New Car (to me) Problems - E85 3.0si

Moose94

Member
 Rugby
Hi All, just picked up an E85 2006 3.0si on 98k miles.

On the way home ive picked up a few problems that im going to try and get sorted in the next couple of weeks.

1. Wheel wobble on decel, guessing brakes related, ive inspected them and they all look pretty crusty and the last service history of them being done was 2016. Full set on order (Febi) including sensors. Will do fluid while im in there.

2. Tyres, the rears are 2016 stamped, front 19 stamped, and a mixture of Zeeker and Accelera. I want to replace these as cracking is starting to show on the shoulders and i think theres a slow puncture in one of the rears. Anyone have any experiance of Kuhmo PS72's on these? Ive had them on a Mx5 and the wifes Clubman before and they were great, just not sure how they are with the extra power from the N52. Can seem to get a set delivered for around £340 ish.

3. Steering wandering. Theres a large amount of wander from the front axle, mainly at 60-70mph, almost feels like tram lining, almost feels like the sttering rack has play in it and a massive deadzone that the wheels are operating in themselves without steering input. By taking the front wheels off and having a look theres no clunks or any play from what i can see in the ball joints on the front point of the control arm, nor is there any play in the ball joint into the hub. There is however quite an amount of play longitudinally in the entire hub, strut and arm forwards and backwards. Would this point to the rear control arm bushing being dead? I can get some Febi ones on order, however are they a replace in situ job or do the arms have to come off. If its the latter i can order a set of arms, are Febi the ones to go for or Meyle ones at double the price? Theres no history of these being replaced. Could this be related to poor tyres on point 2?

4. Rear clunk, theres a slight rear knock when moving from accell to coast and back, very repeatable and can be done with the lightest of throttle inputs at slow speed. The noise isnt dramatic or massively obtrusive, just is going to mess with my engineers brain. Im guessing as if its on and off load it would be the singular rear diff bush, or, would anyone agree it might be the two front diff to subrame ones as well? Can the Rear most bush be replaced in situ or does the diff have to come out?

5. There alot of chatter on idle from the transmission/clutch, goes away when the clutch is depressed. Ive read a few posts on here and other forums saying thats normal of the ZF6, is that correct?

6. ICE, the vehicle has come with a Kenwood head unit and a Connect2Car box behind (I assume, as the wheel controls work and theres a packet in the boot), anyone fitted an ebay/aliexpress single din carplay unit and have any recommendations for which to go for? Mainly want it for Spotify and Nav more than anything, but DAB would be a bonus. Not too bothered on its performance or looks, just something to refer too. Ive a phone mount in the car already.

If this post need to be broken up into multiple threads i can do.

TIA!
 
Congratulations on acquiring your Z4. :thumbsup:

I can't help with all your issues, but I fitted a set of Kumho Ecsta PS71 tyres to my M Coupe in 2021 and they were fine so they should cope fine on your car. When I replaced the rears last year my regular tyre place couldn't get them in time so I had Hankook Ventus fitted instead. If anything they perform even better in wet conditions.

Tyres can often contribute to wandering steering, especially run-flats. But I had new front control arm bushes fitted to my first Z4 that made a big difference. Anyway new tyres are probably a good starting point then go from there.

The chatter at idle makes me think the clutch release bearing may be the culprit as it stops when you depress the clutch.

A good, cheap, improvement is to remove the Clutch Delay Valve if it hasn't been done already.

Hopefully someone will be able to offer some advice relating to your other issues.
 
Thanks!

I’ll have a look at some Hankooks, I’ll probably look to get a second set of wheel with some more track biased tyres so the kuhmos/hankooks will do the job for now.

I’ll do a bit more digging into the control arm bushes, kind of want to do the bushes and tracking and tyres at the same time to get a nice fresh setup going forward.

It has the delay valve in there, the seller confirmed it was present so I’ll look at doing that. Going to get a ZHP knob on order as well as doing diff and gearbox fluids. Should improve the shift feel somewhat. I would go for a stormworks however having come from an Rs200 Clio with the rs knob which was stainless, I don’t really fancy molten metal in the summer and sub zero in the winter again, what a faff!
 
To echo Mr.Tidy. Start with tyres. It truly baffles me how people cut corners on rubber. Apparently Toyo Proxes are decent on BMW's, but I'd rather pay that bit more for Michelin's. Hopefully new latex will sort most of not all issues.

As for ICE. This looks interesting, I'd have bought it myself, but I'm a peasant.

 
To echo Mr.Tidy. Start with tyres. It truly baffles me how people cut corners on rubber. Apparently Toyo Proxes are decent on BMW's, but I'd rather pay that bit more for Michelin's. Hopefully new latex will sort most of not all issues.

As for ICE. This looks interesting, I'd have bought it myself, but I'm a peasant.

I’ll start with the rubber, I’ll have to price up some ps4s/ps5’s and see what the opportunity cost is.

That’s the sort of kit I’m after, although ideally looking for something flush rather than protruding out the dash. Will have to do some measurements of the facia and see what’s on the market.
 
I’ll start with the rubber, I’ll have to price up some ps4s/ps5’s and see what the opportunity cost is.

That’s the sort of kit I’m after, although ideally looking for something flush rather than protruding out the dash. Will have to do some measurements of the facia and see what’s on the market.
The forum seller has dropped the price by about a third
 
So I’ve managed to sort a couple of bits.

Firstly, steering feel. Did a bit of digging and settled on doing the lollipop bushes on the lower arms. Wasn’t the hardest of jobs but what was interesting is that the bushes on the LHS were completely dry compared to oil seeping out of the bush on the right. There was a lot of play in the bushes and was part of the root cause of the steering feel. Tip for doing this job was to use a ball joint splitter to pull the existing bush off the arm in situe, and then to use an Amazon China special bush removal cup kit. I did buy some 8.8 grade nuts and threaded bar to avoid any issues with the Amazon tool which seems to be the weakest bit.

IMG_6008.jpegIMG_6008.jpegIMG_6010.jpegIMG_6013.jpegIMG_6014.jpeg
 
Secondary to the above, the steering still wasn’t quite right. This afternoon I’ve had a play with the steering motor worm gear ring. From what I can gather I’ve got the opposite of sticky steering, so with a bit of trim removed and the ring gear adjusted slightly the steering feel and slow and national speed limit is spot on, well pleased.

Link for anyone that sees this and is in the same situation:

 
So now CarPlay. I did a bit of searching and didn’t fancy spending the £200+ for the double din facia plus then a double din headunit, connect2 box etc so went down the route of getting a single din extended display. It was around £35 off amazon and came with parking camera as well as wiring etc.

If you’re looking to copy what I’ve done you’ll need a few bits, mainly the connect2 box, a universal patch lead for it, as well as a facia trim for a single din unit. The facia you want is the one that has a missing section at the bottom, if you get the one that has an a-surface face all the way along the bottom this head unit won’t fit.

To get this head unit to fit with this facia you’ll have to dremmel 5-10mm of surface area off the top section where the screen extends past the facia external profile. Not a major job but does require a bit of test fitting. I also found using a couple of grub screws on the din skeleton made it hold in place againt the facia internal faces.

Wiring is pretty simple, don’t cut any of the leads on the patch lead, plug it all in as instructed. I found putting the vents onto the dash before the facia was the easiest to fit, and putting the head unit in last seems to work.

You’ll need the connect2 box if you want to use steering wheel controls I believe. Once I had mine booted up I was able to use the memory function in the head unit to learn the buttons on my multi functional steering wheel. All works really well now and is a lot quicker than my previous kenwood classic headunit that came with the car. The new CarPlay unit has quite a few good functions and the sound quality is greatly improved, I would highly recommend this for anyone not want to go down the double din route but also wants a slightly larger screen than a single din one. I recon all in you can do this with a new connect2 box as well as the head unit for £100-150.IMG_6059.jpegIMG_6058.jpegIMG_6060.jpegIMG_6061.jpegIMG_6062.jpegIMG_6064.jpeg
 
Well done on sorting your Z- you clearly know what you’re doings. Radio not my cup of tea but will be a useful post that will help others looking for CarPlay solutions.
 
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