2004 BMW Z4 3.0
Discussion
Headlights have been letting the front down, gone all cloudy.
Used one of the 3M kits to bring it back. The first step involves some quite abrasive material which always makes me think "What have I done!" as it takes your slightly-crazed headlights and makes them look like they've been sandblasted.
Through the rest of the steps and I ended up with this
Much better. Won't last forever, but not bad for an hours work and £20.
Used one of the 3M kits to bring it back. The first step involves some quite abrasive material which always makes me think "What have I done!" as it takes your slightly-crazed headlights and makes them look like they've been sandblasted.
Through the rest of the steps and I ended up with this
Much better. Won't last forever, but not bad for an hours work and £20.
Enjoyed reading about your efforts with this car. I also had a 2004 3.0 roadster about 8 years ago now and thoroughly enjoyed the car. Like yours my amp was temperamental. My roof motor packed in (it's a case of when not if with these, unless you relocate or are lucky enough to have a garage) and it tramlined like, well, a tram...
Like the earlier poster in this thread, my car's steering would tighten up in the summer and it really, really wasn't pleasant. As others have mentioned, the best thing I ever did was to switch to non-runflat tyres, I went through Falken FK452s and Uniroyal Rain Sport 3s, both of which were pretty excellent and really transformed the car.
I found the M54 was really good on fuel, often averaging 34mpg over a tank. If you can find yourself a hardtop for a decent price then be sure to snap it up, it's a great looking piece that makes them a much nicer place to be in the winter.
Like the earlier poster in this thread, my car's steering would tighten up in the summer and it really, really wasn't pleasant. As others have mentioned, the best thing I ever did was to switch to non-runflat tyres, I went through Falken FK452s and Uniroyal Rain Sport 3s, both of which were pretty excellent and really transformed the car.
I found the M54 was really good on fuel, often averaging 34mpg over a tank. If you can find yourself a hardtop for a decent price then be sure to snap it up, it's a great looking piece that makes them a much nicer place to be in the winter.
My car has the standard seats, and they are useless. Leather, and quite comfy, but with absolutely no lateral support. Going round corners you had to try to hold yourself upright in the seats.
An easy upgrade is the sports seats from a Z4, but these are very expensive second hand (£1k!). Alternatively, E46 seats are supposed to be a drop in replacement, but I wasn't keen on the look of M3 ones.
I found someone had made up S2000 seats by making adaptor plates up and thought I'd give it a go - but with a twist.
I've always like the Corsa VXR Recaro seats and supposedly (incorrectly, it turns out) they should fit in my Megane if I couldn't fit them here, so I picked up a set. Because they are common they are quite a bit cheaper than you'd expect - I paid £350.
I then picked up another set, because why not. Good job I just finished extending my spare bedroom...
Made adaptor plates up out of 6mm steel. The S2000 seats I'd seen fitted used box section, but I knew that the height of the seat would be an issue so I had to do everything possible to keep them low.
Many grinder discs and drill bits were sacrificed.
I couldn't work out how to use the electric seat runners from the Z4 seats, so decided to use the Corsa runners instead, but they needed quite a bit of modification.
Using the Corsa runners means everything still works, inc the button to fold and slide the seats forward.
I'm aware I'm no pro fabricator...
The channel in the runners was so narrow I even had to grind the nuts down a tad to clear it
Out with the old
In with the new
The good:
The seats are ace.
No less comfy than the standard seats, but so much more supportive.
The car actually feels like it handles better too, probably because you are better connected to what the car is doing.
The bad:
The seats are much bigger than the Z4 ones, which are actually tiny. The Z4 doesn't even have seat airbags - they are in the doors instead.
Because they are bigger, they don't go back as far - but luckily they go just as far back as I need them.
They sit a little higher than the Z4 seats.
However, I think I would've had these problems with any other non-Z4 seats.
An easy upgrade is the sports seats from a Z4, but these are very expensive second hand (£1k!). Alternatively, E46 seats are supposed to be a drop in replacement, but I wasn't keen on the look of M3 ones.
I found someone had made up S2000 seats by making adaptor plates up and thought I'd give it a go - but with a twist.
I've always like the Corsa VXR Recaro seats and supposedly (incorrectly, it turns out) they should fit in my Megane if I couldn't fit them here, so I picked up a set. Because they are common they are quite a bit cheaper than you'd expect - I paid £350.
I then picked up another set, because why not. Good job I just finished extending my spare bedroom...
Made adaptor plates up out of 6mm steel. The S2000 seats I'd seen fitted used box section, but I knew that the height of the seat would be an issue so I had to do everything possible to keep them low.
Many grinder discs and drill bits were sacrificed.
I couldn't work out how to use the electric seat runners from the Z4 seats, so decided to use the Corsa runners instead, but they needed quite a bit of modification.
Using the Corsa runners means everything still works, inc the button to fold and slide the seats forward.
I'm aware I'm no pro fabricator...
The channel in the runners was so narrow I even had to grind the nuts down a tad to clear it
Out with the old
In with the new
The good:
The seats are ace.
No less comfy than the standard seats, but so much more supportive.
The car actually feels like it handles better too, probably because you are better connected to what the car is doing.
The bad:
The seats are much bigger than the Z4 ones, which are actually tiny. The Z4 doesn't even have seat airbags - they are in the doors instead.
Because they are bigger, they don't go back as far - but luckily they go just as far back as I need them.
They sit a little higher than the Z4 seats.
However, I think I would've had these problems with any other non-Z4 seats.
Edited by Jakg on Wednesday 24th August 10:06
First MOT in my ownership - failed on corroded brake pipes, which was an advisory before so not too bad.
Garage replaced them and at the same time got them to replace all the fluid with ATE Type 200, and all the bleed nipples with some new stainless HEL ones as the existing ones were starting to round.
An advisory on worn ball joints so did those, too.
Annoyingly on my Megane a front balljoint is £15 and can be pressed in and out of the arm in situ. On the Z4 you need a whole new arm (£64) - although I went for Meyle HD arms where the balljoints are replaceable in the future (but they are still £30).
Access to the middle bolts on the arm was quite tricky, from the bottom you've got 1/8th a turn max using a spanner, and from above you need to use a bunch of extensions & UJs
The other side access was even worse, which was annoying as rust had made the bolt mega-tight - you can just about make out the nut next to the engine mount.
Even went to Halfords to get some wobble extensions, but just couldn't line it up, so spanner it was - the force of undoing it has literally made my hand swell!
Got them out in the end though
When I changed the wishbone bushes, I was a bit lazy and didn't bother lining the carrier up over the collets on the chassis properly, just started doing the bolts up and thought it'd bring the carrier home on it's own. Nope, it just damaged the threads as it wasn't lined up right...
The top bolt did start to tighten but it then it started to get looser again and that's when I knew I'd done it. Left it at the time but I knew I had to fix it.
Borrowed a Helicoil kit and although I was a bit terrified it turned out ok in the end.
My suggestion is to loosely insert the ball joints first, put the nut on but don't tighten at all. Then get the bush lined up properly over the collets, and put the bolts in tight enough to keep it on them, but loose enough it can move. All the guides say to do the bushes last - but then you end up with very little play so it's a real pain to line up (which was why I rushed it last time).
Note I said the *top* one was worn out. I forgot that and drilled out the perfectly good bottom one first, oops.
Torqued up fine though the second time round so alls well.
My assistant wasn't much help either.
Some of the "vagueness" in the steering has gone and the tramlining has reduced a little too which is good. Now need to work out if I want to get it aligned again (would be the third time in less than a year...)
Garage replaced them and at the same time got them to replace all the fluid with ATE Type 200, and all the bleed nipples with some new stainless HEL ones as the existing ones were starting to round.
An advisory on worn ball joints so did those, too.
Annoyingly on my Megane a front balljoint is £15 and can be pressed in and out of the arm in situ. On the Z4 you need a whole new arm (£64) - although I went for Meyle HD arms where the balljoints are replaceable in the future (but they are still £30).
Access to the middle bolts on the arm was quite tricky, from the bottom you've got 1/8th a turn max using a spanner, and from above you need to use a bunch of extensions & UJs
The other side access was even worse, which was annoying as rust had made the bolt mega-tight - you can just about make out the nut next to the engine mount.
Even went to Halfords to get some wobble extensions, but just couldn't line it up, so spanner it was - the force of undoing it has literally made my hand swell!
Got them out in the end though
When I changed the wishbone bushes, I was a bit lazy and didn't bother lining the carrier up over the collets on the chassis properly, just started doing the bolts up and thought it'd bring the carrier home on it's own. Nope, it just damaged the threads as it wasn't lined up right...
The top bolt did start to tighten but it then it started to get looser again and that's when I knew I'd done it. Left it at the time but I knew I had to fix it.
Borrowed a Helicoil kit and although I was a bit terrified it turned out ok in the end.
My suggestion is to loosely insert the ball joints first, put the nut on but don't tighten at all. Then get the bush lined up properly over the collets, and put the bolts in tight enough to keep it on them, but loose enough it can move. All the guides say to do the bushes last - but then you end up with very little play so it's a real pain to line up (which was why I rushed it last time).
Note I said the *top* one was worn out. I forgot that and drilled out the perfectly good bottom one first, oops.
Torqued up fine though the second time round so alls well.
My assistant wasn't much help either.
Some of the "vagueness" in the steering has gone and the tramlining has reduced a little too which is good. Now need to work out if I want to get it aligned again (would be the third time in less than a year...)
Good work mate, enjoyed reading this stuff. Im the dubiously proud owner of an e93 with the N53 3.0 engine, so it's kinda related to yours in that it's a convertible, a BMW and can break in very expensive ways at any time for no reason
It looks lovely though and is great to drive, same as yours. The e93 doesn't tramline at all though, doesn't that do your nut in?
It looks lovely though and is great to drive, same as yours. The e93 doesn't tramline at all though, doesn't that do your nut in?
dave_s13 said:
The e93 doesn't tramline at all though, doesn't that do your nut in?
Yes! Not my daily driver, and not something I'd choose for a long motorway journey so I'll tolerate it.I've got a new pair of (non-runflat) tyres in the shed but I feel silly putting them on as the runflats on the front still have >4mm.
Hopefully that should cure it.
On the topic of tram-lining I've had 4 BMWs with run-flats, and 2 that had non run-flats.
Neither of the E46s without run-flats ever did it.
Both Z4s on Bridgestone RFTs did it a lot!
My E87 and E91 on Pirelli RFTs did it a bit, but nothing like as bad as the Z4s.
When my current Z4 needs tyres I'll have to decide whether I want to stay on RFTs - but even if I do they won't be Bridgestone!
Neither of the E46s without run-flats ever did it.
Both Z4s on Bridgestone RFTs did it a lot!
My E87 and E91 on Pirelli RFTs did it a bit, but nothing like as bad as the Z4s.
When my current Z4 needs tyres I'll have to decide whether I want to stay on RFTs - but even if I do they won't be Bridgestone!
Had some of the same tramlining issues on my old E85 and funnily enough, similar issues with a garage's alignment settings for sport and normal suspension.
Fitting the larger front anti roll bar off of an E46 M3 made a huge difference for me, you can pick them up for peanuts from ebay and they'll bolt right up.
I also had the alignment done properly by a local Lotus specialist after the Hunter machines had messed the rear alignment up to the point that going over a wet man hole cover would cause the rear to drastically throw out sideways. I'd recommend finding someone that will road test what they've done and apply some experience to it rather than just making the lights go green then hoping for the best.
Fitting the larger front anti roll bar off of an E46 M3 made a huge difference for me, you can pick them up for peanuts from ebay and they'll bolt right up.
I also had the alignment done properly by a local Lotus specialist after the Hunter machines had messed the rear alignment up to the point that going over a wet man hole cover would cause the rear to drastically throw out sideways. I'd recommend finding someone that will road test what they've done and apply some experience to it rather than just making the lights go green then hoping for the best.
SamJB said:
Fitting the larger front anti roll bar off of an E46 M3 made a huge difference for me, you can pick them up for peanuts from ebay and they'll bolt right up.
It looks like only the front fits, not the rear - I'm wary of stiffening up the front at the expense of increasing understeer. Not that I have a problem with that at the moment.Edited by Jakg on Tuesday 5th March 17:26
Jakg said:
SamJB said:
Fitting the larger front anti roll bar off of an E46 M3 made a huge difference for me, you can pick them up for peanuts from ebay and they'll bolt right up.
It looks like only the front fits, not the rear - I'm way of stiffening up the front at the expense of increasing understeer. Not that I have a problem with that at the moment.I feel you'd need far more than an anti roll bar on the front of these to stiffen it enough to promote understeer.
Great progress. Can't help but think you are still missing a trick though.
Fitting a new set of good tyres is the most cost effective improvement you can make, especially if you are junking runflats.
It's all a bit of a crapshoot until you do that. A new set of F1 Assym 3s transformed my Z4 3.2. Steering, ride, traction, tramlining....
Not expensive either!
Fitting a new set of good tyres is the most cost effective improvement you can make, especially if you are junking runflats.
It's all a bit of a crapshoot until you do that. A new set of F1 Assym 3s transformed my Z4 3.2. Steering, ride, traction, tramlining....
Not expensive either!
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