New Potential Owner

Bmoutinho

Bmoutinho

Member
Hi Guys,

My name is Bernardo and I live in London, UK.

After months of trying to convince my wife for us to get Z4 (she doesn't drive and I already drive a company car :D ) I am in the market for a Z4 E85 3.0 si manual. I really like the coupe but its considerably expensive and I always wanted to own a convertible.

I have a car in mind and upon calling the owner I was told of two issues and I would like some guidance. The car is garaged every winter for at least 6 months even though he said he turns the car on and move on the drive, but the car is not driver for months. The issues are:

1 - ABS lights is intermittently on sometimes disappearing other times being on -
2 - Automatic window is not working on driver's side all the times stopping the roof to open.

That's the car. Looks clean and well maintained. Car has full service history so despite not knowing the magnitude of the issues I am interested.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406271202754?sort=most-recent&searchId=0fabceb6-e583-4675-a463-84e7c3605937&advertising-location=at_cars&make=BMW&minimum-badge-engine-size=3.0&model=Z4&page=2&postcode=N22%206RR&transmission=Manual&year-from=2006&year-to=2008&fromsra

Any advice or recommendation? I love cars but not technical at all, support is really appreciated!

Many thanks,
Bernardo
 
Hi there Bernardo. Welcome :)

I see the car has a hard top on in those pictures. Be sure to drive it with the roof down and check that the roof operates smoothly up and down. For that money I would want everything working perfectly.
 
A lot of owners, including myself, SORN their Zeds over the winter. The intermittent ABS one is a common issue, a replacement was about £15 and took 20 minutes to change but it’s worth taking a code reader with you when you go a visit. Depending on where you’re based, I’m sure someone would lend you one so you don’t have to buy it before buying a Zed!
 
The driver's seat is slightly worn, and the hardtop can be sold for around £900. The engine bay looks very clean. You need to carry out a scan with a model-specific code reader to see what is going on, Creator 420/410, Ancell BM700. It is very strong money, the later shape E89 can be bought on your budget.
 
Very low owners which is great, but the price seems high. It has been on the market for quite a while.
Look at this as a sold price comparison £6400 plus fees…
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/auction/17311801

All the 3.0si manual on AT are expensive and or have been on ages. 3 finally sold in quick succession recently and were much better prospects and cheaper too.
 
Hi and welcome Bernardo. :thumbsup:

As has been said that is strong money for a Roadster, but if it includes the hardtop that could be worth the best part of £1K depending on condition and IIRC less than 700 manual 3.0Si Roadsters found a home in the UK so choice can be limited.

Anyway good luck whether you buy that one or another. :thumbsup:
 
Looks nice, but has faults and is strong price. Mines only a 2.5 2008 with similar miles and was half that price 18 months ago with no faults (but I found a few once living with car). Hard top is a big bonus, but rest of car needs to be spot on at that price. Hope this helps.
 
Hi Bernado,
Welcome to the Forum. I think the 2.5si which I bought in 2016 must have been a bit of a garage queen in the first few years of its life due to the low milage on the clock. I'm not sure if this was the result of the car being kept in a damp garage, combined with infrequent usage, but I did end up having to buy a new sump (oil pan) because it was leaking oil due to corrosion - they are made of pressed steel. The cost of the replacement sump, aluminium screws and gasket came to £530.00. That was in 2020. So it might be worth getting that checked out.
I hope this doesn't put you off though. In nine years of ownership it's been a great car, my daily driver and has racked up nearly a hundred thousand miles since I bought it. Oil consumption is more of an issue than it used to be but my understanding is that the 3L engines are less susceptible to this than the 2.5 N52s.
Good luck.
 
Thank you so much everyone for the responses! That's hugely helpful!

I do think the price is high specially with these issues.

Would you know more details on the automatic window issue that is stopping the roof to work sometimes? Is it a common problem?

Also, as I am not technical at all, I would be willing to have someone with me to check the car. Is there any app or service I could hire a specialist to join me to view the car and inspect it (having the code reader as well)?

Thanks ever so much again!
 
I can't help with the window issue, but if you say where any cars you want to look at are someone on here who is local may be able to help with a code reader.
 
The window and roof issues may not be inter related, so one not working may not be the cause of the other one misbehaving.
The car is a 2007 model with a decent amount of milage under it's belt so it would pretty surprising if there weren't some roof opening and closing issues, especially if the roof motor has not been relocated to the boot which is what most of us end up having to do.
Likewise, the driver's side window is the more likely one to be used, and so over time the cables in the regulator as it's called will start to fray.
 
Thank you very much guys! Apologies for the slow response! been away for some time.

Back into the search! I am tempted to check the convertible. Anyone around Leicester that could help with code reader or suggest a BMW specialist around the area that I could maybe contact?

Would anyone know where I can find the service intervals on these cars? I haven't factored in service costs so I would like to have an idea based on mileage.

Many thanks once more!
 
BMW work on Condition Based Servicing, so miles between services supposedly varies according to how the car is used. When you start the engine the dash will briefly display the miles until the next service. IIRC just after a service mine would display 18,000 miles.

But regardless of mileage BMW say it should never go more than 2 years between services, so cars that don't do many miles can often do far less miles between services. If you won't be doing too many miles you could just work on the basis of a service every other year.
 
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