new to me, '98 Z3, 1.9, 5 speed, dunkelgrün

[eric1ono]

Hello all,


It's been awhile. I wanted to start a new thread to introduce my car and keep a log of what has been done to her. This is my second Z3. I started a similar thread for the first one here: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-Montreal-Blue

As you can tell, the new one is very similar to the old one. There's a good reason for that. The old one has been a very good car and near perfect for what it has been asked to do which is become a fun daily driver for my daughter. Then why, you would be right to ask, would I get another one? The blue one has been a very good car, but she's getting on to nearly 150k miles. That alone isn't the end of the world as my e39 528 wagon has ~225k miles, but the body has little dings here, there and yonder. The interior could use some work, and just alot of niggling things. In addition, my daughter is close to finishing up college and will be moving which means I can no longer be the mechanic on call, so I asked her if she wanted to keep the Z3 or move to something else. After some thought she said she preferred to keep the Z3 over anything else so I started looking around to see if there was a cleaner starting point. I searched around, off and on, for a few months and came across the subject of this thread up in Asheville with less than 65k miles on it, and it seemed to be in very good condition. We drove up, test drove it and worked out a deal that I felt will ultimately require me to spend less money on to get to the same condition.

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The day we got her, on the drive back home, I drove my car and my daughter drove the Z3. We ended up running through a very heavy downpour and my daughter reported that all was dry inside so that was a good start. She commented how it felt like a new car to her. The shifter bushings were nice a tight and everything was just that much more clean and operating properly. She had also recently test driven a new Fiat 124 for fun and said it felt much closer to that than her blue one as far as overall tightness.

As with the blue one, I have kept the car for the first few months (basically as long as I can stretch it out before she starts complaining) to see how it feels, and what needs addressing. First thing was new tires. I didn't catch the build code for the ones on the car when we got it, but I could start to see telltale signs of dry rot. After that, there were many similarities to what I first did to the blue one. I put together my list for FCP which included water pump, thermostat and hoses. The temp gauge was a bit random at times, sometimes struggling to get up to full normal temps on a cold morning. Fan belts were certainly in need of being replaced. The seat were also sliding far and aft during braking and acceleration so new delrin spacers were ordered. Everything else on the car seemed pretty much good to go.

Oh, the cruise control did not work, but more on that in a minute. The car came with heated seats, which the blue one did not. It hasn't been that cold so I haven't used them yet, but the light comes on the switch. The one thing the green car didn't come with, that I found myself missing was the OBC. The blue car had that, and, while it isn't a primary function of enjoying the car, I, and my daughter, both utilized it and missed it while driving the green one. So a big benefit of having 2 of the same car parked next to each other is the ability to swap parts. I started digging into what it would take to swap the OBC into the green one. I wasn't sure at first but wanted to give it a go. I knew I would need the turn signal stalk as that is what cycles through the functions on the OBC so I started there and compared the receptacle plugs and wires and was happy to see they looked the same. I moved to the display itself next and was in for a rude awakening…the plugs for the OBC and the clock are different. At first I tried to trace the wires back as far as I could go to see if I could swap the harness out, but that proved impossible as the wires just disappeared in a mass of other wires heading towards the front of the car. I was about to throw in the towel, but did one more search on the topic and found a thread that said to fish around behind the console and the OBC plug should be down there as all the Z3 harnesses were the same (at least for a given model). So I went back out and within a minute of digging I found the magic plug. I was very happy. Before installing the OBC, I actually took it apart and got the screen isolated and used some polishing compound to get rid of all the scratches on it. Looks really nice now and works as it should. The only other part I had to transfer over was the outside temp sensor. The receptacle plug for that was also present on the green car.

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Regarding the cruise control, I swapped the unit out under the hood, but that didn’t fix anything. Since I had the steering column covers off while working on the OBC, I swapped the cruise control stalks and bam, I had cruise control. I’ll clean up the other stalk and get cruise working again on the blue car later.

see next post for more info as I am limited on photos per post...

[eric1ono]

The green car came with it’s original tape deck (C33, I believe) which worked ok, but I had a spare CD43 that I had collected for my M635. Since it was age appropriate for the Z3, I dug it out of the shed and plugged it in. When I did that, the screen said “Code waiting”. Another quick search told me that meant the unit was locked from too many code attempts. The solution was to put the car on a battery tender, and turn the key on (but not start the engine) for ~90 mins. I did this, and when I came back, I had the correct message of “Code_ _ _ _ _”on the screen. Next step was giving the local BMW dealer a call and getting the code from him? While I had him on the phone I unlocked the stereo and was ready to go.

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continued...

[eric1ono]

To complement the new to the car stereo, which was supposed to be a better head unit compared to the tape deck, I put an order in for the Z3 kit from Bavsound. I have never used their products before, but seen their ads for a number of years and they seemed legit based on some forum searches. The kit included a new tweeter for the door (the other door speaker is reused), new speaker in the kick panel and new speaker behind your head. Installation was pretty clean. They had some decent instructions, and I also looked up a few others regarding door panel removal. While I had the door panel off and working on the tweeter speakers I took that as an opportunity to remove the metal grill cover as it had some surface rust on it and otherwise marred a clean interior since it is in your line of sight as you glance at the side mirrors and whatnot. I separated the grills from the plastic surround, carefully and cleaned them up with a fresh coat of flat black. After putting it back together, I was very pleased with the results. I found a thin fabric under the grills which had deteriorated and was the cause of the rust as it absorbs moisture and just sits next to the metal grills. So I removed the remnants of the fabric. The only part of the Bavsound instructions I felt was lacking was in connection to the rear speakers. The factory speakers have 4 relief slots for 4 tabs in the speaker housing. The Bavsound speakers have 2 relief slots to lock into the speaker housing. That means 2 tabs are not able to fully retract which means when you are trying to screw the retainer ring back on the speaker housing inside the tiny area under the roll bars, the ring tightens up very early on the 2 unretracted tabs so installation was a pain to say the least. Once I figured this out, I trimmed the 2 tabs a bit so that the ring screwed on more easily and installation went smoothly on the second one. I am not an audiophile, and the Pavlovian effect may have been in full swing, but I thought everything sounded clearer and more responsive compared to the original setup. I have no complaints about their product offering.

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continued...

[eric1ono]

While the door panels were off we tackled the window sliders as they were dragging just a bit. They were actually pretty decent looking, but we still lubricated every rail and rotatable joint.

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I got my order in from FCP and started working on the cooling system and accessory belts. Part of the water pump flange broke off while trying to utilize the screws to push it out of it’s housing, but I finally got it out and the thermostat broke when pulling it out, but, again, I got it all out cleanly. After inspection, both parts (as I assume nearly everything else is on the car) was original to the build date so it was certainly time for a refresh.

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Next we pulled the seats out and worked on the slider spacers. It was pretty straightforward following Pelican parts handy tutorial. Gave everything a good cleaning and then lubricated the hell out of it. The previous owner had installed a set of seat covers on the car (the driver’s bottom cover had some loose stitching, but I think the leather is ok. My daughter actually liked the covers as they matched the interior colors fairly well and were nice an clean. I am not a seat cover guy, but even I thought these seat covers were not offensive. The main thing that really gave them away was the bottom portion was installed where it overlapped the seat controls on the sides a bit which also allowed it to slide around when entering or existing. Since I had the seats out I took the chance to loosen the covers for the seat controls and tuck the seat cover behind/under the controls cover. When reinstalling I actually ran the control cover screws through the seat cover. After doing all this, the bottom seat cover is now tight on the seat and the controls are clear and look as they should.

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The headlight covers were actually nice and clear so I just masked off the area and gave the a, hopefully, protective coating of the headlight clearcoat from Maguire’s.

I have nearly checked everything off of my immediate to-do list. I ordered a couple of new keys from the dealer as the only key that came with it was the valet key and should get them in today or tomorrow. I have an appointment for an alignment and general check up of the underside of the car later this week. And I plan to install a GROM-BT3 so that the radio will have Bluetooth capability. If anyone has any experience with that, I’d appreciate some feedback.

Sorry for the long intro, but I have been more busy working on the car and wanted to capture everything before I forgot it.

So far I have zero complaints and am feeling pretty good about our new addition to the family.

Thanks,

Eric

[Vintage42]

While the door panels were off we tackled the window sliders...

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...

I think it would have been better to not cut the white plastic liner, as it keeps water out of the car, relying particularly on bottom half of the seal of the butyl tape. See leak photo in #9 in the zroadster link at bottom below.
https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sh...5&postcount=20
I peeled mine upward and resealed with fresh butyl tape -- https://www.amazon.com/3M-08620-Wind...08949236&psc=1.
The next time I went into the doors, I replaced the sheet plastic with the semi-rigid molded foam used by later Z3s -- See #19 in:
https://zroadster.org/threads/door-membrane.1177/

[eric1ono]

Thanks for the feedback and links. Good points on the liner. I didn't cut the bottom edge and before putting the door panel back on, I did re-tape the liner back together with some water proof tape and checked that the black mastic seal was still good. I do like your suggestion about replacing with the newer foam next time I am in there.

Thanks again,

Eric

[Vintage42]

... The next time I went into the doors, I replaced the sheet plastic with the semi-rigid molded foam used by later Z3s -- See #19 in:
https://zroadster.org/threads/door-membrane.1177/

That link can be buggy. Sometimes I get a error message saying "Too many connections."

Maybe this direct link to post #19 will be more reliable - or may take a few tries:
https://zroadster.org/threads/door-m...77/#post-49289

[eric1ono]

I had almost forgotten that I had ordered the door handle gaskets from Shogun. They came in yesterday, and I had them installed in about 15 mins. Make sure you push the locking tab ALL the way towards the front of the car to unlock the covers. Once done, it was an easy swap and this car certainly needed them.

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