So much to fix 😭

T

Thadeus1991

Member
 Streatham, London
Hey all,

I just need to vent my frustration a little as I've not been particularly lucky with my Z4 so far. Still love the car but, my godness, I did not expect that I'd have that many things to get fixed in such a short space of time...

I bought the car about 1 month ago and really did my homework - or I thought I did, but I guess you can always be unlucky.

Found the car on autotrader about 5 weeks ago and it looked great! Montego Blue, cream seats, 2.5i engine, and only 76,000 miles. Also well documented service history and a bunch of bits had been done to it, showing that someone loved the car. So, went and had a look and everything seemed great. I even paid for a pre-purchase inspection to make sure I'm not missing anything - and the only thing they found was the starter engine making a noise occasionally.
So I went right ahead, expecting to have the starter replaced soon plus a bunch of service items (oil service, brake fluid, coolant).

I have since driven the car for ~600 miles and have noticed so many new niggles and bits. Each one of them is not a big one, but taking them together just adds up and is a little frustrating. So, in order of occurrence, here is the list of issues the car has developed (or that I have discovered) since I bought the car:

  • Loud wind noise from driver window when you get to motorway speeds. Didn't notice that when test driving as the car was London in an area where you can't go more than 50 anywhere. I checked and will have to take the door card of as it seems to be the camber angle of the window that needs to be adjusted.
  • Parking brake seems to be quite worn out. You really have to pull it up when you're on a hill.
  • Windscreen wipers packed up about a week into ownership. I think it's just the grease having rubbed all over the connector plate in the wiper motor (at least I hope that's it), but I've struggled quite a bit to get there over the last weekend (all I say is: stuck wiper arms and soft plastic rivets...)
  • I then noticed a new issue with the car's revs dropping when idling. That definitely did not happen when I first bought it. I'll have to have RBM check that out when I'm down there on Wednesday. Hopefully that's not something expensive.
  • I then started the car today to get it to the garage for an oil service and brake fluid change, just to discover that my engine now suffers from the dreaded hydraulic lifter ticking and sounds like a tractor - as the car had been sitting for a while I'm praying some time at higher revs will fix that... but you never know
  • And just to round things off, the mechanic told me (and showed me photos) of how rusty the brake pipes are and that he recons they'll need to be replaced before the next MoT (which at least is not until december).

All in all I'm super frustrated right now because I really did not expect that so much would go wrong so quickly. Thank God I still love the old girl and every minute of driving is utter fun - I recon had I bought a Polo I'd kick it every time I walk up to it at this rate...

I'm planning to get it all fixed of course (lots of work for Ross aka [ref]bowser134[/ref] at RBM 😂), and hopefully things will go more smoothly after that 🤞

Anyway, just wanted to vent for a moment to people who understand - thanks guys 😅😅
 
Not big issues thankfully and all doable if you are mechanically minded.
BMW handbrakes are the worst thing ever.
The ticking should go if you take it for a long drive (short drives causes this).
If it's the rear brake pipes then that may be more problematic to fix as I hear they are difficult to get to.


Anyway, enjoy the car and put up some photos, montego blue is the best colour :thumbsup:
 
dhobbs said:
if you are mechanically minded
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that's the crux - unfortunately I'm not particularly mechanically minded 😅 (and, possibly the bigger issue, don't have a driveway to work on - car is parked on the road as I live in London), so most of this I'll have to pay for!

dhobbs said:
If it's the rear brake pipes then that may be more problematic to fix as I hear they are difficult to get to.
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Oh, that's at least some good news. It seems to be the front pipes...

dhobbs said:
Anyway, enjoy the car and put up some photos, montego blue is the best colour
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100% the best colour - and I already posted some photos. See here if you want to have a look: click me
 
Wow, love that blue, it really is gorgeous !!
Not great start but hopefully these are smallish problems RBM can take care of - seems very well regarded so youv'e chosen a good place to take your P and J.
I am surprised the condition of the brake pipes wasn't flagged by the pre purchase inspection - worth seeing if they have a view on this perhaps??
Keep smiling and enjoy that lovely Zed :thumbsup:
 
dhobbs said:
Sorry, missed that post, but great looking and I like the wheels!
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Z4paul said:
Wow, love that blue, it really is gorgeous !!
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I know - it's exactly the spec I wanted (well, suppose 3.0 would be even better but I'm happy as is). It's exactly like the one I had a few years ago that I unfortunately had to write off (although that one was uber-reliable and never let me down...)
blunderthumbs said:
Why didn't the Pre Purchase Inspection pick up on the Handbrake or rusty brake pipe issues ? :poke:
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It seems that pre-purchase inspection could've done a better job. I guess the hand brake works on level ground and slight hills (such as where the previous owner lived) but not on steep gradients (which is where I live). But the brake pipes did not come up, so deffo an oversight on their end... It didn't appear in the last MoT either, so I'll make sure to get Ross's opinion on that but the photos looked pretty convincing unfortunately.

I sourced the pre-purchase inspection through clickmechanic btw. Had good experiences in the past with them and this guy had good ratings, too. Shame 🤷‍♂️
 
They are frustrating but unfortunately these are old cars and things fail.

None of them sound too serious and RBM will have come across them all before

I took mine in to RBM last year for some work and Ross highlighted the brake pipes would need changing soon and the window regulator was noisy.

It failed about 3 weeks later ffs. I’ll be visiting RBM again soon with a list of problems but none of them stop me driving it
 
I think you've just been a bit unlucky having a series of issues crop up at the same time, although the inspection should have picked up on the brake pipes. :o

The ticking should stop long before you get to Ross' place, and he'll be able to sort the rest of your woes. :thumbsup:
 
ph001 said:
Agree in the PPI. Very poor imho. I would be pursuing a refund on that if it were me.
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Yeah, I think I'll do that. I did actually pay quite a bit to get an extensive one done to avoid exactly those kinds of issues. Should have a good case with the photos and all...

rawpilot said:
Doesn't sound too bad for a 15 year old machine. Many other cars are scrap at that age.
All part of classic motoring
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Haha - I guess that's true! Luckily I did get this one for fun only and to keep it for a long time - so it's worth throwing money at it 😁
 
Thadeus1991 said:
Loud wind noise from driver window when you get to motorway speeds. Didn't notice that when test driving as the car was London in an area where you can't go more than 50 anywhere. I checked and will have to take the door card of as it seems to be the camber angle of the window that needs to be adjusted.
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I think you can adjust the angle when removing one black plug under the door. There is a 10mm bolt.
Mine had this bolt loose and window rattling around.
 
pr117 said:
I think you can adjust the angle when removing one black plug under the door. There is a 10mm bolt.
Mine had this bolt loose and window rattling around.
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That's true - there are two bolts there that let you adjust the window backwards/forwards and change the tilt angle on the same axis as the door. I tried that but I unfortunately need to change the camber (so get the window closer to the window seals) which is only possible when taking of the door cards as far as I know.
 
Just thought I’d give an update now that I’ve been to RBM and most of the stuff has now been fixed, and some is less urgent than I thought - happy days ✌️

What’s the status then?
  • ✅Lifter noise was gone after a few miles of driving
  • ✅Windscreen wipers work perfectly again (it was the grease)
  • ✅Rev issue identified as one-off Disa valve malfunction but seems to have fixed itself so just need to keep an eye on it
  • ✅Brake lines aren’t too bad yet and might still pass next MoT. Ross advised to come in again pre MoT to have a look then
  • ✅Starter motor seems to give me less trouble if I drive more often, so I’ll leave it until it gets a little worse. Plus a great excuse to use the car!
  • ✅Discovered minor oil leak at oil filter housing gasket but Ross advised it doesn’t need to be replaced yet
  • ✅Had roof motor relocated to boot. Apparently there was so much water in the drain that they had to mop the floor afterwards. Seems like it was just in time!
  • ✅Oil Changed
  • ✅Brake fluid changed
  • ✅Coolant changed
  • ❌The one thing that hasn’t been resolved yet is the wind noise. Unfortunately, it’s not the window adjustment but the seal is out of shape, so needs a new part from Germany 🇩🇪. I’ll go back in a couple of weeks to get that sorted.
 
Thadeus1991 said:
What’s the status then?
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Brilliant timing now they're all fixed to enjoy it when the weather is nice. and who has the top up then anyway, so no wind noise, result! :thumbsup:
 
Good to hear. Sounds like this wasn't too bad after all and more than one reason to drive as often as you can :thumbsup: Mines in for an MOT as i type...had a discussion about pros and cons of infrequently used cars, mostly cobs i think, defo need to be driven and enjoyed, fingers crossed...
 
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