New (ish) Z4 Owner

[fanchazstic]

Hey all, I bought a 2006 3.0si in August and have been loving it. I don't know much history of the car so I've been doing all the maintenance items and fixing small issues/doing small mods. My last car was a Solstice and I honestly expected this car to be similar, just with an extra 90-100HP. I could not have been more wrong, this is a completely different beast and blew away my expectations

Funny enough, coming from only having owned GM cars, this car is an absolute dream to work on so far (for the most part...that roof motor really is something else). Almost everything seems to have been designed to be serviced

I know looks are subjective but the attention this car gets is almost kind of funny. I constantly have strangers telling me they like my car. And while I love the way it looks, I never expected a 15 year old car to still be noticed by other people like that. This car isn't iconic like a Supra or FD RX-7, it's just an early-mid 2000's roadster. It's cool that people notice it, I just didn't expect that

So there you have it. It drives good, it sounds good, it looks good. What's more to want. I really do love this car

The one minor gripe I do have is the open diff. Every time I go around a low-ish speed corner with any aggression at all I just hear the inside tire squealing. It's kind of annoying honestly. One of these days I'm going to get pulled over turning out of a roundabout

But yeah I look forward to spending more time on this forum and hopefully eventually I'll be able to contribute my own information as I get to know this car/platform better and try different things

 

[Roberltd2]

As they say, "welcome aboard"!

 

[Chippie]

Hi and welcome to the forum
Have you checked the rear suspension bushes and alignment as that could be causing loss of grip on the rear, also how old and what condition are the tyres in

 

[fanchazstic]

As they say, "welcome aboard"!

thanks!

Hi and welcome to the forum
Have you checked the rear suspension bushes and alignment as that could be causing loss of grip on the rear, also how old and what condition are the tyres in

I haven't gotten into the suspension of this car much yet. Eventually I want to refresh it all with new bushings and ball joints etc but I'll get to that once all the other problems are fixed. I didn't mention it in the original post but I'm pretty sure my roof hydraulic system has a leak somewhere, if I leave the car parked for a couple days the battery drains flat, and there's a weird rattle from the engine after a cold start that only goes away after I let the car warm up and then cycle the ignition. I just discovered all 3 of these issues within the last couple weeks so they're my top priority right now. The tires seem fine, I'm not sure how old they are. They have plenty of grip in a straight line, I don't think I can even spin first in a straight line. But for example the inner tire squeals a bit if I'm in 2nd gear going around a tight corner and give it more than like half throttle as the front end comes out of the turn. It doesn't do it under normal driving, just when I'm giving it some beans...which admittedly I do a bit too often

 

[Mr Tidy]

Hi and welcome - those are great photos.

The 3 litre N52 engine is fantastic, but if not used for a few days can suffer from a ticking noise from the top end - I think it's because the oil drains out of the valve lifters. It's quite common, but luckily doesn't seem to do any damage and soon goes away once the engine is warmed up, especially if given some beans!

Good luck getting it how you want it.

 

[fanchazstic]

Hi and welcome - those are great photos.

The 3 litre N52 engine is fantastic, but if not used for a few days can suffer from a ticking noise from the top end - I think it's because the oil drains out of the valve lifters. It's quite common, but luckily doesn't seem to do any damage and soon goes away once the engine is warmed up, especially if given some beans!

Good luck getting it how you want it.

That was my first thought, but it doesn't do it when the engine is completely cold. It's more of a rattle than a ticking. It starts once the engine is at 10-11 o'clock on the the coolant temp gauge and continues doing it until at operating temp. Usually it will keep doing it until I cycle the ignition (once fully warm), but I did have it go away on its own one time once completely warmed up and driven around for a few minutes. It also does it mostly above 1500 rpm and below ~4k rpm. It does it on decel, but a lot quieter. It's most noticeable with light throttle between those rpm ranges. If I give it 1/2 throttle or more it goes away completely. I ordered both new DISA valves and will replace them. I don't think they're causing it but I already wanted to replace them anyway. I was only able to have someone rev the engine up a bit while I stuck my head under the hood once, and it sounded like it was coming from the back of the head. It's hard to tell for sure though.

 

[B21]

Welcome, a Quaife limited slip diff has been fitted by a few E85 owners to good effect…not cheap but good

 

[fanchazstic]

Welcome, a Quaife limited slip diff has been fitted by a few E85 owners to good effect…not cheap but good

I hadn't heard of that, I'll definitely have to check that out. Depending on how much it costs that might end up being one of the higher priority projects in my ever growing list of planned mods/projects. Thanks for the tip!

 

[B21]

Welcome, a Quaife limited slip diff has been fitted by a few E85 owners to good effect…not cheap but good

I hadn't heard of that, I'll definitely have to check that out. Depending on how much it costs that might end up being one of the higher priority projects in my ever growing list of planned mods/projects. Thanks for the tip!

I’m a big fan of Quaife lsd as I have one on my 300bhp 450 nm E89 20i auto and about to fit one to my 35is..circa 400bhp 550nm.

A new one I guess fitted to your diff will be £1500 ish?

Once you’ve had one you don’t want to go back..not just in low speed corners..

 

[buzyg]

Welcome to the forum. A very smart looking Z4. 8)

No parking allowed in the middle of the road in Missouri I see, very sensible. :wink:

 

[fanchazstic]

Welcome to the forum. A very smart looking Z4. 8)

No parking allowed in the middle of the road in Missouri I see, very sensible. :wink:

I have no idea what you're talking about, those shots were definitely rollers :wink: (just don't zoom in and notice the lack of a driver...)

 

[buzyg]

Welcome to the forum. A very smart looking Z4. 8)

No parking allowed in the middle of the road in Missouri I see, very sensible. :wink:

I have no idea what you're talking about, those shots were definitely rollers :wink: (just don't zoom in and notice the lack of a driver...)

I may have zoomed.

In UK double Yellow lines is a no parking zone. We have double white lines in the middle for no passing zones :? . :wink:

 

[Nathanio]

Hello,

I think it's a trait of tyres in the American market to squeal. Every hire car I've had out there has ended in lots of squealing and understeer in the corners!

Especially bad was the Sebring Convertible up near the Redwoods in San Fran; 12-15mph into the hairpin and squeallllllllll central.

I've also noticed in general that Americans are upset if their tyres don't last 50,000+ miles they get upset. When I told a good American friend I was in having my tyres done at the weekend and told him that I was pleased this set lasted 15,000 miles. He fell off his chai, he normally gets 75k miles out of a set! Where's the fun in that :-D

 

[fanchazstic]

Hello,

I think it's a trait of tyres in the American market to squeal. Every hire car I've had out there has ended in lots of squealing and understeer in the corners!

Especially bad was the Sebring Convertible up near the Redwoods in San Fran; 12-15mph into the hairpin and squeallllllllll central.

Oh wow I didn't realize it was isolated to the American market. Maybe part of it is the pavement here?

I've also noticed in general that Americans are upset if their tyres don't last 50,000+ miles they get upset. When I told a good American friend I was in having my tyres done at the weekend and told him that I was pleased this set lasted 15,000 miles. He fell off his chai, he normally gets 75k miles out of a set! Where's the fun in that :-D

Yeah, a lot of people only drive to get from point A to point B, so they want to spend as little money doing so as possible I guess. Personally a few hundred bucks a year for a new set of tires isn't that significant in terms of performance per dollar, but not everyone cares about performance

 

[Nathanio]

Maybe it's the road surface. The only car I have had that didn't descend into understeer as a hire car was a Subaru Impreza in Florida. But I did love the Yukon we had in the snow in CO.