I finally bought a Z4 - Ownership thread!

[enuff_zed]

obviously I couldn't latch it properly without power.

Missed this the first time round.
I think if you look in your battery bay you should find a tool kit in a black wrap. In there you should hopefully have a cranked Allen key.
If you remove the centre panel from the plastic trim along the front of the roof you should be able to insert that key into the front locking linkage and turn it to lock the roof latches into place.
Obviously far too late now, but worth checking it out.

[DaveP]

obviously I couldn't latch it properly without power.

Missed this the first time round.
I think if you look in your battery bay you should find a tool kit in a black wrap. In there you should hopefully have a cranked Allen key.
If you remove the centre panel from the plastic trim along the front of the roof you should be able to insert that key into the front locking linkage and turn it to lock the roof latches into place.
Obviously far too late now, but worth checking it out.

Super helpful stuff. Thank you.

[DaveP]

Well, if a day could have been any less suited to working on a car outdoors, I'd struggle to imagine it. I eventually got the lower intake hose refitted yesterday, in 20min sunny periods between thunder and torrential rain, and the car is running again!

I don't know what the perished hose was feeding on top of the throttle body (DISA?), but my placebo-o-meter says the car feels a lot more sprightly at lower revs, where it felt sluggish before. Free power, basically...

And because no good deed goes unpunished, when I started the car back up there was an airbag light on the dash. I'm going to assume it got unhappy at sitting without a battery connected for a while, and either get it reset when it goes in for a service in June or buy one of those C110 scanners to do it myself.

To celebrate a partial victory, I took it to a decent local valeting place. Based in the shopping centre car park in Wimbledon town centre, these guys are a significant step up from the modern slavery places on old petrol station forecourts. They clean one car at a time, and in 40min can clean, decontaminate, polish and wax a car. All for £30. For a lazy git without the facilities to wash my car at home, this is a dream.

Smashing stuff.

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[DaveP]

The paint is far from perfect, mainly because it's a 19yo car with 103k miles. But once you look past the touched-in stonechips and occasional swirl, it's in very good nick. I think the car has had a blowover paint job, but I'm struggling to find the evidence.

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[DaveP]

Well, a fairly uneventful period of ownership where the car has just behaved itself. Only one small niggle where it will occasionally fail to unlock from the key. Cycling the central locking a couple of times from the button inside always resolves, so I'm hoping it's not the GM5.

My efforts with the wax proved fruitful, as a quick snowfoam and rinse brought it back to lovely and shiny.

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I took it to a local place for an alignment, and got the chance to give the car a good look over underneath. It's generally in excellent nick for almost 20yrs old, and the bushes generally looked pretty good, but the front track rod arms were covered in rust. Balls.

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It looks like the slight vagueness has been caused by the classic issue of the left-hand side bumping through drains, potholes and kerbs.

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[DaveP]

So, now I need to find a specialist to look at the alignment (replacing the front track rods) and the aircon (potentially replacing the compressor), before I head off to cover 2500 miles to Italy and back in June.

RBM in Hampshire don't do alignment or aircon, so they are out. TWG in Camberley are booked solid until the end of June, so they are out.

Any suggestions?

[Sidewaze Samm]

For alignment, on a previous car I've used Wheels In Motion/Blackboots at Chesham if that's not too far from you. Very knowledgeable and worth a phone call.

[thecremeegg]

Alignment wise, Merrow Tyres in Farnham are very good - the guy there had a Z4M in the past and asks you what sort of setup you want.

[DaveP]

It's not just alignment I need. I have an excellent place near me in South London, but I want someone who can do everything (including fitting the track rods and fixing the aircon) in one visit.

[thecremeegg]

Any garage should be able to do that tbh?

[Mr Tidy]

TWG in Camberley are booked solid until the end of June, so they are out.

That's a shame as my car was transformed after Will worked his magic on the alignment. I had to book it 5 weeks ahead, but as it was last November/December it didn't matter much as I was mostly using my 3 Series that time of year!

[DaveP]

Well, it looks like good things are going to come to a temporary end sooner than expected.

The car was bought specifically to do the Mille Miglia trip next month - a bucketlist opportunity with some of my best friends. However, in the past 4 weeks my partner and I have found our dream second home and I've been offered my dream job (having been on a career break since December). Timing of starting the new job means that I can't make the trip, and the house being an old country pile means that I need a proper 4x4 as a priority.

I was never going to keep the car forever, but can't really justify keeping three cars going for the next few months where household maths get quite tight.

So, I'm going to get it MOT'd and get it up for sale next week.

The good news is that I'll probably be back in the autumn/winter looking to pick up a manual 3.0i for weekends and trackdays, coming full circle to the very first post linked in this thread.

On the very long-shot offchance that anyone wants the car and has a facelift 3.0i X5 they'd like to p/ex against it, please get in touch.

[Zulu4]

Short but sweet !
Good luck & when's the house-warming party ?

[DaveP]

I'll be back in a Z4 before Christmas unless something goes badly wrong.

We've given ourselves until Christmas to get the house sorted too, so no competing priorities there at all...

We are having about a dozen folk come and stay for a big New Year's party, so I guess that's technically the housewarming party.

[DaveP]

Car is booked in for an MOT on Tuesday, which I expect to pass without issue. Should mean that the car is sold with ~13mths MOT and ~11k miles until the next service.

Always feels good passing on a car that doesn't need any work done.