So, I am now 26 days and 2600 miles into my first Z3 ownership....and despite an up and down experience, I have grown to love the flying banana!
It is a 2001 2.2i sport in Dakargelb with a whole list of options ticked on the build sheet (not sure how many are just standard for the model so I have listed them below) and a full Chandlers BMW service history. It was bought from a local dealer who had bought it from Chandlers who had taken the car in part exchange - it was too old to go back on sale at Chandlers.
Being a Porsche man for many years, I had intended to buy a Boxster for a holiday touring in Schwarzwald, but for what I wanted to spend all of the cars I had looked at were 'poorly described' and overpriced. After many hours pouring over car ad's and loads of miles driven viewing the most promising of the rag-bag of cars, I was both running out of patience and with a fast approaching holiday deadline, running out of time.
Then five days before we were due to travel, my wife saw the Beemer on-line at the local dealers and suggested it might be worth a look. OK, so it wasn't the Boxster I had planned, but it was an open two seater sports car and was well below the cost level I had set for the Porsche.....and it was yellow....and I do like yellow cars - this is my fourth!
I arranged to view the car the following day and was pleasantly surprised by the car. On first view it looked very good for a 14 year old car. Reasonably tidy and quite spacious for two 50 plus occupants. A quick test drive showed that all the wheels pointed in approximately the right direction, there were no clouds of smoke or nasty noises and it handle pretty damn well. All of the toys worked and the hood was intact.
On the downside, brakes felt wooden and performance seemed uninspiring. I put the brakes down to lack of use,; the car had sat about for a while; and the performance as relative as my everyday cars are a 4ltr Jaguar and my wife's Mini Cooper s.
The car was collected on afternoon of 1st July and we were due to travel on the morning of the 5th, leaving me 3 days to get the car ready and Kim and I acclimatised to the car. Ohh, and I was working on the 2nd so time was slightly tight.
The car had 72k miles but had been serviced at 69k miles so I expected the basics to be covered. I had negotiated a few hundred pounds off the price to cover a new set of tyres a 3 were more than 60% worn. On the first evening, we took the car out for a 50 mile shakedown drive over a route we know well. We were really impressed with the comfort, space, lack of rattles and handling (considering it was on the old tyres). not so impressive was the lack of go, the tepid air con output and the wooden brakes.
A check-over on return showed that there were no nasty leaks and nothing falling off! I re-charged the aircon which worked brilliantly with a bit of gas in the system and booked the car into Kwikfit for new tyres and due to the lack of time, new pads and discs (I'd normally sort these myself). Unfortunately the only day Kwikfit could manage was Sunday, so that left Friday evening and Saturday to prepare us and the car.
Friday night I put the car up on stands and crawled underneath to check everything out....two things of note...full SS exhaust and the engine undertray was missing. That aside everything was remarkably well preserved.
Saturday and the elephant in the room was the performance or lack of. I have fully specced Jaguar and Porsche specific code readers...but that's no good with a BMW....Eurocarparts had a basic cheap generic reader on the shelf so I bought that and plugged in. Codes P1620 and P0344 indicated Inlet cam sensor problems. A new cam sensor improved things tremendously (thanks again the Eurocarparts) so other than checking fluids, lights and loading up the CD player, that was it.
Sunday and Kwiksave fitted the tyres....well three of them as the fourth never arrived! Fortunately the fourth tyre on the car was virtually new so I could live with that. front discs and pads went on ....but the rear discs had not arrived so I had to leave the old ones on...again not a major disaster as the rears were still serviceable. New tyres and brakes made a fantastic difference to the car. Fuelled up, packed up, cleaned up and locked up in the garage ready for the off in the morning.
5am Monday and we were off toward the Channel Tunnel, 10 minutes into the journey onto the M23 and the car cut onto 5 cylinders and the EML illuminated..bugger. I found that keeping above 3500 revs cleared the missfire so we decided to carry on and see what happened. Just as we decelerated for the Folkstone Tunnel turn-off, the missfire cleared, the EML went off and normal service returned. For the rest of the holiday, the problem only returned for one brief 5 minute spell.
The journey across France consisted of cruising the toll roads at a steady relaxed 80 mph on the fantastic (if expensive) toll roads. However 300 miles in and the low oil warning lit up throwing me into a bit of a panic, speed dropped to 50, I fretted for the next 10 miles to the services. Tanked up and 1 1/2 litres of oil added (with a spare 2 litres added in the boot) and following a good check for leaks and smoke - none! The car behaved fabulously for the remaining 320 miles.
The next week was spent driving in the fantastic Blackforest tours and mountain roads and the car was as good as the weather - superb. The BMW equipped itself perfectly, was frugal, comfortable and gained lots of positive interest wherever we went. Oil consumption over the 1700 miles travelled in the week was about 1/2 litre. This included mountain storming, fast switchbacks, long autobahns at high speed and town centre crawls all in temperatures in the early to mid 30's....and yes we did get burnt. The return journey went without mishap and oil consumption was negligible.
We returned to the UK on the 12th and shut the car in the garage until the following weekend (work stops play!) when I had planned to give the car a thorough going over. Rear discs and pads and handbrake shoes were changed and now the brakes are much improved, I also carried out a full service changing all fluids. The spark plugs were well past their best...so much for the Chandlers service! and were replaced with a fresh set of Bosch...strangely the air-filter was like new.
Now the car was beginning to deliver engine wise, but I still felt it was underpowered. Another code read still threw up P1620 but also showed P0369 - the exhaust cam sensor! Again I checked the sensor and sure enough it had failed. P1620 took a little more investigation but has turned out to be a faulty sensor on the thermostat. New cam sensor and thermostat are ready to go on as soon as I find the time...hopefully then I should have a full power zed.
So that brings us up to date. the zed is currently in the garage until we get some semblance of summer back. For now I am 'tinkering' and polishing when time allows. the million dollar question is did I buy in haste and make a big mistake or was it a lucky break?
Well for once it is a good result. Both my wife and I are smitten with the car despite the early issues. Given more time I would have worked through the car and fixed the issues before we left...but where's the excitement in that..after all I have recovery insurance! The problems I have had to deal with can almost certainly be attributed to the last year of inactivity the car has suffered and then being thrown into a 2000 mile Euro tour.
I now have a very competent cruiser...it's not a sports car in the Boxster sense, but so enjoyable on the last short break we are going to do it again in the next couple of months - work allowing.
Yes we are very pleased with our little zed which we will continue to improve throughout our ownership...but that's half the fun of these hobby cars.
BMWVIN.COM - Online BMW Vin Decoder
Vehicle information VIN long WBACN#######15788
Type code CN12
Type Z3 2.2 (EUR)
Dev. series E36 (7)
Line 3
Body type ROADST
Steering RL
Door count 2
Engine M54
Cubical capacity 2.20
Power 125
Transmision HECK
Gearbox MECH
Colour DAKARGELB 2 (337)
Upholstery LEDER CLASSIC/SCHWARZ (R7SW)
Prod. date 2001-02-09
Order options No. Description 209 LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (25%)
243 AIRBAG FOR FRONT PASSENGER
263 LT/ALY WHEELS W MIXED TYRES
302 ALARM SYSTEM
314 HEATED WINDSCREEN WASHER NOZZLES
388 SOFTTOP BLACK
395 ROLL-BAR PROTECTION SYSTEM
398 SOFTTOP OPERATION, ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC
423 FLOOR MATS, VELOUR
428 WARNING TRIANGLE
441 SMOKERS PACKAGE
481 SPORT SEATS F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
494 SEAT HEATING F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
520 FOGLIGHTS
530 AIR CONDITIONING
669 RADIO BMW BUSINESS RDS
674 HIFI LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM HARMAN KARDON
694 PREPARATION FOR CD CHANGER
704 M SPORT SUSPENSION
710 M LEATHER STEERING WHEEL
719 SPORTS EDITION
785 WHITE DIRECTION INDICATOR LIGHTS
812 ENGLAND VERSION
818 MAIN BATTERY SWITCH
863 EUROPE/DEALER DIRECTORY
877 DELETION CROSS-OVER OPERATION
880 ENGLISH / ON-BOARD DOCUMENTATION
925 SHIPPING PROTECTION PACKAGE
Series options No. Description 345 CHROME LINE INTERIOR
853 LANGUAGE VERSION ENGLISH
It is a 2001 2.2i sport in Dakargelb with a whole list of options ticked on the build sheet (not sure how many are just standard for the model so I have listed them below) and a full Chandlers BMW service history. It was bought from a local dealer who had bought it from Chandlers who had taken the car in part exchange - it was too old to go back on sale at Chandlers.
Being a Porsche man for many years, I had intended to buy a Boxster for a holiday touring in Schwarzwald, but for what I wanted to spend all of the cars I had looked at were 'poorly described' and overpriced. After many hours pouring over car ad's and loads of miles driven viewing the most promising of the rag-bag of cars, I was both running out of patience and with a fast approaching holiday deadline, running out of time.
Then five days before we were due to travel, my wife saw the Beemer on-line at the local dealers and suggested it might be worth a look. OK, so it wasn't the Boxster I had planned, but it was an open two seater sports car and was well below the cost level I had set for the Porsche.....and it was yellow....and I do like yellow cars - this is my fourth!
I arranged to view the car the following day and was pleasantly surprised by the car. On first view it looked very good for a 14 year old car. Reasonably tidy and quite spacious for two 50 plus occupants. A quick test drive showed that all the wheels pointed in approximately the right direction, there were no clouds of smoke or nasty noises and it handle pretty damn well. All of the toys worked and the hood was intact.
On the downside, brakes felt wooden and performance seemed uninspiring. I put the brakes down to lack of use,; the car had sat about for a while; and the performance as relative as my everyday cars are a 4ltr Jaguar and my wife's Mini Cooper s.
The car was collected on afternoon of 1st July and we were due to travel on the morning of the 5th, leaving me 3 days to get the car ready and Kim and I acclimatised to the car. Ohh, and I was working on the 2nd so time was slightly tight.
The car had 72k miles but had been serviced at 69k miles so I expected the basics to be covered. I had negotiated a few hundred pounds off the price to cover a new set of tyres a 3 were more than 60% worn. On the first evening, we took the car out for a 50 mile shakedown drive over a route we know well. We were really impressed with the comfort, space, lack of rattles and handling (considering it was on the old tyres). not so impressive was the lack of go, the tepid air con output and the wooden brakes.
A check-over on return showed that there were no nasty leaks and nothing falling off! I re-charged the aircon which worked brilliantly with a bit of gas in the system and booked the car into Kwikfit for new tyres and due to the lack of time, new pads and discs (I'd normally sort these myself). Unfortunately the only day Kwikfit could manage was Sunday, so that left Friday evening and Saturday to prepare us and the car.
Friday night I put the car up on stands and crawled underneath to check everything out....two things of note...full SS exhaust and the engine undertray was missing. That aside everything was remarkably well preserved.
Saturday and the elephant in the room was the performance or lack of. I have fully specced Jaguar and Porsche specific code readers...but that's no good with a BMW....Eurocarparts had a basic cheap generic reader on the shelf so I bought that and plugged in. Codes P1620 and P0344 indicated Inlet cam sensor problems. A new cam sensor improved things tremendously (thanks again the Eurocarparts) so other than checking fluids, lights and loading up the CD player, that was it.
Sunday and Kwiksave fitted the tyres....well three of them as the fourth never arrived! Fortunately the fourth tyre on the car was virtually new so I could live with that. front discs and pads went on ....but the rear discs had not arrived so I had to leave the old ones on...again not a major disaster as the rears were still serviceable. New tyres and brakes made a fantastic difference to the car. Fuelled up, packed up, cleaned up and locked up in the garage ready for the off in the morning.
5am Monday and we were off toward the Channel Tunnel, 10 minutes into the journey onto the M23 and the car cut onto 5 cylinders and the EML illuminated..bugger. I found that keeping above 3500 revs cleared the missfire so we decided to carry on and see what happened. Just as we decelerated for the Folkstone Tunnel turn-off, the missfire cleared, the EML went off and normal service returned. For the rest of the holiday, the problem only returned for one brief 5 minute spell.
The journey across France consisted of cruising the toll roads at a steady relaxed 80 mph on the fantastic (if expensive) toll roads. However 300 miles in and the low oil warning lit up throwing me into a bit of a panic, speed dropped to 50, I fretted for the next 10 miles to the services. Tanked up and 1 1/2 litres of oil added (with a spare 2 litres added in the boot) and following a good check for leaks and smoke - none! The car behaved fabulously for the remaining 320 miles.
The next week was spent driving in the fantastic Blackforest tours and mountain roads and the car was as good as the weather - superb. The BMW equipped itself perfectly, was frugal, comfortable and gained lots of positive interest wherever we went. Oil consumption over the 1700 miles travelled in the week was about 1/2 litre. This included mountain storming, fast switchbacks, long autobahns at high speed and town centre crawls all in temperatures in the early to mid 30's....and yes we did get burnt. The return journey went without mishap and oil consumption was negligible.
We returned to the UK on the 12th and shut the car in the garage until the following weekend (work stops play!) when I had planned to give the car a thorough going over. Rear discs and pads and handbrake shoes were changed and now the brakes are much improved, I also carried out a full service changing all fluids. The spark plugs were well past their best...so much for the Chandlers service! and were replaced with a fresh set of Bosch...strangely the air-filter was like new.
Now the car was beginning to deliver engine wise, but I still felt it was underpowered. Another code read still threw up P1620 but also showed P0369 - the exhaust cam sensor! Again I checked the sensor and sure enough it had failed. P1620 took a little more investigation but has turned out to be a faulty sensor on the thermostat. New cam sensor and thermostat are ready to go on as soon as I find the time...hopefully then I should have a full power zed.
So that brings us up to date. the zed is currently in the garage until we get some semblance of summer back. For now I am 'tinkering' and polishing when time allows. the million dollar question is did I buy in haste and make a big mistake or was it a lucky break?
Well for once it is a good result. Both my wife and I are smitten with the car despite the early issues. Given more time I would have worked through the car and fixed the issues before we left...but where's the excitement in that..after all I have recovery insurance! The problems I have had to deal with can almost certainly be attributed to the last year of inactivity the car has suffered and then being thrown into a 2000 mile Euro tour.
I now have a very competent cruiser...it's not a sports car in the Boxster sense, but so enjoyable on the last short break we are going to do it again in the next couple of months - work allowing.
Yes we are very pleased with our little zed which we will continue to improve throughout our ownership...but that's half the fun of these hobby cars.
BMWVIN.COM - Online BMW Vin Decoder
Vehicle information VIN long WBACN#######15788
Type code CN12
Type Z3 2.2 (EUR)
Dev. series E36 (7)
Line 3
Body type ROADST
Steering RL
Door count 2
Engine M54
Cubical capacity 2.20
Power 125
Transmision HECK
Gearbox MECH
Colour DAKARGELB 2 (337)
Upholstery LEDER CLASSIC/SCHWARZ (R7SW)
Prod. date 2001-02-09
Order options No. Description 209 LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (25%)
243 AIRBAG FOR FRONT PASSENGER
263 LT/ALY WHEELS W MIXED TYRES
302 ALARM SYSTEM
314 HEATED WINDSCREEN WASHER NOZZLES
388 SOFTTOP BLACK
395 ROLL-BAR PROTECTION SYSTEM
398 SOFTTOP OPERATION, ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC
423 FLOOR MATS, VELOUR
428 WARNING TRIANGLE
441 SMOKERS PACKAGE
481 SPORT SEATS F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
494 SEAT HEATING F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
520 FOGLIGHTS
530 AIR CONDITIONING
669 RADIO BMW BUSINESS RDS
674 HIFI LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM HARMAN KARDON
694 PREPARATION FOR CD CHANGER
704 M SPORT SUSPENSION
710 M LEATHER STEERING WHEEL
719 SPORTS EDITION
785 WHITE DIRECTION INDICATOR LIGHTS
812 ENGLAND VERSION
818 MAIN BATTERY SWITCH
863 EUROPE/DEALER DIRECTORY
877 DELETION CROSS-OVER OPERATION
880 ENGLISH / ON-BOARD DOCUMENTATION
925 SHIPPING PROTECTION PACKAGE
Series options No. Description 345 CHROME LINE INTERIOR
853 LANGUAGE VERSION ENGLISH
