Sics Consolidated Faded Moderns Thread - 2004 BMW Z4 2.2 & 2005 BMW 330i

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

It'll be fine. They're much better than all that VAG shit.

[paulplom]

Surely making a loss doesn't matter? It's your hobby and keeps you busy.

[SiC]

Last weekend Mrs SiC and myself went away for a couple of days to her friends Sheppard Hut in West Wales. Weather was great, so naturally I took the Z4.

Boot was amply big for such a journey.


Met a friendly chap named Craig.


Saw some fallen down castles 



Went to some sheds with old farm machinery.




 
Visited a dam


 

Went to the beach 

 
Travelled through some fantastic scenery 

 
 
All in all we covered almost 360 miles. Car computer reckoned 39.2 MPG which is a bit lie according to a tank fill. 35.2mpg is more accurate. Which to be honest is pretty damn good. A lot of cruising but a few spirited drives on some Welsh curvy roads.
 

Whole trip was nearly faultless. Rear third brake light is falling off again. I have in hand a cheap eBay special to go on.


Two codes stored but not triggering an EML.

I wonder if this (which I'm pretty sure is caused by an air leak) is making the MPG calculations out.
 

This code is a bit more weird. It's coming up as thermostat map control open circuit. Basically, because BMW love to complicated things, this has a heater in the thermostat to open it up earlier. Why? Well apparently it does that under full throttle scenarios to prevent knocking. Bloody overly complex things. 


I went into a local key shop for a new key to be cloned. Apparently you can't do that with this key as it's encrypted and you need to plug into the OBD2 and program a new key. 

[SiC]

Ordered some Mannol oil, a Mann filter and sump plug for the 330i. Also received today a faceplate from eBay to take a later CCC iDrive unit.

Now on the hunt for a reasonably priced iDrive. I want one of the later ones with the extra 1 to 8 buttons on the front (hence the different faceplate). Not so much for those extra buttons but more because these later hardware revisions apparently are far less to die like this one has. Afaik it's Hardware revision 10 onwards (mine is a v9.8). Most are v12.x that I'm looking for.

Usually they seem to be around the £150+ price point on eBay with most around £175-200. Seems a lot for an old car head unit but I guess they're such an integral part of the car and they fail so often, there is a high demand for them. Ideally I'd want to spend the lower end of that because I'm cheap but also there is a good chance it'll break again. That said, most don't seem to even sell at those prices...

Going to have a hunt around for someone breaking a 3, 5 or 6 series locally and seeing if I can pick one up at a more reasonable price.

Tyres on Friday then I need to order a new set of front pads and possibly might chuck a set of discs on it too. I have read that BMW spec pretty thin discs to keep the unsprung mass low. However this means the discs don't tend to last more than one or two sets of pads. Could be a load of bollocks but I wouldn't put it past BMW.

[SiC]

Found an idrive CCC unit for £125 on eBay. Should be arriving early next week.

Screenshot_20240523-184214.png (1.33 MiB) Viewed 338 times

One of the main reasons was that I couldn't alter the clock nor check the oil level. However I was subsequently told you can do it through the dash. I had to Google it as didn't even realise there was extra up/down controls on the stalk. I only saw the BC button on the end of the stalk.


1200ml of oil later

 
Fresh oil arrived today. Except now I know the service counters, it's not due an oil change service for another 16k miles.

 
Topped up the PAS fluid. This looks to be leaking from the container. Google says it can be the cap. 

 
Going on the warnings on the aux belt, I had a look at the tensioner. Should I be concerned it's slightly off the pulley? I was intending to do this but I've been patiently waiting for another 20% eBay code before spunking out on a aux belt, tensioner and pulley set. 
 

Belt spray or oil leak spraying after hitting the belt?
 
Tyres were supposed to be fitted today. Got a call this morning from Halfords (tyres on the drive) to say their van had broken down and needed to be rescheduled
So hopefully will be done Sunday morning now. 

[christine]

AS needs fixing SiC ...

[SiC]

The passengers side of the Z4 keeps getting it's floor wet. After a spray with a hose pipe, it was clear that water is leaking somewhere between the door membrane and door card into the cabin. 
So door card off. 3 bolts and a firm tug.



Speaker grilles hide ... nothing. Surprising considering the stereo is surprisingly good! (At least compared to my Boxster)


Ah someone has been here before...


 
Spraying the hose back on it found a few areas where water is tracing down the membrane and coming out this side.



 
That last one should be plugged by the plastic trim. Speaking of which, it appears the ones on the right are all smashed to bits.



Found some that weren't as long but the right size nonetheless. I think I bought these for my Civic a few years back. Not sure how I managed to even locate them...

 
Pulled off all the previous repair sealant and put some fresh automotive sealant down. Not sure how well this is going to work but I'll give it a try. I might find out how much a door membrane is, if available and if not a silly price, then replace the whole thing. 
 
While the glue was drying, I put my eBay special middle brake light in. The old one was a genuine unit but they do what they always do and crack up. I believe this should have had a red one originally.


New one is red. I had a choice between red or clear as a replacement. Personally I think it looks better red as there is so much red on the back of the car with the light clusters already.

[Hooli]

Lights should always be of colour. Clear back lights and indicators always look worse

[SiC]

Parts arrived earlier


Air intake out. This is why BMWs get killed so often by flood water. Intake is right into that grille.



Detensioned the belt with a ratchet and T60. You can see the belt starting to come off here.


Tensioner is a E14 and pulley a 16mm


Absolutely caked in oil down there. No doubt the oil filter housing gasket is leaking. I'll get that done on the next oil change.


Pulley and tensioner in and torqued up. Tensioner is held in with an aluminium stretch bolt. 25nm and 90 degrees. Feels disconcerting doing that one up. Pulley is just a normal bolt - 40nm iirc. 


Putting the belt on took the longest part of the job. I forgot the routing and needed to consult a few YouTube videos on what way it went on. Took as long as the rest of the job to get that on!

 
Started up 


Then put the air intake bit back on.
 
Old tensioner is date coded 2005. Belt looked in good condition too but if the numbers are the date then that's original at 2005 too. 


Fin.

Mega easy job and only took like 45mins including getting that damn belt back on. 

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I would pressure wash the front of the engine before buying bits. 05 should be the early magnesium cam cover. A fiddle to get off, plus more bastard aluminium stretch bolts. They generally leak down the sides and onto the exhaust so if it isn't, leave it alone. Vanos solenoid O rings are a favourite but cheap and easy. Ditto the oil filter housing gasket plus the oil cooler to oil filter housing gasket. More aluminium bolts.

For a near 20 year old car it's doing very well.