Z4M buying advice requested

G

Gebbly

Member
 Hersham, Surrey
Hi All,
I have been thinking of becoming a Z4M owner and so have been reading everything I can about ownership. I had a couple of specific enquiries I am hoping this forum can help me with them. (I know this will just be opinions, not legal advice :) )

Firstly , mileage on these cars seems to vary quite widely. Would it be better to go for something around 80k miles but a service history that shows things like brake lines replaced with braided, valve clearance checks twice and a recent vanos rebuild or something with less miles like 50k miles. But the service history does not show valve clearance checks or vanos rebuild? Part of me thinks the car with more miles has had some known trouble areas already sorted for another few thousand miles but the lesser mileage car could have them around the corner?

Secondly, I have found someone selling a Z4M who has included a video tour of the car. This is the snippet in which they show the engine bay (apologies, I think you have to log in to dropbox to download it. I can try emailing it to anyone who is interested)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lexymdh0rkf3s07ngdsio/BMWZ4MCoupeEngineSound.mp4?rlkey=vj64orm4wiy70e5y7co6hc4ei&st=06sc9wxl&dl=0

I have yet to go and see a Z4M first hand and take a test drive. Does the engine in that video clip sound ok? I thought a car like the Z4M would sound more of a smooth purr than that?

[Lastly, I hope I have put this posting in the correct place, apologies if not]
 
I’m not a mechanic but that doesn’t sound great but it may be something minor. Maybe get it checked before deciding whether or not to buy. The engine in the Z4M can be a little raucous particularly at higher revs. I realised as much when I drive a Z4 3.0Si - now that was super smooth but doesn’t have the spine tingling drama of the Z4M.

When I bought my Z4M 3 years ago my wish list was that the car must have the pop up screen - so much so that I discounted any car without the pop up screen. The pop up screen whilst being authentic is never used by me since I installed an after market Pioneer unit which gave me Apple Car Play.

Good luck in your search!
 
Basic advice, get out and see as many as you can, try and compare.
 
History>mileage. Always.

Car sounds normal. They don't make a great sound when idling. 7.5k rpms, on t'other hand...
 
The s54 is not a quiet engine. From what I can hear I agree the idle sounds normal.

Things to watch out for apart from normal maintenance stuff are m tax items like disk rotors, vanos, rod bearings etc. Find a car you like that feels tight with documentation and have it checked out properly by someone who knows what they are doing. One of the things that kills these cars is driving them hard before they are up to temp. When shopping privately for mine I used to get the owner to drive it before I did somi could try to see how it was treated. If the person starts it cold and proceeds to show you how quick it is then you know what to do.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum. :thumbsup:

As others have said they don't sound great at idle, but I didn't hear anything in the video that would concern me. They don't purr, they tend to sound a bit angry and just eager to be let off the leash!

I had an unaccompanied drive in one in September 2109 that I went to look at for a forum member who lived in Staffordshire who wanted the service history checked out. The trader just took the price out of the window, started the engine and said he'd see me in a while. After that I knew I wanted one in my life!

Then a few months later an advert for mine popped up on here on a Sunday, I viewed it and left a deposit on Tuesday then collected it Thursday as a Christmas present a week early. :D

At the time it had 76K miles recorded and 7 previous keepers, but it drove just fine so a good deal was done partly because it needed to go before Christmas and was due an Inspection 2 service. One bonus was that it came fitted with H & R coil-overs less than 6 months old.

Anyway I couldn't make my mind up what to do about the crank rod bearing shells. The number of keepers made me think at least one might not have bothered getting it properly up to temperature before driving it hard so in 2020 it got an Inspection 2 and new bearing shells and engine mounts. 6 of the shells were showing copper so I knew I had done the right thing as it was always going to be a keeper. And the engine mounts were in a real sorry state! As far as I know it hasn't had any Vanos work done and still has the original rear brake pipes.

As others have said history and condition are probably more important than mileage. How you plan to use the car may have a bearing on what mileage you look for. I wouldn't have paid top money for a very low mileage example knowing I was planning to put miles on it as that would have killed its value.

Whether you look for 50K or 80K given their age now it would be good to find one that has had a suspension refresh, and at the upper end of that range has had the bearing shells replaced, or budget to have them done in the foreseeable future as you'll get a 4 figure bill from an Indy specialist.

Inspection Services 1 and 2 both include valve clearance checking and adjustment if required, so if the boxes for either of those have been ticked in the Service Book the clearances should have been checked. But you can probably have more confidence if those services have been done by a BMW dealer or Specialist.

If you're anywhere near GU20 you'd be welcome to have a look at, and a (passenger) ride in, mine.

Anyway good luck as they are really special cars. :thumbsup:

Photo of my worn bearing shells.

Bearing Shells 260820.jpeg
 
Thanks for all the great responses everyone, they were very helpful.
When people talk about the "valve clearances" is this the same as the Hydraulic Valve Adjusters? I have seen some advice that the HVA or "lifters" need to be "manually adjusted" every 30k miles. I am keen to learn and try and turn my hand to car maintenance but as yet there is a lot of jargon to get my head around.

I think given the age of these cars, if I was lucky enough to get one the first thing I would do would be take it to a specialist and ask for anything and everything they could see that might need any work and then include all fresh fluids, spark plugs and poly bushes.

Thanks for the extremely generous offer Mr Tidy. I do indeed live near you in the KT12 area just inside the M25. If there was a date or time that was convenient for you I would love the opportunity to see a loved example and experience what it is like riding in one. I could do most dates and could take a day off work to meet up if a week day was more convenient for you than a weekend. I'm afraid I cant send you a direct message as I am new on the forum. However, if your offer of a chat and a ride still stands my number is 07841016776.
 
The S54 engine doesn't have hydraulic lifters, which is why the valve clearances need to be checked on a cold engine and adjusted if required using shims, and that's why it gets expensive.

My car had an Inspection 1 this year that includes this and my brilliant ex-Sytner Indy in Hook, Hampshire currently charges £550 for that service, so you need to be aware you'll get some big bills to go with the £735 a year Road Tax!

The offer still stands and as I'm retired I can do most days/times, but realise others can't so weekends are fine too.

I'll text you, unless you are on Whatsapp.

FWIW you only need to make 3 posts to send a PM.
 
So as long as the service history shows an "Inspection 1" it means the valve clearances were checked? Thats handy to know. Sounds like I need to search exactly what is involved in an Inspection 1 and 2. I have been piecing together advice from various sources about the things that need doing at intervals. I think it was a chap in the US which talked about manual adjustment of lifters every 30k. Perhaps the Z4M was slightly different in the US, I did see something else that said the engine they had was 10 or 20bhp less than Europe?

Another thing I collected was that the "M-Mobility system" sealant cartridge needs replacing every 4 years. Is this something anyone has experienced?

Mr Tidy : I dont have whatsapp so a text would be great please.
 
The mobility system is merely the can of goo that sits in the battery box. It inflates (if it can) flat tyres. Mine was out of date. I bought a new one from BMW. But I dare say you can go aftermarket.
 
Gebbly said:
CliveN said:
can of goo
Click to expand...
Oh thats funny. I'm aware of those cans and have one in my boot. Mobility system sounds far more impressive than it really is. :)
Click to expand...
To be fair it’s the compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter, and the can of goo go with it. A cheap option to make up for not engineering space for a spare wheel. In my experience it’s the best way to render a repairable tyre unrepairable and therefore has a cost per use of about £150 :cry:. It makes more sense to keep a space saver in the boot.
 
Zedebee said:
It makes more sense to keep a space saver in the boot.
Click to expand...
Can you fit a space saver in the boot? The boot space looks reasonable for general usage and holidays away buy I would think a spare would take up all the space wouldnt it? Granted I havent seen a Z4M boot in person so may be way off.

If given the choice I would happily sacrifice the weight increase if it meant I could carry a spare although having said that the downside with so many BMWs is their use of different sized wheels front and rear so its not like we could carry a single spare to cover all corners. :(
 
The rolling radius of the front and back wheels is very similar, so you only need one spare to get you home. Quality space savers are generally 4”/4.5” deep so don’t take up a lot of room and you can use the space inside them. I think (but check with him) Mr Tidy carries a full size spare in the boot.

Personally, I would rely on the Mrs to bring me a spare wheel from the garage if I had a flat tyre, but I do have a space saver in case I go touring.

The Z4M boot space is smaller than the non-M that I have, but I am pretty sure it will take a full size rear wheel.
 
Well it looks like Gebbly will be having a look around my car this week!

If it helps anyone else I have a standard 224 front wheel in the boot as a Spare - I wouldn't want a damaged wheel to be a show-stopper when I go on B21s Scottish trips. Although it does limit packing to squashy bags. :roll:
 
It will certainly be interesting to see how much space it takes up. I read somewhere that there is a small amount of space under the boot carpet is that true?
When it comes to packing light, many years ago I went on camping trips in Europe with my brother in his Westfield kit car. Now that was a tiny boot. One of the things we used to do was put our clothes into plastic bags and lay them out thin and then slide the bags behind the seats nice and flat. Got a surprising amount in that little space.
 
Unfortunately someone beat me to Deeksey's car which looked perfect so I'm still on the hunt for a Z4M and so I had a few more questions if anyone could help?
I'm trying to line up a visit to a very local dealer to see a Z4M which has about 56k miles on it. The service history sounds ok but I'll examine it more closely if I visit. I had a few concerns though. Could anyone comment on the below?

It hasnt had any work on the vanos, should I be concerned about that at this age? could any of the seals have perished? After chatting with MrTidy and a bit of research a vanos rebuild is an expensive thing to be stung with straight after a purchase.

Apparently since 2020 it has been in someones private car collection indoors and barely driven a few miles. Is there anything I should be wary of with a car like this not getting driven? I know generally cars arent that happy just sitting still.

The dealer was a little vague in his description but it sounds like it hasnt really been serviced since it has been in that private collection other than recently by the dealers own mechanic. Is that a red flag?
 
1. VANOS: I wouldn't be overly concerned unless the car is not performing as it should. I would do at least one of two things; bring someone with a healthy M along with you so they can comment on how the car drives and how the engine pulls through the revs; bring a decent diagnostic tool and perform a Vanos test.
2. I would be a little wary of any car that hasn't been regularly driven. How may miles has it done between MOTs? Definitely check advisories on the MOT for play in bushings which may have perished, and definitely check the age of the tyres; they may well look fine but be very old and hardened.
3. I would not be overly concerned with servicing not being done to schedule if the car really has only driven a few miles. What I would be concerned with is to ensure that the car has had a proper inspection service done as that can be very expensive and needs ideally to be done by a specialist who knows how to do it properly (valve clearances on a cold engine etc). I would want to know exactly what servicing the dealers mechanic has done and what oils and parts he has used - these engines do not respond well to non-OE parts and non-recommended oils...
 
They provided the licence so I can check the MOT
https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/results?registration=HJ07MGO&checkRecalls=true

Regarding the regular use the last few years have seen very little :
7/5/2019 - 27/2/2020 = 138 miles
27/2/2020 - 30/4/2021 = 938 miles
30/4/2021 - 11/6/2022 = 172 miles
11/6/2022 - 5/5/2023 = 25 miles
5/5/2023 - 6/6/2024 = 33 miles

In answer to some of my questions the dealer says there have been no vanos or diff works. In a recent inspection (I suspect his own mechanics check over) "suspension and bushes, during a recent inspection these parts were inspected and deemed to be in very good condition showing no signs of needing replacement"

I think in a video he took he said it had all new tyres.
I have sent some more questions including if it has had a BMW "Inspection 1" and "Inspection 2"
 
Ok personally I wouldn't be massively put off by the lack of servicing given the mileage - it almost looks like it was literally driven to and from the MOT station for the last couple of miles! That being said, there's a bargaining point there; good, low mileage examples carry a lot of value in their service history. Missing stamps to some people is a turn-off, even if perfectly justifiable. Just be aware of it, when the time comes to sell you may take a bit of a hit vs normal market price for the age and mileage. (This wouldn't bother me in the slightest by the way, but just so you're eyes open).

On the subject of service undertaken, I'd almost not even bother asking if it's had a BMW inspection1/2 service - I'd be prepared to bet the dealer wont have a scooby what those are. I'd just get a quote from either a BMW garage or decent indy for a proper Inspection 2, and take the quote to the seller to use as another bargaining tool.

I'd also personally completely ignore the dealer having done a service and just plan/budget on getting a proper service with a decent indy done immediately after purchase.

In terms of bushes, I'm sure the dealer would say they're all fine, but bottom line is even on a regularly used car the original bushes will likely not be at their best; probably still serviceable but more than a little baggy. You could roughly budget ~£1600 for new front arms, RTAB bushes. a Bilstein B12 suspension kit (springs & dampers) c/w new top mounts, droplinks and Arb bushes - that'd deal with almost all of the major bushes and any bagginess in the dampers, but in al likelihood it's not something you'd need to do right away... Nor is it really a bargaining chip for you, unless you have any advisories on the MOT history for play in the suspension.

On the subject of tyres - the statement 'all new tyres' to my mind is conveniently vague on the sellers part. The tyres may well look brand new, but they could conceivably be at least 5 years old and only have done 1300 miles! If they're older than 5 years old imo they're getting past their best and will want changing in the next year or so. Either ask the dealer to send you the 4 digit age code on each of the four tyres, or check them yourself when you view the car. Another £850+ bargaining chip if you need 4x new tyres (don't get s**t rubber, it'll ruin how the car drives and the car will feel properly hairy!)
Side note - ask him to confirm the make and model of tyre - that'll also tell you a lot about the previous owner - if they are a premium brand (continental/Michelin) then chances are he's looked after it money no object. If it's got Linglongs or Landsails on it, RUN A MILE :lol:
 
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