Newbie Needs a Little help

[Truckeeskibum]

I just purchased a 1997 1.9L manual with 85k this past weekend.

Thank you to everyone who participates in this site. I learned alot about potential problems and how to deal with them while shopping around.

I need help with a couple of questions:

1) The previous owner did a partial cooling system overhaul at 80k. New water pump, hoses, belts, fan blade and the plastic coolant pipes along the block. It appears that the original radiator and overflow tank were retained. Should I be concerned about them ?

2) Is there supposed to be some kind of illumination light for the HVAC controls ? While driving home last night, I was constantly turning on the dome light to adjust things.

3) The car has the stock cassette/cd changer head unit with the changer in the trunk. The tuner works, haven't tried the cassette or CD player yet. This will be the first thing to get upgraded. When playing with the stereo controls I only hear sound from the front. What is the speaker configuration for this car. Are the speakers under the dash, or kick panels and doors only ? According to the VIN decoder, the car has the following stereo options.

S676A HiFi speaker system
S687A Radio preparation
S692A Preparation, BMW 6-CD changer I-bus

Thanks for any help.

[BladeRunner919]

Hi, welcome to Z3 ownership. I have a 1998 1.9 and did the cooling system overhaul last year. I did change the radiator, but that was just for completeness rather than any particular concern - it was cheap enough that I figured I may as well.

There are lights behind the hvac controls, but they are a bugger to get to, which is probably why the previous owner didn't bother!

There will be speakers in the doors, and there may be small speakers behind each seat (I think it depends on the year of the car), just below where the seatbelt emerges from the reel. I changed all my speakers and managed to put slightly larger than standard speakers behind the seats, but there's not a lot of room back there.

[Vintage42]

I just purchased a 1997 1.9... It appears that the original radiator and overflow tank were retained... Is there supposed to be some kind of illumination light for the HVAC controls... car has the stock cassette/cd changer head unit with the changer in the trunk. The tuner works, haven't tried the cassette or CD player yet. This will be the first thing to get upgraded. When playing with the stereo controls I only hear sound from the front. What is the speaker configuration for this car...

You need to replace the plastic radiator with tank. They are usually bought together. The spigot on the radiator can break and the tank can explode.

You need to replace the bulbs in the control panel.
https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sh...&postcount=102
https://zroadster.org/articles/bmw-z...trol-bulbs.65/
https://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8878

You have 5 inch speakers in the kick panels and little mid-range and tweeters in the triangular panels in the upper doors. That is all. For a first step upgrade, I just bought this:
https://www.crutchfield.com/g_410/Co...rs.html?tp=106