Tomrdy's Nardo grey 3.0i (Thank you and farewell!)

[tomrdy]

Ah OK, that makes sense. I did wonder how people manage to do everything from inside the boot think I'm going to give this a go myself also, so appreciate the photos and tips

No worries! It's a pretty annoying job especially because I was doing it in 38 degree heat but ultimately worthwhile and satisfying for the long term

One extra thing to look out for is to clip as many cable ties as you can (reasonably) to free up the lines. I had one that I missed and I had already pulled the motor out. I later saw when I had the camera in there that I left a tinnnny kink in a line where it was still pinched with a tie. I did cut it (the tie that is) and it evened itself back out but just something to be cautious of.

Well done Tom, my son has a signage business and they do a few wraps on cars so I can appreciate the challenges you would have faced. Great way to get to know your car. Great reading and good hints re the roof motor.

Thanks Haggisman it was definitely a big challenge and you're right - helped me learn more about how the car is put together as you can see how bits are put together behind all the bumpers and fairings. Just a simple example is the rear parking sensors. I'd have no issue replacing those in the future if they needed doing

[tomrdy]

VANOS seal replacement job DONE!

Did this spread over 2 days and had some head scratch moments with figuring out the right tools to use (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=111640) but got there in the end!

My seals were definitely gone so I'm glad I did this. Pistons in the chambers were very loose, especially the motor/cam side (that goes into the cover plate). I could pick the cylinders off and out of the plate without the plate leaving the table! That's how loose they were!



I was prepared to loosen the engine mounts but didnt end up needing to. I could pry on the subframe. One thing that no one seems to detail is specifically HOW to pry except to do it against the water pump. I wrapped my bar with some foam where it would touch the pump's center to help it grip and also protect it a bit from marring.



The way I did it was i held the vanos in my left hand, and kept intermittently tugging on the pry bar. Every time i pried, I had my hand on the bottom inside of the vanos unit and try to push the bottom edges off the 2 longer studs. These arent neccesarily the ones that catch, but I realised that if you could get those 2 off, you can then rotate the vanos anti-clockwise which would let you get the furthest left (looking at the motor from front) stud off which is the one that can't clear due to the bulk head.

Car turned on without a hitch and idled perfectly. Did a short drive to check everything ran smoothly and all seems well. Coolant light did come on but that is expected as I hadn't topped up yet.

Will run the car for a few weeks and see how it goes as wlel as check the C110 numbers.

Glad this job is DONE though

[tomrdy]

When the clean side of your airfilter starts looking like your dirty side, probably a good time to change!



Also my new soft top arrived! Going to wait for some more downtime before I start cracking on with this (and probably non 40c heat waves in Aus) but sooo excited to finally not have a grubby torn roof!

On a quick inspection, the quality of the top looks great. One thing to note, the window seal on the Sierra tops is not the same as original - it doesn't have the edge moulding on the outside the same way but looks very tidy.

[paddy wright]

A great job there- car looks great!

[tomrdy]

Received my Bloxsport spacers earlier in the week and finally got around to fitting them!

Went for 15mm/20mm set as most on the forum seem to use.

Bloxsport is a chinese brand which may put some people off. Quality of these though look top notch. Came with 12.9 rated bolts as well (I was expecting 10.9) which is cool and they also contacted me before shipping to confirm lug lengths needed. FYI: My standard lugs were 24mm.

Some pics of the hardware:









Packaging must be old as it says they're 10.9 grade bolts.




Fitting was pretty straight forward though a set of seized lugs on the last wheel turned this <1 hr job into 3 with multiple trips to the tool shop.... tried to undo with my tyre iron and heard my shoulder crack - figured this wasn't worth it so went and bought an impact wrench (215nm). Impact wrench was too weak. Returned it. Bought a 600mm breaker bar. How did I live without a breaker bar in my garage??!! Rough calculation with my body weight (i think i did it right this time Guidok!) was the lugs needed over 325nm to break the seize.



Before:



+20mm



Before



+20mm



The fronts look like they might scrub if you go any wider.





Very happy with the result. You could say it's a subtle change, that vastly improves the aesthetics of the car. Car drives totally the same - perhaps there would be an impact at the limit on the track - but I think the Z4 is more capable than I am brave so realistically, no change to me!

Also finished up the roof motor relocate with a piece of carpet trim



Next up is to replace my soft top and the car will be mint

[tomrdy]

Finally started on replacing my soft top! Took my old man and I 3 hours to remove it using Autotop's instructions. Decided to call it a day and reinstall it tomorrow.

Hardest part was getting the plastic stripping out of the base bow's channel. Also some extremely awkward screws to remove but we got there in the end. Not sure how we will get on with the reverse but lets see!

My tip: Definitely remove your parcel shelf and access the bolts that way for the bow. No reason to go from inside the cabin it's awkward as hell.

Another note regarding the headliner: I don't remember which thread it was but a member said you could not remove the headliner without removing the entire roof assembly from the vehicle. This does not seem true from what I can tell, though I can't say what the minimum removal would be. At the very least where I am right now with mine (soft top outer 100% removed from car), I can definitely remove the liner.

Would it be less effort to do it with the entire assembly/hydraulics out? Not sure on that one. Just some info/ideas for anyone doing a job around these things in future.

Some pics:

Old ratty roof




Damage from vandals during previous owner's watch. This has irked me every day for the last 3 odd years so I am excited to be rid it!



Interesting patch job..



OFF! Recommendation to others is to NOT cheap out on masking up the edges where the bow comes out. Everyone says this - and everyone is right. Literally the only part I didnt mask I had some vinyl wrap damage - but not fussed as that corner was bad anyway so I'll just patch... on top of the patch that was already there



Stay organised



Whie access was super easy (you can still access it without full disassembly), fixed up my headliner bracket/strip. All of mine were broken - I'm surprised half of them still held! Really easy to do especially if you have a little modelling drill to make a pilot for the self tapers.



Tidied up and cleaned out the area around the drain hole and did some organising the best I could with the hydraulic lines from the motor relocate

[tomrdy]

Finally finished the soft top replacement today!

Wanted to pull an all nighter last night to get it done but turned out the rivets I had were too short for the final step so had to pop in the hardware store in the morning. Instructions call for 4mm but we found we actually needed something smaller as the hole in the frame could not fit the 4mm diameter rivet (maybe a pre facelift thing?). Will double check and update with the spec tomorrow.







The instructions from Autotops is not the most detailed and we made the mistake of thinking they would be. I hadn't taken pictures of the fixings and screws as I undid them and there were a few points where the father and I had to have a good scrub through our collective memories and then reverse engineer and see how it all went back together. This was made harder by the fact the replacement top did not have some holes pre-drilled and so there were certain parts where you were really shooting in the dark to try and thread a screw in. Happy to report though absolutely 0 screws/parts left over so we have it all back in 100%!

Final fit of the rear weatherstrip is not as good as OEM - it doesn't come over the top as much which is something I noticed as the edges of my vinyl wrap now have less tuck. The window fixing itself looks good from the outside but the inside portion (though basically not visible), is not as tidy as the original.

Was it worth doing? For me, absolutely! Besides the vandal damage, I didn't expect the top to look so... sharp? Everything is super tight and crisp. Really freshens up the car and I'm very pleased

Another DIY job checked off!

[ben g]

You done well to manage that! The place I used has been doing soft top replacements for 20+ years and it took them over 6 hours to replace mine.

I would agree with you about the inside rear window fixing. You can see the wiring where the heating element connects, but it's not an issue for me as it can't be seen in the rear view mirror or from the outside of the car

[MrPT]

That does look sharp! Think I prefer the finish of the rear window to the OEM unit.

[tomrdy]

You done well to manage that! The place I used has been doing soft top replacements for 20+ years and it took them over 6 hours to replace mine.

I would agree with you about the inside rear window fixing. You can see the wiring where the heating element connects, but it's not an issue for me as it can't be seen in the rear view mirror or from the outside of the car

Thanks That's good reference for the time a professional shop took! I think we ended up with total about 10-12 hours over the 3 days with a few trips to the store.

I was originally worried about the seeing the fitting in the rear view mirror but like you said, its totally not visible - way to back lit in the day time and way too dark at night!

That does look sharp! Think I prefer the finish of the rear window to the OEM unit.

I would have preferred the OEM finish as well. I did find one from a different manufacturer that claimed to be the only one with the patent to seal the window OEM style, but the cost difference was considerable so I went with the Sierra/Autotops.

I did notice that newer convertibles (all cars, not Z4s), seem to use this same style of in-folded fitting. Maybe its cheaper to do. Main issue I can see is it looks like a super dirt trap!

[CrazyBaptie]

Well done on that - I got the same roof replaced recently as an insurance window claim - agree it makes the car look very sharp!

I am trying to get them to replace the weatherstrip back with an OEM one due to the fit being quite off. Well Done!

[tomrdy]

I am trying to get them to replace the weatherstrip back with an OEM one due to the fit being quite off. Well Done!

Hmm the weatherstrip might be a hard/impossible thing to swap over - it's glued/stitched into the top itself. If they do agree to it though do update us on how it goes!

[tomrdy]

In today's super distraction from work...

I ordered a knock-off M performance knob to see if I would like the shorter/smaller size before looking at getting a genuine item.



Surprised at the quality of thise. The suede is not great and the plastics aren't perfect. Also there is green in the cap instead of grey... but the weight of it was surprising.



It did not mount in straight though as our Z4's have a slight turn on the positioning notch. I pulled the entire gear knob apart and found that the base of it is actually made of metal. That's pretty cool!



Lucky I bought a fake because I totally disliked the feel of the knob the instant I put it on.

My ZHP replica is still the best knob I've had so far. Looks like I should get on a genuine one!

[tomrdy]

Initially hated it as soon as I put it on but now I'm undecided after driving around for a bit more. If you're used to palming your knob (hehe) it doesn't feel great.

Definitely a 3 finger operation (bottom 3 or top 3).

The shape actually makes the shift distance a lot different, even though the length of the shifter itself compared with a ZHP is a very small difference. My hand is basically shifting from the bottom of the .. shaft and makes me feel like I can slot the gear in faster. Also could be because this actually has some weight to it as opposed to my ZHP copy that's only plastic.



mmmmmm

[MrPT]

That does look sharp! Think I prefer the finish of the rear window to the OEM unit.

I would have preferred the OEM finish as well. I did find one from a different manufacturer that claimed to be the only one with the patent to seal the window OEM style, but the cost difference was considerable so I went with the Sierra/Autotops.

I did notice that newer convertibles (all cars, not Z4s), seem to use this same style of in-folded fitting. Maybe its cheaper to do. Main issue I can see is it looks like a super dirt trap!

Ah, no, read again when you’re fully caught up on sleep! I like it and I think you’re right that newer convertibles generally use this approach - it looks cleaner. Interesting point re. it potentially gathering dirt though. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t but it does look good and I’m sure you’ll keep it clean.