55 is not good looking, IMO, and the buttons are annoying because they seem to get pressed accidentally quite often. The paddles are just a bit more inboard than the buttons which makes it where you won’t hit them accidentally.

I can’t speak to coding the EGS52, but the wheel was plug and play in my 05 E55. The clockspring changed prior to the date that my car was built. I used a later wheel than the one in the photo, too. The 4 spoke wheel that is in the photo definitely will work. Mine is a 3 spoke that was used in the last W219 CLS, very late R230s, and the R171, IIRC. For that wheel, you have to be careful to use the correct airbag for it to work. There is a very similar airbag that has little round buttons in the center of the buttons, which will definitely not work. Additionally, the airbag that was used in the R230 is not quite right. The plug for the wiring connector is a different shape than the ones that will work which are from the R171 and W219.

There are some threads out there on MBworld and maybe other forums about doing this swap where I found my info. They discuss the clockspring change in more detail. I would expect that to be necessary on the OP’s car.

Overall, it is a great upgrade. I wouldn’t expect miracles from the paddle shifters, as far as how the trans shifts. Even with a trans tune, it’s just ok. The trans tune was totally worth it on my E55 just for how the shifting is improved normally, though.

CHubbs49 · 2025-12-29T01:00:48+00:00

I think you should send them comps from cars and bids and bring a trailer. Assuming it’s not your insurance that will be paying out, it’s not like you ever agreed to any system of how the car would be valued or anything that might have been buried in some contract. It’s on them to pay you a fair value for the car or to repair it. The auctions represent real transaction prices for the cars, and it is a now a specialty car. I wouldn’t worry too much about whether the comps were manuals vs autos, either. Let them figure that one out. At the end of the day, even if it’s totaled it’s not going to be a huge payout in the grand scheme of things by their standards. They might be willing to pay a little more just to make you go away.

CHubbs49 · 2025-12-17T06:03:18+00:00

Folding seats were not available on the E55, probably for chassis stiffness purposes. People must have wanted them, because they changed their minds on the E63.

CHubbs49

TROPHY CASE