My mechanic said...

S

samax92

Member
Visit to my mechanic this week after noticing the front driver side wheel arch is closer to the wheel than the passenger side.
Verdict was that one spring may be slightly weaker than the other but nothing to worry about unless it gets worse.

Then...Needed new front wishbone bushes because of the shaky steering wheel. Done.

And then...Described the whistling noise coming from the engine ( I posted on here with no useful answers)...needs a 'crank case breather valve' fitted. Means not a lot to me but in the new year it will be done!

On the plus side, he said all looks well...no damaged wheels, new discs and pads, joints and suspension all look good, exhaust still attached (compared to my last 3 cars...clios...all likely to fail)
 
The drivers side of my car sits slightly lower than the passenger side, more pronounced at the front but the rear too. My mechanic said it was within tolerances, but put a thicker spring pad in for me. The springs are fine as we discussed it as part of him putting Eibachs on, which were second hand but not that old. He reckoned if I really wanted to go to the expense of sorting it then I'd need to look at new shocks or coil overs. But he doesn't believe it will affect handling at all... Doesn't appear to either

I think the shocks have probably worn slightly more through a combination of having only a driver in the car a lot of the the time and (my brother's theory) the fact that drivers tend to take left hand bends more aggressively than right hand, pushing the suspension more on the driver side.

Interesting you go no useful answers about the whistling - a very common problem that gives that symptom is a split rubber hose on the air intake system. Mostly on prefacelift engines I think. Did you check that out when you searched the forum ?
 
Yeah he did say the only way to be sure it's a weaker spring is to replace with a brand new pair but it's not worth it! 10 year old car on original set-up with mainly just me in the car makes sense!

I say no useful answers...ideas suggested failed to be effective. With the car running and the oil cap unscrewed, the pressure in the oil tank should lightly blow the cap up. In reality it's got a vacuum and is sucking the cap down. Apparently there is these valves in various places..one in manifold one in dipstick amongst others...that collect sludge and condensation etc and they get blocked. The whistling is coming from one of them being partially blocked. Quoted £262 all in for the job
 
Okay, you have checked all the hoses that are part of the air intake right ? This thread gives a link to the culprit on realoem.com, and a photo at the end :

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=42075&p=607325&hilit=Whistle#p607325

I am not sure you need to have the sound generator for this to happen as there's a chap on the first page of that thread with a 2.5 who had the problem. I guess that if you did have the sound generator then you'd still have this part too. Worth a look if you've not already had a poke. It is buried quite low down in the engine bay IIRC.

I don't know about the valves, but you could save yourself £240 :thumbsup:
 
IIRC - if I recall correctly.

Let me see if I can find a thread that has better pictures of it in situ in the engine bay.
 
Okay, this thread has a better pictures toward the bottom of the thread and is a good how-to for this issue :

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=56458&p=830955&hilit=Intake#p830955

As you face the front of the car the intake system is on the right of the engine bay. You can see from the thread above that the rubber hose is just about directly below the firewall brace on that side. Worth saying, the sound generator is visible at the right hand side of the pics with the red square and circle - it comes off the side of the part in question, so the rubber hose should still be there in your car... If it turns out to be the problem you will need the part number in the first link I posted though, not the one in this thread because this chap has the sound gen.
 
Actually - to be on the safe side, go to realoem and put the exact details of your car in to get the part number if you need it The link in the first thread is for a 3.0i, and I am not sure if the part is different on the 2.5 or not.
 
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