Stuart Little (2007 E85 Z4 2.5si manual)

[MR_Y]

z4 forum

i came across those links when i was looking at a z4. Keen to see what you do. Congrats.

Excellent!

 

[golfer23]

https://www.bluebus.dev

Saw this on a vid of M539 Restorations - Upgrading the 20-Year-Old Tech - BMW E39 530i Touring - Project Rottweil: P5
can fast forward 26:33.

 

[MR_Y]

Decided just to do the bare minimum of maintenance work on this car.
Doing too much preventative maintenance is costly and I know that I won't keep it for more than 2 years.
So, car is going to get the basic stuff attended to.
Dealing with 357 on this one.
So far, so good.

Full details of work will be shared after completion.

 

[MR_Y]

Screw it, let's do it....

So, I decided to go ahead with rectifying all the major and medium level issues picked up on the car.

Here is the list:

Brake discs, sensors and pads
Normal Service
Shocks all round and related components.
Control arms, stabilizer links.
Engine and gearbox mountings
Roof service/lubricantion
New battery
Gearbox seals, oil.
Replace all belts, tensioners and pulleys
Replace rubber around windscreen (windscreen is perfect but is a Grandmark brand. Will not replace it yet)
Miscellaneous components for oil and coolant system
Refurbish all wheels
Wheel alignment
Aircon regas
4 x Eagle F1 assymetric tyres
Wiper blades
Other bits and bobs, including various seals.

Parts are a combination of genuine and generic.

The cost of the extra work does push the car above the acceptable price range for these cars on the used market. This means that I will need to hold on to this car for a bit longer to extract as much utility value out of it. Hopefully, just normal service costs will be on the cards for the next year or so. The clutch and flywheel don't need replacing yet, but I will budget for that in time.

The remote locking system has some issues and needs a new control unit. I figure using just the key to manually lock/unlock is sufficient, since it also arms the alarm.

The car will go for a full valet and leather treatment after the mechanical work is done.

I still have a can of soft top protection spray that I bought for my 2013 981 Boxster. Will apply that afterwards.

No plans for any mods. Also, will keep the audio system stock.

I had to adjust my tyre budget from Michelin PS4s to Eagle F1s, but those are still very good.

The car is still in the workshop and hopefully will get it back in September.

More details to follow thereafter.

Side note - If you own a Z4, of any generation, send me a DM and I will add you to the Z3/Z4 WhatsApp group. A breakfast run is on the cards for Spring in Gauteng.

 

[chicane]

Beautiful in white and I love the fact that it is manual.

You have a straight six BMW that looks fantastic and even after spending a bit, for less than Renault Kwid money.

Where do you plan on having the valet done?

I used to buy soft top cleaner from BMW when you could still order online. That works really well and smells great. Not sure if you can still buy it from a dealership.

I replaced a few small interior bits on mine that showed a bit of wear with new OEM parts and that made a huge difference:

Gear shifter (auto) - was a bit worn
Radio knobs were a bit faded
"Aluminium" (plastic) door handle covers had a few tiny scratches

I am totally biased, but the Z4 is highly underrated in my opinion.

 

[M3boi]

Screw it, let's do it....

So, I decided to go ahead with rectifying all the major and medium level issues picked up on the car.

Here is the list:

Brake discs, sensors and pads
Normal Service
Shocks all round and related components.
Control arms, stabilizer links.
Engine and gearbox mountings
Roof service/lubricantion
New battery
Gearbox seals, oil.
Replace all belts, tensioners and pulleys
Replace rubber around windscreen (windscreen is perfect but is a Grandmark brand. Will not replace it yet)
Miscellaneous components for oil and coolant system
Refurbish all wheels
Wheel alignment
Aircon regas
4 x Eagle F1 assymetric tyres
Wiper blades
Other bits and bobs, including various seals.

Parts are a combination of genuine and generic.

The cost of the extra work does push the car above the acceptable price range for these cars on the used market. This means that I will need to hold on to this car for a bit longer to extract as much utility value out of it. Hopefully, just normal service costs will be on the cards for the next year or so. The clutch and flywheel don't need replacing yet, but I will budget for that in time.

The remote locking system has some issues and needs a new control unit. I figure using just the key to manually lock/unlock is sufficient, since it also arms the alarm.

The car will go for a full valet and leather treatment after the mechanical work is done.

I still have a can of soft top protection spray that I bought for my 2013 981 Boxster. Will apply that afterwards.

No plans for any mods. Also, will keep the audio system stock.

I had to adjust my tyre budget from Michelin PS4s to Eagle F1s, but those are still very good.

The car is still in the workshop and hopefully will get it back in September.

More details to follow thereafter.

Side note - If you own a Z4, of any generation, send me a DM and I will add you to the Z3/Z4 WhatsApp group. A breakfast run is on the cards for Spring in Gauteng.

Goodyear F1 Asymmetric 6's are bloody fantastic tyres, on par with PS4/PS5 IMO.

 

[momo1]

Screw it, let's do it....

So, I decided to go ahead with rectifying all the major and medium level issues picked up on the car.

Here is the list:

Brake discs, sensors and pads
Normal Service
Shocks all round and related components.
Control arms, stabilizer links.
Engine and gearbox mountings
Roof service/lubricantion
New battery
Gearbox seals, oil.
Replace all belts, tensioners and pulleys
Replace rubber around windscreen (windscreen is perfect but is a Grandmark brand. Will not replace it yet)
Miscellaneous components for oil and coolant system
Refurbish all wheels
Wheel alignment
Aircon regas
4 x Eagle F1 assymetric tyres
Wiper blades
Other bits and bobs, including various seals.

Parts are a combination of genuine and generic.

The extra work does push the car above the acceptable price range for these cars on the used market. This means that I will need to hold on to this car for a bit longer to extract as much utility value out of it. Hopefully, just normal service costs will be on the cards for the next year or so. The clutch and flywheel don't need replacing yet, but I will budget for that in time.

I had to adjust my tyre budget from Michelin PS4s to Eagle F1s, but those are still very good.

The car is still in the workshop and hopefully will get it back in September.

More details to follow thereafter

The drive is gona be transformed completely after all of this.
glad you showing it some love

@johndoe would be the perfect man to carry out this work, unfortunately he has relocated.

 

[MR_Y]

Beautiful in white and I love the fact that it is manual.

You have a straight six BMW that looks fantastic and even after spending a bit, for less than Renault Kwid money.

Where do you plan on having the valet done?

I used to buy soft top cleaner from BMW when you could still order online. That works really well and smells great. Not sure if you can still buy it from a dealership.

I replaced a few small interior bits on mine that showed a bit of wear with new OEM parts and that made a huge difference:

Gear shifter (auto) - was a bit worn
Radio knobs were a bit faded
"Aluminium" (plastic) door handle covers had a few tiny scratches

I am totally biased, but the Z4 is highly underrated in my opinion.

Thanks.

Valet will be done at the 357 workshop.

Interior controls, knobs, switches are still good.
Just some leather areas need a little TLC.

I have the Porsche soft top "impregnator" spray which seems similar to the BMW product.

On a side note, I am slightly disappointed that there are a number of hidden issues that the BMW dealership did not know of (or chose not to disclose, though that is hard to prove).

The roof motor pump housing has water damage. The issue was only revealed when the private workshop removed the roof to check the motor. Also, there are other bits and bobs that a basic inspection from a BMW dealer should have picked up, but this BMW dealer didn't.

I feel that in hindsight, I could've knocked down the purchase price a bit if I knew of all these issues. Granted, the car is still roadworthy.

Anyway, not really complaining since this car is old and had a 1 lady owner from new. While it had services done, it seems that proper maintenance was not done.

Buying a used car from a BMW dealership does not mean total peace of mind. Sure, if I have a major component failure then they should be covering it under the standard 6 month CPA warranty. But, a bit disappointed that the smaller (some actually not that small) issues were not attended to.

Well, time to look forward instead of backwards.

Keen to get it back from the workshop soon and take it on some scenic drives. Perfect for spring weather.

 

[kingr]

The 6 month cpa warranty is not something anyone should bank on. The default reaction from the dealer with issues post purchase is to have your extended warranty pay for it. ( the one that they sold you). Their last resort is paying themselves, this normally requires lots of back and forth with emails, whatsapp messages etc…I know this because I just experienced a similar experience withy MX-5 from a dealer in Pta.

I don’t see the incentive in buying a old out of warranty car from a dealer anymore besides the convenience of quick finance processing if you need it.

These cars are definitely fun, one of my colleagues had one back in the day and it made us feel like ballers rolling around in Jhb with the roof down. Enjoy!

 

[MR_Y]

Thanks @kingr .
Comments in red below:

The 6 month cpa warranty is not something anyone should bank on. The default reaction from the dealer with issues post purchase is to have your extended warranty pay for it. ( the one that they sold you). Their last resort is paying themselves, this normally requires lots of back and forth with emails, whatsapp messages etc…I know this because I just experienced a similar experience withy MX-5 from a dealer in Pta. My understanding, based on listening to Wendy Knowler fight used car issue cases, is that a customer is not compelled to purchase an extended warranty from a dealership. By right, if an extended warranty is purchased, it only needs to kick in AFTER the 1st 6months have passed. The 1st 6 months implied warranty needs to come from the dealership. For this reason, I did not purchase an extended warranty.

I don’t see the incentive in buying a old out of warranty car from a dealer anymore besides the convenience of quick finance processing if you need it. The 6 month implied warranty from the dealer is mandatory under CPA, unless it is a private sale that the dealer is merely facilitating. Most hole-in-the wall dealers ignore this and it is up to the customer to fight this. Also, as with any warranty, the 6 month implied warranty under CPA has its own Ts and Cs. A loophole could be that a dealer may drag out a repair beyond 6 months, so that the implied warranty period lapses - however, there have been cases (again with Wendy Knowler) where the customer can prove that the incident happened within the 6 month period and they (customer) should not be held liable if the repairs by the dealer take longer to resolve.
Another interesting issue is when the customer takes an extended aftermarket warranty that starts from day 1 of the sale, so that it basically runs concurrently with the 6 month CPA implied warranty from the dealership. There was an incident (again Wendy Knowler podcast), where the aftermarket warranty provider had a 30 day no claim window for the 1st month. The client had a mechanical issue claim that was declined by the warranty provider because it was in that 1st 30 day period. When the client realised that the dealer should cover them for the 1st 6 months, the dealer said that it was not the case, since the client opted to take an aftermarket warranty. Wendy stepped in and got the matter resolved.

These cars are definitely fun, one of my colleagues had one back in the day and it made us feel like ballers rolling around in Jhb with the roof down. Enjoy!
Agree. keen to stretch its legs soon.

 

[kingr]

thanks for the replay @MR_Y, it sounds like Wendy is doing a stellar job!

 

[momo1]

For the remote locking, try holding up the key close to the rear view mirror as the sensor is there.
if it doesn't work altogether try and recalibrate it , there are tutorials online the same for E46 and E39 I think.

this worked for me after I had to disconnect the battery when travelling.

 

[MR_Y]

For the remote locking, try holding up the key close to the rear view mirror as the sensor is there.
if it doesn't work altogether try and recalibrate it , there are tutorials online the same for E46 and E39 I think.

this worked for me after I had to disconnect the battery when travelling.

Will definitely try this

 

[momo1]

Will definitely try this

there is another way also, i just cant find that video, but if the key battery is fine it should reconfigure to the car.

 

[rodga]

For the remote locking, try holding up the key close to the rear view mirror as the sensor is there.
if it doesn't work altogether try and recalibrate it , there are tutorials online the same for E46 and E39 I think.

this worked for me after I had to disconnect the battery when travelling.

I have this issue with my e39 where the the key will lose the coding. Sometimes after a day or a week or whatever. So I just use the key manually till I get gatvol and do the coding procedure again and hope it lasts longer lol

 

[momo1]

I have this issue with my e39 where the the key will lose the coding. Sometimes after a day or a week or whatever. So I just use the key manually till I get gatvol and do the coding procedure again and hope it lasts longer lol

the charm of a slightly older BMW

 

[rodga]

the charm of a slightly older BMW

Going to code it this evening and report back here how long it lasts this time

 

[MR_Y]

So, BMW SA say that my 2007 Z4 qualifies for a BMW Oil Plan that covers 3 oil services. I am in two minds about getting it. I can get the service done cheaper aftermarket, but having some BMW service history looks good when selling the car down the line. Obviously, maintenance items will still be done aftermarket.

 

[///M Individual]

So, BMW SA say that my 2007 Z4 qualifies for a BMW Oil Plan that covers 3 oil services. I am in two minds about getting it. I can get the service done cheaper aftermarket, but having some BMW service history looks good when selling the car down the line. Obviously, maintenance items will still be done aftermarket.

I think it will be good to maintain the oil changes with BMW considering it has FSH there already and this will definitely help with resale.

 

[MR_Y]

Send me a PM with your number, will arrange one with a discount for you.

Thanks, I got the ZHP gear knob.
Will post pics soon.