Oky doky, my first post, a bit of a rant, I know...
Must confess to being a bit picky about noises & rattles in new cars but I am still very suspect about the old "rattles in neutral goes away when you depress the clutch" issue that seems to afflict numerous Z4's including my '57 3.0si coupe. I bought mine with 1,500 miles on the clock and experienced nothing but silence with the car in neutral for the first 2-3k miles, after which time the rattle in neutral developed and gradually got louder up to around 5-6k on the clock. At this point I took it back to the supplying dealer (Bowker Blackburn) who gave me the "they're all like that, don't worry about it speech". I said fair enough, but the noise continued to get louder and to me at least engaging gear (1st and Rev) and changing (mainly 1st-2nd which I appreciate is not the smoothest even when everything's A1) became well, a bit notchy, as if there was a bit of slack in the drivetrain (not backlash from the diff tho) which needed to be taken up after the clutch engaged. Also when filtering in traffic the clutch became increasingly juddery and I would regularly get a louder "clonk" from the transmission when dropping the clutch when the car was slowing to a set of lights say, under engine braking. (Confident that after driving a range of cars over the years it’s not cack handed/footed driving causing these issues!)
With 8k on the clock, after moving to Birmingham in the interim period I took the Z4 to Sytner for a second opinion. They gave me the BMW SIB acknowledging the noise as an issue but nothing more sinister (Lets face it people. No-one is working on a fix for this back in Munich, it's flappy paddles or bust from here on in). I said not good enough so they split the transmission and reported to me that "excess axial play on the flywheel bearing had caused damage to the adjacent clutch plate". They replaced both clutch and flywheel under warranty. Following this work the car drove exactly as did when I picked it up with 1,500 miles on the clock. Silence in neutral, no judder etc etc. My experience from 8k to the 14k on the clock I have now is exactly the same as the period 1-8k. The same issues are back and although I feel there is a fault with the car, BMW say not.
The supplying dealer basically says that Sytner were talking bobbins about the "Axial play" fault, that there was nothing wrong with it in the first place. Took a test drive with Bowker in the car recently and they said all is normal. I pointed out the quality of gear change, the rattle, slack feeling in the drivetrain, the clutch judder, the clonk dropping into neutral that did not exist when new or for 2-3k after the first warranty works and they say well it just the parts bedding in within normal tolerances.
So I have a rattly (passengers and bystanders ask me what's wrong with it), clonky, juddery Z4 which I'm not happy with. Would love to have one that works as it did when I bought it!
(Or one similar but without the runflats which are utter sh@#e) Would like to hear what people think I should do about this (Apart from turn the stereo up). Is me thinking there is a g/box or wonky input shaft issue my automotive hypochondria or a genuine possibility?!?
Cheers
Chris
