Hi there all, I've been lurking on here for about 6 months after deciding I might finally be able to afford a Z4 in my life.
The information listed on the forum about what to look for, the discussions of potential issues & fixes and the buying guide were invaluable when searching until I finally took the plunge and bought this little lady.
Ten minutes after purchase with a bellyfull of Shell's finest.
Basking in the sun in Toulouse
After seeing the Autotrader pictures/information and chatting with the seller over the phone, I ignored most of the rules for buying a car and pretty much committed to buy it. As I live in the south of France it was pretty difficult to arrange a test drive, but he seemed quite genuine and was happy to take the car off sale until I was flying back 3 weeks later. For peace of mind, I also managed to persuade the seller to put it through an early MOT. When I finally saw the car at the end of October (couple of days after its 11th birthday in fact) it was in better condition than I could have hoped, so shook his hand (almost ripped it off, I was that keen) and drove it from St Albans to Cardiff.
Luckily it was a dry day, so I was able to have the roof down part of the way. But I found the “mind of its own” handling a bit interesting when encountering the HGV tyre ruts on the M4. A change from run-flats is on the cards once this set has reached its wear limit.
A couple of days later drove it down from Cardiff to Toulouse in one shot and it was great. Surprisingly comfortable, great when nailing it away from the many toll booths, but I really missed my cruise control.
So far over the past few months I am very happy with the car and with it being generally dry here I’ve had the top down most of the time. However I have been accumulating a list of topics to be investigated and tasks which may need to be done to keep her tip-top. I welcome any additional recommendations or advice.
• High Oil consumption; used a litre on the run down and another litre since being here, probably 1500 miles per litre (suspect/hope it is due to the low miles being done up until I bought it and that a combination of full service and a good few thousand high-load miles will clear it up).
• Engine misfire; it threw an EML light when I really opened the taps on the way home one night (used my OBD reader to pinpoint the offending coil, after inspection they all seem to be the originally fitted Bosch items, so not sure whether to replace the lot in one go and be done with it? But then do I use new iteration Bosch or follow Realoem and replace all 6 with Delphi?)
• Replacement of the oil filter housing gasket and cleaning of the Vanos solenoids.
• Full inspection 1 service (oil and filters)
• Get under it properly and check it all out, focusing on brake lines
• Replacement wind deflector (all the fittings are there, it seems to have been misplaced)
• Brake Caliper refurbishment
• Cruise control retrofit
Will be getting rid of the private plate aswell, have no need for it and will be lost once the French reg is allocated.
As it seems to be a really well looked after example, I was thinking that it may have been previously owned by someone off the forum. If so, it would be interesting to trace some of the history of the car.
Anyways after that monologue, I look forward to chatting to you guys and benefitting from all of your wisdom.
Cheers,
Sion
The information listed on the forum about what to look for, the discussions of potential issues & fixes and the buying guide were invaluable when searching until I finally took the plunge and bought this little lady.
Ten minutes after purchase with a bellyfull of Shell's finest.
Basking in the sun in Toulouse
After seeing the Autotrader pictures/information and chatting with the seller over the phone, I ignored most of the rules for buying a car and pretty much committed to buy it. As I live in the south of France it was pretty difficult to arrange a test drive, but he seemed quite genuine and was happy to take the car off sale until I was flying back 3 weeks later. For peace of mind, I also managed to persuade the seller to put it through an early MOT. When I finally saw the car at the end of October (couple of days after its 11th birthday in fact) it was in better condition than I could have hoped, so shook his hand (almost ripped it off, I was that keen) and drove it from St Albans to Cardiff.
Luckily it was a dry day, so I was able to have the roof down part of the way. But I found the “mind of its own” handling a bit interesting when encountering the HGV tyre ruts on the M4. A change from run-flats is on the cards once this set has reached its wear limit.
A couple of days later drove it down from Cardiff to Toulouse in one shot and it was great. Surprisingly comfortable, great when nailing it away from the many toll booths, but I really missed my cruise control.
So far over the past few months I am very happy with the car and with it being generally dry here I’ve had the top down most of the time. However I have been accumulating a list of topics to be investigated and tasks which may need to be done to keep her tip-top. I welcome any additional recommendations or advice.
• High Oil consumption; used a litre on the run down and another litre since being here, probably 1500 miles per litre (suspect/hope it is due to the low miles being done up until I bought it and that a combination of full service and a good few thousand high-load miles will clear it up).
• Engine misfire; it threw an EML light when I really opened the taps on the way home one night (used my OBD reader to pinpoint the offending coil, after inspection they all seem to be the originally fitted Bosch items, so not sure whether to replace the lot in one go and be done with it? But then do I use new iteration Bosch or follow Realoem and replace all 6 with Delphi?)
• Replacement of the oil filter housing gasket and cleaning of the Vanos solenoids.
• Full inspection 1 service (oil and filters)
• Get under it properly and check it all out, focusing on brake lines
• Replacement wind deflector (all the fittings are there, it seems to have been misplaced)
• Brake Caliper refurbishment
• Cruise control retrofit
Will be getting rid of the private plate aswell, have no need for it and will be lost once the French reg is allocated.
As it seems to be a really well looked after example, I was thinking that it may have been previously owned by someone off the forum. If so, it would be interesting to trace some of the history of the car.
Anyways after that monologue, I look forward to chatting to you guys and benefitting from all of your wisdom.
Cheers,
Sion
North West Surrey
south yorkshire
North Yorkshire