Off-season work list, advice appreciated

Jess Wiseman

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Oct 30, 2019
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31
My '96 Z3 is now tucked away for the winter in my heated garage, with fuel stabilizer in the gasoline. I have several months of snowy, icy, cold Canadian winter to make some needed and wanted fixes.

My general issue is this: Every time I've ever worked on a vehicle, I've broken something taking apart what I need to in order to fix the problem. This doubles the work, and leaves me full of trepidation approaching even simple repairs. So replacing a 10 cent bulb can instead mean replacing a $200 housing. So I'm hoping to have a good understanding of what errors to avoid before starting anything. Thank goodness I have time.

Here's my initial list, in priority order:

1) Get rear R and L brake lights working. 3rd light works, as do turn signals and running lights. The car has a fresh safety inspection from the dealer, so I assume they "missed" the lack of brake lights, and further assume that it isn't a simple "replace the bulbs" fix, or they would have done it at inspection. I need to remove the housings without damaging them, check the current outlets with fresh bulbs, and then trouble-shoot. Any guides, hints or suggestions are welcome.

2) Replace bushings in P seat. It has the classic symptom of shifting slightly on hard acceleration or braking. The seat also is about 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) higher that the D seat. Is this a common thing? or a sign of non-standard alteration? And again, guides, hints, suggestions? Yes please.

3) Troubleshoot and replace damaged or broken speakers. I'd like to enjoy better music quality while motoring, and accessing various door panels and interior panels to get to the speakers is a perfect chance to triple the cost of repairs by screwing up the panel trying to get to the speakers. My D door panel already has a small tear on the top edge, under the window, that may have resulted from previous work of this type.

4) May be out of order, but just thought of this: while accessing door panels for speaker work, I may also replace the electric window motors, as they operate sluggishly at present.

If I could effect these repairs without damaging anything further, I would count it a great success. Even aside from the cost of replacing panels, the age of the originals would cause a new replacement to match poorly. I hope this is a reasonable goal, and the right place to ask for advice.

Cheers!
 

the Nefyn cat

Zorg Guru (IV)
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Oct 19, 2014
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Actually in Nefyn. My, that took a while.
Model of Z
2.2i Sport
Well, out of order it is, then.
Door panel removing? Try something like these https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Blue-Spot-...MInOfqk8rv5QIVgbTtCh39aQukEAQYAyABEgKjY_D_BwE
Windows slow? Something like this on the channels the window moves in. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/High-Per...=28317594372499c828339ce94df68f4902cda8cda6c7
Passenger seat moving? Have a look in the "for sale" section, where you may well find this https://zroadster.org/pages/BMW-Z3-Z3M-Seat-bushes-for-Roadster-Coupe/ and the seat sitting high could be electric motor or linkage seized, sure I've seen a thread somewhere about un-seizing them, try the "search" bit.
Brake lights? Open the boot, look at the lights from the inside, and remove the bulb-holder, diagnose to your hearts' content, and replace.
Have fun in the bleak Canadian winter, only six months and it may be summer again.
 

t-tony

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British Zeds
#ZedShed
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Dec 31, 2013
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Location
Torksey Lock,Lincoln, England
Model of Z
E89 Z4 23i Auto
1. Try new bulbs in the brake lights? or test the bulb holders for 12v when pedal pressed.
2. Are the seats manually adjusted or electrically adjusted?
3.Search on You Tube re BMW Z3 door speakers - you will learn how to do this without damaging the door trims.
4. Liberally spray the window slides (front and rear) with Silicone spray while moving the windows up and down, you'll be amazed with effect.


Tony.
 

mrscalex

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British Zeds
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On balance of probability the windows are the infamous sliders. They are about £3 ea from BMW and you need two.

You’ll find how tos for the procedure. The door card needs to come off and the glass taken out. Not too difficult but care needed not to damage door card. And you will also need to carefully remove the waterproof membrane carefully and replace with new butyl.

A lube up of the channels might work and is worth a go first.
 

Jess Wiseman

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Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Points
31
Whelp, I didn't get anything done all winter, mostly because I don't like the light and space available in my garage. But she started right up last week, and I was able to get some work done on a sunny day, today. I was able to remove the D door panel without destroying anything, minor damage was already present. The speakers inside do not match any of the diagrams on realoem.com so I'm a bit confused. My Z3 is a 1996 BMW Japan 15th anniversary edition, and has Nokia mid and tweeter in each door, and a Nokia subwoofer that completely fills the oddments box, so the lid is actually fixed in place. There are also 2 speakers, one in each footwell, that are the only ones working.

One of my door panel speakers has a broken connection, which explains one failure, but the other is intact and the subwoofer is pristine. I opened the box and every connection is immaculate. So I'm guessing the aftermarket stereo is incorrectly mated to the harness. But I'm still wondering where to find the replacement speakers, since they don't show up where I'm looking.

As before, any and all advice and suggestions are welcome.

Cheers!
 

the Nefyn cat

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Location
Actually in Nefyn. My, that took a while.
Model of Z
2.2i Sport
Don't know about all of them, but on at least some of the 3s there's an amplifier attached to the back of one of the footwell speakers, on mine it was the left hand side. When I fitted the Pioneer unit I removed and bypassed the amplifier and it's still working over seven years later. This may have nothing to do with your problem, of course, but worth looking.
 

Jess Wiseman

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Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Points
31
Some good news to report: all brake lights work and the windows slide smoothly thanks to silicon spray. :happy: I even managed to remove the D door panel without destroying the retaining clips with the tools Nefyn cat recommended. Three cheers for a great community!

I'm up against an odd challenge now. My stereo was only making sound from the footwell speakers, so I started investigating. Turns out, my chassis is BMW Japan 15th Anniversary Edition, and has a 7-speaker system that was not available in North America and Europe, as far as I can tell. So the radio-side wiring harness plug does not match the vehicle-side wiring harness receptacle. It fits on, but the pin patterns don't match. I've uploaded a photo of the receptacle. I've emailed Abe BMW in Tokyo and a very nice person there emailed me back but they are closed for a spring holiday. So I may have hope there, but if anyone knows where to find such an obscure part in North America or Europe, I would be very grateful. Also if anyone knows what is supposed to go into the white 10-pin receptacle, I'm wondering about that too.
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20200430_160105.jpg
 

Jess Wiseman

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Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Points
31
20200429_180019.jpg

These are the tweeters in the D door panel. The subwoofer between the seats has a different enclosure to the NA/EU models as well. I bet it will sound great if I can get it all working!
 
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