Cruise Control

[Jon Jeffryes]

Due to being tied up with family issues, the poor old girl has been largely ignored for the past month. I did manage to benefit from David's sale of 'Scarlet' in October, picking up a set of hubcentric wheel spacers that have helped to neatly fill the wheel arches.

The second and most significant purchase was a cruise control system...although once I'd bought it I realised that most of the hardware was for an earlier car, my car being the later 'fly by wire' model. The only common part was the steering column Cruise Control Stalk.

No problem, a quick read of Brian H's excellent How To article and a quick bid on EBAY landed a FGR Interface from the USA for £50 delivered.

Fitting took about a hour including modifying the lower steering column shroud to fit around the new control stalk and was simplicity itself as those nice people at BMW had already installed all of the mountings and connectors.

Yesterday, I finally managed to find the time to actually drive the car and test the system on the road....and everything works perfectly. Cruise control is a real asset (on the right roads/journeys) even in a Z3....I'd recommend it to everyone as possibly one of the best value low cost upgrades for the car.

The upshot is that I have a Cruise control actuator and control box excess to requirements going cheap - if there is any interest drop me a pm.....with a few other bits from EBAY, you too could have cruise control on an earlier car

 

[t-tony]

Due to being tied up with family issues, the poor old girl has been largely ignored for the past month. I did manage to benefit from David's sale of 'Scarlet' in October, picking up a set of hubcentric wheel spacers that have helped to neatly fill the wheel arches.

The second and most significant purchase was a cruise control system...although once I'd bought it I realised that most of the hardware was for an earlier car, my car being the later 'fly by wire' model. The only common part was the steering column Cruise Control Stalk.

No problem, a quick read of Brian H's excellent How To article and a quick bid on EBAY landed a FGR Interface from the USA for £50 delivered.

Fitting took about a hour including modifying the lower steering column shroud to fit around the new control stalk and was simplicity itself as those nice people at BMW had already installed all of the mountings and connectors.

Yesterday, I finally managed to find the time to actually drive the car and test the system on the road....and everything works perfectly. Cruise control is a real asset (on the right roads/journeys) even in a Z3....I'd recommend it to everyone as possibly one of the best value low cost upgrades for the car.

The upshot is that I have a Cruise control actuator and control box excess to requirements going cheap - if there is any interest drop me a pm.....with a few other bits from EBAY, you too could have cruise control on an earlier car

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I recognise those items Jon, I seem to think I saw them in my suitcase last year! lol.

I almost bought the CC stalk for my Z4 in the US earlier this year but I wasn't too sure if that was all I needed, wish I had now having been told it was..

Tony.

Tony.

 

[Jon Jeffryes]

I recognise those items Jon, I seem to think I saw them in my suitcase last year! lol.

I almost bought the CC stalk for my Z4 in the US earlier this year but I wasn't too sure if that was all I needed, wish I had now having been told it was..

Tony.

Tony.

Tony,

Check EBAY for the FGR and the Stalk, they are both available and reasonably inexspensive. One hour, a bit of screwdriver and dremel action and you're done! well worth the activity.

 

[t-tony]

Cheers Jon, just today Shirl asked what I was wanting for Christmas ..........................

Tony.

 

[Bozzy]

I've got to say it's great having this function as it makes motorway driving more bearable and gives me chance to stretch my legs .
As already said,it seems that BMW made it easy to retro fit as well,but my zed already had it fitted but if it hadn't i would definitely fit it.

 

[Mint]

Agree with @Jon Jeffryes about the cruise control and @Brian H excellent 'How To' article. I did this a couple of years ago, well worth the effort, especially on the French roads.

 

[t-tony]

Cheers Dave.

Tony.

 

[Mint]

I recognise those items Jon, I seem to think I saw them in my suitcase last year! lol.

I almost bought the CC stalk for my Z4 in the US earlier this year but I wasn't too sure if that was all I needed, wish I had now having been told it was..
Tony.

Our Zed 4 needed some wiring changes as well as the stalk Tony. I think the later ones (ours was a facelift on a 56 plate) were not as easy to modify. I looked at the retrofit instructions and decided it was a bit too much.
Here's a link to the instructions:
http://thegannet.bulldoghome.com/CCInstructions.pdf

 

[t-tony]

Cheers again Dave.

Tony.