AlexGSi2000's Z3
Discussion
Thought I would create a thread for my fairly recently acquired 2002 Z3. The best worst decision I've made in a while!
I was fortunate enough to have purchased a house with a garage a few years ago. The house we purchased was built in 1987 and was mainly original inside, so we ended up spending the best part of a year fitting fitting kitchens and bathrooms, the complete opposite to the kind of manual labour I usually do on cars.
I'd promised myself that when the house was done and funds recovered slightly, I'd treat myself to a new toy and make use of the garage.
I'd also recently purchased a replacement daily in the form of an F11 530d, as good as it is - it was one step further away from the "driving" I like - the visceral experience I loved when I had my first few cars. Very comfortable car, does everything well - but I needed something a little more raw.
Although I used to drive my e39 M5 like I stole it, It's a car I now wish to keep for the duration - currently sat in storage, it wasn't really going to fit the bill in this case.
So, the requirements for the car purchase were loosely as follows;
- Analogue / visceral driving experience - or whatever the latest buzzword is.
- Manual
- Fun
- Something I can pull out spur of the moment and go and have some fun
- Something I can do the occasional track day in
- Something that may spark my 3 year old boys interest in cars and that we can potentially work on in the future.
Initially, I toyed with the idea of building a GBS Zero, I was fairly set on the idea, but after crunching the numbers, It would have been unwise for me to spend that kind of cash, especially since the base 1.6 I feel wouldn't have been quite enough for me.
With a limited budget of around 5k That left me with a couple of late 90s - early 00's cars would fit the bill;
- EP3 Civic Type-R (Had one for a brief period a few years ago and absolutely loved it)
- Clio 172 / 182
Before I started punching drunken bids on eBay, for some unknown reason, the BMW Z3 crossed my mind. A car I wouldn't have looked twice at back in the day and never would - hairdressers car.
I then thought - why not? I'd never owned a convertible before, never had a two seater before, if it could get to 70% of the "experience" of a GBS Zero, then it would probably scratch the itch.
I then decided on the Z3 and began the hunt - initially I wanted the 3.0 Sport, however most seemed to be out of budget - the 1.9 was never going to cut the mustard. After doing a little more digging, I realised the 2.2 used the same M54 engine as the 3.0 - excellent.
Two days later I found a rather tired looking 2.2 Sport, agreed to purchase and a friend ran me down to Wolverhampton to collect.
The car was looking a little sorry for itself when I first clapped eyes on it, but for £2k it was what it was - cash handed over and I began the drive home.
As the car was under budget, I then had a few quid to spare putting things right.
After the first 3 miles, I knew I had made a mistake, as I absolutely fell in love with it. Somehow I realised the wallet was going to open up.
It was one of the first warmer days of the year being very early April, so gave me the chance to get the top down on the Cheshire roads back up to Liverpool, I did feel slightly camp, but didn't care in the slightest.
For the record, I'm not classing this as a low budget mid-life crisis, I was 36 at the time of purchase and plan to live to at least 73, so I'm classifying it as a pre mid life crisis.
The car was tired, bouncy, wallowy, unconfident - but knew it had potential.
Now for the next couple of months;
First job was to give the car a once over with the machine polisher - the paintwork was flat, fairly poor in places and still is. A few areas of corrosion in the common areas, but at least it made it look like it was semi cared for;
The first thing to address was the handling, or lack of. The thing was very soft, bouncy and would get upset with anything other than normal driving.
After a quick inspection, I figured the suspension was more than likely original - after 150k miles, it was definitely past its best.
I decided on some mid-range MTS Technik coilovers - I had never really heard of them before, but after reading a few reviews, they seemed to have received a fair amount of praise - and rightly so, excellent kit for the money;
I fitted them along with a new set of top-mounts and wheel spacers after work one evening.
My word, what a transformation. My drive back from my unit is 3 miles, I ended up driving 60 returning home in the early hours!
The car suddenly felt poised, confident and didn't seem phased by corners - addictive.
I was fortunate enough to have purchased a house with a garage a few years ago. The house we purchased was built in 1987 and was mainly original inside, so we ended up spending the best part of a year fitting fitting kitchens and bathrooms, the complete opposite to the kind of manual labour I usually do on cars.
I'd promised myself that when the house was done and funds recovered slightly, I'd treat myself to a new toy and make use of the garage.
I'd also recently purchased a replacement daily in the form of an F11 530d, as good as it is - it was one step further away from the "driving" I like - the visceral experience I loved when I had my first few cars. Very comfortable car, does everything well - but I needed something a little more raw.
Although I used to drive my e39 M5 like I stole it, It's a car I now wish to keep for the duration - currently sat in storage, it wasn't really going to fit the bill in this case.
So, the requirements for the car purchase were loosely as follows;
- Analogue / visceral driving experience - or whatever the latest buzzword is.
- Manual
- Fun
- Something I can pull out spur of the moment and go and have some fun
- Something I can do the occasional track day in
- Something that may spark my 3 year old boys interest in cars and that we can potentially work on in the future.
Initially, I toyed with the idea of building a GBS Zero, I was fairly set on the idea, but after crunching the numbers, It would have been unwise for me to spend that kind of cash, especially since the base 1.6 I feel wouldn't have been quite enough for me.
With a limited budget of around 5k That left me with a couple of late 90s - early 00's cars would fit the bill;
- EP3 Civic Type-R (Had one for a brief period a few years ago and absolutely loved it)
- Clio 172 / 182
Before I started punching drunken bids on eBay, for some unknown reason, the BMW Z3 crossed my mind. A car I wouldn't have looked twice at back in the day and never would - hairdressers car.
I then thought - why not? I'd never owned a convertible before, never had a two seater before, if it could get to 70% of the "experience" of a GBS Zero, then it would probably scratch the itch.
I then decided on the Z3 and began the hunt - initially I wanted the 3.0 Sport, however most seemed to be out of budget - the 1.9 was never going to cut the mustard. After doing a little more digging, I realised the 2.2 used the same M54 engine as the 3.0 - excellent.
Two days later I found a rather tired looking 2.2 Sport, agreed to purchase and a friend ran me down to Wolverhampton to collect.
The car was looking a little sorry for itself when I first clapped eyes on it, but for £2k it was what it was - cash handed over and I began the drive home.
As the car was under budget, I then had a few quid to spare putting things right.
After the first 3 miles, I knew I had made a mistake, as I absolutely fell in love with it. Somehow I realised the wallet was going to open up.
It was one of the first warmer days of the year being very early April, so gave me the chance to get the top down on the Cheshire roads back up to Liverpool, I did feel slightly camp, but didn't care in the slightest.
For the record, I'm not classing this as a low budget mid-life crisis, I was 36 at the time of purchase and plan to live to at least 73, so I'm classifying it as a pre mid life crisis.
The car was tired, bouncy, wallowy, unconfident - but knew it had potential.
Now for the next couple of months;
First job was to give the car a once over with the machine polisher - the paintwork was flat, fairly poor in places and still is. A few areas of corrosion in the common areas, but at least it made it look like it was semi cared for;
The first thing to address was the handling, or lack of. The thing was very soft, bouncy and would get upset with anything other than normal driving.
After a quick inspection, I figured the suspension was more than likely original - after 150k miles, it was definitely past its best.
I decided on some mid-range MTS Technik coilovers - I had never really heard of them before, but after reading a few reviews, they seemed to have received a fair amount of praise - and rightly so, excellent kit for the money;
I fitted them along with a new set of top-mounts and wheel spacers after work one evening.
My word, what a transformation. My drive back from my unit is 3 miles, I ended up driving 60 returning home in the early hours!
The car suddenly felt poised, confident and didn't seem phased by corners - addictive.
The next item I felt needed addressing were the wheels - the current tyres were old Avon ZV7's which didn't really inspire much confidence.
I decided on a set of BBS reps (Dare RS) in 18 as a 8.5 / 9.5J setup, the Kumho PS72 had recently been released at the time so decided to opt for a set.
I would usually go for the likes of PS4s / PS5 but being fairly budget conscious, it saved me a few hundred quid.
At the time of writing, they have been on the car for 5 months / 2100 miles and I've been quite impressed, a few hundred of those miles they have been leant on quite abit!
After flicking through the stack of invoices, I came across a receipt for a fairly involved rear end refresh in 2020.
This comprised of new rear trailing arms and a complete set of polybushes for the rear end - which explained why the rear end always felt quite on point.
It was evident the car was loved a few owners ago.
Now the car handled and drove well, attention was then paid to the money to noise converter, the 2.2 being 170Bhp sounded great - perfect for normal driving, but just wasn't quite there when you needed some power out of the corners - lacklustre.
I then set about scoping what would be needed to replace the 2.2 for the 3.0.
As it happens, not a lot.
99.5% plug & play being the same engine family - ECU, loom, cooling system - identical.
A used engine from an e39 530i was obtained for not much money and the swap over began.
As I plan on keeping the car for a fair few years, I thought it would be prudent to give it a "mini" refresh - almost every gasket (except the head) and seal was replaced, along with a new timing chain kit.
The next few evenings were spent swapping them over, at the same time the ECU was sent off to be flashed to run the 3.0.
As the car was more than likely going to spend a fair amount of time close to the limiter, I fitted an oil pump chain tensioner to help reduce the chance of the oil pump nut backing off (one of the common failure points of the 3.0 - the chain resonation at high rpm causes the nut to back off)
I decided on a set of BBS reps (Dare RS) in 18 as a 8.5 / 9.5J setup, the Kumho PS72 had recently been released at the time so decided to opt for a set.
I would usually go for the likes of PS4s / PS5 but being fairly budget conscious, it saved me a few hundred quid.
At the time of writing, they have been on the car for 5 months / 2100 miles and I've been quite impressed, a few hundred of those miles they have been leant on quite abit!
After flicking through the stack of invoices, I came across a receipt for a fairly involved rear end refresh in 2020.
This comprised of new rear trailing arms and a complete set of polybushes for the rear end - which explained why the rear end always felt quite on point.
It was evident the car was loved a few owners ago.
Now the car handled and drove well, attention was then paid to the money to noise converter, the 2.2 being 170Bhp sounded great - perfect for normal driving, but just wasn't quite there when you needed some power out of the corners - lacklustre.
I then set about scoping what would be needed to replace the 2.2 for the 3.0.
As it happens, not a lot.
99.5% plug & play being the same engine family - ECU, loom, cooling system - identical.
A used engine from an e39 530i was obtained for not much money and the swap over began.
As I plan on keeping the car for a fair few years, I thought it would be prudent to give it a "mini" refresh - almost every gasket (except the head) and seal was replaced, along with a new timing chain kit.
The next few evenings were spent swapping them over, at the same time the ECU was sent off to be flashed to run the 3.0.
As the car was more than likely going to spend a fair amount of time close to the limiter, I fitted an oil pump chain tensioner to help reduce the chance of the oil pump nut backing off (one of the common failure points of the 3.0 - the chain resonation at high rpm causes the nut to back off)
Edited by AlexGSi2000 on Wednesday 22 October 21:48
Edited by AlexGSi2000 on Wednesday 22 October 21:48
The swap was probably one of the easiest in the book - If I had have just fitted the engine without refreshing,
I would have gone from 170 to 231Bhp for less than £500. The parts obviously added a fair few hundred quid, but it runs well and doesn't leak any oil or coolant - which is a rarity for a BMW!
The only weak-point now being the gearbox, I kept the Getrag 240 from the 2.2, at this point its well in excess of its specified max torque, but its holding well for now, even with a bit of slop in the mechanism.
I'm keeping my eye out for a ZF 320 which they fitted to the 2.8 / 3.0, but will also need the front half of the prop shaft.
Naturally the original clutch and dual-mass flywheel started complaining almost straight away, these were replaced for an unbranded ebay solid flywheel conversion, no complaints at all;
The first spirited run after the engine reminded me I was still on the standard 2.2 brakes.
Imagine my delight when I found out e46 330i brakes bolt on, even better when I found a set for £100. Add a set of £35 Bosch OEM pads and some ATE TYP200 away we went. Much better - however after endured periods they do begin to show signs of letting up.
Should a track day be in order next year I will need some hotter pads.
A few weeks later, I noticed a faint smell of coolant - this turned out to be a slight weep from the radiator.
I found an unused Mishimoto advertised on Facebook market place for less than half the cost of a new one.
Its much deeper than the original, Mishimoto state the standard viscous fan must go, to be replaced for an electric one - however, after a little modification I was able to keep the viscous along with most of the shroud;
I then proceeded in Mid-September to take the car on a trip to see a friend France for the weekend - think the round trip was around 1800 miles.
As they say on classifieds adverts - it didn't miss a beat. Earned its first "stripes" on the inside of the rear boot lid
I would have gone from 170 to 231Bhp for less than £500. The parts obviously added a fair few hundred quid, but it runs well and doesn't leak any oil or coolant - which is a rarity for a BMW!
The only weak-point now being the gearbox, I kept the Getrag 240 from the 2.2, at this point its well in excess of its specified max torque, but its holding well for now, even with a bit of slop in the mechanism.
I'm keeping my eye out for a ZF 320 which they fitted to the 2.8 / 3.0, but will also need the front half of the prop shaft.
Naturally the original clutch and dual-mass flywheel started complaining almost straight away, these were replaced for an unbranded ebay solid flywheel conversion, no complaints at all;
The first spirited run after the engine reminded me I was still on the standard 2.2 brakes.
Imagine my delight when I found out e46 330i brakes bolt on, even better when I found a set for £100. Add a set of £35 Bosch OEM pads and some ATE TYP200 away we went. Much better - however after endured periods they do begin to show signs of letting up.
Should a track day be in order next year I will need some hotter pads.
A few weeks later, I noticed a faint smell of coolant - this turned out to be a slight weep from the radiator.
I found an unused Mishimoto advertised on Facebook market place for less than half the cost of a new one.
Its much deeper than the original, Mishimoto state the standard viscous fan must go, to be replaced for an electric one - however, after a little modification I was able to keep the viscous along with most of the shroud;
I then proceeded in Mid-September to take the car on a trip to see a friend France for the weekend - think the round trip was around 1800 miles.
As they say on classifieds adverts - it didn't miss a beat. Earned its first "stripes" on the inside of the rear boot lid
Edited by AlexGSi2000 on Wednesday 22 October 22:21
So, the first 7 months in review - exactly what the doctor ordered.
Strange, but I absolutely adore the car, it never fails to put a smile on my face and takes me back 20 years.
Mid-Wales at 10.30PM on a Wednesday, is there anything better?;
I find any excuse possible to use the car when I can, however quite sad as I'll be staying off the road in the winter months.
This however will give me a few months to obtain a few parts for next years season.
Plan of attack for 2026 is to improve front end handling. All the wishbones, bushes, balljoints, tie-rods.etc on the front are original and past their best.
Will be aiming to polybush where I can, would also like to add a purple tag rack (quicker).
The project has also grown legs, in the fact I found another Z3 for my dad to purchase!
He has always fancied a classic, but has never really been "into" cars - he's been in the dangerous territory of looking at the likes of old Triumph TR5/6's.
He isn't mechanically minded, so I would be doing all the work - I for one don't know my carb from my elbow - so really didn't fancy him getting something too old.
As it happens, a 3.0 auto turned up on one of the Z3 forums that hasn't seen the road for a few years - it was advertised at a price that couldn't be ignored, especially being produced in the last month and specified very well. We ended up purchasing it for less than I paid for my 2.2 - typical.
This one needs a fair few things going over in preparation for next spring - should keep me busy throughout the winter months anyway;
Strange, but I absolutely adore the car, it never fails to put a smile on my face and takes me back 20 years.
Mid-Wales at 10.30PM on a Wednesday, is there anything better?;
I find any excuse possible to use the car when I can, however quite sad as I'll be staying off the road in the winter months.
This however will give me a few months to obtain a few parts for next years season.
Plan of attack for 2026 is to improve front end handling. All the wishbones, bushes, balljoints, tie-rods.etc on the front are original and past their best.
Will be aiming to polybush where I can, would also like to add a purple tag rack (quicker).
The project has also grown legs, in the fact I found another Z3 for my dad to purchase!
He has always fancied a classic, but has never really been "into" cars - he's been in the dangerous territory of looking at the likes of old Triumph TR5/6's.
He isn't mechanically minded, so I would be doing all the work - I for one don't know my carb from my elbow - so really didn't fancy him getting something too old.
As it happens, a 3.0 auto turned up on one of the Z3 forums that hasn't seen the road for a few years - it was advertised at a price that couldn't be ignored, especially being produced in the last month and specified very well. We ended up purchasing it for less than I paid for my 2.2 - typical.
This one needs a fair few things going over in preparation for next spring - should keep me busy throughout the winter months anyway;
Edited by AlexGSi2000 on Wednesday 22 October 22:29
AB said:
Your Z looks great, the wheels really suit it! Plans for, say, a supercharger perhaps?
Thanks. You are not the first person to ask! Two of my close friends have turbo'd M54 3.0 engines - I am tempted.
At the moment the car feels like it has an enjoyable amount of power, doesn't feel like its lacking - so I'm fairly satisfied in that department for the time being.
Focus next year is the handling - really get it freshened up dialed in, I'm hoping that will make it a little quicker.
Following on from that, who knows, maybe some low boost. (I do have a saved search on eBay - just incase any decent used turbo/charger kits are listed).
I only ask as I am going down that route with my Z4, including some subtle handling mods. But you’re right when you say it takes you back 20 years, you’ll never be able to buy another car like it. Every drive is fun, unlike sitting on something new and boring and simply pointing it down the road.
AB said:
I only ask as I am going down that route with my Z4, including some subtle handling mods. But you re right when you say it takes you back 20 years, you ll never be able to buy another car like it. Every drive is fun, unlike sitting on something new and boring and simply pointing it down the road.
Keep me posted on the Z4 build - may give me some some inspiration in the boost department!In my opinion the Z3/4 are incredible for the money at the moment (money to fun ratio), especially if you get one that needs a little work.
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