What have you done to your car today?

[Invertigo]

Replaced my cheap old halfords trolley jack with one from Costco, which I feel is going to save a lot of time in future! Twin piston, 470mm maximum compared to the old one with ~350mm max and single piston.

On a related note, jacked it up and found a small rot hole where there should be a bolt in my exhaust heatshield, so its just resting against the plastic trim and knocking into it. Might explain the rattle that seemed to develop a couple of weeks back!

 

[On Holiday]

Email to say new car comes on 1st or 2nd week of Sept, was hoping it'd be this week but I think the factory is/has been shutdown for a couple of weeks!

Probably gonna be in Berlin when it's ready to collect

 

[Invertigo]

What car? If it will only cost £200~ more to convert it, why not I say...

agreed.

It's a z4 pre-facelift.

do the hydro conversion if it's easy enough. Afaik just using e46 parts you can do it? will be a great selling point too!

After speaking to two companies that do rebuilds, and neither having any confidence in actually being able to fix the issue, I'm leaning heavily towards a conversion. The only issue I'm having at the minute is finding a reasonably priced Z4M intermediate shaft, the rest seems very simple to get locally.

Doing the math, I'm looking at around £350 with a mix of some used parts (pipes, reservoir) and some rebuilt (rack, pump), plus I'm anticipating £30 or so for all the required bolts, washers, gaskets etc. Compare this to paying £50 plus postage to ship my column off and it potentially not be fixable, then having to deal with this cost anyway, I'm leaning heavily I just converting it as the first port of call.

The parts drawings and guides online make it seem simple enough, knowing that I'll end up hitting some major issue though! The only issue seems to be fluid cooler mounting, from past guides it seems the E46 one won't fit as the radiator in the Zed is further away.

 

[grudas]

After speaking to two companies that do rebuilds, and neither having any confidence in actually being able to fix the issue, I'm leaning heavily towards a conversion. The only issue I'm having at the minute is finding a reasonably priced Z4M intermediate shaft, the rest seems very simple to get locally.

Doing the math, I'm looking at around £350 with a mix of some used parts (pipes, reservoir) and some rebuilt (rack, pump), plus I'm anticipating £30 or so for all the required bolts, washers, gaskets etc. Compare this to paying £50 plus postage to ship my column off and it potentially not be fixable, then having to deal with this cost anyway, I'm leaning heavily I just converting it as the first port of call.

The parts drawings and guides online make it seem simple enough, knowing that I'll end up hitting some major issue though! The only issue seems to be fluid cooler mounting, from past guides it seems the E46 one won't fit as the radiator in the Zed is further away.

eh good luck with that! I wouldn't have the balls to attempt this haha

afaik they have changed the rack a little in the facelift, would it be worth looking into the new revision?

 

[Invertigo]

eh good luck with that! I wouldn't have the balls to attempt this haha

afaik they have changed the rack a little in the facelift, would it be worth looking into the new revision?

I think this is the limit of my ability too, but in all honesty it seems a pretty straight forward swap. The upper column is kept, you just detach the electric motor from the column gear to prevent resistance. The rack fits the same way as the current one and the holes are already on the engine for mounting pump, pulley and reservoir. Literally just some piping to route correctly and a replacement shaft.

Looking at the work required to strip down the electric column to repair, this is child's play in comparison! Like I said the only issue may be the fluid cooler, so perhaps I'll end up fitting a remote oil cooler or similar to resolve this.

I already managed a pig of a job changing the control arms and trailing arm bushes, this can't be any harder, just a bigger job.

 

[GhostWKD]

The only mistake I can see is the price.

Genuine question, what's up with the price? Too high?

It's last year of the pre facelift TT, 76k miles, 2 owner car with FSH and just had cambelt/water pump done. Had a look around and for the money it seems pretty fair.

Sure to someone who isn't fussed about an older car with more owners/miles etc it may seem overpriced but otherwise think its priced fairly based on what else is around.

That said, not had enquiries yet (PH not the best place for such a car really) so maybe I gauged it wrong based on other ads etc. I'll probably drop the price a little and throw up an AT advert though as keen to get my driveway space back

Context reminder; https://www.pistonheads.com/classif.../audi-tt-roadster-1-8t-recent-cambelt/7626364

 

[Diagro]

Why? Just take the old pads out, inspect them and replace them if ok. Check the calliper bolts are tight and no movement or cracks in the disc.

Only incase there is something wrong, I will have a spare set to stick on.

If not they will live in the garage till it's time to change them

 

[mrk]

Following on from my earlier post and subsequent discussion, the Stabilus struts arrived today and it amazes me how BMW can charge over £90 for these when I got these direct from Germany for £38 shipped.

Before:

After:

 

[rodenal]

I'm sure, but not sure I have a tiny vibration through the steering wheel at idle.

Need to let it develop a bit I think, but other than engine mounts I can't see what would really cause it on an electric system. Odd

 

[Invertigo]

eh good luck with that! I wouldn't have the balls to attempt this haha

afaik they have changed the rack a little in the facelift, would it be worth looking into the new revision?

First parts have been ordered! Just keeping an eye out for a Z4M intermediate shaft now...

 

[grudas]

First parts have been ordered! Just keeping an eye out for a Z4M intermediate shaft now...

good luck! I'm sure it'll help it sell once the time comes! it's an awesome upgrade that I'd love to do but I dont really mind the steering in my coupe, nice for day to day and a bit too light for proper hooning.

 

[Gaygle]

Got a couple of new rear Pilot Super Sport's fitted

They discovered that one of my rear springs is broken

And the car only had an MOT 2 weeks ago which didn't pick it up

 

[MrKnifey]

Been tuning the MX5 myself, upped the boost and adjusted fueling to suit. Butt dyno says its around 230hp now.. Breaks traction in the dry in 3rd!

 

[Frozennova]

Been tuning the MX5 myself, upped the boost and adjusted fueling to suit. Butt dyno says its around 230hp now.. Breaks traction in the dry in 3rd!

How much boost/timing around 6800-7000rpm ? I can probably almost guess now the amount I've spent playing with mine

Tyres must be fairly garbage to break traction in 3rd at that power

 

[MrKnifey]

oh they are garbage! Ill pull the info off and fire it over when I get chance mate

 

[Diagro]

Great. One of my new control arms has a dead bush. Turns out they are oil filled.
Instead of paying for a new one whilst firstline "check if it's my fault".. I am ordering some whiteline uprated bushes to replace on both sides

 

[Will]

MOT and minor service (oil change/air filter) done on mine, no advisories on the MOT. Agreed to get it done as part of the sale, new buyer is collecting it from me on 31st August

 

[Conscript]

Got it back from the garage this morning \o/
New bumper, grill and bonnet and a nice fresh coat of paint. Gave it a clean and a fresh coat of wax, then took the opportunity to do a simple mod I'd never got around to. I removed the ugly black plastic numberplate mount and instead mounted the plate directly to the bumper. Neatens up the front end nicely

Spoiler: Before Pics, with damage

 

[Akagi]

Enjoy your £100 fine.

 

[Conscript]

Well spotted. Every single day I pass the same cars with dodgy number-plate fonts, spacings, borders, backgrounds and screws used to change characters, or with the plate sitting on the dashboard, all going seemingly unchallenged.
So I'll take the risk on a plate that is completely standard, but just 3/4 the size Know a few other owners who have done the same, and no one has batted an eyelid.