A few questions from a Z4 newbie

[blazej]

Thanks all for your replies. I found a covered car park, put the roof into maintenance mode and checked and rechecked all the seals - actually there’s nothing worrying there that I could see, the seals look the same on both sides, and I saw no signs of water ingress anywhere. The roof then opened fully and closed again fine. Set off to drive back… roof system red warning came on and off again a few times.
New battery it is next week, and see if that helps.
Oh yeah no more visits to those pressure washer wielding gentlemen.

[B21]

The behaviour of the roof fault is typical of the two micro switches on the rams…

235/35 19 and 265/30 19 works well on 326Ms…

Conti Sports Contact 7 is the ‘best’ tyre in those sizes….obviously depending on budgets..

[MikeyH]

Surprisingly no smart arse has suggested OP to check if he's got old summer air in those tyres.

Has he?

[blazej]

The behaviour of the roof fault is typical of the two micro switches on the rams…

235/35 19 and 265/30 19 works well on 326Ms…

Conti Sports Contact 7 is the ‘best’ tyre in those sizes….obviously depending on budgets..

B21, thanks mate. I’ll get the battery and those two switches replaced first. It’s the task number 3 in RobbiZ4’s post isn’t it?
viewtopic.php?t=130932
Are you running those sizes on your AY (gorgeous colour btw)?

[mcbutler]

But without all the turbo-ey faff you may be just as well off sticking £500 a year in a 'just in case' pot instead.

Better off sticking that £500 in the pot! To be honest I'd probably do the same with a 35i as well but that's just me.

£500 wont get you far on a 35i when it gets poorly, triple that annually till you have around £4k then your safe - trust me on this one.

[B21]

I have run 235 and 265..at the moment I’m running 245 / 275 on 8.5j and 9.5j rims..

Next time I’ll go to a 235/35 and 275/30 for lighter steering and better front rear rolling radius match..

Not everyone here is fan of AY but it’s my favourite BMW colour..

[True-Blue]

Someone in this thread on Witness protection?…..

[blazej]

Got a few quotes for the battery and coding. Surprisingly Douglas Park BMW came in the cheapest at £250 but no availability until May. £300 at my local garage and even £400 (!) at an indy BMW specialist. So in the end, I ordered a new battery online (Exide 096 AGM 70Ah) for £120 delivered and a K+D Can cable for £25 and will fit and code it myself.

BMW also quoted £200 for replacing the two microswitches. I'm waiting for a couple more quotes but I might end up tackling it myself as well...

I'll go for 255/35 Conti SportContact 7 which, at £175 fitted each, seem a reasonable balance of price and quality. Sadly, I also need a locking wheel nut, which I neglected to check for when I bought the car.

I wasn't sure what was going to be weirder, my very smiley face next to the car, or the plexiglass box blur so I went for the latter

[matsmith749]

I just did a similar battery swap (same model as you went with). I never really got to grips with NCS expert, but the new battery registration was simple enough with an Autel 808.

[Kevin]

I also swapped the battery on my car. Was 4 years and around 30,000 miles old and showing high discharge/low voltage messages. Not an expensive replacement for some peace of mind

[Silverstar]

But without all the turbo-ey faff you may be just as well off sticking £500 a year in a 'just in case' pot instead.

Better off sticking that £500 in the pot! To be honest I'd probably do the same with a 35i as well but that's just me.

£500 wont get you far on a 35i when it gets poorly, triple that annually till you have around £4k then your safe - trust me on this one.

Of course £500 isn’t going to get you far if something big breaks on the N54 but still the same logic put £1000 a year away or so or better yet make sure you already have cash in the bank lined up just in case. Even with all of the N54 issues I wouldn’t expect to have big bills every year if you do you’ve bought a lemon!

[tiglon]

Better off sticking that £500 in the pot! To be honest I'd probably do the same with a 35i as well but that's just me.

£500 wont get you far on a 35i when it gets poorly, triple that annually till you have around £4k then your safe - trust me on this one.

Of course £500 isn’t going to get you far if something big breaks on the N54 but still the same logic put £1000 a year away or so or better yet make sure you already have cash in the bank lined up just in case. Even with all of the N54 issues I wouldn’t expect to have big bills every year if you do you’ve bought a lemon!

Two years in for me and I've had nothing go that wouldn't be just as likely on any BMW engine. Yes, at some point it'll need injectors or something else pricey, but it's not a regular thing.

If you do 5,000 miles a year in your Z, and pay £500 a year for warranty, that's £10k on warranty in 100k miles. Even if all 4 adaptive dampers go (if you have them), injectors, HPFP, rocker cover gasket and maybe another leak somewhere else... have you saved any money? Probably not.

I think one of the reasons for the N54 reputation is that it was a high performance turbo in a very ordinary 3 series car, bought by people who didn't expect high performance turbo bills, so you get a lot of people on the Internet complaining about it. Add in the fact that a lot of N54s were tuned...

[blazej]

I replaced the battery last night and my friend registered it using his Carista bluetooth module & app and reset all codes. No new roof errors or dongs, 0 errors on scanning, couldn't be happier with the result (The old lead-acid battery was down to 11.5V!)

I also had one of the brake lights erroring out intermittently. Sprayed the bulb, the connector and the housing with a contact cleaner and that fixed it.

Next up: new tyres and sorting some rattles, particularly the A-pillars.

[Kevin]

Good work, @blazej!

[mcbutler]

Better off sticking that £500 in the pot! To be honest I'd probably do the same with a 35i as well but that's just me.

£500 wont get you far on a 35i when it gets poorly, triple that annually till you have around £4k then your safe - trust me on this one.

Of course £500 isn’t going to get you far if something big breaks on the N54 but still the same logic put £1000 a year away or so or better yet make sure you already have cash in the bank lined up just in case. Even with all of the N54 issues I wouldn’t expect to have big bills every year if you do you’ve bought a lemon!

Define 'a lemon'.
Problems can come around from outside sources not just mechanical failure bud, speed bumps and bricks ripping up the cars underneath for example.
I have had my 35i for just under 4 years. I bought it pristine, fully loaded with 24k miles I have done 17k miles in her, fully inspected with an annual BMW safety check, always in a heated garage.
I bought a 3 yr full warranty with zero excess from warranty direct for £1100. At the end of that three year warranty period WD had increased the premium for this model car by about 300% plus based entirely on my vehicle, the only one on their books at the time. I checked that with them after a forum comment.
My car had;
1. A full DCT bottom end rebuild, gaskeets, filters, oil, sump pan.
2. New Idrive screen (£2500 plus labour!!!! WTF)
3. New Radiator
4. New heater Blower Motor
5. Propshaft Bearing
6. 6 x New Injectors
7. New cam cover and gaskets
8. New HPFP
9. Literally dozens of diagnostic sessions
And a few more I cant remember.

Most amazingly the HPFP was the SECOND one fitted, first one failed at 11k miles (receipts from purchase)

So in my experience you need cash in the bank to run an N54 car - end of