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Thread: Z3 OT: What is your "thing"

  1. #1
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    z3

    Z3 OT: What is your "thing"

    This started as a response to the living on the edge thread, but thought this could be it's own thread.

    I've noticed car guys, or even quite often people who just drive cars, have things. What do I mean by that?
    I mean I've gotten flat tires and blowouts in almost every car I've owned, I've got more "running out of gas" stories than I care to admit, more "BMW cooling system failures" than anyone should ever have to live through and I get throttle position sensor failures (the problem that plagued my S54 swapped coupe for a couple years) on cable driven E36 M3's.

    My dad isn't really a car guy, but his thing is broken glass. His Acura has glass foglights, and if his windshield isn't broken, you can bet one of his fogs is.

    My friend seems to have a battery thing, he has like 5 cars with one good battery between them. Every time he buys a new one or charges one up nicely, it seems to last for a week before he sells a car with "his only good battery" or it just goes bad somehow.

    One of my oldest things is running out of gas... that goes back years

    The first M Roadster I bought I bought sight-unseen from an ad here on bimmerforums. The car was somewhere between LA and SF, roadtripped out with a friend to get it. On the way home I was naive in assuming the gas tank would progress logically, in a fairly linear way, like every other car I have ever driven. So it came much to my surprise when that half tank got to the light pretty quickly after detouring off the main road for some fun. Suddenly that fun meant we were miles from the nearest gas station on a hilly mountain road that was not conducive to hypermiling.
    At the time I smoked, so I lit up a cigarette, carved those canyons, then as soon as we got back to a highway my needle was almost at the 0 mark. Luckily it was mostly downhill, I put it in N and literally coasted maybe 20 miles... when I was pulling off the offramp once we finally found some gas, the car started bogging and running out of gas. I limped it in and put 13.x in the tank (13.4 iirc). That was the most I have ever put in a Z3. I thought it was a 14 gallon tank until I later read on here it wasn't

    Driving home from California another time in my gf's Chevy, I was happy that the broken gas gauge started working for no reason on this trip. She always just wrote down when she filled up and whatnot. The gauge started acting like a gauge recently though so I thought it was functional again.
    I don't know how many of you know the drive from LA to Phoenix, but there is a huge stretch where there is literally nothing. I'm mindlessly driving along in one of these "middle of nowhere" zones when I feel the car stumble a bit. A little more stumble. Girlfriend feels the stumble and asks me if its ok. Of course, I say... I mean after all the gas gauge is still at half... like it has been almost two hours. Aw crap. I start accelerating slowly at this point, trying to build up as much speed as I can with what gas we have left, get that sucker up to maybe 85/90 before it starts bucking real bad, I throw it in N as I see city lights up ahead. "We are out of gas, aren't we?" asked the girlfriend, who I'll point out I had been dating merely 2 months at this point. "We are fine..."

    Let me tell you now, it is truly amazing how good that car is at coasting. My speed slows to 50 and I move out of the highway lane, emergency flashers on, driving on the shoulder. Girlfriend folds her arms in the "I know I'm right" way and starts leering. We coast for what feels like an eternity. Words are not spoken, as if the movement of the soundwaves will slow the car down. I get to a highway offramp rolling at 20mph. The engine has been long dead by now, I try to crank it to give it some gas up the offramp, nothing. But the little sucker keeps rollin... 15mph as we start rolling up the offramp... 10mph 1/2 up. I swear we were like a teeter totter by the very top, I'm leaning forward in my seat, rocking it trying to get it to go as we have lost all momentum by the peak... aaaand the car just starts to roll forward. We made it to the top of the offramp and now we are rolling to a gas station. I get us there. Its premium only. Car wants 87. I throw in a gallon and drive across the street. Whew.
    "I told you the gas gauge didn't work"

    Do you have a "thing"? What is it?

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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Boiling Springs, PA
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    '02 Z3 3.0i 5 speed
    Replacing 02 sensors. That's my thing.

    Here's a saga I bring up occasionally on this board that pretty much hits all the weak spots of our cars....



    "Took a real fine girl out in my ///M last night. The one-in-a-million kind you want to take home to Mom. I always love picking up ladies in the roadster. Impresses the heck out of them.

    "James Bond car I see" she says.

    And I'm like "I'm SPYIN' some loving myself".

    So she gets in and tells me her last bf had an S2000, which is nowhere as nice as the ///M, and I explain that while it's a nice car, ya gotta decide "Am I a HONDA owner, or am I a BMW owner?" I explained to her that I appreciated things of the finest quality, and that's why I drive a Bimmer, and that's why I'm with her. She ate it up.

    I also explained about the low torque on those high rev Honda engines. "The S2000 is half the price, but not even one quarter the car." She just ate it up.

    Anyways, I'm about to start the car and she's like "Is that a mouse?" And I'm like "no babe, that's just the clutch. Squeeks all the time in these cars, but that's cuz GM makes the tranny. Ya just can't depend on the big 3 anymore...That's why I buy German. Besides, this is the ultimate DRIVING machine, not the ultimate CLUTCHING machine." She laughs.

    So the top's down (top of the car, not hers) and we take off, and her hair's going all over the place, so I tell her "there's a scrunchie in the glove box." She ties up her hair and is like "how do you close this thing properly, it keeps rattling" and I'm like "oh, that rattles all the time. This is the ultimate DRIVING machine, not the ultimate glove box machine. Want to fix the rattle? Turn up the stereo"

    So she laughed while I turned up the stereo and took a tight corner at a good speed and showed her what a well engineered German machine could do.

    "Can I change this CD, this one keeps skipping" she says. "Aw, don't worry babe, the CD player skips in all these cars. If you want a soft ride and a stereo that doesn't skip, buy an S2000. These German cars are all about feeling the road. The suspension on these cars are so tight, there's not a CD that can keep up. Besides, this is the ultimate DRIVING machine, not the ultimate car music listening machine."

    It started to rain a tiny bit so I pulled over and put the top up. She got out and stretched for a minute and fixed her hair and then she's like "what's wrong with the window, you can't see through it" and I explain that with convertibles, they're more maintenance and the window yellows. "Ya, but is the stitching supposed to come undone?" and I'm like "It's just stitching babe. BMW doesn't advertise the ultimate convertible, they advertise the ultimate DRIVING machine, which this is. Besides, this car should be driven with the top down, and when the top is down, it really doesn't matter." She smiled and laughed and up went the top and off we went to makeout point.

    So then she says "How do you adjust the seat, this seat hasn't locked right, I don't think" and I'm like "Don't worry, the bushings in the seats are real loose, so they're like sitting in a rocking chair, but don't worry, this is the ultimate DRIVING machine, not the ultimate SITTING machine" she laughed and then I took a nice S curve and she was all smiles again.

    So we're on our way to makeout point, and I'm revvin' her a little higher than normal, and all of a sudden we hear this sound from the engine, and it's like total failure! I coast to the side of the road and we get in front of the car and she's like "I think we hit something, look at all those paint chips" and I'm like "no babe, the paint chips real easy. Enviro paint or something. Besides, this is the ultimate driving machine, not the ultimate paint job"

    "So what's wrong" she says. And I'm like "Well, the ///M, which is a good fifteen to twenty grand more bling than the Z, has a 15-20% engine failure rate in this model year. The engine has just blown. I knew it was going to happen, I was just hoping it wouldn't be tonight"

    So she's says "you mean you paid an extra 20 grand for an engine that blows up" and I'm like "look babe, when the engine doesn't blow up, this is the ULTIMATE driving machine. BMW doesn't advertise the ultimate ENGINE. It's all about the drive."

    So the rain has stopped, and we're on the side of the road, and I'm never one not to take advantage of a bad situation, and I say to her, "ya know, this is a nice spot" so we cuddle up and next thing we know she's kinda leaning on the trunk and we're getting, er, a little unchristian when all of a sudden B*A?N
    "What was that" she says, and I look, and all the rocking has thrown out the rear differential mount! Now the car is lying helpless, without an engine and an unmounted rear diff.

    "Man this car is cr*p" she has the nerve to say! Can you believe she said that? So I explain how this is the best looking car on the market, and it handles amazing, and is the most fun car on earth to drive when the engine doesn't blow, and the diff doesn't fall off, and the stereo doesn't skip, and the clutch doesn't squeak, and the window doesn't yellow, and the glove box doesn't rattle, and the waterpump doesn't explode, that this is the ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE and that she is totally blind if she doesn't love it too. She obviously doesn't appreciate fine German engineering. Like, what a totally dumb girl! It's hard to believe she wasn't blonde!

    So anyways, she calls her ex bf, and he comes and picks her up in his S2000, and when that high revving engine squeals as they take off, I'm left there waiting for the tow truck, and all I can think is "sure, of the millions produced, not one V-TEK engine has ever failed, but still, what kind of TOTAL FOOL would pay that much money for a H O N D A ! ? ? ! ? ! ? ! !"

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Houston, TX
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    Some of us will eat up that story, but it's well told! Enjoyed it all
    -Abel

    - E36 328is ~210-220whp: Lots of Mods.
    - 2000 Z3: Many Mods.
    - 2003 VW Jetta TDI Manual 47-50mpg
    - 1999 S52 Estoril M Coupe
    - 2014 328d Wagon, self-tuned, 270hp/430ft-lbs
    - 2019 M2 Competition, self-tuned, 504whp
    - 2016 Mini Cooper S

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
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    Annapolis, MD
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    98 M Roadster
    Wheemen. They just don’t understand. Can’t live with them can’t live without! I can totally relate to the story cngizbleeving! Just hope this doesn’t happen with me and my wife after I convinced her to let be by my 98 m roady with 190k gentle miles! Wait did I just feel a shutter? No must have been my imagination!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
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    2000 Z3 M-Roadster
    Hilarious story! Well said.
    Tony
    "You can't sign away negligence."

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Denver, CO
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    My Cars
    1999 Z3M, 1999 2.8 Coupe
    Epic story! @cngizbleevng

    These cars are definitely a love-hate sort of relationship. When everything works, I love my Z's and wouldn't trade them for anything. When they break, I want to set them on fire.


    My thing is dead batteries.

    I went through 4 of them in my last car (Audi), the 3rd of which was a brand new Varta from the dealer. It died in less than a month; I brought it back and plopped it on the service counter for an exchange. The service manager was clearly irritated. He had that "how could our perfect part we sold you be faulty?" sort of look on his face. He went to pick it up, but it was a bit too heavy for him so he drug it across the service counter instead. The nails on a chalkboard sound left a nice 3 ft gouge in his counter. I was slightly laughing (on the inside). He tested the battery (after I waited for an hour or so for them to "charge" it), and agreed it was a dud. I had already explained that I had the battery on a charger overnight and it wouldn't hold a charge. Another hour or so goes by and they produce a fresh battery. By this point I had helped myself to all the free snacks and beverages that an Audi dealer has on hand for the poor saps waiting for their cars. He then asks me to pull my car around so they can install the battery (at no charge...lucky me!). I didn't know what to say. I was like "dude, how did you think I brought you this battery, in the car that requires this battery to start?" I one-handed it off the counter (yeah, I work out) and went on my way. I put that thing on a trickle charger and it was fine from then on.

    I drive my M quite infrequently and tend to forget to unplug my Bluetooth OBD connector quite often. I've come out to a dead car a couple times, but have since rectified with a trickle charger.

    The Coupe died in a bank parking lot after work on a Friday on the coldest day of this year. That was fun...ended up getting a jump about 40 minutes into the 45 minute AAA wait. I had something like 11.8 volts after a 10 minute stop at the bank.

    Went out to start the Lemons race car last weekend (it's been sitting since last summer). I forgot to turn the kill switch to OFF and had to use my buddy's riding mower to start the car. He got so sick of changing mower batteries that he popped an Optima Yellow in it. It has about 10x the cranking amps it needs.

    I would kill a Tesla if I ever owned one.
    Last edited by s8ilver; 04-25-2018 at 05:29 PM.
    Nathan in Denver

    1999 M Roadster, VFE V3 S/C, Randy Forbes Reinforced, Hardtop, H&R/Bilstein, Apex PS-7, Supersprint
    1999 Z3 2.8 Coupe, Headers, 3.46, Manual Swap, H&R/Koni, M Geometry/Brakes, M54B30 Manifold, Style 42

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
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    Kyoto
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    E92 M3, E36 M3 evo, Z3
    Plucking door pull handles. Literally.

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