Citizen-Erased
Member
Hello all, ill be doing a fair amount of work to my latest project over the next few months so I thought id get a bit of a thread going.
As I posted a few months back, I acquired a 2.5si on an 08 with relatively high if not astronomical mileage. It was a bit of a punt, bought effectively blind after I got pretty annoyed at finding ropey and massively overpriced motors for what they were. The car has no real history beyond some decade old stamps. Its obviously been serviced, probably as basic as possible, by its last owner but I knew and fully expected id be spending a decent amount of money to get it how I wanted.
A quick look over revealled it was cosmetically a little worse than expected, given corresponding eBay add and images. The bumper was shown in listing as needing a new clip and with paint damage on one side "the worst of it". In reality, the bumper is cracked between the grills and has been plastic welded or the like - badly. It was then sprayed and waxed over to hide it - its just about visible in the original ebay add but hard to spot and wasnt mentioned and I only noticed about an hour after id signed the paperwork. Oh well. :roll:
Other than that it drove ok, felt responsive enough save for the horredous chinese rubber recently fitted tot he front - so I decided to go ahead and do the deal. It was cheap enough for what it is and overally, annoying as some of it is, im ok with the choice I made.
Initial Ownership
Now, to be fair to the seller, who some will know, he was honest enough in conversations etc. However, its pretty clear the car was worse than perhaps billed in a few aspects. Known or not by the seller I think its safe to say the previous owner wanted the Z4 image but had a very tight wallet, above all is obvious the MOT last year was complete fantasy.
Immediate issues were that within hours the coolant had ended up all over the gaff :rofl: with a split coolant tank. That was a relatively easy fix with a new Febi item and I had that done within days of owning the car. Obviously not an MOT issue.
However whist I was underneath I spotted oil on the tray - Within a day it became apparent that the OFHG and OCHG were both weeping oil leading to 1L of oil use within about 1 day (350 miles). About the same time the oil filter collapsed and started buzzing.... :headbang: SO I fixed those only to notice white smoke on startup indicating a blocked PCV system - which I think has taken out the Camcover gasket
OFHG and OCHG got done, full sefoam oil flush (No arguments pleaseoke: ) plus two oil changes and MANN filtes etc. and the car is much better than it was. PCV system seems better, no smoke or noise indicating excess pressure like I saw before.
It has however got the most annyoing phantom knock ive experienced and that i cannot trace. :? I had the car in at a local specialist who diagnosed both lower control arms. Now these got replaced - I saw how bad they were... the car is much better but the knock is still there. :rofl:
Despite this, ive enjoyed ownership so far and spending money with garages or doing jobs myself is not an issue. Ive spannered my own cars since before I could drive and I work in the Automotive Enginering sector so parts can be had and labour isnt a massive issue unless its a lift the car sort of jobby.
Anyway, some pictures. The car has lots of swirls, some paint imperfections and the aforementioned damage to the bumper. But with some Turtlewax Hyrbid Black Polish + Hybrid Black Wax she does look pretty good - at 2/3ft away. Up close, only a proper machine polish will further cover up some of the issues.
Sunny weather, 32mpg on my commute and a great soundtrack is all making ownership enjoyable. I never wanted a Z4 until I did and im glad I ditched my 986 for this. I do feel the car lacks low end grunt though so ill be having it dyno'd when time allows.
Future Plans
Next work is to find this immediate knocking noise. Its getting worse but two BMW specialists have either mis-diagnosed or cannot find a fault.
Rear tyres are desperately needed and they are due in the next few days... Goodyear F1s now on the front - again massive difference.
Camcover gasket, senors under the cover, plugs and a strip and clean out of the solenoids and vanos filters is next - probably next month.
Longer term its going to be a case of looking into reworking the exhaust to give some more noise and to aid scavenging. I have access to a lot of toys turbo which im going to try and resist but at some point a low pressure turbo might be on the horizon. The main focus though will be on stiffening in a few areas and handling, im keen to look into rear and front braces, upper and lower as well as getting the suspension refreshed. 140k is a lot of miles on UK roads.
I did think id have gone to a 3.0 by now, but having driving one I dont think there is a massive difference 8/10 in day to day so I wont be bothering investing another 3K when similar spending unlocks much more plentiful options...
As I posted a few months back, I acquired a 2.5si on an 08 with relatively high if not astronomical mileage. It was a bit of a punt, bought effectively blind after I got pretty annoyed at finding ropey and massively overpriced motors for what they were. The car has no real history beyond some decade old stamps. Its obviously been serviced, probably as basic as possible, by its last owner but I knew and fully expected id be spending a decent amount of money to get it how I wanted.
A quick look over revealled it was cosmetically a little worse than expected, given corresponding eBay add and images. The bumper was shown in listing as needing a new clip and with paint damage on one side "the worst of it". In reality, the bumper is cracked between the grills and has been plastic welded or the like - badly. It was then sprayed and waxed over to hide it - its just about visible in the original ebay add but hard to spot and wasnt mentioned and I only noticed about an hour after id signed the paperwork. Oh well. :roll:
Other than that it drove ok, felt responsive enough save for the horredous chinese rubber recently fitted tot he front - so I decided to go ahead and do the deal. It was cheap enough for what it is and overally, annoying as some of it is, im ok with the choice I made.
Initial Ownership
Now, to be fair to the seller, who some will know, he was honest enough in conversations etc. However, its pretty clear the car was worse than perhaps billed in a few aspects. Known or not by the seller I think its safe to say the previous owner wanted the Z4 image but had a very tight wallet, above all is obvious the MOT last year was complete fantasy.
Immediate issues were that within hours the coolant had ended up all over the gaff :rofl: with a split coolant tank. That was a relatively easy fix with a new Febi item and I had that done within days of owning the car. Obviously not an MOT issue.
However whist I was underneath I spotted oil on the tray - Within a day it became apparent that the OFHG and OCHG were both weeping oil leading to 1L of oil use within about 1 day (350 miles). About the same time the oil filter collapsed and started buzzing.... :headbang: SO I fixed those only to notice white smoke on startup indicating a blocked PCV system - which I think has taken out the Camcover gasket
OFHG and OCHG got done, full sefoam oil flush (No arguments please
oke: ) plus two oil changes and MANN filtes etc. and the car is much better than it was. PCV system seems better, no smoke or noise indicating excess pressure like I saw before.It has however got the most annyoing phantom knock ive experienced and that i cannot trace. :? I had the car in at a local specialist who diagnosed both lower control arms. Now these got replaced - I saw how bad they were... the car is much better but the knock is still there. :rofl:
Despite this, ive enjoyed ownership so far and spending money with garages or doing jobs myself is not an issue. Ive spannered my own cars since before I could drive and I work in the Automotive Enginering sector so parts can be had and labour isnt a massive issue unless its a lift the car sort of jobby.
Anyway, some pictures. The car has lots of swirls, some paint imperfections and the aforementioned damage to the bumper. But with some Turtlewax Hyrbid Black Polish + Hybrid Black Wax she does look pretty good - at 2/3ft away. Up close, only a proper machine polish will further cover up some of the issues.
Sunny weather, 32mpg on my commute and a great soundtrack is all making ownership enjoyable. I never wanted a Z4 until I did and im glad I ditched my 986 for this. I do feel the car lacks low end grunt though so ill be having it dyno'd when time allows.
Future Plans
Next work is to find this immediate knocking noise. Its getting worse but two BMW specialists have either mis-diagnosed or cannot find a fault.
Rear tyres are desperately needed and they are due in the next few days... Goodyear F1s now on the front - again massive difference.
Camcover gasket, senors under the cover, plugs and a strip and clean out of the solenoids and vanos filters is next - probably next month.
Longer term its going to be a case of looking into reworking the exhaust to give some more noise and to aid scavenging. I have access to a lot of toys turbo which im going to try and resist but at some point a low pressure turbo might be on the horizon. The main focus though will be on stiffening in a few areas and handling, im keen to look into rear and front braces, upper and lower as well as getting the suspension refreshed. 140k is a lot of miles on UK roads.
I did think id have gone to a 3.0 by now, but having driving one I dont think there is a massive difference 8/10 in day to day so I wont be bothering investing another 3K when similar spending unlocks much more plentiful options...
