First BMW, and it's been on the road (slightly) longer than I have.

[huskcummerbund]

How's it going? I recently moved from Honolulu to the middle of the desert outside of Barstow, and I've been on two wheels exclusively for the last three years. Actually just traded my Honda CB500X for a brand new Transalp (and it absolutely rips). A couple weeks ago, I bought my father-in-law's 1998 Z3 1.9 that he bought new while stationed in Germany and had it shipped from Massachusetts out to California. He was very reluctant to let it go, but his clutch knee just couldn't take it anymore and selling it to me at least kept his favorite vehicle in the family. He upgraded the suspension and other parts, mostly with AC Schnitzer parts I believe, and had it tuned by Dinan. This is definitely not like pretty much any other vehicle I've owned, save for the third pedal, and I'm already finding "BMW things" that I need to wrap my head around.

The first headache was just getting the electric soft-top back up. I'm not proud to admit that I spent a solid 10 minutes trying to reason my way through it before I had to go find the manual. Turns out you have to lower both windows AND hold the brake... Also, it regularly pops a check-engine light but I wasn't able to get much information about what the actual code is (yet). It has an OBDII port under the dash, but it looks like it also has a different, round, OBD port under the hood on the passenger side of the engine. What's that about? What's the difference between the two? What would be a good code reader that is known to work well with this little roadster?

Also, I'm already finding things that I want to tweak and parts that could use a replacement. Where could I find a good wiring diagram for the car, and are there any reputable OEM quality parts suppliers for interior and exterior trim pieces and the like?

Finally, are there common failure points I should keep an eye out for? I think I saw something about some sort of solenoids in the intake that are a common issue, and something about the rear subframe or something that can crack over time.

Any enlightenment you guys can send my way would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Chase

 

[Shelly]

 

[ChrisD]

How's it going? I recently moved from Honolulu to the middle of the desert outside of Barstow, and I've been on two wheels exclusively for the last three years. Actually just traded my Honda CB500X for a brand new Transalp (and it absolutely rips). A couple weeks ago, I bought my father-in-law's 1998 Z3 1.9 that he bought new while stationed in Germany and had it shipped from Massachusetts out to California. He was very reluctant to let it go, but his clutch knee just couldn't take it anymore and selling it to me at least kept his favorite vehicle in the family. He upgraded the suspension and other parts, mostly with AC Schnitzer parts I believe, and had it tuned by Dinan. This is definitely not like pretty much any other vehicle I've owned, save for the third pedal, and I'm already finding "BMW things" that I need to wrap my head around.

The first headache was just getting the electric soft-top back up. I'm not proud to admit that I spent a solid 10 minutes trying to reason my way through it before I had to go find the manual. Turns out you have to lower both windows AND hold the brake... Also, it regularly pops a check-engine light but I wasn't able to get much information about what the actual code is (yet). It has an OBDII port under the dash, but it looks like it also has a different, round, OBD port under the hood on the passenger side of the engine. What's that about? What's the difference between the two? What would be a good code reader that is known to work well with this little roadster?

Also, I'm already finding things that I want to tweak and parts that could use a replacement. Where could I find a good wiring diagram for the car, and are there any reputable OEM quality parts suppliers for interior and exterior trim pieces and the like?

Finally, are there common failure points I should keep an eye out for? I think I saw something about some sort of solenoids in the intake that are a common issue, and something about the rear subframe or something that can crack over time.

Any enlightenment you guys can send my way would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Chase

For a good, cheap OBDII scanner, take a look here:

Wireless diagnostics and data logging

I've just bought these items to try some wireless OBDII diagnostic investigations and to log data to my iPhone. This is a 20pin diagnostic port to 16pin female OBDII adapter and 'ELM327'-type WiFi OBDII interface both from Amazon for less than £20 total. I had some problem with the 20-16 pin...

www.zroadster.org

You’re lucky on a number of fronts. Firstly, to connect to the engine controller, you don’t need to worry about the round 20pin diagnostic socket in the engine bay. That’s a BMW diagnostic socket and unless you have the right tools, training and reference material it’s not going to be very useful. Just go straight into your OBDII socket - older cars in the UK don’t have this hence the use of an adapter for the 20pin BMW connector.
Also, with your engine, you don’t need to worry about intake solenoids (VANOS) or, unless the vehicle has had a very hard life, the rear subframe cracking (trunk spot welds).

Enjoy your new car and welcome to this forum.

 

[Delk]

Picture?


You need an adaptor and use the round plug near the engine. Dont ask me why but thats the way they made it. Adaptors are common and not very expensive.

Massachusetts and Hawaii will not be good for rust so keep an eye on the inner sills and jacking points. Removing the outer sills at some point and rust proofing the inners would be my recommendation.

 

[Mazza]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[huskcummerbund]

Picture?


You need an adaptor and use the round plug near the engine. Dont ask me why but thats the way they made it. Adaptors are common and not very expensive.

Massachusetts and Hawaii will not be good for rust so keep an eye on the inner sills and jacking points. Removing the outer sills at some point and rust proofing the inners would be my recommendation.

No photos yet. Haven't even had much time to mess with it in the daylight thanks to the time change. Eventually though.

Yeah, that's one of the few spots that visibly needs some love on the car. Fortunately, the car was never in Hawaii. We just moved from HI to CA and THEN I bought the car. The car wasn't driven all that much in the winter in Mass, and was fairly well cared for, but yeah, there's a bit of rust on the outer sills and probably some more on the inside that I'll need to address. I was pretty impressed when I found out the outer sills are removable, so in the next few weekends I'll probably take a closer look. It's currently OEM silver, but I do want to either paint or wrap it in something a bit more interesting to my eye. A dark green with a bit of sparkle to it is the front runner at the moment.

Also, sick! Thank you very much for the diagrams doc.