....I bought a car..... sight unseen... from ebay... when I was lets just say "in no state to drive" .........but..... how glad I did!
Hi everyone, I'm Ant, a new south coast member and first time Z3 owner.
I was only looking for a cheap convertible for the summer. The idea was to have some fun in the sun and just sell it on. Unfortunately I seem to have developed an obsession with this car, I think in part due to this forum.
The Z is a year 2000 (Mnf late 1999) 1.8 in Titan Silver. Yes its the base, under powered, 4 pot but it was the only one I could get my 19 year old daughter insured on without a second mortgage. It still gives you a massive grin through the twisty bits.
On the positive side its only done 52k (300 miles last year), had just 3 owners and came with a stack of history, including all the old tax disks. That's usually a good sign
Here's the work done so far in my 4 weeks of ownership:-
1 - EML came on within the first day...here we go I thought! Fuel trim error. Actually it just turned out that the previous owner had replaced the vacuum hoses with ones that were too big. Quick fix with OEM ones, reset the code and its not come back. Always worth checking hoses before pulling sensors/MAF out.
2 - Replaced the top of the air box with a salvage part. Sure this is a design fault in the 4 pot as alot seem cracked where the resonator joins. Presume where they are accidently lent on. Worth removing the old sound deadening material if you are doing this too as mine had almost turned to dust and was flowing straight in to the engine.
3- New Avon ZV7s all round (As recommended on here). Made a lot of difference.
4 - Major service, oil flush and MOT at Halfrauds. Cheap way of getting the basics done I find. MOT passed with random advisories.
5 - The car came with the Business CD player which I will obviously keep, but swapped it out for a Pioneer SPH EVO62DAB. My son couldn't work out why the original CD player wouldn't pair with his phone.
6- Bought an genuine BMW wind deflector from ebay, very cheap by all accounts, but no extended Tenax bolts! Again I only read about those on here. They seem be discontinued at the BMW main stealers now so they came from Germany in the end
7 - Discovered over the past couple of weeks that the roof leaks at the A Pillars... again fixed thanks to some great advice on here. Loosened the grub screws on the roof clamps and tightened them up one rotation, then applied some GummiPfleger to the seals.
8 - Slow electric windows ... bit of silicon spray and a clean of the channels and they are happy again.
Tomorrows jobs
That slightly perished aerial grommet needs replacing.......now did I bookmark that "how to" thread?
I need to look for some Jack Pads. - all 4 of mine seem to be missing!
Ant
Hi everyone, I'm Ant, a new south coast member and first time Z3 owner.
I was only looking for a cheap convertible for the summer. The idea was to have some fun in the sun and just sell it on. Unfortunately I seem to have developed an obsession with this car, I think in part due to this forum.
The Z is a year 2000 (Mnf late 1999) 1.8 in Titan Silver. Yes its the base, under powered, 4 pot but it was the only one I could get my 19 year old daughter insured on without a second mortgage. It still gives you a massive grin through the twisty bits.
On the positive side its only done 52k (300 miles last year), had just 3 owners and came with a stack of history, including all the old tax disks. That's usually a good sign
Here's the work done so far in my 4 weeks of ownership:-
1 - EML came on within the first day...here we go I thought! Fuel trim error. Actually it just turned out that the previous owner had replaced the vacuum hoses with ones that were too big. Quick fix with OEM ones, reset the code and its not come back. Always worth checking hoses before pulling sensors/MAF out.
2 - Replaced the top of the air box with a salvage part. Sure this is a design fault in the 4 pot as alot seem cracked where the resonator joins. Presume where they are accidently lent on. Worth removing the old sound deadening material if you are doing this too as mine had almost turned to dust and was flowing straight in to the engine.
3- New Avon ZV7s all round (As recommended on here). Made a lot of difference.
4 - Major service, oil flush and MOT at Halfrauds. Cheap way of getting the basics done I find. MOT passed with random advisories.
5 - The car came with the Business CD player which I will obviously keep, but swapped it out for a Pioneer SPH EVO62DAB. My son couldn't work out why the original CD player wouldn't pair with his phone.
6- Bought an genuine BMW wind deflector from ebay, very cheap by all accounts, but no extended Tenax bolts! Again I only read about those on here. They seem be discontinued at the BMW main stealers now so they came from Germany in the end
7 - Discovered over the past couple of weeks that the roof leaks at the A Pillars... again fixed thanks to some great advice on here. Loosened the grub screws on the roof clamps and tightened them up one rotation, then applied some GummiPfleger to the seals.
8 - Slow electric windows ... bit of silicon spray and a clean of the channels and they are happy again.
Tomorrows jobs
That slightly perished aerial grommet needs replacing.......now did I bookmark that "how to" thread?
I need to look for some Jack Pads. - all 4 of mine seem to be missing!
Ant
- well done. It's all `fixable; where there's a will there's a way. Enjoy
