M@_’s Z attack

[M@_]

Hi all,
I’m going to document my Z journey here. 2003 z4 3.0i with 110,000mi. Style 107, 10 speaker sound, Bilstein B4 is how I bought it.

I was really on the hunt for some cool JDM thing. I was in an ISF and wanted to shift, and something easier to work on that’s also cheaper. The F went up 25% while I owned it and I was glad to sell the car as NFT when it was hot. I found a 135i as a cool alternative but the car was trashed and then… I saw this little gem for sale nearby and got it for a good deal.



PO hit a baby deer and used a replacement headlight that leaked and the fog light had a bad crack. I didn’t take photos of the damage, but I went straight to work.

 

[M@_]

New made inPRC Spyder headlights and new fogs.

Note the exposed wires in the old light.

 

[M@_]

I next I turned my attention to the interior.
New cup holders.


I converted the mirror to an an E 90 so I could get homelink

 

[M@_]

And the parking brake boot was badly worn. I don’t like all the tan so I’ve switched a few items to black.

 

[M@_]

Somewhere in there I did the EPS adjustment outlined here



This made a huge difference and I can’t recommend it highly enough. The trick is to rotate the bottom of the ring toward the driver to loosen it.

 

[M@_]

All the talk of drowned hydraulic tops had me wondering.. I saw a post about using a practice arrow to clean the drains from the top. so I decided I would investigate.




If you open the top like this you can see down to the bottom and see the hole. I actually pulled a bunch of broken plastic out that would not have ever made it through the hole in the drain.

 

[M@_]

I got the windows tinted and then began my biggest project so far.
UCC short shifter. This was an ordeal because I ordered it direct from UUC and received a shifter that was not machined correctly, didn’t fit, and no response from the company.

I decided to order again from Turner Motorsports and got the correct part installed about a week later.

You can see the differences in this photo

 

[M@_]

Not sure exactly what’s next. I’m on a wheel hunt, but not sure I’ll pay for what I really want. The car might get charged and I’m trying to do all maintenance in advance of that. I plan to do a VANOS soon. I’ve done DISA already. I might do an M50 manifold and MS43 at some point. I might just drive it as is.

 

[enuff_zed]

Wow you've hung about getting stuck into it.
Love what you've already done, especially the headlights.
Not sure I've ever seen that car/roof colour combination but with the top down in particular, it really works with that interior.

I'm sure there's a pun in there somewhere regarding the arrow and the wheel archer, but I can't make it work.

 

[buzyg]

Nice work. Don't forget to drive it though.

 

[Mr Tidy]

Welcome to the forum.

You've been pretty busy already and your car looks great in that colour combination! Finding one with 107 wheels which are much better looking than MV2s and don't have the corrosion issues of 108s has to be a bonus.

I'd love to know how you rate the short-shifter.

 

[M@_]

I do like the shifter. I feel like I understand the challenge of 1 - 2 shift better by feeling it.

It's very notchy in there. I think I would do it again because I had a pretty badly worn shift ball bushing. It was a lot of work though for a marginal improvement. It was worth it to me in part because I sold a very fast car to be able to shift and I wanted that to be as good as it could be to make myself feel better.

Do not buy the UUC shifter directly from UUC. I still haven't been refunded and it's been two months. Turner is excellent and fast.

 

[M@_]

I get a thud when I unload the drive line quickly with the clutch. I don't get that with just an on off throttle, but I think the DBW is reducing shock load. I suspect it's a diff bushing and I plan to check it and them replace if needed.

I am an "while I'm there" kind of guy. Should I expect the subframe bushings to need replaced too? I know that's a pretty big job, but getting the diff off is part of that procedure. I'm not really sure how to check subframe bushings either.

Please advise.

 

[M@_]

ohh yeah 120,000mi

 

[M@_]

:wink: Steady progress

 

[craig3.2]

7E366554-63A1-4CEC-BC92-764953FFDC46.jpeg
:wink: Steady progress
8211795F-BAAB-42FF-A239-BD9A603EF297.jpeg
3C7C7541-77BC-45E5-9A22-8312369CFC05.jpeg

Cars looking good. Nice job on work done

 

[futureZ4buyer]

Loving the car. Also have one with beige interior.
It is great that you are handy with all that stuff and I plan to learn that also. Saves a lot of money and is interesting. That USA country road stuff is amazing. Open roads with no or little traffic... I wish we had something like that in Europe, or maybe we do have but I don't know about them.
Good luck!

 

[M@_]

Got some style 42 wheels to try out. Came with tires. This is an experiment, but so far I like it.

 

[M@_]

I’ve been storing up some updates.

I got a BlueBus a few months ago. I have the business CD and it was easy to go through the trunk liner to install and it works well. No photos for that.





I took a 1300 mile trip to New Orleans. Very nice time.


It was damp the whole way and the car was crusty, but good.


I needed to fix the clunk when shifting. I honestly thought I just didn’t remember how to time the clutch with the shifter. Most suggest the rear diff mount as top suspect and that was the case here too. I did change the guibo and front diff mounts for good measure.

Since I had to do that I decided I would do this too.


It was a bit of a pain to get back in I had to grind the case a slight amount.


I also ordered a circuit from Tanner to turn off my DTC for me on startup. So I’m having lots of fun. No clunk, no holding the button, and two tire fire.

I tested it in snow today. It was like Mario Kart.


I’m working on another little project involving the style 42s

 

[M@_]

Before I forget, I replaced a nasty old cowel. This cars from New Mexico and the plastic had twisted and distorted badly. No pics for that yet, or ever if I’m honest.


I also changed out the VANOS.