Noob from Cardiff

B

BumbaClaart

Member
Hi there folks!

I've been checking out this forum for a good while and getting some seriously itchy feet (or is it sweaty palms?) about getting a Z4, so on December 17th 2011 I took the plunge and left my trusty red 1.6 Megane which I'd owned for 5 years (it's in the background!) at a dealer in Liverpool and headed some 200 icy miles back home in this...


IMAG0090.jpg



It's an 04 plate, 3.0i SMG.

Now, I hadn't seen too many blue ones before! Most appear to be grey, silver or black! I wasn't initially sold on blue, but the spec was right, and since picking it up this colour has really grown on me!


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I'm undecided yet about changing to clear lights, strangely I don't think the orange looks out of place.

The aerial was hanging on by sinew so an emergency trip to Halfwits was required to bag a "beesting", I will go the route of the stubby soon enough!

My first question is whether a Z4M bumper would fit on this, and would the battery tray in the boot, which also contains an amp, prohibit fitment of a quad exhaust?


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My first mod was to make the fuel needle go half way up :)

Inside it has some decent kit, albeit no TV or bluetooth. I will retrofit this in the summer if I come across a ULF at the right price. I've not checked behind the carpet in the boot for a ULF, but I've had the interior light panel off and there isn't a mic or loom. So, despite the presence of MFSW buttons, I'm guessing a complete retrofit will be required!

I'm not adverse to taking this thing apart and I've already had the headunit out to fit a DIY AUX input (thanks for the how-to submissions). The head unit was making a very irritating repeated clicking noise upon opening the doors, so I've opened it up and taken the internal CD unit out for closer inspection...


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Sounds like some kind of CD detection issue. A replacement unit is £130, so I'm in no rush to replace this, plus there's a changer anyway.

If any of you have this issue, removing the laser unit gives no nasty errors, just a "no CD" message on the screen. Removal is a 5 minute job and it's only held into the head unit by 4 torx screws and a ribbon cable. The unit is a Philips CDM-M6 4.4/2 if you are looking to replace yours.

The sound system appears to be a 10 speaker Carver and the sound quality is impressive for an OEM system, but I'm looking to add MP3 functionality. I really dislike ipods which I think rules out an Intravee, so I was set on a Dice. This was before I read about some of the issues you guys have had with that unit. Further research yielded something that more fitted the bill...


http://www.maintronic.de/en/products/cp600bmw-mp3-player.html

CP600BMW-front_2.jpg



Have any of you experience with this unit? This option looks attractive to me as I wouldn't need an additional DSP converter because it's directly plug and play (6 pin + 3 pin + Coaxial digital) with the CDC cables. I'd be looking to get this fitted in the next few weeks with any luck :)

Also on order are a bunch of different trial and error LED's from China, with which I intend to replace the courtesy and side lights with, plus install some puddle/handle lights. I will report my findings when they arrive with some pics. I'm also awaiting number plate LED housings from China and Bimmian to see what the real difference is between these.

I also have ambitions to butcher the front lights to get some cold cathode angel eyes in, although this depends on sourcing some decent donor lights which are probably rare as rocking horse sh*t!


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The drivers side window wasn't working when I went to view, but it's now been sorted.

I hope to ditch the RFT's shortly and initially was looking to get a wheel and tyre package in 19". However, since then the wheels have grown on me too, they remind me of the ellipsoids on my old Alfa 156! So, perhaps now I will get non-RFT's and just drop it 40mm instead. What do you guys reckon?


Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. It's nice to say hi to you all, and rest assured you lot and this excellent site are fully to blame for me buying this car ;) Sorry about the camera phone pics, I can take some decent photo's with my SLR once the weather improves!

Cheers,
Gareth.
 
Holey s#it... What an amazing first post!
I'm very new on here and hadn't considered 99%of this when launching of my first post.

Wishing you many happy and safe miles in what looks like an amazing car :D
 
Welcome to the forum and to roadster ownership! An exclusive experience :thumbsup:
Nice looking car and colour, out of interest can I ask has it done many miles? Certainly sounds like you are going to be kept busy :D so will look forward to hearing and seeing how you get on with all your mods.
ENJOY :driving: :D
 
Congrats on your purchase! I love the colour! Seems you've been doing some homework as well...

Mine's a 2003 3.0i with navi professional like yours and DSP. It was equipped with a cd-changer as well, but as most of these changers, at some point it got stuck. After a while I managed to get the cds out, but I had no faith in the changer anymore. Plus, I was fed up changing cds all the time. Which brings me to the CP600. I bought one, left the cd-changer in place and installed it in the boot. If you remove the boot trim you can access the rear of the cd-changer to unplug the cables. Here's a link on how to remove the boot trim: http://www.bimmernav.com/BMW_Z4_Bluetooth_Installation_Instructions.html

On the pictures you can also see the bracket used for the bluetooth module. That is where I installed the CP600. With a sharp knife I made a small cut in the boot trim so I can swap SD cards.

The CP600 works very well and I'm happy I bought it. The sound is on a par with the cd player, if not better (depending on MP3 quality). As long as you use 6 main folders, corresponding with the 6 cd numbers of the old changer, you can use as many subfolders as you like. The CP600 communicates with the stereo buttons and the steering wheel buttons without a problem. ID tags are shown on the navi display, it has a memory function and you can programme which folders to participate in random play. The only minor drawback is that the BMW controls only allow you to skip one folder at a time (within one of the 6 main folders) alphabetically. If you, like me, cram a 32 Gb SD card with music, it sometimes can be a nuisance to go from an album starting with a C to an album starting with an A.

As for the wheels, if you're planning on swapping RFT's for regular tyres in order to improve ride quality, why go for 19"? Part of the improvement will be lost again. My car has 18" ellipsoids (with RFT) as well and I wouldn't want it any bigger that that. Even on our smooth roads in the NL any harsher would not be pleasant.

If it were my car, I'd leave the bumpers and lights as they are now. As the front lights are expensive and the rears not so much, there are a good number of Z4's with white rear and standard amber front. Looks a bit cheap IMHO. Besides, the amber rear lights look good. If you want a bit of ///M in your car, you'd better get an M steering wheel and gearknob. It changes the driving experience!
 
Welcome along. Another for the roadster club, good choice sir :thumbsup:

Keep the rears orange ;) it suits darker coloured cars IMO :driving:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi again guys, thanks for the kind words and warm welcome :)

Swiftly - it's just touched 76k.
Stradale - Thanks for this info, just what I was looking for. I will assess the CDC cavity when the weather clears a little, I would like to install the MP3 unit in the small cubby hole above the changer and nav to make it accessible from the cabin. I will need to extend the loom and create new cable ports to make this possible. Also, interesting stuff about the ULF bracket behind the seats; in the Bimmernav info it shows a raised section on the rear bulkhead carpet that contains the bracket, but I don't have this section in my car. Do you have the raised piece in your car or is the carpet flush? The weather is far too bad to go out and rip it out, but I'm absolutely itching to get stuck in :)

I think I will stick with the 18's and drop it a tad, can anyone vouch for the Eibach springs? I see some packages available which also includes Bilstein shocks, so if mine ever need to be replaced I could be tempted by the Bilsteins too.

Thanks again folks, I will get some decent pictures up soon enough :)
 
My car has the same raised piece on the bulkhead as seen in the pictures on bimmernav. It's part of the phone preparation option. Even though the bracket holds no ULF module, the bracket itself has been fitted by the factory.

In order to install the CP600 in the cubby hole you would need to drill a hole for the cd changer cables to go through. I'm not sure whether you can reach that far up from the hole in the bulkhead. It's worth trying though, because reaching it from the font would mean you'd have to remove the cubby hole itself. Here are two more links with information that might be useful to you.
http://www.unofficialbmw.com/images/6042EN.pdf This shows you how to install or remove the cd changer. Removing the cubby hole would require similar steps.
http://www.olihaas.com/cp600bmw.php This page n German is a how-to on installing a CP600 in the same spot as where your cd changer now sits. The part number of the plastic piece the writer installed in place of the cd changer is 51 46 7 043 818.
 
Totally off-topic ( bit of a speciality of mine...), but the original bimmernav post from stradale has just shown me how I can properly remove and clean the 'parcel shelf' without doing acrobatics trying to avoid kneeling on my seats. Cool - been annoying me for ages :thumbsup:
 
Now, there's tidy. Lovely colour ( reckon it would look fine on an Alpina, eh, Stuart?? :P ).

Eibach Pro's are, indeed, very good. Rear lights - IMO stay as-is. Carver hi-fi is a very good option to have, and your music system upgrades should sound great through those speakers. Good luck with your forthcoming tasks :D
 
stradale said:
My car has the same raised piece on the bulkhead as seen in the pictures on bimmernav. It's part of the phone preparation option. Even though the bracket holds no ULF module, the bracket itself has been fitted by the factory.

In order to install the CP600 in the cubby hole you would need to drill a hole for the cd changer cables to go through. I'm not sure whether you can reach that far up from the hole in the bulkhead. It's worth trying though, because reaching it from the font would mean you'd have to remove the cubby hole itself. Here are two more links with information that might be useful to you.
http://www.unofficialbmw.com/images/6042EN.pdf This shows you how to install or remove the cd changer. Removing the cubby hole would require similar steps.
http://www.olihaas.com/cp600bmw.php This page n German is a how-to on installing a CP600 in the same spot as where your cd changer now sits. The part number of the plastic piece the writer installed in place of the cd changer is 51 46 7 043 818.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this info, the weather here is far to poor to have a crack at the moment but I'll be installing as soon as it cheers up outside :)

Today I received the first of the LED's that I have on order. I had ordered a few different combinations to try as sidelights, as I don't want any hint of blue light, and the colour temperature is not always listed on the adverts. These are the lamps received today...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270791953...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2110wt_1331

sidelightleds.jpg


I won't lie, getting these into the sidelight holes was very touch and go and needed a bit of persuasion to get them in. Trying to get the drivers side headlight rear cover back on wasn't much fun either. The dark and rain didn't help, but as a typical bloke I couldn't wait til tomorrow :)

I've used an SLR but there's a streetlamp right outside my house, so I've desaturated red light slightly in Photoshop and also increased the exposure amount a little to make it clearer. Only the sidelights are switched on.

Left side is OEM filament bulb, right side LED as above...

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Here is the same shot with varying exposure amounts, I haven't fiddled with red light saturation this time. You can clearly see the colour difference, and how much more evenly distributed the light is...

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_MG_3916b.jpg


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Overall, the colour closely matches the xenon headlights and I'm very happy with the results. Now it just remains to be seen how long these things last, with that amount of chip LED's per unit they probably get quite toasty! Not bad for 6 quid though.

Thanks guys, hope this helps I'll continue to photograph my mods and post them here!

Gareth.
 
LED lighting for indicators, side and brake lights is the only mod I'm thinking about. I just like the colour matching on the sidelights as you've done, and the instant on/off effect. Interested to see how you get on with these.
 
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