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

[SiC]

I don't really like BMWs mostly because of their image and fragility.

However if you want a powerful RWD vehicle which is decent to drive sportingly, there isn't many other options. Merc of this age are squishy to drive and even later ones you need something AMG before you can drive it decently hard around corners.

Almost everything remotely modern is 4 pot FWD in the UK. Unless you're spending a fair chunk of cash on something more exotic.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I don't really like BMWs mostly because of their image and fragility.

Both of yours are 20 years old though.

They haven't done badly.

[SiC]

As per about two weeks ago now, my 330i decided to do a typical BMW thing and start pissing out coolant. 



I managed to limp it home with a petrol can full of water and a 2 litre pop bottle a friendly car parts store gave me.


Thankfully being a top hose, it was nice and easy to get to. An Amazon Febi order later had a new pipe arrive the day after. Brilliant!


Easy peasy job to install.



I did remove the air box entirely for better access.


This was the old pipe. Broke off entirely without too much effort. Definitely not long left for the world. A bit shite it can fail like this.


All went swimmingly ... 


Except this bastard pipe that goes from the hose to expansion tank broke off. A stupid hard pipe that's like a foot long. Pretty sure it only exists to save BMW a few cents of extra rubber hose.


Problem is, there is a brass insert that gives it robustness when clamped down on. I did put the hose on the bare plastic bit and chucked another jubilee clip on. However I didn't have too much faith it would hold and not leak.


So I ordered a replacement. Febi didn't do one and tbh not many manufacturers did one either. Found one on eBay that was some cheap generic brand. 

Except after a week and a half I hadn't received it. eBay status was set to sent but no tracking number. I contacted the seller and got the response "oh sorry the post must have lost it". Bollocks - you didn't have it in stock and was going to drop ship from China once you had enough orders. Anyway I got a refund but that meant loosing the ability to give negative feedback. eBay is such a pile of wanks nowadays.

Fast forward to a few days ago when a Gates branded hose arrived from a big eBay seller (ace auto parts). Still got messed around as DHL said it was out for delivery but then an hour later messaged to say it was going to be the day after. But only a few more hours later it was deposited through my letter box...

It really felt like this car didn't want to be fixed!


5 min job to fit. Slightly different design as the old one had two bits of rubber pipe not one long hard line. Thankfully the hardline on this had enough flexibility that it could bend enough to reach the expansion tank. When it heats up, it does become softer though. So I imagine it reshapes once the hot coolant flows back through.


Speaking of which, bleeding this car was the easiest I've ever done. Because it's a BMW and unnecessarily complex, it has a fully electronic water pump. No mechanical pump whatsoever. What this means is that it can be bled without the engine running. And get this, it doesn't even need any diagnostic tools! Crazy for a German car. Basically ignition on, climate control to max temperature and push+hold accelerator pedal to max for 10 seconds. Then it spends 10 mins cycling the water pump to fully bleed to system automatically. Neat!


Also finally arrived after two weeks from Autodoc (including Evri temporarily loosing the separate oil bottle), a genuine ZF filter+mechatronics seals have arrived. Again being messed about with this and usual Autodoc shenanigans, it felt like the car didn't want to be repaired.
 
Gearbox oil I'm not going genuine ZF. At £18 per litre bottle and needing 8 to 9 litres of it, it was a bit too pricey. Others have had good experience with Mannol but I didn't trust it for this - a bit too cheap and Mannol quality can be variable.

Instead I bought 10 litres of RAVENOL 6HP for £100. This is the correct grade and they proudly claim it's completely correct formulation without any genericness about it. Mannol is half the price but claims can be used on many other boxes. So I didn't fully trust it.

This filter and seals were over £100 alone...


So the plan is to hopefully drop the pan and mechatronics unit this weekend/Sunday. Then refill. Just waiting for a torque wrench to arrive - 8nm on the mechatronics unit fixings and you really don't want to strip any of those bolts.

Not a job I'm looking forward to. ATF is going to get everywhere (including on my face) and it's a lot of faff working underneath the car in awkward angles. Even the second stage refilling requires doing it while the engine is running. You need to be quick as once the fluid is above 35c, you have shut it down and wait to cool back off before continuing...

All this and I hope it does sort the gearbox and not make it worse! The big gamble with high mileage autos, like the rest of an old BMW is. I've owned it a year in a few weeks though so I feel like I've got most of my money back now. I'm at about £2.8k in with these latest bits (£1.6k purchase price) and I know I wouldn't get my money back going by what these sell for (saloon is least desirable in 3'er pecking order). Tbh I'd probably only get around my purchase price back given there is zero history with the car and people don't like buying zero history BMWs unless cheap.

Anyway hopefully I'll get a super smooth box and not a spares+repairs car after this weekend.