my 2000 steel grey 2.8 5-speed z3 roadster (with too many pictures)

[delvec]

The trunk wires I believe are for the optional CD Player. For the sway links...I little brute force taking them off by hand and putting them on just a little lube on the sway bar and a lot of twisting back and forth.

[ragged325]

Thanks delvec, that's just what I needed to know.

[ragged325]

I made some progress today. I replaced the sway bar links, then removed the SFBs using the 3533 tie rod tool. I used my fan clutch tools (see pic) which worked out pretty well. Putting in the new SFBs was pretty straightforward. I used a utility knife to cut away some of the rubber from the RTABs so that I could attach the 3533 tool to push out the bushings.

I screwed up and ordered eccentric RTABs though and so I can't put things back until I get the regular bushings.

I used a sawzall to get rid of my old diff bushing (which went better than I was expecting). I used the 3533 tool and a flat wrench (see pic) to push the new diff bushing in (hopefully it's level enough).

Since I couldn't put things all back together and drive the car, I slowed down and decided to use up the rest of the POR-15 I had from before to touch up some stuff. I think because I'm forced to slow down things will turn out a little nicer than otherwise.















I like that my car isn't collectible or in mint condition and so I don't feel the need to make things perfect. I've been super busy at work and so I just wanted to get things done without using too much time.

[IndianaRoadster]

Well done, and rust resistant coating is always a good thing.

[KBH22102]

I’m in some pain looking at the stress on your driver side upper brake line. Did you consider just removing the subframe from the car?

[ragged325]

I’m in some pain looking at the stress on your driver side upper brake line. Did you consider just removing the subframe from the car?

You're right about the brake line. I've never done this job before and got my instructions from the video I posted earlier. The guy in the video didn't run into that problem, but he had a M-coupe (and so I suppose it's a little different).

I will say that for a novice weekend mechanic this whole job is not that simple or easy. It seemed to me from searching that dropping the whole subframe (with trailing arms attached) with one jack as a one-person job has its own challenges. I would like to replace the brake lines in the next year.

[KBH22102]

M’s route the rear brake line differently with only a soft line running from the caliper to a hard line in the wheel well, similar to the front setup. Non-M’s have two soft lines, one at the caliper and the other near the middle of the subframe as shown in your picture. I’d be a little concerned that if the brake line was supporting the entire weight of the subframe that the line might be damaged and leak, which could be potentially pretty serious.

[ragged325]

That's good to know about the brake lines. I think you have a good reason for concern. I will say that the brake lines never supported the entire weight of the subframe. One of the trailing arms is putting tension on the line, but most of the weight of the trailing arm is on the wheel hub (that's resting on a block or ground).

I don't think it's a good thing and my plan was to do the SFB job properly, but I wasn't expecting the binding of the line (after watching the video). I'll definitely keep an eye on the line. I think it may make sense to do the repair the way suggested in the video with the plan to replace the brake lines at the same time (but I'm not an expert).

I had a chance to take a closer look at my diff mount and noticed a small crack (not good). I took the heat shield off and looked at the welds there (which seemed to be fine).

[ragged325]

I installed very hard poly bushings (75D) which are a fair bit harder than the Powerflex black. . .

I don't know much about the durometer ratings for polyurethane and so I googled to find the durometer for the Powerflex. I found out this graphic that explains the different "Shores"/scales for hardness and how the Powerflex are 95 on Shore A which seems to be about 45 on the Shore D scale.



My car came with brand new Uniroyal tires. The alignment was so bad the old tires must have been destroyed and the guy probably couldn't sell the car without replacing the tires and bought the cheapest tires he could find. Uniroyal apparently makes two grades of tires and mine are the cheapest.

I saw Jeremy Clarkson reviewing the first BRZ/FRS and he said that the car came with the tires from the Prius. You would expect him to complain about the lack of grip, but he seemed to think it made sense because without too much power having less grip meant they were more fun.

Anyway, I keep seeing this ad for Kumhos and while they're not great tires, I don't really need great tires. Any new tires for me should be an upgrade. I just need to get my wife on board with this.



Here's a pic showing the old alignment (look at the steering wheel position and then look at the tires).

[KBH22102]

Good tires are worth it, both from the safety and performance perspective. If you really want to enjoy the handling improvements from suspension upgrades you just spent hours installing, get yourself a set of 200 TW tires.

[IndianaRoadster]

+1 200 TW tires.

[ragged325]

Sticky tires sound like fun, but I've spent over $13.5K so far in the last year and a half (not counting gas, insurance and DMV fees) on what is basically a toy car that I don't really need. I know I come across as cheap about fixing everything, but it all adds up. I might just hold off on getting new tires though until I come across some extra dough.

[cyberman]

Sticky tires sound like fun, but I've spent over $13.5K so far in the last year and a half (not counting gas, insurance and DMV fees) on what is basically a toy car that I don't really need.

Does that amount include the original cost of buying the car? I went through a similarly expensive exercise in ridiculousness with my 96 4-banger and am up to somewhere north of $20k including the cost of the car. I still have a $650 visit to a paint-less dent repair shop and a new clutch on my wish list.

In retrospect, I think I got a little excessive. For example, when I was Dremeling off the old paint on the calipers, it caught the brake pad wear sensor lines on two of the wheels and mangled them a bit. I ordered new sensors and the plastic clips that hole the wires. But they're still sitting on the shelf waiting until I have another good reason to reason to remove the wheels. There is plenty of meat left on the pads and absolutely no danger right now. A year ago, I would have replaced those things immediately, but now I'm trying to let reason, rather than emotion, rule.

For a cheaper tire, I like the BFGoodrich G-Force Comp 2s, but there are compromises. Still, at $140 each, they may be out of your range.

[IndianaRoadster]

When you stop to think about it, nowadays any dependable car with all new rubber hoses, bushings, brakes, fluids and running well will easily be north of $20,000. They're alot of people spending $25,000 for a good dependable car to get back and forth to work each day. It would make perfect sense for someone looking for a second car for just getting around to pickup a Z3 and do what Cyberman did and enjoy running those errands for the next 10 or so years.

[ragged325]

Yeah, I'm not really complaining about the money I've spent (which includes the cost of the purchase). At a certain point though, it would make more sense to buy a new Miata with all new parts and warranty (not that I prefer Miatas).

I'm not at that point yet. I can't afford a $35K weekend car (but maybe a $15K weekend car is doable).

[ragged325]

I was able to finish up everything over the weekend. Looking back, it was a lot more work than I was expecting. I should have disconnected the brake lines and that would have made things much easier.

I didn't get a chance to fling it around any on-ramps, but overall the car seems to drive about the same as before. The engine didn't hiccup when it was warming up and seemed to idle more quietly after the installing the rebuilt VANOS.

The ride was similar after the SFBs, but I did hit one rut in the road that seemed to rattle the car more than it would have before.



Thanks TexaZ3 for the tip about the nuts, etc..







I was able to go for a nice drive yesterday though and realized all of the hard work and money spent to keep this car running right is worth it.

[ragged325]

So I thought more about buying tires. I reminded myself that the idea for this car was to make a fun, weekend car on a budget. The Kumho tires are the perfect tires with that in mind.

These were $330 total ($363 after taxes). That breaks down to $62.5 per tire x 4 + $80 for installation. If I didn't get these I would have gotten Continental Extreme Contacts which would have been $350 more (which is half of what my new brakes will cost).

I read the reviews for these and they're pretty good. These have a 420 tread wear rating.





I've only taken the car to the shop to have it smogged and to get the top installed up until now. One thing I don't like is when they get grease on your steering wheel (which I don't blame them for).





I had a chance to drive the car more with the new tires and the new bushings and can say it drives a lot better. It just feels tighter and I feel more confident driving it harder.









I think I said there were going to be too many pictures in this thread.

[ragged325]

Zach/nevan let me know about a drive organized the by the SoCal Vintage BMW Facebook group and the La Jolla Independent BMW shop. The drive started in Oceanside and went through Julian and ended with a BBQ in La Jolla. It was nice meeting Zach and the drive was super nice (turns out there are twisty roads in SD).





Talking with Zach I realized it was a problem that the front of my car scrapes on the ground when I go through big dips in the road. I didn't spend much time researching this, but decided the front springs were probably sagging after 22 years. My struts were Bilstein B4s that were apparently replaced by the PO (maybe because of the scraping).



I bought new strut mounts and pads also.





I was hoping the old springs would be shorter from sagging to confirm that I found the problem, but they look the same. I did go on a quick drive last night though and it didn't scrape on a dip I'm familiar with after a couple tries. I bought new "bellows" with bumpers, but I suppose my setup doesn't use those.





So this next part may be a little controversial. I decided to drill small holes at the ends of the tears in my diff mount with the hope that it will stop the tear from ripping (we'll see???)



I also found some issues with bad welds that I didn't notice before. I sprayed everything with Fluid Film (no pics) and hopefully with the new SFBs, things will stay intact. I didn't catch earlier from Zach's posts that he was able to prep his trunk on his own for the Randy Forbes kit and hired a mobile welder (very affordably) to weld it all (so that's a possibility in the future).

[nevan]

Glad that you made it out to the vintage drive. Nice meeting you in person!

[ragged325]

So I haven't needed to do much to my car for a while. It did need a new Interstate battery and I decided to replace the cracked radiator shroud and buy a proclipusa.com phone holder (it's nice).

I have been driving my car once a week or so and really enjoying it.

Being super-busy at work and needing money for taxes has kept me from cleaning up the brakes the way I planned. I thought if I refreshed them on a budget I could get something done. My plan was buy rebuilt front calipers ($30 each), replace all of the hoses, rotors and pads. I got ebc redstuff ceramic pads for the front and Akebono ceramic pads for the back.

Also, I had bought a Turner clutch line a while ago that I wanted to install. I was planning on replacing the clutch delay valve, but it looks mine was already deleted (which is strange because the car was otherwise stock).










It's been really slow going. I saw grease leaking out of the rear wheel bearings and decided to replace those also. I got stuck trying to get my axle out and ended up getting a hub puller to force it out.

Now I'm stuck trying to get the axle back in. I've cleaned/lubed the teeth and tried pushing it in with a long flathead screwdriver and a hammer (but it's still got over an inch to go).

No one on youtube seems to have trouble getting the axle back in, but mine doesn't want to go in???

[nevan]

I have an axle puller if you want to borrow it. It makes the job a walk in the park. So let me know.

[ragged325]

I have an axle puller if you want to borrow it. It makes the job a walk in the park. So let me know.

Thanks Zach, that's great. I have the bearing kit and the hub puller kit shown below. I'm not how a tool can get it back in?? I think if I can get it another 1/2" I'll be able to get the axle nut on and pull it in when I tighten the nut?







I'll add that I watched a bunch of videos on stuck axles and this is the one that worked for me (in case anyone else has this issue).

[nevan]

It would've been more helpful to show what the tool looks like in my previous post. Apologies, Brian!



PXL_20231108_172850362.jpg

[Hoyt Clagwell]

'nice video. Concise and to the point.

[IndianaRoadster]

I had a real hard time getting mine out, wish I could have seen this when I did mine. As far as putting them back together, I took my Dremel tool with a wire brush attached and cleaned the splines, both shaft and opening. I used some anti-seize and it slid right in. I think the trick is getting all rust and corrosion off first.