Buying a Z4MR, advice needed from wiser heads...

[ocrx8]

Just to add a comment on valve clearances. It's a check and adjust if required. My MR has had them checked 3 times now. They have, thus far, not required adjustment in almost 70k.
Also on the bearing shells. It's a rare thing for them to fail. The work is as a precaution. To my mind spending around 1k on an engine like the S54 to give yourself several years peace of mind, is a no brainer. That said I am happy to leave mine until my next Ins2, by which time I would expect to be around 85k miles. But then I know how the car has been driven, for almost all of those miles. OP has a good few miles before such work is warranted.

Thanks again for the guidance. I’m going to take it to a local Indy for a check up, and talk through the options to future proof the engine. Probably have the Vanos checked at least and the bearing shells perhaps... It’s had new rear springs, roof motor moved, and new pads and discs front and back recently.

I’m in Winchester in Hampshire can anyone recommend a good Indy nearby? I have iridium very local which I have seen mentioned on here, but has anyone heard of Etech in Havant? Or know any others? I don’t mind travelling for the right one.

You’ll be fine with Iridium. The guy I bought mine off used them and rated them very highly. Detailed paperwork!

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Funnily enough I called my local BMW Specialist (TWG in Camberley) to get an idea of the cost of replacing the bearing shells, and he said in his experience he'd come across more failed head gaskets on S54 engines than failed bearing shells. Admittedly that is a sample of one though.

But he suggested getting an oil analysis done before jumping into replacing rod bearing shells.

Mine has said similar, given I know the entire history of my car. And it’s not like he doesn’t understand the issue - he keeps a couple of spun M135i bearing shells on his desk in the office, and they are scary looking.

I had an oil service recently and had them take a sample which came back from Millers absolutely fine. It’s on 85k miles and was almost identical to the last one on 65k miles. I’ll keep getting the analysis done and make a first call at 100k, but if not then, at some point they will get done. However, I can’t stress enough that I know exactly how my car has been driven and serviced throughout its entire life.

[MichaelPorter80]

Very useful thread OP - I'm going to look at an MC next week.

Have a great day on Sunday, and don't forget the photos!

I do hope you finally get a MC!

So.... I’m now officially In the M club. Car has come home with me!

Invoice for every bit of work ever done to it, every MOT certificate, even the original brochure with the options ticked! Getting the wheels refurbed, and going to an Indy for oil analysis and a check over soonish, some cosmetic stuff needs doing but overall very happy! Getting used to a manual box again after years of automatics...

Very smooth drive, little rattle when the ignition is turned off (probably nothing?) but otherwise sounds clean and smooth.

Thanks again for all the advice I’ll keep this thread updated for those interested in progress!

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Congratulations

Please let me be the first to say

[ocrx8]

Very useful thread OP - I'm going to look at an MC next week.

Have a great day on Sunday, and don't forget the photos!

I do hope you finally get a MC!

So.... I’m now officially In the M club. Car has come home with me!

Invoice for every bit of work ever done to it, every MOT certificate, even the original brochure with the options ticked! Getting the wheels refurbed, and going to an Indy for oil analysis and a check over soonish, some cosmetic stuff needs doing but overall very happy! Getting used to a manual box again after years of automatics...

Very smooth drive, little rattle when the ignition is turned off (probably nothing?) but otherwise sounds clean and smooth.

Thanks again for all the advice I’ll keep this thread updated for those interested in progress!

Rattle on shutdown is normal - depress the clutch on shutdown and it goes away

Pics are mandatory!

[MichaelPorter80]

I’ll take some tomorrow!!

[MichaelPorter80]

Here she is!

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Ordered so far for a spruce up...
Wheel Refurb, new M Badges side and rear, New Gear Lever top, New Handbrake Handle, Stubby Aeriel, New Bonnet Badge, New Drivers Cup Holder, Colour Matched Seat Restorer, needs a good detail, and then it's going to the indy for a good mechanical look over!

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Not a lot beats a freshly shiny black M, I do miss that mirror finish I could get on my 3.0... though I don't miss cleaning it

That is gorgeous, and right colour combo with the imola interior... all that said, get cleaning those exhaust tips on your list

Enjoy

[alex.baker1989]

I got my M-Roadster last Nov and this is the stuff I wanted to have present.

When I looked at the car, I wanted to see things like an "Honest" engine bay. This means, that it should be tidy with no oil leaks etc, but I didn't want it to look like it had an engine/bay clean. Cars with shiny clean bays, means there was something that needed cleaning up or is done to hide something. Also, my old man was a car detailer for 20 years and he usually would refuse to clean an engine as it is a risky thing. Back when his business was part of a francise, the larger company would do the RAC rally, cleaning off the race cars at the end of day stage. Because of the pressure washer, some of the cars could be killed off if high pressure water hit the wrong part.

You also wouldn't want to look at many forum members engine bays with regards to ///M's as most will be spotless (Garage Queens anyway)

Dad use to get asked to do engine bays all the time back when he was running his valeting business. He really didn't like doing them, as it was too easy to cause problems.

If you're doing a concorse/show car, then sure it's understandable. The Z4M's engine bay is actually a good blank canvas, to put some shiny bits on and have it all looking nice.

With my M, I have been much more reserved about taking it out like I did with my previous cars. But both my Alpina and Impreza P1 ended up with so much rust on the rear arches. We had 3 cars in the household back then, so my car would spend most of it's time outside. It was seeing my P1 rotting away on the driveway when my back was really bad, that made me sell it. It was too painful seeing it just rust away, after all the things I had done to the car. At least now, with the house only having two cars, I am able to keep my M garaged when I'm not using the car.

Back on topic a bit more. My car had two previous owners who both owned the car for about 5/6 years each and going through all the paperwork/history of the car, you can tell they both really loved the car and I wouldn't be surprised if they were once members on here. Both of them had put private plates on the car and when ever the car was getting it's service, there would always be little extra bits they would get done. I got really lucky with my M, as I didn't have anything else to check over remotely close to Oxford. I was actually wanting to check out a blue '06 E85 M, which was lower millage, but the dealership (which was down Portsmouth way) never bothered to call us back when we told them that we wanted to buy their car, but ideally do a P/X with the JCW Mini.

I'm not sure for other parts of the UK, but for Z4MR's and the Alpina roadsters, they all seemed to be around 100 miles away from me in Oxford. Because of my lower spinal damage, it was really difficult for me to do long round trip to look at any of the cars. All the guides that I read say that you should never just buy the first car you look at, but I ended up doing just that. I'm not sure how active the E85M marketplace is, but there were 6 real M's for sale when I was looking in Nov (there was a guy who had a 3.0, and he done all the cosmetic changes to make it look like an M and even posted it on a few sites as an M, with a line of text mixed in with it's info that it was "just" a 3.0) , which is meant to be a better time to buy a roadster/convertible.

We might have seen the same cars for sale as I only got mine in Feb / March this year. I could have sworn I enquired about a blue MR near Oxford from a dealer....

[alex.baker1989]

Here she is!

IMG_1537.jpg

IMG_1535.jpg

IMG_1534.jpg

Ordered so far for a spruce up...
Wheel Refurb, new M Badges side and rear, New Gear Lever top, New Handbrake Handle, Stubby Aeriel, New Bonnet Badge, New Drivers Cup Holder, Colour Matched Seat Restorer, needs a good detail, and then it's going to the indy for a good mechanical look over!

Nice car - looks very tidy! Enjoy