A few questions to help with preventative maintenance

[TMair]

Hello again.
Ok so I am trying to make sure everything on my car, a 1996 Z3 with 205K miles on it, it runs just fine, however ever since I have owned the car the airbag light has been on, the other day I pulled the seats to tighten some seat covers that I have on it, when I was putting in the passenger seat I noticed that I had one extra plug that I did not unplug I am guessing this is the plug for the airbag sensor, I have ordered the tools to reset the light, is there anything I need to know about doing this?

I would like to replace the sub frame bushings in the rear, but do not know what I need, or where is the best place to get them, can someone give me a link?

I also need to replace the bushings in the drivers side seat I will do both seats, can someone point me in the direction to get what I need for that?

As I understand it the amp is the week link in the audio system in these cars, I have replaced the head unit because the cassette player went junk on the factory one, since I have the new unit already wired in if I want to bypass the amp is it possible to just go to the amp and connect the correct wires together to get the lead from the radio going to each speaker? The radio has a built in amp.

Thanks in advance!!

Terry

[solimans]

Hi Terry, your in the right place. More searching and reading will get you there...

[Mr Bingley]

I would like to replace the sub frame bushings in the rear, but do not know what I need, or where is the best place to get them, can someone give me a link?

Rear subframe bushings: http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/item...bfrmmount.html

Results of advanced search of this forum restricting results to thread titles and using "subframe bushing" as the search term: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...archid=6422225

Ok so I am trying to make sure everything on my car, a 1996 Z3 with 205K miles on it, it runs just fine, however ever since I have owned the car the airbag light has been on, the other day I pulled the seats to tighten some seat covers that I have on it, when I was putting in the passenger seat I noticed that I had one extra plug that I did not unplug I am guessing this is the plug for the airbag sensor, I have ordered the tools to reset the light, is there anything I need to know about doing this?

Results of advanced search of this forum restricting results to thread titles and using "seat bushing" as the search term: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...archid=6422229

As I understand it the amp is the week link in the audio system in these cars, I have replaced the head unit because the cassette player went junk on the factory one, since I have the new unit already wired in if I want to bypass the amp is it possible to just go to the amp and connect the correct wires together to get the lead from the radio going to each speaker? The radio has a built in amp.

Now you see how the search function works, try it yourself.

[TMair]

I'll give you the seat bushings, but for the radio I have read several threads on on installing/fixing the radio never came across anything relating to jumping the wires at the amp was hoping maybe someone had tried it.

When I click on the link provided for "Seat Bushings" it comes up with "Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms." So I guess its not just me.

For the sub frame bushings pretty hard to do a search when "bushings" comes up, and "rear" in every thread listed about a thousand times and never together. I did do a search on google for "1996 BMW Z3 REAR frame bushings" after wading through all of the front end components and bushing that come up and finally getting to the rear sub frame bushings you find that there are black ones, blue ones, red ones, and even green ones, some are rubber some are urethane, I can only guess that the different colors are different compounds, I have no idea which are the ones that are best, so I come to a "knowledge base" hoping to get a little help, and I get greeted with "I can't be bothered do a search". The reason I'm here is because I did a search and found nothing but confusion.

Lets just consider this thread closed, I'm sure I can figure it out, was just hoping to make it quick and simple.

[raubritter]

Subframe bushings- the favorite for most of us has been Ireland Engineering 'green' bushings:

http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/item...bfrmmount.html

Some have used Powerflex and other brands too.

Seat bushings- Doug Whalen makes these (and cool shift knobs among other things):

https://www.whalenshiftmachine.com/p.../seat-bushings

Not sure about jumping the wires, don't see why you couldn't repurpose them but you'd have to check the wiring diagrams. I will say that in my car, pretty much all of the stock speakers disintegrated (except maybe the ones behind the seats, not sure if they are intact or not). My car is a 2002, so yours are even more likely to have fallen apart. So you'll probably need to replace all of them...

[z3forlife]

http://www.wedophones.com/Manuals/BM...g%20Manual.pdf

If you look here you can probably figure out which pins to jump at the amp to eliminate it.

[Tigershark48]

Mr Bingley,
None of your search results would open on my iPad.

TMair,
I have the same problem with searching forums. I have the best luck using google search with "bimmerforums" included in the criteria.

Raubritter,
Do all factory speaker disintegrate due to age or just ones that have been blown out by excessive volume?

[z3forlife]

Our stock speakers are paper coned and use foam surrounds. They’ve likely had it. The foam disintegrates. Find some nice poly replacements and they’ll last longer. Our amps can’t produce excessive volume only excessive distortion on the low end. Mids & highs aren’t too bad.

[TMair]

Subframe bushings- the favorite for most of us has been Ireland Engineering 'green' bushings:

http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/item...bfrmmount.html

Some have used Powerflex and other brands too.

Seat bushings- Doug Whalen makes these (and cool shift knobs among other things):

https://www.whalenshiftmachine.com/p.../seat-bushings

Not sure about jumping the wires, don't see why you couldn't repurpose them but you'd have to check the wiring diagrams. I will say that in my car, pretty much all of the stock speakers disintegrated (except maybe the ones behind the seats, not sure if they are intact or not). My car is a 2002, so yours are even more likely to have fallen apart. So you'll probably need to replace all of them...

Thank you for the help, one of my problems was which rear bushings to get, I noticed that there are a million colors, and compounds to choose from so this helps a lot.

The seat bushings are not what I expected so that helps a ton as well, I thought they would be round like a roller or something.

Yes My speakers are crackling so I have a set to replace them, just arrived today as a matter of fact they are for the kick panel speakers, the ones in the doors seam to be working fine for the moment, and I don't have speakers behind the seat so don't have to worry about those.

Thanks again!!!
TMair

[raubritter]

Raubritter,
Do all factory speaker disintegrate due to age or just ones that have been blown out by excessive volume?

ummm....yeah.... Not sure? Good point though, as I was not sparing with the volume...

The stock speakers have paper cones with foam surrounds. The foam rots away into pieces. I think that is material/age related, but I guess higher volume could help it fall apart quicker.

With my sub not only that happened, but also some of the tiny delicate wires to the speaker itself (the part with the magnet) frayed and broke off. That might have been volume related, I don't know. Maybe if you're easier on the volume the speakers will last longer

[TMair]

Thanks for the link!!

I have the Bentley manual and I figured it would have the wiring diagram but I don't know never looked, I just didn't know if it was advisable to do it this way or better off the leave the wires and amp in tact or run new wires directly from the head unit to the speakers, I just thought it would be so much easier to jump the wires where they plug into the amp and bypass the amp from there.

Thanks again for the help!!

TMair

[raubritter]

Thank you for the help, one of my problems was which rear bushings to get, I noticed that there are a million colors, and compounds to choose from so this helps a lot.

The seat bushings are not what I expected so that helps a ton as well, I thought they would be round like a roller or something.

Yeah, the Irelands are a good compromise between the too-soft stock rubber and the too-hard compounds. If you are removing the subframe to do this, you should take the opportunity to replace the trailing arm bushings with rubber stock-type ones (most advise against poly for these). Yours are probably gone by now and it would be more difficult to do those with the subframe in the car. Might as well go ahead and do it when you do the subframe bushings:

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...em-33329061945

The seats are a complicated issue. The way they attach is not as straightforward as you would think and there are multiple possible problems. The bushings I linked to address one problem that can happen, but not the only problem. Here is a discussion:

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ious-next-step

Here is another:

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...t-Rocking-quot

[solimans]

New bushings / Sway bars / End links
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sha...5&share_type=t


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[Tigershark48]

Thanks for the speaker responses. My speakers don't seem to have any sound issues. The car is a 2000 with 20k miles. I'm also thinking a certain amount of sunlight can get into the speakers, so if the car was kept outside, they could have more deterioration. Mine has been covered in a garage when not being driven. All things considered, my speakers may still have a lot of years left before falling apart. I'm not even sure how much I'll use them with most, if not all, future drives with the top down. Probably more enjoyable minus music.

[TMair]

When I replaced my speakers yesterday both of the kick panel speakers, the only ones I replaced, both looked just fine, no cracks, or deterioration, but I do know they would crackle with any amount of volume that I used to hear the music.
The ones I replaced them with, RockfordFosgarte primes, they were recommended on one of the BMW forums, they seam to work better.

Thanks to everyone for your comments, and suggestions, it will be a great help.
Terry

[Vintage42]

The seat bushings are not what I expected...

Here are some DIYs and a photo of the bushings in their carriers. The old bushings on the left have turned to goo and left a gap that causes the rocking.
https://forums.bimmerforums.com/foru...5#post27698955

Bushing carriers.jpg

[jaaa]

I almost never search inside a forum for information. You get scads of info with seemingly little correlation. Much better to use plain google with a little thought in how to put the right words down.

[Tigershark48]

Agree. Same on other forums. Google with forum name thrown into search description.

[spfd72]

I too have a MY 2000 M roadster. Acquired last fall at 56k miles, one owner. I didn’t think sound was awful but lacked in clarity. I looked at the kick-panel speakers thru the grills with an led flashlight and noted I didn’t see much surrounds. I pulled the kick panels and the speaker foam was powder. I replaced them with Polk 5.5 inch which made a significant improvement in sound (along with replacing the sub with the kicker 6.5 which is well documented (and I think is NLA as new). Next I’ll replace the 4” rears and see how much better the sound improves, if any (but while not audiophile by any means, it’s really decent now).

[Tigershark48]

Interesting, especially that there was no crackle or noticeable distortion. So, maybe they all disintegrate with age. I'll be checking mine as well.

Our great room had compact Sonys hanging in each corner about 9' up. I replaced them with compact Bose and the improvement was dramatic.

Thanks for sharing.

[raubritter]

In my case, there was horrible crackling and distortion once the speakers failed. First to go was the sub, so I turned off the bass from the mix, but eventually as others failed it became so bad that the sound system was unlistenable. Otherwise I never would have started replacing speakers.

I have now replaced the sub and kick panel speakers and this had made a huge improvement, but at least some of the door speakers are also shot and so they add nasty distortion and noise into the sound. I need to replace/disconnect them... The ones behind the seats seem to still work.

Personally (and I'm not an 'audiophile' but I am a musician), given the noisy convertible environment, I had no problem with the sound quality of the stock system while it worked. But I like rock music, not bass-heavy music, so that probably helped my opinion of it.

If your speakers still sound clear (try panning the sound front-to-back, left-to-right, treble-to-bass to isolate individual speakers to get an idea of their health) then I wouldn't worry about replacing them. In my case, if I wanted to listen to music (and I did), there was no option but replace the speakers.

[Tigershark48]

Good point. I'll change balance to test each speaker. we've only driven it one time about 80 miles so far with the top up in November when we bought it. We'll see how much we even want the stereo on with the top down.

[TMair]

Here are some DIYs and a photo of the bushings in their carriers. The old bushings on the left have turned to goo and left a gap that causes the rocking.
https://forums.bimmerforums.com/foru...5#post27698955

Bushing carriers.jpg

Thanks Vintage!!

[delvec]

Good point. I'll change balance to test each speaker. we've only driven it one time about 80 miles so far with the top up in November when we bought it. We'll see how much we even want the stereo on with the top down.

If your driving a Z....Stereo on with the top down is the only way to go!

[BostonZiggy]

If your driving a Z....Stereo on with the top down is the only way to go!

+1 ^ This!