'won' an auction, 2004 Z4. numerous issues.

[Tonkabot]

20220426_191701x.jpg (86.84 KiB) Viewed 689 times

20220428_194812x.jpg (331.53 KiB) Viewed 689 times

20220428_194756x.jpg (320.3 KiB) Viewed 689 times

Known issues so far:
1) Transmission range switch intermittent. Jiggle till 'P' hopefully shows on dash, it won't even try to start til then (has taken 5+ minutes of jiggling). Is there a more cost effective solution than the $360 part that seems to be required?
2) Water in battery compartment, and surprise the roof motor switches make no light or action.
3) probably the biggest concern: it feels like it has a CVT or something, the torque converter slips a lot. also can't get it to shift using the shifter, is there like a limp mode that locks you in 3rd or something?
4) engine revs to 6k whatever in neutral, but does not have the power to spin a tire on a gravel road (with the dsc off) and hasn't gone over 3k in whatever gear I seem to have. This could all be just the tranny problem, for all I know.
5) The dashboard displays are not working. could this cause any of the other problems?

[Rockhopper]

1. no bite the bullet as it'll only get worse.
2. Blocked drains
3. probably related to the gearbox position switch but apart from that issue these gearbox are very reliable. No limp mode in the box itself
4. engine is in limp mode - read the fault codes.
5. possibly many of the issues are related to low battery voltage.

[Tonkabot]

Thanks Rockhopper.
5) you think low battery voltage. I think it has a decent battery so you must mean like bad ground to the engine harness or computer or something like that?
4) found my OBD2 dongle, I have to hook up and see if it tells me something useful
3) I think automatic transmissions are the bane of my existance.
2) read all about it. will clear them and drill some drain holes. saw a video on removing the top but I still have questions - I look at more videos.
1) is it the same on an E46 330i ? I have one of those in the field.

[Rockhopper]

You might find that all those lights etc came on after a low voltage issue, clear all the fault codes and see which ones come back. The C310+ is a very affordable code reader for BMW's.
I'm not sure which parts it shares with other BMW's, there is a site called Real OEM i think it is which will tell you though.

[Mr Tidy]

Welcome to the forum.

That's almost a full set of warning lights you have there - I hope it was cheap!

Hopefully reading the fault codes and clearing them will reduce the number so you know what needs attention.

[Zulu4]

Looking at the mileage reading etc, something is wrong with the instrument cluster, so maybe some of those warning symbols are false.

[Tonkabot]

I can't get my OBD2 dongle to talk to the ECU. (ELP327 wifi OBD2) so I bought another one, and tried that.
The new one (sold at NAPA and looks exactly like the C310+) also cannot connect to the ECU.
So I need to do something to make the ECU talk again.

Any ideas?

[Rockhopper]

Fuse? Check battery voltage. Ignition needs to be on of course.
Hopefully someone hasn’t fried the ECU….

[Tonkabot]

The Engine seems to run pretty well, and smoother every time I run it. It sat in a minnesota salvage yard from December. It seems like the engine control part of the ECU is fine. Is the OBD2 port failing a known issue? I'll take my meter to the fuse box and read the voltage there and check through the fuses.

The Fuse diagram card is missing from where the manual says there should be one, and the manual doesn't seem to have a fuse map either. Is there such a resource in this site?

[Tonkabot]

Okay, I measured 12.1v at the fuse panel. Tested lots of fuses, none are blown. I found a fuse diagram viewtopic.php?p=539438#p539438 on this site.