Bought 06 3.0 Z4

[drocket77]

I bought an R titled 06 2 weeks ago, and I am liking it mostly.


I will start with the bad.

The previous owner let his late teen early 20's something kids have a go at the car. He did almost everything to it half-arsed.
1. Lowered it without consideration for wheel wells. There's no plastic in the front wells, and this in turn ripped up the light harness.

2. To get negative camber he undid the sway bar end links. And from what I gather with 3 series and Z4's at least, you can get almost 2 deg of camber in the front from adjusting the tower strut without any mods.

3. He put some crappy wish stickers " designed " for the Z4.

4. A lot, I mean a lot of electrical gremlins. door locks do not work with remote or on the console. Light are weird. in the off position the headlights turn on. In the on position the amber lights and headlights are on, but the high beams will not stay on. In the auto position the lights will come on when dark, but no interior lights. I think this may have to do with problem #1.

5. He put a cold air intake on that has no support, and is just dangling.

6.He had straight pipe to a wish fartbox. EXTREMELY annoying(fixed)

7. Rear bumper is held by tape, and trunk lid is custom( looks like a supra trunk), and it is cracked, may fix it or replace I am up in the air about this one.

8.Paint for the year is in ok condition. I am looking at at least 6 hours for wash, clay bar, compound, then compound again, than wax.

I can really complain to much, I knew it was going to be a project car, but man did they abuse this thing.

Now onto what I have done, and what NEEDS to be done.

Brakes. I bought new slotted rotors and pads. I do not need a set of brimbos or wilwoods. I have no intentions of tracking this car. And if I do in the future, it will be getting a super charger and brake upgrade.

Find a reasonably priced cold air intake KIT for it.

I have soft mounted a 10" Android radio, 2 amps 1 300.4 Kicker 1-6000D from ignite(RMS is at 585 @2ohm). , and 1-12" Skar in a Qbomb box. I am building an amp rack and distribution block today for it. (yea priorities) I have also noticed a lot of things unplugged while installing the amps. They look like antenna plugs, and I have never seen autos use these plugs before.

I put 2 new front clips on the bumper. and will be doing the same on the rear.


I took off the fartcan, and went with High flow Flowmaster cat and muffler. I wish it were a tiny bit more aggressive, but it is still ok. Fix O2 problem ( previous owner has these all messed up), and get it retuned properly.

I am waiting until spring to fix the hydraulic motor for the top. I already bought the motor.


All in all, I like the car, and it will be a good project for me. I will post some pics of things I will need help with in the appropriate forum.

[racerbruce]

Congrats and welcome to Zpost!
Looks like you have laid out a great plan to bring your Z to a healthy place; an R titled car means rebuilt or salvaged....what significant damage was created to give your Z this designation??

[drocket77]

I will be getting a carfax report. The previous owner said rear end damage, and when I was installing the amp, there was still a few pieces of glass in the corners under the carpet.

I got a fairly good deal, so even if I throw another $2k into it, it was still less expensive than buying a complete stock with the same mileage. Oh, and I installed 2 new wheel speed sensors. So the milage may be significantly more the 98k. It will be a daily driver as long as there's no snow over 2 inches.

[Huz-Z]

Congrats and welcome! I’m really looking forward to seeing your car restored properly. The gang here know these cars well so you have come to the right place. Re the electrical gremlins, these cars are known to do weird things when the battery needs replacing. I can’t say that the battery is the culprit here of course, but keep it in mind.

Keep us posted on progress!

[wdb]

Welcome to the site! keep an eye out for stock bits on the classifieds. Better still, post up that you want them. There is nothing at all wrong with the fully stock intake on your car.

[drocket77]

Well some bad and good news on my evolving Z4. I took a corner a bit to fast and hit a guardrail. I am looking at about $1k in damages to fix it, but that wont be until Early March. It is all zipped up and I am able to drive it fine after some jerry rigging it to last a few more months.

[wdb]

Ouch!

[Huz-Z]

Poop!!!

[Residentj3553]

Having some fun there aren't you! Lol At least you're alright.

[drocket77]

Well its been a while since I have been able to do anything with the damage. But ordered new fender and bumper cover.

That bottom screw on the fender near the door jam was a PITA. It was extremely tight and I don't have an impact driver small enough to reach it. So it was just muscle it and pray that I don't hurt myself in that small space.

Anyone in the Philly area know of a decent painter at reasonable prices?