2009 BMW Z4 e89-new to me

S

Scottbmarriott

Member
Hey Z-experts…. I’m just about to collect a 2009 23i, that needs some TLC and the following parts, could you give me your top recommendations:
- wind deflector, these seem to be £500 new…. Oofft
- upgrade basic stereo, thinking of just replacing with new single din unit and some speakers, thoughts ?
- basic stuff like: cup holders/arm rest/charging point solutions/phone holder
- xenon light upgrades
- upgrade side lights
- retrofit rear parking/camera
Any feedback very much appreciated to help avoid wasting money….cheers
 
Suggest you search the Forum as these are all covered in detail..
 
Welcome to the forum and good luck with your planned modifications. :thumbsup:

Don't forget to post some photos after collection!
 
Scottbmarriott said:
Thanks B21, will do and have had a quick check, can’t find anything on alternative head units, but will have another look…
Click to expand...

There were no significant changes on E89 headlights …a US company offers a range of options but they don’t materially change the main HID bulb..

You could fit higher wattage HID with uprated ballast…

Not clear what you are trying to achieve..?
 
Scottbmarriott said:
Hey Z-experts…. I’m just about to collect a 2009 23i, that needs some TLC and the following parts, could you give me your top recommendations:
- wind deflector, these seem to be £500 new…. Oofft
- upgrade basic stereo, thinking of just replacing with new single din unit and some speakers, thoughts ?
- basic stuff like: cup holders/arm rest/charging point solutions/phone holder
- xenon light upgrades
- upgrade side lights
- retrofit rear parking/camera
Any feedback very much appreciated to help avoid wasting money….cheers
Click to expand...

For the wind deflector just keep an eye on eBay. I picked one up on a sunday morning for £100. There was one up for £85 the other day.
Does your 23i have iDrive or is it just the CD player / radio combo?
There isn't any problems with charging points as one in the armrest - fit a 12V cigarette charger, the cable can come out the armrest without trapping it. Don't use a phone holder, fit a CarPlay / Android Auto headunit so you don't have to clutter your dash
 
Scottbmarriott said:
....
- wind deflector, these seem to be £500 new…. Oofft
Click to expand...
This may be helpful to you......

https://www.pippenswinddeflectors.com/product/beemer-z4-e89-wind-deflector/

Scottbmarriott said:
- upgrade basic stereo, thinking of just replacing with new single din unit and some speakers, thoughts ?
- retrofit rear parking/camera
Click to expand...
Prior to undertaking my full iDrive retrofit I did the following.....
Replaced the stock (very basic, and I mean VERY!!) headunit with an OEM standard headunit that has Bluetooth (calls) and USB control built-in (as opposed to these two features being a separate module). This also comes with a much better built-in amplifier as well. Of course this highly depends as to what level you car is currently spec'd at the moment.
To this I then updated the speakers to, initially, add tweeters to the door pods. This turns it from a 6 speaker (2 x rear midrange + 2 x door midrange + 2 x footwell woofers) system to an 8 speaker one. The additional door tweeters are plug-n-play with no coding required. These were standard OEM tweeters, but later I replaced these tweeters and the 4 midrange speaker with upgraded ones.
So to this I then added an Android Touchscreen (replaces the cubby on top of the dash). A great addition giving you access to Apple CarPLay/Android Auto, mapping, music streaming and car system monitoring etc

EDIT** A reversing camera can be then added to the Android screen and integrated :thumbsup:

The speaker upgrade/replacement video, the Android screen video and reversing sensor/camera video are all on my YouTube channel...
https://www.youtube.com/@BMWZ4Mods/videos

Scottbmarriott said:
- basic stuff like: cup holders/arm rest/charging point solutions/phone holder
- xenon light upgrades
- upgrade side lights
Any feedback very much appreciated to help avoid wasting money….cheers
Click to expand...
There is a video to a ashtray replacement cup holder on my channel.
Not sure what you mean by "xenon light upgrades", just replacing the bulbs or full units?
Side lights, yeah a lot of owners replace the standard halogen bulb with LED ones, straightforward plug-n-play swap over :thumbsup:

Just as a side note, on the Android screen, speakers and headunit replacement, I've done a number of these for owners, it's something I do along with cruise control retrofits here in the UK. If that's something you'd like to talk about just give me a shout :thumbsup:
 
AnubisZed said:
To this I then updated the speakers to, initially, add tweeters to the door pods. This turns it from a 6 speaker (2 x rear midrange + 2 x door midrange + 2 x footwell woofers) system to an 8 speaker one. The additional door tweeters are plug-n-play with no coding required. These were standard OEM tweeters, but later I replaced these tweeters and the 4 midrange speaker with upgraded ones.
Click to expand...
When I replaced mine I found the tweeters were too “bright” and adding the hifi coding has made a huge improvement.
 
Chippie said:
AnubisZed said:
To this I then updated the speakers to, initially, add tweeters to the door pods. This turns it from a 6 speaker (2 x rear midrange + 2 x door midrange + 2 x footwell woofers) system to an 8 speaker one. The additional door tweeters are plug-n-play with no coding required. These were standard OEM tweeters, but later I replaced these tweeters and the 4 midrange speaker with upgraded ones.
Click to expand...
When I replaced mine I found the tweeters were too “bright” and adding the hifi coding has made a huge improvement.
Click to expand...
I did try adding 676 to the VO, but I found it lost bass due to not having the subwoofers, so I removed it again. Now I've retrofitted the full 676 setup complete I've recoded it with 676 to tge VO and it sounds much better :thumbsup:
 
AnubisZed said:
Chippie said:
AnubisZed said:
To this I then updated the speakers to, initially, add tweeters to the door pods. This turns it from a 6 speaker (2 x rear midrange + 2 x door midrange + 2 x footwell woofers) system to an 8 speaker one. The additional door tweeters are plug-n-play with no coding required. These were standard OEM tweeters, but later I replaced these tweeters and the 4 midrange speaker with upgraded ones.
Click to expand...
When I replaced mine I found the tweeters were too “bright” and adding the hifi coding has made a huge improvement.
Click to expand...
I did try adding 676 to the VO, but I found it lost bass due to not having the subwoofers, so I removed it again. Now I've retrofitted the full 676 setup complete I've recoded it with 676 to tge VO and it sounds much better :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

You’re right about the base but I still think it’s better with the $676 coding, have you tried any of the other “wert” options (I think that’s the correct term) to alter the EQ output?
 
Chippie said:
AnubisZed said:
Chippie said:
When I replaced mine I found the tweeters were too “bright” and adding the hifi coding has made a huge improvement.
Click to expand...
I did try adding 676 to the VO, but I found it lost bass due to not having the subwoofers, so I removed it again. Now I've retrofitted the full 676 setup complete I've recoded it with 676 to tge VO and it sounds much better :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

You’re right about the base but I still think it’s better with the $676 coding, have you tried any of the other “wert” options (I think that’s the correct term) to alter the EQ output?
Click to expand...
With the 676 option it "knows" that the specific amp will distribute the sound accordingly. With that amp it has output for the door speakers, the rear speakers, the front centre, the footwell woofers (combined) and the two channels for the subwoofers. Because of this the headunit must send the output out in a totally different way through the speaker outputs then it would normally. I'm not aware of any changes to the normal settings that could alter the sound distribution.
TBH I honestly found that adding the tweeters to the 6 speaker setup did make a marked difference, you could quite clearly hear the tweeters contribution.
 
AnubisZed said:
TBH I honestly found that adding the tweeters to the 6 speaker setup did make a marked difference, you could quite clearly hear the tweeters contribution.
Click to expand...
Sorry I seem to have hi jacked the thread :headbang:

The problem I had was they were too loud, I even tried fitting a couple of resistors but that didn’t make much difference.
Do you think altering the AUDIO_SYSREM_VAR would make any difference?
IMG_7844.jpeg
 
So a year on and after adding some factor subs, more amps and some more tweeters to the shoulder speakers (this has made a huge difference) I thought I’d try alternating the “AUDIO_SYSTEM_VAR” in CIC from “default” to “audio_system3”, (didn’t try the others) and it does sound (to my ears) a little better, more balanced, but one thing that does seem more noticeable is that the PDC volume has decreased, I had it turned down to minimum previously (and it still sounded loud), but now have had to turn it up a few notches.
 
Chippie said:
So a year on and after adding some factor subs, more amps and some more tweeters to the shoulder speakers (this has made a huge difference) I thought I’d try alternating the “AUDIO_SYSTEM_VAR” in CIC from “default” to “audio_system3”, (didn’t try the others) and it does sound (to my ears) a little better, more balanced, but one thing that does seem more noticeable is that the PDC volume has decreased, I had it turned down to minimum previously (and it still sounded loud), but now have had to turn it up a few notches.
Click to expand...
Flipping various sound stages is not an irrational approach given you can’t do the ‘proper’ job..ie re base line the DSP with a relevant tool set..if it works why not..
 
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