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

[gfish]

Hello there...

As mentioned earlier in this thread, my wife and I have owned two Z3s. The first one had high mileage when we purchased it. Plus it had so many door dings that we nearly walked away from the initial purchase (25 to 30 per door, plus some on the quarter panels). We took it to a shop that specializes in paintless dent removal. For $400, they removed every single door ding. In addition, we found that there were very few areas where the paint was actually damaged. Several areas had paint left by the offending car, but those blemishes came off with a big of rubbing with my thumbnail. We touched up the few that actually had paint loss. Admittedly, I am a perfectionist. But the end results exceeded my expections. One note...not all paintless dent removal places are the same. Some specialize in PDR. Others do it as a side line. Make sure you pick a shop that specializes in this type of work. The guy that did our car had nearly 30 years of experience with PDR.

[Boomster]

When the OP replied about the black rubber-like insulation preventing the PDR guy from addressing his ding, I searched a couple of Youtube videos to get a better idea of what he was referring to. There is indeed a large piece of insulation glued to the inside of the outer door panel. However, I could see that the top of that insulation only reached to about two inches below the indentation in the sheet metal for the exterior door handle. The ding in my door is on line with the lower part of the door handle, so I think a competent PDR guy should be able to to access it without a problem. We'll see......

[s8ilver]

Also, the 1/4 window glass was loose which I couldn't figure out. It turns out there's window caulking holding it in which had become detached (???). I cut out most of the old caulking with a razor and put in fresh 3M caulking, clamped it overnight and it seems great now.

Caulk?!! The quarter window is held in with three bolts, not caulk. If it's loose, tighten the bolts!

Also, that vapor/sound barrier (BMW calls it "sound insulating door") comes off fairly easily in one piece. It was a plastic sheet on early cars and foam later on (split in 04/98). Start at one corner with a heat gun (maybe even a hair dryer) on low and work your way around. You can remove the foam in one piece without tearing it if you go slowly. To reinstall, reheat the adhesive and work your way back around a little at a time.

[ragged325]

Caulk?!! The quarter window is held in with three bolts, not caulk. If it's loose, tighten the bolts!

Also, that vapor/sound barrier (BMW calls it "sound insulating door") comes off fairly easily in one piece. It was a plastic sheet on early cars and foam later on (split in 04/98). Start at one corner with a heat gun (maybe even a hair dryer) on low and work your way around. You can remove the foam in one piece without tearing it if you go slowly. To reinstall, reheat the adhesive and work your way back around a little at a time.

That's all great. I get that the frame for the quarter window is bolted to the car door, but it seems like the glass is connected to the frame by stuff like, "3M 08609 Window-Weld Super Fast Urethane". I could be wrong and I wasn't able to easily find discussions of other people having the same problem.

I'll say that the stuff I used didn't hold and when I washed the car yesterday, the quarter window glass was loose again.

[s8ilver]

Oh I see. Cheap enough part used; I'd just replace it with an eBay item. If you can get the glass entirely out, could try a re-glue if you can get all the old adhesive removed but that sounds like more effort than I'd be willing to give it.

If you ever end up replacing, don't forget about the shim stack (usually two washers) that sets the height of the window. I just used a small bit of the foam membrane butyl adhesive to stick the washers together and over the lower hole in the door so it's easy to line up the lower bolt.

[ragged325]

Oh I see. Cheap enough part used . . .

Thanks, that's all good advice.

[ragged325]

pics: imgur.com/a/X0selxE

I've been super-busy with work and haven't been able to get as much done with the car as I would like, but . . .

I managed to change the fluid in the transmission. I had to buy a couple more jack stands and it was a little tricky, but I didn't drop the car.

I bought a cable to read the car's computer using the INPA software diagnose the airbag light. I was able to use deoxit electronic connector cleaner to clear up one of the two error codes. The 2nd code is from the mat at the bottom of the passenger-side seat cushion. I know it's controversial, but I ordered a $9 emulator to tell the computer there's always someone in the seat. I'm not planning on driving with small children/people in the car and one of my life goals is to never sell this car.

I bought a used 1/4 window on ebay for $36 and installed it. I also bought a better used speaker grill. The leather near the inner door pull had shrunk so that yellow foam was exposed. I had some black felt with adhesive backing and cut a piece to fit in there (turned out okay).

I took a better pic of the seat belt guide fix. I had bought a $7 "sweatband" on amazon for the power steering reservoir a while ago and took a pic.

I bought a small Alpine amplifier that plugs into Alpine receivers. I really like the Alpine receiver in my work truck and since they're only $100 I'm going to buy one for the Z3 soon. I'm not sure the amplifier will fit behind the receiver, but I'll find out.

I tried to re-charge the a/c, but for some reason the refrigerant didn't want to go into the port??

I just have to fix the door ding (which seems challenging), but then I should be done with all of the things that bothered me about the car when I got it.

I may re-fresh the shifter stuff down the road and so I took a picture to see how difficult it is to work in there. The shifter feels great now, but maybe it could be better?

I found a pin-hole leak in the coolant expansion tank and so I'll have to get a new one. I'm going to try to stop pouring money into the car soon though and just enjoy driving it.

[ragged325]

So I ordered BMW clear front side marker lights from Latvia (not Lithuania) on ebay on November 8th and they arrived today! They were $65/pair and worth the wait (IMO)!

pics: imgur.com/a/rWuWIuA

Also, I want to say thanks to all of the members here who have commented in past/current threads that I've been digging through. I would not have been able to get any of this done without the help I've received from here.

[s8ilver]

Well done. Sometimes it's the little stuff that really changes the car. I've purchased two sets of the OE Euro clears from Latvia and they're SO much nicer than the aftermarket clear crap sold domestically. Glad eBay sorted you out on the window. I'm really curious how your original failed.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

[spazzyone]

So I ordered BMW clear front side marker lights from Latvia (not Lithuania) on ebay on November 8th and they arrived today! They were $65/pair and worth the wait (IMO)!

pics: imgur.com/a/rWuWIuA

Also, I want to say thanks to all of the members here who have commented in past/current threads that I've been digging through. I would not have been able to get any of this done without the help I've received from here.

Can you pm me a link for these? I only see them for 65/each with shipping. No pairs.

I wanted a replacement amber one because of a crack but haven't been able to find any in decent condition. Ended up with some depos for now but I don't like the fitment.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[ragged325]

Can you pm me a link for these? I only see them for 65/each with shipping. No pairs. . . .

After I ordered them, the seller messaged me to say that BMW was backordered and asked if I wanted a refund or if I wanted to wait for them to be back in stock. I've seen that they've bumped the price to $96/pair since then.

I got mine from eurotrade777 on ebay.

https://i.imgur.com/rTVuGc1.png

[cyberman]

Why not these for under $60 as it includes both the front and side marker lights? See https://www.ebay.com/itm/15299074198...0aAnwsEALw_wcB

[s8ilver]

Why not these for under $60 as it includes both the front and side marker lights? See https://www.ebay.com/itm/15299074198...0aAnwsEALw_wcB

Those crack just by looking at them. Depo cheapo is what I call them. When you get your hands on Euro OE clears, you'll never buy those eBay versions ever again.

[cyberman]

Those crack just by looking at them. Depo cheapo is what I call them. When you get your hands on Euro OE clears, you'll never buy those eBay versions ever again.

Ouch, just ordered them. I guess I won't be able to look at them... Maybe a mirror would work.

[s8ilver]

Ouch, just ordered them. I guess I won't be able to look at them... Maybe a mirror would work.

Maybe I got a bad batch, but that plastic is not what I would call automotive grade. I think they just melted packing plastic together and called it a lens. They never sat tight in the bumper either. The description does say "excellent quality" though, so there's that.

[ragged325]

I pulled out one of the original yellow indicators that came with the car and noticed it's not that different from the DEPO clear one (see pic). The clear BMW indicators are shaped differently to stand out and are not flat like the DEPO/yellow BMW indicators. I think the smoked DEPO lights are probably nice enough.

pics: https://imgur.com/a/7o7sHhY

I went to install the seat mat emulator and noticed something with the wiring connector going from the seat mat to the module. I noticed before that the clip was broken. When the clip is not broken you can only connect the wires one way, but the way it was broken allowed the wires to be flipped the wrong way. I was able to put it back the right way and clear the airbag light. I had to go back and clean-up the passenger seat belt tensioner wiring to clear that code again.

For the first time since I've had the car the airbag light is not on (and I didn't have to use the emulator)! There is no way anyone could get this to work without the write-up from "328 Power 04" (huge thanks!!)

I had to connect the amazon INPA cable I bought to the 20 pin cable that came with my ebay SRS reset tool, but overall using INPA is not as hard as it may seem.

I ordered my new Alpine receiver and it should get here Wednesday and ordered my new Mahle coolant expansion tank. The guy at the convertible top place I went to me told me to use Connolly Hide Care on the leather door panels and so I ordered some of that too.

The mobile dent guy who didn't want to fix my door ding told me to go to his bodyshop. I'm a little nervous about fixing it myself and so I went today to get an estimate. At first he said $915 but then he said he could give me a discounted price of $815. Now I'm not so nervous about fixing it myself. There's no way I'm paying $815 to fix a door ding. I just have to wait for the weather to warm up some.

The paint on the car is in okay shape, but there are plenty of small issues. Even if my repair doesn't turn out perfect, it will be fine considering the overall condition of the car. I'm mostly planning on using the car to drive down to the beach to watch sunsets anyway (who cares if the paint isn't in brand new condition?)

[gfish]

You need to find another paintless dent removal guy. $815 for one ding is a total rip off. As mentioned earlier, my guy removed 50-60 dings and charged $400. The repairs were made in about 4 hours. He's been doing PDR since 1990.

[ragged325]

You need to find another paintless dent removal guy. $815 for one ding is a total rip off. As mentioned earlier, my guy removed 50-60 dings and charged $400. The repairs were made in about 4 hours. He's been doing PDR since 1990.

$400 sounds like a really good deal for that much work. I'll take better pictures of the ding at some point, but my problem is that the paint is damaged and so paintless dent removal won't work. I get that when people have a bodyshop fix a dent they expect it to be perfect when it's done. The bodyshop guy said they would take the mirrors off the door and do the whole door.

Watching some painting videos I've seen that blending clear coat isn't the right way to go, but the paint on the rest of my car isn't perfect and so I'm just trying to get the door in the same condition as the rest of the car (not perfect). Our '13 Honda Odyssey got hit by delivery drivers twice a year ago. One time we got their insurance info, but not the other time. One time I polished out the scrape and bought a $65 rear view mirror on rock auto, but the other time I had to buy an ebay fender and paint it myself.

My point is that in the end I saved about $2K doing it myself and so I think knowing how to paint a car is a nice skill to learn.

So, not a big update. Pics: https://imgur.com/a/5swrLbA

My coolant expansion tank had a pinhole leak and I bought a new one. The new one came with a place to plug in wires on the bottom and the old one did not have any wires connected to it. I'm guessing later models had a coolant level sensor?

The car came with a JVC stereo that was fine. To me it felt cheap/plasticky, didn't sound that good and I didn't like the way it looked.

My '13 Ford F-250 XL (base model) came with an am/fm radio and when I put in an Alpine receiver it sounded really nice. I thought adding an Alpine receiver to the bmw would be a cheap upgrade. It honestly sounds better, but not great. You can pick from about 10 colors (or make custom colors) for the display, but I don't like the way the matching colors (red and amber) look. It has a "black out" feature that turns off the display 3 seconds after you touch the buttons (which is what I'm using). The stereo does feel better (more solid) when you push the buttons than the old one.

My car came with Rockford Fosgate speakers screwed into the kick panels with wood screws. If I wanted to make the stereo sound better I suppose I would need to upgrade these, but I think I'm just going to leave it the way it is.

The leather in the car is in pretty nice condition considering it's 20 years old (the old seat leather was really beat up/damaged). I used Connolly Hide Care on the leather (dash, doors, etc.) and I'm really happy with how it worked out. The instructions said to use it sparingly, but I used a lot. I was afraid the leather would feel oily after, but if anything it feels a little waxy.

[gfish]

Two suggestions on paint. For small chips and door dings, try Dr. Color Chip. Our first car had hundreds of rock chips on the hood and front bumper. We tried Dr. Color Chip. The results were good. Many of the chips went away altogether. Others were still there, but not noticeable. Here's a link... www.drcolorchip.com.

For larger repairs, try aerosol spray paint from automotivetouchup.com. My front spoiler was badly mangled. I used a sander to reshape it. Then I used a three step paint system (primer, paint, clearcoat) from Automotive Touchup. The results were great! I also used it to make repairs on my back bumper. Not sure if I would try it on large sections like repainting the entire hood or trunk lid. But for smaller, out of the way areas its a great option. And the paint matched perfectly.

[ragged325]

Two suggestions on paint . . .

I've seen that Dr. Color Chip stuff on youtube and it looks good. I've got a ton of rock chips on the front of my car. I have the touchup paint from automotivetouchup.com already, but it leaves a raised spot where the chip was fixed.

I used the automotivetouchup.com spray paint on the front bumper and it's good stuff. My opinion so far is that the SprayMax stuff is a little nicer. The sprayer seems to make a finer mist when spraying based on their clear coat that I used. We'll see. I already bought their paint for the door ding repair. I has to be warm to paint and it's supposed to be 74 degrees here tomorrow and so I think I just need to go ahead and start.

I was going to leave the front speakers alone, but I changed my mind (see pics). I ordered some $70 Focal speakers from ebay. I'm not sure if baffles help, but I'm going to give that a try.

pics: https://imgur.com/a/9tuG9eL

[gfish]

Good luck on your project.

With Dr. Color Chip I would usually have a divot after the first application. It usually took a second application for a level paint surface.

[ragged325]

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[ragged325]

So for now, I've chickened out on fixing my door ding. I need to do more research before sanding off the paint.

I'll admit that I should have done more research before throwing money at the problem of my not great sounding stereo. I don't really understand the Harmon Kardon 2 ohm trunk amplifier setup. I figured that because my car came with an aftermarket receiver and speakers, the PO must have bypassed the HK system. I thought they must have re-wired the stereo to go directly to the speakers.

I've learned a couple things after trying to install the new Focal speakers I bought. First, the Rockford Fosgate speakers that were in there are $130 on amazon, get decent reviews and probably work properly.

I think the RF speakers might be better than the Focal speakers I bought to replace them. The magnets on the RF speakers seem beefier and I like that they don't have a post for the tweeter going through the middle of the driver.

The problem with my stereo seems to be that the little tweeters at the top of the passenger door are blown out (I thought they were disconnected). I'm planning to take the door off and unplug the wires to the door pod speakers (unless anyone has a better suggestion).

What I really don't understand that I should try to figure out is how the trunk amplifier works? If I connected a small Alpine amplifier to my Alpine receiver and that is sending an amplified signal to the trunk amplifier, shouldn't that create a problem?? I thought you could only send an un-amplified signal to an amp?

My problem is that as I'm winding down on fixing up this car, my focus is fading and I'm rushing to get things done too quickly. I added another picture of the stereo display.

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[Corellian Corve]

A tip on touch-up paint. Go to your local paint store, or maybe even a NAPA. Bring your color code, and have them mixup some touch-up paint with the clear already in it. You'll get a pint of paint for ~$30 which will last you forever, be much higher quality, and a better paint match to boot. I stopped buying any sort of touch-up online or otherwise and just have my NAPA mix me up a pint.

[z3forlife]

Most aftermarket amps will take either a line level (rca input) or speaker level input. I found a component speaker that had a tweeter that fit the midrange hole in the door pod. A clean amp will improve the overall sound more than anything.