I recently sold my daily manual E90 325i as I wanted something more fun whilst also being no more expensive to run so I went and bought myself an E86 Z4 3.0 si. It's Montego blue with Oregon pearl grey leather and I'm absolutely loving it so far. I bought it from fellow member Rich who owned the car previously and had a for sale thread on here.
Interestingly, it was cheaper for the year's insurance for both my wife and I despite the fact that I had it valued at 5 times what I had the E90 valued at. Make that make sense! So far on fuel it is no worse than the E90 which is to say pretty decent. I'm seeing 40mpg on the motorway but around 35mpg average which is very respectable I think. I did look at a 987 2.7 Cayman but they are more expensive to maintain and own, are more expensive to repair and I can't get my golf clubs in the back of one. The Porsche undoubtedly has a better chassis and steering but I wasn't looking for an out and out handling machine as I just wanted something more special to eat up the miles and not break the bank to do so.
(I hope you don't mind me using your photos, Rich!)
The 3.0 N52 engine is very similar to the 2.5 but it obviously has the larger capacity and the three stage intake manifold whilst also weighing 200kgs less than the E90 which gives it very decent performance. I know all the little foibles of the N52 from running my E90 so I know what to look out for.
The previous owner looked after it but just wasn't driving it so decided to move it on a bit like me with my E90 M3. The car was generally in really good shape, there were a couple of things that needed refreshing as you'd expect on a 19 year old car but fortunately parts for these cars are pretty inexpensive and they are pretty simple mechanically. The main one for me is the water pump that fails and basically leaves you stranded (as we all know!) but this had been replaced very recently on this car so no need to worry about this again for some time.
The first thing I like to do when I get a new (used) car is to give it an oil change as I find it very cathartic and I can get underneath the car and just check for anything that might need doing in the future. The oil had only been replaced 2,500 miles ago but it had been a couple of years and I just wanted to do it. When the oil came out it looked pretty fresh to me still but it's a cheap job to do and I enjoy doing it.
First thing I noticed as I had the same issue with the 325i was a leaky rocker cover gasket.
It's only weeping slightly but I'd rather get it done sooner rather than later. BMW specialist Autowerx in Bletchley (not to be confused with Autoworks in Swindon!) quoted me £505 to sort.
I could also see that the off side strut mount had a small crack in the rubber which I will do when I do a full suspension refresh on the car.
I can't believe how cheap these are so I'll get them replaced soon as I can tell that the dampers are past their best too. Genuine BMW dampers conversely are horrifically expensive from what I can see so I'll probably get a set of Bilstein B4s as I've heard good things about them and just replace them again after 50k miles.
These cars are known for cracking rear springs however the ones here looked to be pretty new and had no corrosion whatsoever on them.
Looks like someone also had the lollipop bushes replaced recently too.
I also noticed when driving the car that the brake pedal felt really nice and solid and when checking underneath I could see that it had HEL braided lines fitted all round. Probably because these are also known for having brake hoses that perish and leak over time so maybe a previous owner suffered from this already and then just decided to get a permanent solution done. I like the way they think!
To the oil change then and I recently purchased the Burger Motorsports billet oil filter cap removal tool and I am just loving it.
It fits super snugly over the oil filter cap and you can just attach a ratchet into it and off you go. I just love good tools that make the job so much easier. Handily it also fits the oil filter cap on the N55 engine in my wife's 335i so I can use it there too.
After draining all the oil out I put 500ml or so into the oil filter housing first as the engine usually takes oil from this point on start up.
I've tried a few different oils when doing oil changes on the 325i and I found Motul 5w40 LL-04 to be the best for the N52 engine. It just seems happiest on this one and also seems to use less oil than othes I've tried. I know some use a 5w30 but I prefer a 5w40 as it gives more protection to older engines. It's probably the most expensive 5w40 on Opie oils but I think it's worth it, personally. Just like David Ginola.
Absolutely loving the car so far anyway and it has made my once a week commute from Leighton Buzzard to Bath much more enjoyable. As stated above I want to do a full suspension refresh on the car including dampers, drop links, bushings and front wishbones. I'll probably see if I can get an old pair of trailing arms from someone, powder coat them, redo all the bushes and the wheel bearings and then swap them for my ones.
south yorkshire
Poulsbo WA USA
Rotterdam
