100,000 miles, and my Z4 is self-destructing...

[AB]

I bought it about 4 years ago, BMW approved used car, on about 15,000 miles.

I've done around 20,000 miles a year since then. I test drove it, loved it, bought it. I didn't give any thought to the fact that it would do 35mpg on a run and about 15mpg around town, well, given how I drive it.

Now it's approaching 100,000 miles and it's decided to fall out with me...

- Drivers side window = new window regulator;
- Drivers door = new handle as it wouldn't open;
- Bonnet - similar problem to door = new cable;
- N/S headlight steamed up = new headlight;
- O/S headlight bulb blown (xenon) = £120 a pair;
- 2x buckled front wheels - ste roads = 2x new wheels;
- Weird warning lights for DSC and ABS = 2x new sensors @ £80 each
- 2x headlight washer caps due to them popping off = 2x new headlight washer caps;
- Drivers side door mirror fell off = new mirror glass;

All happened within a month.

Engine still going strong. What else to I have to look forward to?

[Piepiepie]

You cant really blame the car for the wheels. The st roads around me butchered one of my ST wheels, and injured another.

[devnull]

Also the ABS / DSC sensors being farked might be to do with the wheel buckling?

[VR6 Turbo]

that's most of it, the roof motor is a regular one. epsecially if you leave it under tree's ever. also the 4x lamda sensor's

VR

[mgmrw]

AB said:

I bought it about 4 years ago, BMW approved used car, on about 15,000 miles.

I've done around 20,000 miles a year since then. I test drove it, loved it, bought it. I didn't give any thought to the fact that it would do 35mpg on a run and about 15mpg around town, well, given how I drive it.

Now it's approaching 100,000 miles and it's decided to fall out with me...

- Drivers side window = new window regulator;
- Drivers door = new handle as it wouldn't open;
- Bonnet - similar problem to door = new cable;
- N/S headlight steamed up = new headlight;
- O/S headlight bulb blown (xenon) = £120 a pair;
- 2x buckled front wheels - ste roads = 2x new wheels;
- Weird warning lights for DSC and ABS = 2x new sensors @ £80 each
- 2x headlight washer caps due to them popping off = 2x new headlight washer caps;
- Drivers side door mirror fell off = new mirror glass;

All happened within a month.

Engine still going strong. What else to I have to look forward to?

That really doesn't sound too bad at all.

[ironictwist]

Mines not too far behind having done 20k+ in 6 months...

Central lockings fudged so when it wants to it can leave me locked out...Not good in the mornings when you're already running late!
Drivers side locking is fudged so when it does unlock, it only unlocks passenger side
Bushes are fudged.
Roof motor died 2 months ago.
Tyres are near their wear limits.
& those DSC/Traction Control lights, got them too. It's down to a sensor fault but my car has a mind of it's own. It will sometimes "fix" itself and these lights will go away

Love cars

[fatboy b]

I test drove one back in 2003. I had a 330 ci at the time which I loved. I thought the Z4 felt like it was built by the French. It felt fragile. My brother bought one a year later - a year-old example. He picked it up on a friday, and took it back on monday owing to various bits falling off over the weekend. He rejected and got a refund. The salesman also agreed with his sum-up - a cheap pile of shiite.

[AB]

fatboy b said:

I test drove one back in 2003. I had a 330 ci at the time which I loved. I thought the Z4 felt like it was built by the French. It felt fragile. My brother bought one a year later - a year-old example. He picked it up on a friday, and took it back on monday owing to various bits falling off over the weekend. He rejected and got a refund. The salesman also agreed with his sum-up - a cheap pile of shiite.

I've only really had BMW's and I agree. It feels like it came out of the Peugeot factory.

My E46 was bulletproof in comparison.

[CDP]

fatboy b said:

The salesman also agreed with his sum-up - a cheap pile of shiite.

So it's built like the Z3 then? Bits dropped off the BMW approved Z3M I took for a test drive, I suppose you buy that engine and get the rest of the car free.

[AB]

ironictwist said:

Mines not too far behind having done 20k+ in 6 months...

Central lockings fudged so when it wants to it can leave me locked out...Not good in the mornings when you're already running late!
Drivers side locking is fudged so when it does unlock, it only unlocks passenger side
Bushes are fudged.
Roof motor died 2 months ago.
Tyres are near their wear limits.
& those DSC/Traction Control lights, got them too. It's down to a sensor fault but my car has a mind of it's own. It will sometimes "fix" itself and these lights will go away

Love cars

Roof motor was replaced under warranty about 9 months after purchase. Bushes have been replaced in the last 24 months.

The DSC/Traction control issue was solved by turning the car off and restarting but when the lights are on, the TC isn't. Had a brown trouser moment about a month ago and thought f**k it, it needs sorting.

[ironictwist]

AB said:

The DSC/Traction control issue was solved by turning the car off and restarting but when the lights are on, the TC isn't. Had a brown trouser moment about a month ago and thought f**k it, it needs sorting.

You've got it...Although sometimes mine is a permanent feature as I found in the Alps en route back from touring, 2days after the lights 1st came on, as I was coming home, 20 miles from home the lights turned themselves off. Very odd.

Every now & then they pop back up, stay for a few days, then when it feels like it, they'll go again Light throttle when theyre on though!

[AB]

ironictwist said:

Light throttle when theyre on though!

I agree.

Mine are sorted now but it's always nice to know when the car will save you and when it won't.

I was never too sure.

£160 ish sorted it though. Luckily my brother is a mechanic for a BMW dealer and did it on the driveway so no labour cost (other than a duty free bottle of Gentleman Jack).

[dcb]

CDP said:

So it's built like the Z3 then? Bits dropped off the BMW approved Z3M I took for a test drive, I suppose you buy that engine and get the rest of the car free.

I've just checked and both the Z3, and the Z4 until 2009, were
built in South Carolina, USA.

Only the 2nd generation Z4 is built in Germany.

This might explain some issues. Certainly early Z3s
had many problems.

You might want to miss out on the X3, X5 and X6.
Although, on the other hand, things might have improved
since then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Manufacturing_Co....

[CooperS]

The only thing i was going to say was

• Roof motor / rubber sills
• Zeon headlights
• Springs

[stewies_minion]

Whilst not catastrophic, that's a fair list of bother.

My FIL had one from spankers to 80 odd thousand and 8 years and he never had a days bother. Just routine stuff.

[AB]

Oh, I didn't mention, I replaced all 4 springs with Eibach springs as the 2 rears had cracked. I only realised when it failed it's MOT last year.

[CooperS]

This is why i'm paying from feb £70 pm to keep the warrenty on mine

[AB]

£70 a month?

£840 a year?

Not sure it'll cost me that much but there's always the risk...

[tomwoodis]

Bad luck mate, not nice when it all comes at once like that.

I sold mine on a couple of years back now at about 65,000 miles (I did about 30k in it whilst I owned it).

In that time I had to have the springs sorted as well. Apparently cracked springs are very common owing to large diameter wheels, fairly hard springs and the ste run flat tyres that most of them come with (I really did hate the ride they gave).

Buckled wheels I also suffered from although not to the point where they needed replacing, just regularly rebalancing.

The other thing I had to have done at the Inspection 2 service was the front bushes (not sure which ones exactly) - again common apparently, was causing the car to clunk a bit over speed bumps.

I also had to replace the DISA valve at about 50k miles which I did myself at a cost of about £120 for parts. Not sure if you've had to do this yourself but the earlier cars (mine was a 2003 on an 04 plate) had DISA valves which were partly made from swiss cheese by all accounts. They had a paddle inside them which was sprung and after a while it would develop massive amounts of play in it so it would rattle horribly when the engine was at particular parts of the rev range (330's of the same era also suffered the same fate) - sounded like someone had thrown a load of loose nuts and bolts into the block!

For me, that car was all about the engine though - absolutely loved it, just a shame the rest of it wasn't quite so well thought out.

[Blue Oval84]

I think they're pretty reasonably robust to be honest, the only serious routine fault that I can think of is the roof motor, and to a lesser extent the coil springs (hardly alone there then) which can be fixed by fitting Eibachs...

Beyond that, most of the faults affect all other BMWs with the M54 engine just about as often as they do the Z4 IMO.

My Z4 doesn't feel weak at all, I've lost count of how many times it grounded out last year in the snow and ice, it didn't cause it any problem. On one of the forum runs out it was driven quickly enough over some dips to cause it to bottom out on the road and also took off over a sharp humpback bridge. I'd say mine seems to take most abuse in it's stride