E86 Z4 Coupe service history - thoughts?
- Thread starter j24
- Start date
Thanks both!
Really happy with it so far - looks and drives brilliantly.
Although it absolutely chucked it down on my way home last night, so not ideal conditions for a first proper drive - Looking forward to my first proper dry weather run!
There are a couple of issues for me to sort out, which I knew about before going to see the car.
1. The keys aren't remote locking/unlocking the car. So until that's sorted I'll have to go the old school route of physically turning the key in the door to lock/unlock the car. Plus the central locking isn't working at all!
Have read a few things on the forum re similar problems with the GM5 module... I'm going to see if charging the keys with a toothbrush charger works - then maybe try the re-pairing keys to the car key in barrel method. If neither of those work, I'll finally give in and send my GM5 module off for repair...
2. It's also got the common condensation in the foglights, and also a bit of condensation inside the passenger side repeater... thinking I'll probably try to sort these out next year when the weather is a little less wet!
Other than that, there's handful of other minor cosmetic things you'd expect in a 14-year-old car (bit of stone chips on the front that could probably do with addressing, and alloy refurb probably isn't too far away)
But overall it looks brilliant for the age, and the important bits seem to be great. It drives great, has a stack of paperwork for past services etc, and no rust anywhere that I could see. Managed to negotiate a great price and seller was a nice genuine guy who was only selling due to an imminent move to Japan.
I've been on the lookout for a fun second car for about a year now... came very close to a couple of other cars (was originally looking at caymans for a while!) but seriously happy with how things have turned out, and hoping to hold onto it for a while!
The next important question for me to answer is... will it fit in the garage??
Really happy with it so far - looks and drives brilliantly.
Although it absolutely chucked it down on my way home last night, so not ideal conditions for a first proper drive - Looking forward to my first proper dry weather run!
There are a couple of issues for me to sort out, which I knew about before going to see the car.
1. The keys aren't remote locking/unlocking the car. So until that's sorted I'll have to go the old school route of physically turning the key in the door to lock/unlock the car. Plus the central locking isn't working at all!
Have read a few things on the forum re similar problems with the GM5 module... I'm going to see if charging the keys with a toothbrush charger works - then maybe try the re-pairing keys to the car key in barrel method. If neither of those work, I'll finally give in and send my GM5 module off for repair...
2. It's also got the common condensation in the foglights, and also a bit of condensation inside the passenger side repeater... thinking I'll probably try to sort these out next year when the weather is a little less wet!
Other than that, there's handful of other minor cosmetic things you'd expect in a 14-year-old car (bit of stone chips on the front that could probably do with addressing, and alloy refurb probably isn't too far away)
But overall it looks brilliant for the age, and the important bits seem to be great. It drives great, has a stack of paperwork for past services etc, and no rust anywhere that I could see. Managed to negotiate a great price and seller was a nice genuine guy who was only selling due to an imminent move to Japan.
I've been on the lookout for a fun second car for about a year now... came very close to a couple of other cars (was originally looking at caymans for a while!) but seriously happy with how things have turned out, and hoping to hold onto it for a while!
The next important question for me to answer is... will it fit in the garage??
Very happy for you, that looks like a fab purchase.
1. The keys recharge in the ignition, so don’t bother about the toothbrush method unless they’ve actually run out.
2. Replace the fog lights with new (Magneti Marelli ones are often available quite reasonably priced) or change them for blanking plates. It’s not worth trying to repair/restore.
I remember picking mine up when it was chucking down with rain - it only gets better from there.
1. The keys recharge in the ignition, so don’t bother about the toothbrush method unless they’ve actually run out.
2. Replace the fog lights with new (Magneti Marelli ones are often available quite reasonably priced) or change them for blanking plates. It’s not worth trying to repair/restore.
I remember picking mine up when it was chucking down with rain - it only gets better from there.
Zedebee said:Very happy for you, that looks like a fab purchase.
1. The keys recharge in the ignition, so don’t bother about the toothbrush method unless they’ve actually run out.
2. Replace the fog lights with new (Magneti Marelli ones are often available quite reasonably priced) or change them for blanking plates. It’s not worth trying to repair/restore.
I remember picking mine up when it was chucking down with rain - it only gets better from there.
Cheers - Yeah very happy with it!
I think the keys were pretty dead... toothbrush charger method has revived one of them, so have remote central locking working with one key now. Hoping that means it's not the GM5 module, which is a little bit of good news! Going to try and charge the other one, re-pair both to the car and then hopefully just a case of keeping them charged by making sure I rotate the keys every time I head out for a spin.
Welcome to E86 ownership and well done for finding a late one. 
It was raining when I collected my Montego Blue one and drizzly when I got my MC, but both times I still enjoyed driving 100+ miles home.
If one key has been revived your GM5 module should be OK. I make a point of using both keys for mine now!
I hope it fits in the garage.
It was raining when I collected my Montego Blue one and drizzly when I got my MC, but both times I still enjoyed driving 100+ miles home.
If one key has been revived your GM5 module should be OK. I make a point of using both keys for mine now!
I hope it fits in the garage.
Mr Tidy said:
Thanks for the welcome to the e86 club!
And glad to report that it fits in the garage - and more importantly, I managed to get out!
Definitely a little on the tight side but no where near as tight as I was worried it would be. Most difficult part is getting it past the garage door.
Re the remote central locking, the one key I managed to get working on Friday stopped working yesterday, so I’m suspecting it might be time for a couple of new key batteries… have seen there’s a couple of places which offer to restore keys and put a new battery in for about £25-£35 a key, so thinking I’ll send one key off initially and see how it goes when I get it back.
Zedebee said:
Thanks for the tip! Think it's between them and Remote Fob Centre (who I can't find as much about but seem to have decent reviews).
https://www.remotefobcentre.com/collections/bmw/products/repair-service-for-bmw-3-button-remote-key-3-5-x5-z4-e46-e60-e61-e70-e85-diamond-shaped
Thinking I'll take the opportunity to get a new key case whilst I'm at it. The Master Locksmith might have the edge as I can find more recommendations on here - plus it looks like from their listing that their new replacement key case already comes with a BMW badge on it, but have emailed both to check.
Worst case looks like you can buy a couple of badges for the key fobs for about a fiver on ebay.
dxh said:
Thank you - definitely a great club to be a part of! Two and a half weeks in and I'm still stealing any opportunity I can get to look at the car
So the good news is that I'm pretty sure I've solved the remote central locking issue - looks like it probably was a dead key battery, I sent off one of the keys, and it came back and worked right away once I'd recoded it.
Also pretty pleased with the result. In the end I actually ended up taking a chance on remotefobcentre.com and went for a key repair in a new case:
https://www.remotefobcentre.com/col...-3-5-x5-z4-e46-e60-e61-e70-e85-diamond-shaped
Working perfectly so far, and looks pretty close to a genuine BMW key... the logo used is a bit of a different logo, but you have to look pretty hard to notice differences, pretty happy with it:
Speedy service too, had the key back a couple of days after sending it off! Think I'll be sending the other key off to them soon now that I've got a working one back.
