Calum's Z4 35i - new Chinese rear lights...!

[MarshMA10]

This week, I found the previous owner, who owned the car when it was crashed - a brilliant stroke of luck / some leg work Apart from learning all about the accident I also learned the car has an upgraded 'stepped intercooler', which I don't know anything about, but sounds like good news...

The crash was a low-speed in town with a Fiat 500, but it wrote the car off because the bonnet and the fender bent, and a light cracked, as well as some light damage to the radiator. Still, not half so bad as it could've been. Insurance paid out £14k! It's a relief to know that the car was driven home from the accident, so the damage was at least fairly modest. I took a big risk buying a car that didn't have any 'proof' of what happened, so had to go on my gut and what little I could determine on viewing the car, so I feel genuinely pleased with discovering the real extents. But I bet the photo will make some of you wince

This information was painfully absent from the car's history, so I'm really pleased to have found more than 70 of the assessor's photographs to add to the papertrail / folder for the car. At least the next buyer will now know with much more detail and certainty what happened and how it was fixed. Amused to do the DVLA check and find the Fiat was also repaired and is still MOT'd today too.





In other news I am definitely bonding with the car a lot now that I'm over about 500 miles. Complaints about suspension setup aside, I really love the e89 already. Someone asked me if they could buy the car already and I entertained them (a white lie) in order to benefit from their BMW diagnostics tool, one of those £1000 garage OBDII connection ones - and pleased to find nothing concerning there.

Contemplating uprated ARBs still, but the to-do list is already long and I would rather work on the water ingress into the lights and boot (alarming) first.

 

[N4LLY]

Most excellent photo, worthy of our monthly comp' that first one.

Am sure i recognise that plate number. A member on here ? :?

 

[MarshMA10]

He's had more than one Z4 so it's quite likely. Lovely chap and was kind enough to give me lots of details!

 

[MarshMA10]

Lots of good stuff on the Z4 last week or two.

Extremely grateful to AnubisZed for retrofitting cruise control to my car on the long drive north from London to Edinburgh for Xmas. Took him no time at all, and improved my waft northwards no end!! Huge thanks and a fully recommended option for anyone else curious!

Boot was full of girlfriend’s clothes mostly—but also a few bits for fitting. Did 6x ignition coils, and new salmon relays and spark plugs… but.

Spark plugs—could not remove these for love nor money. None of the sockets could quite grip them. It feels like there’s a slight difference in angle between the cylinder walls and the fuel rail cover bit. Even with all manner of wobble bits and so on, couldn’t get even one of them out. Any tips??

Salmon relays—disappointed that AutoDoc supplied the wrong part. They are very similar but slightly different spec per prong (and not salmon coloured!) so I had to refit the old ones. Roof still works. Annoying, though. Will complain to them.

Then got her on the pit and had a good inspection underneath. Always a tense moment—but better to see what’s what. The straight pipes are hilarious—definitely a home made job—but they sound superb so I love them anyway. Some undertrays were quite badly cracked so I’ve drilled and zip tied them together more nicely.

The rear ARB left drop link has been knocking so was keen to see it—it has sort of “slid” off the ARB. It’s a bizarre fitting, seemingly with nothing to retain the drop link on the ARB! What a weird design. I clamped it together and got it swivelled back onto the ARB more like the right side, which hasn’t slid off. Weird. I’d like to upgrade the rear ARB one day so a bodge will do for now. Near the rear ARB are some very bizarre little “wheels” which I have never seen on any car before. What on earth are they?

There is also some evidence of leaking, it seems. Not ideal. More to discover here I think.

 

[B21]

Interesting cut n shut on the exhaust cans..

The spark plugs need a 12 point..I use one of these babies..

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PLAYOCCAR-Socket-Magnetic-12-Point-Removal/dp/B09JBP24LC/ref=sr_1_17?crid=26JFGS9ARPEOM&keywords=bmw%2Bspark%2Bplug%2Bsocket&qid=1703776117&sprefix=bmw%2Bspark%2Bplug%2Bsocket%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-17&th=1

A lot of the pics came out black on my screen?

 

[MarshMA10]

Thanks. Ordered one. Will try it this weekend.

Seems a lot of the images are uploading as black Boxes. Oh well. Maybe iCloud images are problematic or something.

 

[Dave 2 dogs]

Welcome to the club
Lovely car
Will you keep it standard ? Or are there any mods on the horizon?

 

[Dave 2 dogs]

That’s Stuartt’s old car …. This car is the one he kindly took me out for a test ride in … I had a Merlot e85 3.0 at the time and wasn’t sure if I wanted to upgrade to the e89 … 20 minutes later I was sold and started the hunt… had her almost 6 years now….

 

[Dave 2 dogs]

Most excellent photo, worthy of our monthly comp' that first one.

Am sure i recognise that plate number. A member on here ? :?

Stuartt’s old car

 

[Nictrix]

Most excellent photo, worthy of our monthly comp' that first one.

Am sure i recognise that plate number. A member on here ? :?

Stuartt’s old car

Looking at the pipes it looked like Mr Wilks old car which might be the same one.

 

[MarshMA10]

That’s Stuartt’s old car …. This car is the one he kindly took me out for a test ride in … I had a Merlot e85 3.0 at the time and wasn’t sure if I wanted to upgrade to the e89 … 20 minutes later I was sold and started the hunt… had her almost 6 years now….

Totally right—caught up with him via Facebook and learned loads about its history. He still had 100+ pics from the insurance assessor when it was pranged. A huge relief to see it was merely a 5-10mph bump!

Didn’t have straight pipes when he had it (I seem to recall) but he did mention it had a fancy intercooler. I’ll need to check it out.

 

[Dave 2 dogs]

It was enough to make me decide to take the leap …. I’ve never had a car this long before… I normally get bored after 2 years…. But I just can’t seem to walk away from this one…. Though I keep thinking about a replacement… I have this feeling I’d totally regret it .
Done some mods to it since I bought it , it’s not really a standard e89 now

 

[MarshMA10]

It was enough to make me decide to take the leap …. I’ve never had a car this long before… I normally get bored after 2 years…. But I just can’t seem to walk away from this one…. Though I keep thinking about a replacement… I have this feeling I’d totally regret it .
Done some mods to it since I bought it , it’s not really a standard e89 now

Absolutely. Very nice car so far—1650miles under my belt now.

What mods do you most enjoy on yours? I am always keen to fiddle. Most of my first work is mechanical and aesthetic fixing and tidying up. It’s already too fast for its suspension at 362hp, in my opinion, so I think I might look into upgrades there.

 

[B21]

Welcome..there is a sliding scale of things to improve the wayward handling of especially older N54 cars..

Fresh new OE bushes front and rear , through uprated bushes, through M3 steering linkages and uprated tie rods, through suspension , ARBs , wheels and tyres depending on how hard you want to push it, what reserves of handling you desire, comfort and cost and time..

 

[Dave 2 dogs]

It was enough to make me decide to take the leap …. I’ve never had a car this long before… I normally get bored after 2 years…. But I just can’t seem to walk away from this one…. Though I keep thinking about a replacement… I have this feeling I’d totally regret it .
Done some mods to it since I bought it , it’s not really a standard e89 now

Absolutely. Very nice car so far—1650miles under my belt now.

What mods do you most enjoy on yours? I am always keen to fiddle. Most of my first work is mechanical and aesthetic fixing and tidying up. It’s already too fast for its suspension at 362hp, in my opinion, so I think I might look into upgrades there.

quite a few to mention, but here are a few
Remap
Eisenman full exhaust
Carbon flat bottom steering wheel
Quaif lsd. fitted at birds
New wheels
Tarox discs front and rear
A few bit of carbon
Different grills
Etc …… I absolutely love the carbon steering wheel
And everything else, but especially love the bonnet vents and the engine covers hydro dipped because I did both of the projects myself

 

[MarshMA10]

Well - the Chinese rear lights arrived today.

I paid £332.16 plus £42.41 shipping and I ordered on November 21st. The Aliexpress page says 'Estimated delivery date Dec 5th to 9th' which I never believed at all anyway. They attempted delivery on Dec29 but we were away, so they re-attempted today, Jan 2nd. That makes it about 5-6 weeks for delivery, using the cheapest delivery option, 'AliExpress Standard Shipping'. I think it went via Cainiao Heavy Parcel Line, then a Dutch company, I think, but I can't access the page anymore. It's my first time purchasing from AliExpress but I am impressed, although I was fully prepared for the likelihood that they may never show up!


The box they came in is fantastic and printed for the purpose of this item, which is quite cool. The packaging inside is superb and utterly robust, I have no doubt it would protect them from all the falls on the way here.

The quality of the units is significantly higher than I expected. They look almost OEM-grade, to my eyes. I have not yet removed my existing lights so I'm curious to see if the plugs match!! But it all looks good to me so far. The seals around the edges of the lights to the plastic back structure look excellently made, to me. The plastic lens itself is very thick and very robust. The units are reassuringly weighty.

There are NO e-marks on the plastic lenses which may or may not cause me an issue at MOT time (August 2024).

Probably won't get round to test fitting them until this weekend. When I do I will likely send my standard lights to Clive for reconditioning and give myself the two options / sell one of the sets.

edit.
The link I bought from:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006140615980.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.7d55180258DPev

 

[B21]

Splendid..look forward to the install..

 

[AnubisZed]

Lots of good stuff on the Z4 last week or two.

Extremely grateful to AnubisZed for retrofitting cruise control to my car on the long drive north from London to Edinburgh for Xmas. Took him no time at all, and improved my waft northwards no end!! Huge thanks and a fully recommended option for anyone else curious!

.......
The straight pipes are hilarious—definitely a home made job—but they sound superb so I love them anyway. ....

No problem at all, glad you're happy with the cruise
Really nice meeting you and your good lady, and hope you had a great Christmas.

I can safely testify that that exhaust sounds absoluetly awesome

And the same here, looking forward to the rear lights being installed.

 

[Abbas]

Those lights look sick. Looking forward to seeing them installed

 

[MarshMA10]

Well, the weekend saw a test fit / trial run of the Chinese lights. I'm busy with a lot of DIY for the house at the moment--but found an hour or two...........outside, at 2 degrees C!

Installation of lights
Firstly I'd say - it's extremely easy removing and refitting the lights. With the roof in service mode you can have the plastics, carpets and light itself out within 10 minutes I'd say. Swapping lights should not be a task anyone has any concerns about doing at home. All you need is a screwdriver and an 8mm socket. The first investigation will take a bit longer as you work out where the various fixings are but the 2nd installation is a zip.

Discoveries on my car
I discovered someone has tried to silicone the old lights into this car, quite unsuccessfully, as the silicone detached from the flexible rubber grommet/seals. My car, being fairly old, has the 3-bolt pattern lights which the new lights do not offer, and I gather BMW recommend refitting your lights with only 2 bolts now to reduce lens cracking/separation, even when using standard lights.

Review of new lights
The new lights are very well manufactured and fit in easily. The locating pins at the rear-wheel end of the light fit snuggly and as OEM. The bolts line up with the bodywork 100% and the threads are identical to stock. Captive nuts from existing light work well.

The finished look is superb, and modern factory looking. I suspect 90% of road users would not know these were aftermarket. The turn signals are sequential, the DRLs are enormous, and the rear fog and brake lights look excellent. They are very 'OEM+' looking. I have not yet had a chance to test the reverse light in the darkness (will try it this evening).

There is a setting on the lights to switch on/off the 'start up animation', which is a sort of sweep illumination in the DRLs. It's very modern-looking but possibly a bit cheesy/chintzy. For now I've left it on. Initial impression is that I'd leave it on. It doesn't look out of place for the car, in my view. I'll try to upload a video soon.



Downsides
As the photos will show, there is a bit of a risk with water ingress from the new light fittings. The (very brief) instruction A4 says you should, "remove the original lamp baffle and install it on the modified lamp", which I attempted numerous times, both retaining and removing the factory supplied foam on the new light rear side. The modified lamps rear casing is not the same as the standard lights rear casing, i.e. nowhere for the original seals to clip in to, and some different angles in the plastics. The only way to make this work would be by modifying the standard seal piece with some cutting. Even so, I do not think it would form a watertight seal. That being said it does not need to, as the modified lamp is fully watertight on its own. I am going to contact the sellers via AliExpress and see what they say - they have already replied to one message, so let's see.

The question that remains is how well (if at all) the new lights seal the holes in the bodywork. I suspect they do not seal it meaningfully. There are a number of potential solutions to this. Off the top of my head, I could:
- butcher the original lights rear plastic pieces, by cutting the rubber element out of the plastic element, and compressing it between new lamp and bodywork to achieve a seal. I'd probably want some broken standard lights to butcher for this purpose rather than my own.
- utilise a simple rubber tube/hose piece around the edge of the bodywork hole, compressed by the light fitting. This would likely yield a decent seal but is imprecise.


Next Steps
I'll test them for better or worse in a week or two's weather, and enjoy indicating left like the good ole days, and I am interested to see if the reverse lights on these are actually meaningful lights (which will really help, where I live, which has no street lighting)

In the mean time I'll send my stock lights off to Clive for disassembly and refurbishment, so that I have options.