Why am I selling? There are several reasons.
- The wife and I are due a baby in late September, and it's been a pretty rough pregnancy so far after a stillborn last year too. I am very time poor as it is already, with a busy work life, plus hospital trips and then lots of house decorating jobs on weekends, and this will only get worse once the baby arrives. I make time to drive the car regularly, but I just don't have the time to do jobs on it as well
- A friend of the family is wanting to sell her 2010, 1 owner from new, always dry stored Mercedes SLK, with just 15k mikeage in a desirable colour and specification with (crucially) a manual gearbox, which is rare on these, for a very (very!) reasonable price. The offer is literally too good to refuse and there is no way the wife will let me keep two, two seater cars!
- Related to the above, my arthritis is slowly getting worse, especially in my left knee and ankle and realistically I don't know if I'll easily be able to drive a manual car in 5-10 years from now, so I want another manual before I'll be limited to auto cars only.
Spec as below:
April 2003 2.5i Roadster Auto with steering wheel paddle gear change retrofitted (great fun!).
Reg CK03XTH
Titan Silver
Red Leather on a grey interior
Electric memory, but not heated seats
Just over 100,200 miles
2x Working Remote Keys
Xenons
Cruise Control
BMW official cupholders with unobtanium correct grey face plates!
4 Years of full history / invoices. Limited info from BMW prior to that via email (they were surprisingly helpful!).
Bits done to the car in my 3 years of ownership:
- Full service and Interim Service (twice) and Auxiliary belts changed along with air and cabin filters. Most recently serviced just last week along with a fresh MOT.
- Gearbox oil service - oil replaced twice over a 3 month period
- Gearbox oil pan replaced with a new genuine BMW part.
- Valve cover gaskets replaced (inc screws / washers)
- Oil filter housing gasket replaced
- New Battery
- 2x front shock absorbers replaced
- Replaced 4x tyres with Bridgestones within the last (approx.) 4k miles (not run flat - so much better!)
- New Brembo discs and pads all round (fitted by forum member Enuff_Zed)
- Replaced the broken passenger window regulator cable
- Replaced passenger door weather seal (this had been causing a leak - now fixed)
- Replaced the front inner steering rack joints (which came up on the 2024 MOT)
- Replaced the MAF sensor
- Replaced the rubber air intake boot – this had been bodged with tape previously and was causing chaos with error codes, now all resolved since replacing this and the MAF.
- Exhaust manifold (which had cracked, following some road debris hitting it) welded and new gaskets / nuts between front and mid exhaust section
- Replaced broken o2 sensor
- GM5 module repaired
- Replaced a broken oil level sensor (a very common fault on these cars, but mine now works!)
- Retrofitted cruise control (brand new stalk from BMW fitted)
- Retrofitted cupholders with the correct SUPER RARE grey faceplates
- Retrofitted LED interior lighting (footwells and boot light too - much brighter, more modern and uses less power)
- Retrofitted the a steering wheel with auto box paddle shift from the later (I believe post facelift) cars.
- Replaced the rear centre brake light (replaced with the correct OEM red original)
- Replaced both boot struts
- Replaced the hazard warning / door lock switched (original was very scratched)
- Replaced the front lower suspension arms, bushes and links
- Replaced the ashtray unit (the moving lid was broken)
- Replaced the xenon headlight bulbs
- Replaced the engine and transmission mounts to cure a bit of engine vibration. This absolutely transformed the ride!
- Replaced the gear selector surround (with a used, but better than my existing surround from eBay). I kept the original one and was going to attempt paint spraying it at some point to end up with a perfect / immaculate one, but I’ve not got round to it yet (plus my spraying skills are rubbish) but I’ll include this spare part.
- Roof motor relocated to the boot by forum legend Enuff Zed. The motor was in very good condition and had definitely been replaced at some point previously. We estimated it was probably no older than 5 years old, though I don’t have paperwork to prove this.
- Genuine BMW aux in cable fitted
- Replaced the silver interior door pulls (old ones were scratched)
- Replaced a broken drivers side door actuator (according to BMW now a common fault on Z4's of this age)
- Repaired (hopefully!) the rear heated screen (replaced a relay on the back of the fuse board).
- The car has had some programming work done and the roof works off the key and it beeps / flashes when you lock / unlock the car.
- Dented wheels (thanks potholes
) on 2024 MOT were replaced (the car bizarrely came with two extra spare wheels). I still have these 2x extra wheels and will include them, though they would need to be repaired back into shape. Parts in my garage but not yet fitted:
- Parking sensors (2x sensors need to be replaced for the system to work again).
- I have the incredibly rare official BMW DAB retro conversion kit for the original radio (part number 65122336499). It just needs the DAB aerial and it;'ll be ready to go in the car. The aerial is still sold new by BMW for a very reasonable price (under £30 last time I checked).
- I have the full set of Carver DSP speakers, though inclusion of these is subject to price I get for selling the car, as I could possibly sell these for £100-£150 separately. You will still need the Amp / wiring loom to complete this retrofit. Note as this is an early car, some of the upgraded wiring (e.g. for the additional door speakers) is already in place.
- I also kept all the original interior bulbs should you be a hardcore traditionalist and want to ditch the LED lighting.
- I have a brand new (official BMW) drivers side door seal. It's not leaking but looked like it had seen better days when I had the door card off to fix the door actuator.
- I also have a bespoke (for the Z4) full cover for it.
Stuff that still needs doing / I would want to do if I was keeping it (I am picky / a perfectionist!):
- A couple of clips that hold the scuttle panel down on the passenger side are broken.
- As it’s an early car, the heated seat wiring is already in place, so you can fit heated seats straight in (with new switch panel too). Usel has (or did have!) a pair of red heated seats and I'm sure he'd offer other forum members a good deal
- Tidy up the bodywork. The bottom of the front bumper is scruffy, there is a scratch on lower part of the drivers side of the car and the front has a couple of stone chips (see pictures).
- Replace the rear eccentric bolts and rub down / tidy up / apply Lanoguard (or similar) to the surface rust on the rear subframe / suspension arms. Note the bodywork is free of rust.
I hope you can see that this is a very honest and detailed advert and there are genuine reasons for selling the car. It is not perfect, but you'll see above that an enormous amount of jobs that'll need doing on any Z4 of this age have been done.
I paid circa £4k for it back in 2022 and have easily spent that (and probably more – I’m scared to add it all up!) on it again, with the long list above. I’m not daft and realise I won’t get that money back, so ideally I would like £3,750 for it if possible. This price would include the Carver speaker set, ultra rare DAB retrofit kit, Z4 car cover and new drivers side door card seal. Forum legend Enuff Zed knows this car well and has helped me enormously with work on it in the last couple of years.
Please note, I need will need a couple of weeks to get the car ready for sale. I need to give it a thorough deep clean and put back all the trim under the glovebox from where I had the GM5 out and replaced the rear screen relay. The air con also packed up last week (
) so it's booked in with a local air con specialist next week to fix this. If I have time, I will try to fit the replacement rear parking sensors and new door card seal. I am just testing the water with this advert.Please note that my job is really busy and I generally won’t be able to respond to messages / take calls other than during the evening or weekends.
I am based in Rayleigh, Essex.
I haven't been as active on here as I used to be, in recent months (largely due to the first bullet point above on why I'm selling), so I'm a bit out of touch with market values and am happy to take constructive criticism. If I am miles off, please tell me. I would much prefer to sell this car to another forum member if possible and someone who will continue to improve it, though I'll be putting it on eBay, Autotrader etc in a couple of weeks once it's ready if there is little interest on here.
This won’t be my last Z4, I’ll be back some day!
P.S. Sorry this advert is so long!
