Z4/M Owners Thread

grudas · 14 Jun 2017 at 23:08

9designs2 said:
But that's been the way of people tuning cars for decades, you pour lots of money in to make something unique and get little of the outlay back. It's been going on since the cars were produced, no one every claimed it made a logical business case.
Adding a supercharger will given better low end torque anyway, the example above appears as an attempt to make a unique car not a clone, fair play to the chap.

Exactly, modifying a car will never make financial sense. It's all for fun as a hobby. I'd rather drive something that's unique/my own than a brand new stock of the showroom floor car.

Prophet · 15 Jun 2017 at 09:49

9designs2 said:
But that's been the way of people tuning cars for decades, you pour lots of money in to make something unique and get little of the outlay back. It's been going on since the cars were produced, no one every claimed it made a logical business case.
Adding a supercharger will given better low end torque anyway, the example above appears as an attempt to make a unique car not a clone, fair play to the chap.

He attends many shows throughout the year and hosts a Z4 meet every August at his farm where over 100 cars show.

Without doubt his car attracts the most interest from others, especially those who wish to modify their Z4's as he's done just about everything you can to his.

Uncle_Gravy · 16 Jun 2017 at 16:22

MOT is up soon and know it'll fail on some type of Suspension component.

Been adding up prices for parts as I've decided to keep the car another year so while I'm at it might as well give the suspension a refresh since my last loan payment is at the end of this month (YAAAAAAAAAY!!!) so more money to actually spend bringing this lovely car up to standard.

So far I've had some Meyle HD Bushes changed but I've still got some knocking so not sure what it'll be until tomorrow when I have the car checked.

So far I've looked around for prices on B4 shocks, Suplex Springs, top mounts etc, but I'm not sure what brand to go for on Control arms, if someone can kindly help a Z4 brother out.

Car is a 2004 3.0i

Cheers.

Invertigo · 16 Jun 2017 at 18:50

I'll run you through what I've changed and brands on mine:

Shocks are Bilstein B4
Springs are Suplex
Track rods Lemforder
Control arms Meyle HD
Drop links Meyle HD
OEM arb bushes
Front top mounts Lemforder
Rear top mounts Meyle HD
RTAB Meyle HD

Think that's the lot?

grudas · 16 Jun 2017 at 18:56

Uncle_Gravy said:
MOT is up soon and know it'll fail on some type of Suspension component.

Been adding up prices for parts as I've decided to keep the car another year so while I'm at it might as well give the suspension a refresh since my last loan payment is at the end of this month (YAAAAAAAAAY!!!) so more money to actually spend bringing this lovely car up to standard.

So far I've had some Meyle HD Bushes changed but I've still got some knocking so not sure what it'll be until tomorrow when I have the car checked.

So far I've looked around for prices on B4 shocks, Suplex Springs, top mounts etc, but I'm not sure what brand to go for on Control arms, if someone can kindly help a Z4 brother out.

Car is a 2004 3.0i

Cheers.

Check the sway bar nuts! Mine was knocking when I got it and it did not fail the MOT two days before..

knocked over bumps etc but was fine when driving otherwise.

Couldn't find the issue my self but the garage noticed it on the ramp and torqued them up. Might be worth swapping the bushes on that while you're under there as it's dead easy.

9designs2 · 16 Jun 2017 at 21:14

Where do you find best place to order the parts from?

New tyres were fitted to the refurb wheels today... looking quite nice for an old girl

Uncle_Gravy · 16 Jun 2017 at 21:15

Cheers guys.

Uncle_Gravy · 17 Jun 2017 at 12:17

Had the car checked out, Track rods need changing *Phew* easy on my wallet this time

Lemforder the quality choice to go for?

Invertigo · 17 Jun 2017 at 12:20

Lemforder or Meyle seem to be the top two OEM replacements, won't go wrong with either of them.

Uncle_Gravy · 17 Jun 2017 at 12:25

Tidy, i'll have them ordered today, cheers again.

badgeruk · 18 Jun 2017 at 09:01

We'll I hate car parks again. Scratched the underside of the front splitter on a curb that stuck out for no reason while trying to get passed a badly parked pointless mini Suv thing.

Noise it made I thought I had ripped something off at first so thankfully its not that bad. I'll sand back what you can see and touch it up at some point.

Who ever designs car parks clearly do not drive and never have.

grudas · 18 Jun 2017 at 09:07

badgeruk said:
We'll I hate car parks again. Scratched the underside of the front splitter on a curb that stuck out for no reason while trying to get passed a badly parked pointless mini Suv thing.

Noise it made I thought I had ripped something off at first so thankfully its not that bad. I'll sand back what you can see and touch it up at some point.

Who ever designs car parks clearly do not drive and never have.

Yup same here... One car park near work is impossible, either wheel or front bumper

Invertigo · 18 Jun 2017 at 22:31

Today turned into a nightmare, was replacing the struts and happily working along, came to release the N/S/F hub from the strut and the bolt bloody shears off!

With the positioning of the break, and the fact I have no welding tools anyway, I'm quite tempted to just sod off trying to remove it and just picking up a replacement part from a breakers yard. Done some reading and it seems the exact same hub/backplate combo was used on a lot of the E46 variants so should be reasonably easy to get one.

Just a pain that it brought the whole days work to a halt! Although in fairness, it was bloody baking and I was soaked through with sweat working in the sun...

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jun 2017 at 15:59

going over a speed bump at 10 mph and it still scraped the bottom of the car. same speed bump earlier in the day i went over at 5mph and no scrape.

what do you guys do when it comes to speed bumps? i literally have a queue of cars right up my behind as i literally crawl over them.

grudas · 19 Jun 2017 at 16:07

Psycho Sonny said:
going over a speed bump at 10 mph and it still scraped the bottom of the car. same speed bump earlier in the day i went over at 5mph and no scrape.

what do you guys do when it comes to speed bumps? i literally have a queue of cars right up my behind as i literally crawl over them.

Sideways..

so one wheel mounts it before the other.. lifts the front up and you're good. Slow but works.

Uncle_Gravy · 19 Jun 2017 at 16:11

Psycho Sonny said:
going over a speed bump at 10 mph and it still scraped the bottom of the car. same speed bump earlier in the day i went over at 5mph and no scrape.

what do you guys do when it comes to speed bumps? i literally have a queue of cars right up my behind as i literally crawl over them.

I don't care who's behind me, I slow right down so I don't end up taking my bumper clean off, besides speed bumps are designed to slow people down so I'm slowing down

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jun 2017 at 16:15

Uncle_Gravy said:
I don't care who's behind me, I slow right down so I don't end up taking my bumper clean off, besides speed bumps are designed to slow people down so I'm slowing down

it's the fact i need to go like 5mph, whereas other cars just fly over them at 20mph+. i've seen civics flying over them at like 40mph by young drivers.

i did notice a porsche convertible the other day crawling over them too. so it seems like it's just something you have to do with every low down sports car. i'm always checking my mirror paranoid about the guy who is right up me when i brake to a crawl to go over them.

grudas · 19 Jun 2017 at 16:21

Psycho Sonny said:
it's the fact i need to go like 5mph, whereas other cars just fly over them at 20mph+. i've seen civics flying over them at like 40mph by young drivers.

i did notice a porsche convertible the other day crawling over them too. so it seems like it's just something you have to do with every low down sports car. i'm always checking my mirror paranoid about the guy who is right up me when i brake to a crawl to go over them.

Thing is, my car doesn't really touch the speedbumps? Only one road I know where it scrapes.

Maybe a facelift front bumper??

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jun 2017 at 17:15

grudas said:
Thing is, my car doesn't really touch the speedbumps? Only one road I know where it scrapes.

Maybe a facelift front bumper??

i've had mine scrape a few. so i've learned i just need to crawl over them and this usually means it's alright. i decided the other day to go a tiny bit faster and it scraped again. no big deal but it's just the car behind me usually likes to get within touching distance ignorant of the fact my car cannot go over them at 25+ mph

badgeruk · 19 Jun 2017 at 17:21

I just go slow over them. Driving to my nans in Catford is good fun doing 5mph everywhere and being overtaken by everyone. Some speedbumps do scrap, some don't depends on the bump and normally its the badly maintained ones that do (looking at you Catford). Had to go slow over them in the FR as well so I'm used to doing it now and don't care what people behind me think.