'Tandy' - First project car, first Z3!
- Thread starter John_B
- Start date
Since I've had Tandy the central locking did not work for the boot. The 'loom of doom' was all taped up, so I was quite sure that was the problem and added it to 'the list'. Yesterday was the day I tackled it.
I bought this kit from ebay for £50
I had (wrongly) assumed those connectors were female bullet connectors and it would have come with the appropriate male connectors to crimp on to the existing wires and connect, however it didn't and I think those connectors were just supposed to be crimped directly onto the wires (not sure of the right name!). I've not had much success with crimping in the past, and so took advice from this forum and chopped the ends of and soldered them instead.
Another suggestion was to try the all-in-one heat shrink/solder connectors that I had been meaning to try out. In the end they worked really well and made the job easy.
All buttoned up, battery reconnected and my central locking now controls the boot too! Hooray.
I had a bit of an incident last night, and so the next job is going to be fitting a dashcam...
I bought this kit from ebay for £50
I had (wrongly) assumed those connectors were female bullet connectors and it would have come with the appropriate male connectors to crimp on to the existing wires and connect, however it didn't and I think those connectors were just supposed to be crimped directly onto the wires (not sure of the right name!). I've not had much success with crimping in the past, and so took advice from this forum and chopped the ends of and soldered them instead.
Another suggestion was to try the all-in-one heat shrink/solder connectors that I had been meaning to try out. In the end they worked really well and made the job easy.
All buttoned up, battery reconnected and my central locking now controls the boot too! Hooray.
I had a bit of an incident last night, and so the next job is going to be fitting a dashcam...
Thanks Neil!
New roof on Tandy! Courtesy of Raymond at Jack Smith Trimmers in Swansea. He's done a great job and is certainly worth the wait and the trip to Swansea! I didn't really care for the M4, however we came home via north Wales and along some beautiful driving roads and incredible scenery.
Mrs B and I made a weekend of it and included a trip to Diddly Squat Farm and to ZipWorld at Penryhn Quarry near Bangor. About 540 miles and 11hrs of driving over three days. No issues other than grounding out on some aggressive speed bumps and some knocks coming from the rear suspension. I'm going to investigate the knocks over the next couple of weeks, but I have also pulled the trigger and ordered some coilovers. I hate how low the rear end rides since fitting the lowering springs last year (and conversely, how high the front is - it looks like I am carrying a body in the boot). I was deliberating over the Bilstein B12/Eibach kits which I know a lot of people swear by, but I can't justify the cost right now, and also suspect it would be massive overkill for the driving I do. So it's a £250 kit from ebay I have gone for. I may live to regret this decision, but I'm willing to take a punt. I've got another 2-up + luggage trip to Cornwall in a few weeks which should be a good indication whether it was a good decision or not!).
Mrs B and I made a weekend of it and included a trip to Diddly Squat Farm and to ZipWorld at Penryhn Quarry near Bangor. About 540 miles and 11hrs of driving over three days. No issues other than grounding out on some aggressive speed bumps and some knocks coming from the rear suspension. I'm going to investigate the knocks over the next couple of weeks, but I have also pulled the trigger and ordered some coilovers. I hate how low the rear end rides since fitting the lowering springs last year (and conversely, how high the front is - it looks like I am carrying a body in the boot). I was deliberating over the Bilstein B12/Eibach kits which I know a lot of people swear by, but I can't justify the cost right now, and also suspect it would be massive overkill for the driving I do. So it's a £250 kit from ebay I have gone for. I may live to regret this decision, but I'm willing to take a punt. I've got another 2-up + luggage trip to Cornwall in a few weeks which should be a good indication whether it was a good decision or not!).
Coilovers fitted (bottom). I'm not happy with the rears, they are on their lowest setting and look like I'm about to tackle the Monte Carlo Rally. Better (maybe) than how they were before, which looked like I'd got a body stashed in the boot (top). The front still has some adjustment available (although I ran out of effort in the heat yesterday), and also it seems pointless to spend time tweaking them while I am in discussion with the seller about what can be done with the rears in case their only solution is to return them. Alternatively I might just delete the adjustment mechanism and see how it looks.
(If you're wondering what is going on with the top spring pad, I had to cut the 'cap' part off so that the top ring of the coilover would fit over it. I thought that leaving a millimeter of the flange would help keep it centered, however I suspect that the spring pushing into that tiny lip has slightly stretched the rubber/silicone and caused the outer edge to bow inwards. Depending on what happens with the coilovers I'll probably replace the pads)
I also think I found the source of the knocking, on the driver's side, the two T40 bolts holding the rear subframe bracket to the chassis were not very tight. I loosened them a few weeks ago when I was going to try and change the main beam bushes on the car. I'm not entirely sure whether I forgot to torque them back up, or if they have worked loose, however they're tight again now and I shall be keeping an eye on them! I'm going to do the rear subframe refurb this autumn/winter anyway, so I'd rather they be too loose than too tight!
I would take those adjusters out and use the standard pads that you still have and judge from there as you can buy thinner or thicker pads.
I did a thing (again)!! 
This is Izzy, a 2.8 that was going to be for an engine swap, but I don't think I can justify the risk of ruining two cars plus all the effort of keeping insurance/DVLA happy, mileage rollbacks etc. Also the Atlanta Blue is nice, but I think it looks stunning in black!
So sadly this marks the end of Tandy's journey!
I am still deciding what to do with it, it's on 183k miles so I think I'll struggle to sell it. I'm going to transfer a bunch of stuff across like the interior, angel eye headlights and hopefully the new roof!
This is Izzy, a 2.8 that was going to be for an engine swap, but I don't think I can justify the risk of ruining two cars plus all the effort of keeping insurance/DVLA happy, mileage rollbacks etc. Also the Atlanta Blue is nice, but I think it looks stunning in black!
So sadly this marks the end of Tandy's journey!
I am still deciding what to do with it, it's on 183k miles so I think I'll struggle to sell it. I'm going to transfer a bunch of stuff across like the interior, angel eye headlights and hopefully the new roof!