Preventative maintenance

P

plenty

Active member
My Z4MR let me down for the first time when the starter motor failed in Brittany.

As it spends most of its time on European road trips, I'm keen to reduce future breakdown risk.

I know about Vanos, cooling hoses, guibo, engine mounts. The rod bearings have been done twice and aren't due again for a while.

I'm particularly interested in parts (like a starter) that could suddenly fail and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Is it worth preventatively replacing water pump, rad, fuel pump, anything else?
 
plenty said:
I'm particularly interested in parts (like a starter) that could suddenly fail and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere.
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I always have a spare tps with me, not that it will hault complete progress but its no fun to drive with a failed one and they're easy change, particularly the top one.
Pre cat 02 sensors and cam and crank position sensors might be worth having in the boot, but you'd need a few tools along with them.
I'm wary of swapping out functioning original parts with seemingly inferior replacements available these days.
 
I had rod bearing shells and engine mounts replaced soon after I bought mine but on a car approaching 20 years of age I can't see the point of changing other things as a preventative measure.

Even though most of my mileage tends to be trips at least 300 miles from home I'll just deal with anything that crops up - probably by calling the RAC!
 
plenty said:
My Z4MR let me down for the first time when the starter motor failed in Brittany.

As it spends most of its time on European road trips, I'm keen to reduce future breakdown risk.

I know about Vanos, cooling hoses, guibo, engine mounts. The rod bearings have been done twice and aren't due again for a while.

I'm particularly interested in parts (like a starter) that could suddenly fail and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Is it worth preventatively replacing water pump, rad, fuel pump, anything else?
Click to expand...
My starter went in Turin of all places. I got home by getting my pals to bump start me. I fitted a new one, not BMW but OE - Valeo I think (half the price of BMW), was meticulous cleaning all the terminals - 3 years on the speed at which the engine spins on starting is impressive - I think my original was failing for a while and getting slower.
 
At least a starter can be bypassed on an M with pushing to start as there are no automatics. I had a fair long warning time on the SI when it was clear that the starter was going to die as well.
 
Starter motors fail often without any prior warning, had that on a 2.5 I had, fine then failed next time I started the car, replaced that wit an RTX one sourced from Carparts4less on line. Quite easy to change it out on the 2.5. Also had Alternators fail on mine and other members cars I look after, last one I did kept giving a code for the variable charging rate. If that goes bad in the diode pack in the back of the alternator the car will still charge but at its optimal rate. the connection to it is the single plug in wire on the back of the alternator. In that case I fitted a reconditioned unit I had in my spares stash which got rid of the code it had been setting. I do get alternators reconditioned by an old school Starter and alternator workshop for reasonable cost. These places are getting few and far between these days your lucky if you can find one.
For extended trips abroad I would carry a spare starter motor, alternator and a couple of coil packs and spark plugs and drive belts as a minimum. Don't forget a socket set and a few spanners!
 
My alternator went on the blink 2 years ago at the ring - that was extremely irritating - it was a bank holiday weekend so no chance of getting one supplied and fitted there, had to throw the towel in on any laps and then limp the car back home - managed it but it was one of the more stressful trips I'd say! It's a pretty easy part to replace on the zed due to the space, but you'd need to pull a few bits off, so it's another one where tools are required.

I always chuck my old set of coil packs (used but known to be good) and a set of plugs in my toolbox for ring trips just in case.

Bit of an aside, but going on ring trips these days with my mates who all have F82 M4s and stuff, it does play on my mind more and more that the zed is getting on for 20 years old and stuff is coming to end of life and going to need replacing/sorting - especially given that mine is on 88k and has been doing spa and ring trips since its first owner from new! I dunno what the answer is really - I don't want to stop tracking it cause I love how it drives on track, and the ring trips in it are always epic but it's not exactly a cheap/easy choice of track car nowadays - whereas with an F-series M4 where parts are readily available and the car is a chunk younger you could prettymuch sling a set of coilovers with adjustable top mounts, sticky tyres and some fancy brake pads and go very very fast, and most likely it'll need nothing aside from more regular routine maintenance!
 
For those who had starter motor failures, had you already tried the "whack it with a mallet" fix, and checked the engine-to-chassis ground strap?

Reason I ask is that mine was playing up after a long SORN, but started to work reliably again after driving the car regularly. Don't exactly know why, but I'd guess it was more to do with some crud building up (mallet-fixable) than the ground strap, which looked OK.
 
Yes those ground straps seem to be common for growing green crusties seen a few that go like that and need changing.
As to cooling system good idea to replace the expansion tank before it develops a pinhole or crack in the plastic. Take the drive beltoff and spin the waterpump and visually check it for leaks. If in any doubt change it out.
 
I also have a couple of used coil packs that live in the boot. The only recent failures I've had are the cooling fan motor and water pump. I bought a new expansion tank when I started to lose coolant, but I haven't fitted it since the system maintains pressure now the new pump has been fitted.
The cooling fan motor comes as a complete unit with the fan and shroud, attracting the usual ///M tax. The motor itself cannot be bought separately, but it's common to other BMW cooling fans. I bought the cheapest OEM cooling fan I could find (I think it was for an X3) and swapped the motor into mine, keeping my original fan and shroud.
The water pump is Z3M / Z4M specific, and aftermarket parts are not available (unlike the E46 M3 water pump). It might be worth buying one now, on case BMW stop supplying it in the future.

I have reservations about taking mine a long way from home now*, because it's 20 years / 100k miles old and it has had a very hard life in my ownership over 17 years. I suspect my clutch or slave cylinder are approaching the end of their life because the bite point is almost at the floor. I need a front end bush refresh too (I have a steering wheel vibration at 60 mph that isn't a wheel balance or disc issue). I'd like to replace the bearing shells as well, but it probably isn't urgent since they're only 50k old.


*I have a 700km round trip in my Zed on Wednesday that's making me a little nervous!
 
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