project SiC's consolidated moderns - 2004 BMW Z4 2.2, 2005 BMW 330i and (borrowed) 2007 Porsche Cayman

[SiC]

Mrs SiC told me to stop whining like the Primary School teachers at her work and just get on with fixing my 3-series. After all, I've bought a BMW and what do I expect not to have to fix it. 

So I bought a cheap wheel speed sensor from Amazon and lobbed it on. Not much to say as it's an easy enough job. 

Corner up and wheel off.

Sensor is held on with a 5mm hex bolt. Came out easily enough.

Sensor came out with a bit of prizing and jiggling.

There are two types and I wasn't sure which one it was. So easy enough to buy both. This was the wheel bearing type and not the reluctor ring type.

The cover for the sensor connector was missing. Now I don't know if it should have one or if someone has been here before. Old sensor is genuine BMW.

You know a replacement is going to be good* when it comes in a non-descript brown box with generic Chinese SKU stickers on and a warning about Cancer.

Old sensor left, new sensor right. Looks like the moulding flashing was sanded off but left a hole in the middle of the sensor. This is the backside too. I blobbed a bit of automotive silicone sealant on it to make sure if it was a hole, that water and dirt wouldn't get in. Don't want to ruin my £12.99 sensor that quickly...

Put it all back together and went for a trundle down the road.

Whoop! Thank fuck it's just the sensor and not the bearing or even worse, ABS module.

Went for a blitz up the main road and the light stayed out. These 330i don't half go too. 

Speedo was bang on steady with cruise and revs absolutely fine. So basically I have been worrying about nothing (I hope) as the Speedo wavering must have just it acting weird from the missing wheel speed sensor (or just in my mind). 

Next job is the tyres to be replaced and tbh it could do with an alignment I think. Brake pads (maybe discs too) are the next urgent thing. I want to get that idrive working as well. Plan for that is to burn a recovery CD and if that doesn't work, I'll lob a second hand unit in. 

I think it needs an oil change service and should next be on the list. Need to get some more oil in for that. 

[SiC]

Last weekend Mrs SiC and myself went away for a couple of days to her friends Sheppard Hut in West Wales. Weather was great, so naturally I took the Z4.

Boot was amply big for such a journey.

Met a friendly chap named Craig.

Saw some fallen down castles 

Went to some sheds with old farm machinery.

 

Visited a dam

 

Went to the beach 

 

Travelled through some fantastic scenery 

 

 

All in all we covered almost 360 miles. Car computer reckoned 39.2 MPG which is a bit lie according to a tank fill. 35.2mpg is more accurate. Which to be honest is pretty damn good. A lot of cruising but a few spirited drives on some Welsh curvy roads.

 

Whole trip was nearly faultless. Rear third brake light is falling off again. I have in hand a cheap eBay special to go on.

Two codes stored but not triggering an EML.

I wonder if this (which I'm pretty sure is caused by an air leak) is making the MPG calculations out.

 

This code is a bit more weird. It's coming up as thermostat map control open circuit. Basically, because BMW love to complicated things, this has a heater in the thermostat to open it up earlier. Why? Well apparently it does that under full throttle scenarios to prevent knocking. Bloody overly complex things. 

I went into a local key shop for a new key to be cloned. Apparently you can't do that with this key as it's encrypted and you need to plug into the OBD2 and program a new key. 

[SiC]

Ordered some Mannol oil, a Mann filter and sump plug for the 330i. Also received today a faceplate from eBay to take a later CCC iDrive unit. 

Now on the hunt for a reasonably priced iDrive. I want one of the later ones with the extra 1 to 8 buttons on the front (hence the different faceplate). Not so much for those extra buttons but more because these later hardware revisions apparently are far less to die like this one has. Afaik it's Hardware revision 10 onwards (mine is a v9.8). Most are v12.x that I'm looking for. 

Usually they seem to be around the £150+ price point on eBay with most around £175-200. Seems a lot for an old car head unit but I guess they're such an integral part of the car and they fail so often, there is a high demand for them. Ideally I'd want to spend the lower end of that because I'm cheap but also there is a good chance it'll break again. That said, most don't seem to even sell at those prices... 

Going to have a hunt around for someone breaking a 3, 5 or 6 series locally and seeing if I can pick one up at a more reasonable price. 

Tyres on Friday then I need to order a new set of front pads and possibly might chuck a set of discs on it too. I have read that BMW spec pretty thin discs to keep the unsprung mass low. However this means the discs don't tend to last more than one or two sets of pads. Could be a load of bollocks but I wouldn't put it past BMW. 

[wuvvum]

According to the computer my Z4 has been averaging 36mpg in general running around.  That's probably a tad optimistic too but it's really not bad on fuel for an old school NA straight six.

[JakeT]

You’re right on the discs. A set and a half of pads and they’re usually dead.

 

The price of an iDrive unit is quite shocking, but as you say they’re important and on 5/6 series even more so as they do less on the instrument cluster.

[SiC]

15 minutes ago, JakeT said:

You’re right on the discs. A set and a half of pads and they’re usually dead.

 

The price of an iDrive unit is quite shocking, but as you say they’re important and on 5/6 series even more so as they do less on the instrument cluster.

Found one on eBay for £135. Took my best offer of £125.

There is a local guy wanting £225, reduced from £250. I did perchance message him asking him if he'd do it for a more realistic £135 (I had nothing to loose) and I could collect. He said no, he knows what they're worth and £210 was his lowest. Despite numerous eBay sellers having them at £175. That seller at £175 (quarry) sold one last month at £145. My offer of £145 was rejected too...

Anyway I got one at a more reasonable price. Hopefully its a good working one now after I've pissed everyone off. 😂

(One of the later hardware revisions, so hopefully so. My plan is to leave the maps dvd out as apparently that stops the units getting so warm as they don't have to keep working so hard when driving along to keep locations updated.)

The cluster on this barely shows anything. Also can't set the time without a working idrive. Pretty much the main reason why I'm putting so much effort in to fix this - so I can have a working clock!

[EspenO]

None of mine have had an idrive malfunction, so I’ve never tried.  But it won’t let you do it via the button on the lights stalk either?

[JakeT]

Agreed. I think the date and time can be set on the cluster as these cars came without iDrive. On 5 series and above you can’t even check the oil without functioning iDrive. How shit.

[SiC]

I had to Google it as didn't even realise there was extra up/down controls on the stalk. I only saw the BC button on the end of the stalk. 😳

1200ml of oil later

 

Fresh oil arrived today. Except now I know the service counters, it's not due an oil change service for another 16k miles. 🤦‍♂️

 

Topped up the PAS fluid. This looks to be leaking from the container. Google says it can be the cap. 

 

Going on the warnings on the aux belt, I had a look at the tensioner. Should I be concerned it's slightly off the pulley? I was intending to do this but I've been patiently waiting for another 20% eBay code before spunking out on a aux belt, tensioner and pulley set. 

 

Belt spray or oil leak spraying after hitting the belt?

 

Tyres were supposed to be fitted today. Got a call this morning from Halfords (tyres on the drive) to say their van had broken down and needed to be rescheduled 😒

So hopefully will be done Sunday morning now. 

[Stanky]

2 minutes ago, SiC said:

Should I be concerned it's slightly off the pulley?

Didn't someone say that the tensioners/pulleys do this - the spindle or something can't cope with the tension and it goes wonky and eventually throws the belt off or snaps off and cannons around? I'd say its worth replacing it if you can...

[SiC]

On 12/05/2024 at 21:45, JakeT said:

The above shows a tensioner starting to fail, on a friends 630i. The belt is hanging over the edge of the pulley. That’s the only thing I’d really stress be replaced if you don’t have paperwork to show it’s been done as you have the double whammy of being left walking, and the engine attempting to do an EcoBoost.

Yeah here ☝️

Going by that, I probably should do it asap especially as mine looks worse! Tbh I imagine the discount voucher will be next week as they usually come up near a pay day. 

I'll be also ordering pads+discs+brake wear sensor+ccv kit & manifold gaskets for the Z4. Probably will end up being another expense car month. Oh insurance for three cars & house next month too. 😬

[Stanky]

4 minutes ago, SiC said:

Yeah here ☝️

Going by that, I probably should do it asap especially as mine looks worse! Tbh I imagine the discount voucher will be next week as they usually come up near a pay day. 

I'll be also ordering pads+discs+brake wear sensor+ccv kit & manifold gaskets for the Z4. Probably will end up being another expense car month. Oh insurance for three cars & house next month too. 😬

beat me to it! Yeah based on that I'd say replace!

Easy come, easy go eh?

[cort16]

I take it the 6 cylinder doesn't have  dipstick either? It's so fucking stupid the oil level check on my 320si used to take minutes to come back with a reading. 

[SiC]

10 minutes ago, cort16 said:

I take it the 6 cylinder doesn't have  dipstick either? It's so fucking stupid the oil level check on my 320si used to take minutes to come back with a reading. 

Nope, no dipstick at all. I'm less bothered now I know I can do it on the dash and keep an eye on it. This definitely has some leaks and no doubt probably burns it like this age BMW does. So having easy access to oil level readings is quite important 😄

I still wished it did have a dipstick though...

[JakeT]

Nice. Well there’s a couple of reasons for the orange triangle gone!

for the belt I’d do it sooner rather than later. If you’re not doing big miles it can probably wait a week or so, but who knows. I put an INA pulley and Dayco belt on mine 65k ago, when fitting a new AC compressor, and it looks like the following:

 

I agree on the dipstick. I’ve made my peace with it now, and have no issues. I wait until it asks for a litre, and I add one. When servicing, I add 6l and that usually takes it to the max mark.

 

For your oil leak, take a look at the oil filter housing and that area. They leak and it will drip onto the belt. The pipe in the pic is an AC pipe, so shouldn’t be quite that oily.

[SiC]

I can get a Febi tensioner and pulley off Amazon. However I'm always a bit weary on Febi for stuff with bearings and such. Can't seem to get the right belt on Febi, so conti instead. That way I could do it over the weekend.

The Oil filter housing gasket almost certainly leaking. However I'm probably going to wait on that till the next oil change given I'd need to disturb the filter and such. 

[EspenO]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

I had to Google it as didn't even realise there was extra up/down controls on the stalk. I only saw the BC button on the end of the stalk. 😳

Guess that comment should have come £125 earlier, sorry about that 🙂

The later monitor/idrive is nice though, a worthwhile upgrade. 

[Dave_Q]

Ball bearings is what our purchasing people like to call a "broken market", there are about 6 mega companies that make almost all high speed ball bearings, not counting no name snides from china etc.

SKF/NSK/NMB/KOYO/NTN/Timken/FAG-INA

Febi will buy the bearing from one of these guys with 99% certainty so I would not panic too much about buying a Febi tensioner, at least not about the bearing.

[SiC]

The passengers side of the Z4 keeps getting it's floor wet. After a spray with a hose pipe, it was clear that water is leaking somewhere between the door membrane and door card into the cabin. 

So door card off. 3 bolts and a firm tug.

Speaker grilles hide ... nothing. Surprising considering the stereo is surprisingly good! (At least compared to my Boxster)

Ah someone has been here before...

 

Spraying the hose back on it found a few areas where water is tracing down the membrane and coming out this side.

 

That last one should be plugged by the plastic trim. Speaking of which, it appears the ones on the right are all smashed to bits.

Found some that weren't as long but the right size nonetheless. I think I bought these for my Civic a few years back. Not sure how I managed to even locate them...

 

Pulled off all the previous repair sealant and put some fresh automotive sealant down. Not sure how well this is going to work but I'll give it a try. I might find out how much a door membrane is, if available and if not a silly price, then replace the whole thing. 

 

While the glue was drying, I put my eBay special middle brake light in. The old one was a genuine unit but they do what they always do and crack up. I believe this should have had a red one originally.

New one is red. I had a choice between red or clear as a replacement. Personally I think it looks better red as there is so much red on the back of the car with the light clusters already.

[SiC]

15 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Ball bearings is what our purchasing people like to call a "broken market", there are about 6 mega companies that make almost all high speed ball bearings, not counting no name snides from china etc.

SKF/NSK/NMB/KOYO/NTN/Timken/FAG-INA

Febi will buy the bearing from one of these guys with 99% certainty so I would not panic too much about buying a Febi tensioner, at least not about the bearing.

I bit the bullet and got the Febi pulley & tensioner off Amazon. I'd be able to get them cheaper off eBay and probably even get an INA for less (weirdly cheaper than Febi) but I'd like to get the 330i into a state that I'm happy to use asap. I think it's been two weeks on my drive any barely done 10 miles! 

Should be coming by tonight. Tires fitted tomorrow morning. 

So hopefully start to be usable again after this weekend - albeit a big hole in the dash where the iDrive should go. 

Next thing is front pads (and discs). According to the dash, I think it's only been 800 miles since that tripped. So likely to do a few thousand more even though they're pretty thin. Even though it's an auto and harder on brakes, I tend to forward plan well and I'm a pretty light braker anyway.  So is Mrs SiC. Her Civic front pads have lasted 30k and still got more to give. 

[SiC]

Parts arrived earlier

Air intake out. This is why BMWs get killed so often by flood water. Intake is right into that grille.

Detension the belt with a ratchet and T60. You can see the belt starting to come off here.

Tensioner is a E14 and pulley a 16mm

Absolutely caked in oil down there. No doubt the oil filter housing gasket is leaking. I'll get that done on the next oil change.

Pulley and tensioner in and torqued up. Tensioner is held in with an aluminium stretch bolt. 25nm and 90 degrees. Feels disconcerting doing that one up. Pulley is just a normal bolt - 40nm iirc. 

Putting the belt on took the longest part of the job. I forgot the routing and needed to consult a few YouTube videos on what way it went on. Took as long as the rest of the job to get that on!

 

Started up 

Then put the air intake bit back on.

 

Old tensioner is date coded 2005. Belt looked in good condition too but if the numbers are the date then that's original at 2005 too. 

Fin.

Mega easy job and only took like 45mins including getting that damn belt back on. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Common failure point with those sort of tensioners: 

Here's one I spotted on a 1.6 pez polo, always nice to catch them before they explode! 😅

[SiC]

This one I think has done over 152k miles in its 18 year life. So while crappy it's needing replacing, it's done alright really!

(Me saying that, am I becoming a BMW apologist now?)

[SiC]

Woke up early this morning (7:45am 😆) as Tyres on the drive were arriving between 8am to 10am...

£314 for 4× 225/45/17Y 94XL Goodyear Eagle F1's I think is a cracking price. 

Went to the shops in it.

Drives well. Mojo for it has returned. 

Tyres were noisier than expected. Previously I have found eagle F1 to be quiet tyres being soft compound. Wear not great but I'm willing to take that sacrifice for comfort and performance. Hopefully once they're bedded in, they'll be quieter.

Wheel alignment slightly out to the left. Not enough for me to worry just yet as I don't want to spend out much more till it's proven itself in my mind. 

Auto Gear changes aren't as smooth as I would expect. Certainly not jarring but you can feel them and I was expecting them to be imperceptible. Not sure if this box is set up for a sporty feel or just that the last auto was the Merc with it's super slushy changes. 

There is a noticeable rhythmic ticking with rpm. Not sure what that is about - hopefully just the pulley and belt needing to bed in. Doesn't feel as smooth at idle as my Z4 either. I did notice the pulley wobbles around a bit, perhaps the rubber is degrading on it?

Found a rechargeable torch in the glovebox. Nice touch even if the incandescent bulb is a bit weak nowadays. Might see if it's possible to change it to an LED bulb. 

 

I'm really hoping this car will be a keeper for me. My credit card is fed up of having to keep bankrolling car changes. Right now though it certainly ticks the right boxes. Comfortable, easy to drive and quick when it needs to be. 

Looking forward to getting the iDrive back in action. If it is a keeper, I might replace the iDrive screen for one of those Android units so I can have Google maps from my phone up there. I believe they can switch between android and iDrive so you keep that functionality. The primary reason I'm getting the iDrive fixed and not upgrading from CCC to CIC is because an android unit would be more useful for me than a CIC upgrade.

[SiC]

iDrive arrived today so I fitted it.

Then coded it in.

I haven't changed the VIN of the unit. Some guides say about doing it but most people say they don't bother as it doesn't make any difference. To change the VIN you need to reflash several modules in the unit.

This takes 10 hours. If this ever fails during that time, the iDrive unit is dead.

Hence I'm not going to change it! Really only matters if you look on a BMW dealer tool on the module VIN list. Also for voice activation you need it programming in and then a FSC code you can buy from the dealer. 2005-era voice activation is going to be absolutely shite, so I'm not bothered about loosing that. 

Navigation keeps saying insert DVD despite one in there. So possibly the drive is faulty. I could put the other drive into this but I'd both need to pull the unit out to disassemble it and I'd damage the warranty stickers the breaker put on. So maybe something I could get back to in the future. 

Of course I could speak to the breaker but I CBA to have the hassle of finding another unit for the right price. Especially as the navigation maps will be hideously out of date (2005) and the route guidance useless too. I'd much prefer get an android headunit thing to retrofit that co-exists with this iDrive setup.

Anyway that is a bit hole filled in the dash. Little thing but a hole like in the dash really bugs me and puts a downer on a car. Also likewise having a big part of the functionality of the car missing too. 

Now I get bongs and messages on startup to tell me I need to replace the brake pads 😂

(15% code on eBay today, so I've just put my order in at Parts In Motion)

 

Apart from the brake pad fault code, the only other one code of concern is this:

I believe it's a sensor under the bonnet scuttle area that detects air quality. If the quality is bad then it'll automatically put air recirculation on. 

Not sure why it is unhappy about it. Something for me to poke later. 

I have this superstition that you always need something broken on a German cars to appease the German automotive parts gods. On this it'll be the alarm siren battery and it's associated code...

[JakeT]

Nice! Good job. Having the radio and stuff now too will be nice. I like the programmable buttons as they’re programmable to just about anything, which I like. Brakes are the standard BMW pisser. No lube on the pins and the caliper anti rattle clips that remove thumbnails.

my driving style is also light on brakes. On my car the front have done over 80,000 miles and the rears 63,000. It still thinks they have around 40,000 miles left too.

[Agila]

Even though I can't stand BMW's this thread is a great read. Quality work and skills with excellent pictures and write up👍

[SiC]

3 hours ago, JakeT said:

No lube on the pins and the caliper anti rattle clips that remove thumbnails

I didn't lube the Z4 rear pins initially when I replaced the pads and caliper. However when I went back in to replace the brake backing plates, I lubed them up as they felt like the calipers weren't sliding very well at all on those pins and were sticking. I think I read here or TDW from all the pros that they lube 'em up too. 

I think I'll be lubing these too. 

[JakeT]

5 minutes ago, SiC said:

I didn't lube the Z4 rear pins initially when I replaced the pads and caliper. However when I went back in to replace the brake backing plates, I lubed them up as they felt like the calipers weren't sliding very well at all on those pins and were sticking. I think I read here or TDW from all the pros that they lube 'em up too. 

I think I'll be lubing these too. 

That’s fair enough but the pins don’t let the caliper slide. BMW technical info has the pain of death warning not to lube, them, and states to do the pad ears and where the pad touches the caliper.

[SiC]

15 minutes ago, JakeT said:

pins don’t let the caliper slide

If they don't slide on the pins, then what are the pins doing and how does the floating caliper clamp on both sides?