Greetings!

[Anigmalistic]

Hi there,

I thought I'd put together a quick intro thread as I'm new to this forum, but may well end up spending a good deal of time here!!

I've just bought a 1997 Z3 1.9 in Atlanta blue for my fiancee as a wedding present, but although it's her car I'm the one posting here because she isn't really into forums and I'll be the one doing any work to it anyway... besides that if I asked her to sign up on here it would ruin the surprise!!

We're from Swindon although I grew up in Wootton Bassett (ROYAL WB nowadays) I'm a merchant navy deck officer and she's a teaching assistant.

My main hobby has always been cars, driving them, tinkering with them, amateur engineering that sort of thing. I'm also a computer gamer although I'm trying to concentrate more on my real-life hobbies nowadays, and my other major hobby is airsoft... you can find me on www.airsoftsniperforum.com under the nick "Tarmageddon"

We're planning on going on a road-trip to Italy for our honeymoon, her mum said they did the same thing back in the '70s (although to Sweden not Italy) and she had a little drop-top Triumph Spitfire at the time which made it all the more enjoyable. My partner said she loved that idea and she loves Z3s so it made perfect sense to get her one. Apart from anything else it will use about half the fuel that my Jaguar will!

I found this forum through one of your members who sells seat bushings as that is one little job which needs doing before we take the car anywhere. No doubt I'll be on here looking for solutions to the normal teething problems you get when you get a new car.

Nice to meet you all, happy driving!
Pete.

 

[GazHyde]

Welcome Pete ,

Small world, I'm currently living in RW Bassett! A Z3 sounds like a great wedding present

If you need any help, give me a shout and we can always meet up. Not much experience on the 4 pots, as I've always had the 6 pot engines. I have my set of Aceman's World Famous Seat Bushes ready to fit as well!

Cheers, Gary

 

[Anigmalistic]

Hi Gary,

Small world indeed!! I'm 32 now, I went to WB school from 1992 to 1997... maybe we know some of the same people, it's a pretty small place after all!!

I'm hoping the seat bushes will turn up soon, she's only at work today and tomorrow and then breaks up for summer holiday so I've got a very small window of opportunity to get the car from its secret hiding place, bring it to mine to do the job and then drop it off before she gets home.

So far the car seems to be very solid for its year, problems which I have noted so far are:

Mirror mountings very corroded - this seems to be a common thing. I am very handy with a spray can so I can paint these back up, but I need to figure out how to get them off...

Drivers side mirror wobbles about - I don't know what would cause this, the plastic seems solid enough although a little scratched. Again, if I can figure out how to get the mirror to bits without breaking the glass I can probably do something about it

Seat bushings - another common fault. Bushings already ordered.

Exhaust tailpipe rusty outer skin - I think the car has been kept near the sea for some of its life, although it's not extensive there are some signs underneath of that vicious salty rust that you only get from sea air, the spare wheel for example is very rusty as is the spare wheel hanger (nothing that a wire brush and a lick of paint won't fix). I don't think it needs a new tailpipe yet, and I've got some sheet steel and a welder so I can probably fix it up myself at some point

BMW badge on the front chipping on the inside - I've seen this before where water gets in between the plastic and the paint inside the badge. Only solution is a new badge which I'll have to find at some point

Passenger seat has a rip in the leather - not much I can do about this, but it might be an excuse to get them re-upholstered in nice new leather at some point.

Clutch is quite high - this is the only thing that concerns me a little more than the other bits. The friction plate is certainly not worn out yet, but it's getting to that stage where the bite is high and you get a slight slip between gears at high rpm. I don't know whether it's a cable or hydraulic clutch and therefore whether there is any adjustment in it, but depending on how often and how hard she drives it I expect I'll have to change the clutch in the next couple of years.

Other than that it's really really solid, especially considering its age, the hood and in particular the rear window are in good condition, the bodywork has minimal age-scars, the wheels are in good condition, plenty of meat on the brake pads, good service history. In short I'm really pleased with it, the little things that need touching up are definitely eclipsed by the overall quality of the car.

Anyway, that's what I'm starting out with!!

P.

 

[Aceman]

Hi Pete,

Glad you made it and good luck fitting the bushes tomorrow. I didn't realise you lived in WB or I would have mentioned Gary to you in our conversations.

With regard to your wing mirrors, your wobbling drivers side I am afraid is probably due to the alloy casting under the plastic cover has snapped. The inner frame of the mirror is made of cast alloy as is the painted base and over time corrodes, the frame is attached to the base by a very strong spring and allows for the mirror to be folded in but over time this can seize resulting in the frame snapping when you try to fold them in. If your passenger mirror is still intact and you want to remove it just unclip the mirror glass by simply pulling straight towards you, you may have to improvise some king of hook to get around the back of the mirror as the plastic clips can be quite tight. Once off you should be able to spray liberal amounts of WD40 down the neck of the mirror and once soaked in grab hold of the mirror with both hands and pull it up and towards you whilst twisting it in towards the door glass. The idea is to release some of the tension of the spring before twisting the mirror so as to alleviate stress on the alloy frame as you twist. Once twisted you will see the two bolts holding the mirror to the door and the rest is plane sailing. As for repairing the broken one some have managed to perform an improvised repair by expoxying the mirror up but ultimatly it requires replacing I am afraid. You can also seperate the plastic housing into two revealing the inners of the mirror which will also give you access to the mounting bolts on the frame.

Clutch wise try bleeding the the fluid as it may help, the clutch doesn't have any adjustment I am afraid but refreshing the fluid will definetly have an effect on the feel of the clutch pedel.

Good look with the suprise and as said your future wife is going to absolutley love you when you spring this one her. How are you going to present it to her, in a big box with the biggest bow ribbon you can find ?

 

[Anigmalistic]

I don't actually live in WB any more, I made it as far as West Swindon... it's a running joke among us that managed to move out of Bassett that in order to escape from Bassett you have to make it past the Salley Pussey (Gary will get that one) and our friends who still live in Bassett don't come to see us any more because they're afraid to venture past the Salley Pussey.

Thanks for the advice on the wing mirror and the clutch. I saw a thread on here about repairing wobbly mirrors by replacing a rusted steel part with a large bolt and re-routing the wires, but I think I'll have to get it apart first. Anyway more importantly thanks for telling me where the bolts that hold the mirror on are, I was worried I'd have to take the door-card out.

I've got a plan with the presentation, we're getting married at Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire and there are some steps at the front on which we'll be having a photo taken with all the guests. I've always said that I'm going to put wedding ribbons and stuff on the Jag and get it in a few of the pictures, so I'm going to send my best men off to get the car as everyone is assembling on the steps, only instead of coming back with one car they'll be coming back with two!! It also means the photographer will be there to get some pictures of the look on her face when she sees it!!

 

[Macca]

Welcome Pete, I doubt if Gary will know any of your old school mates as he is much, much older than 32....;-)

 

[badman gee]

Getting his pension soon

 

[GazHyde]

Welcome Pete, I doubt if Gary will know any of your old school mates as he is much, much older than 32....;-)

Whilst Macca yet again reveals wisdom way beyond his years, he is correct but for the wrong reason this time (granted I am still old). I moved to Bassett 4 years ago to follow my kids when the ex shacked up with #2. I moved across the border from the Royal County of Berks...

Getting his pension soon

The way my body is treating me, I'm not likely going to make it that far

 

[badman gee]

Poor gaz, don't worry, I will have a pint with you Friday night.

 

[bessieblue]

Hi Pete & welcome. keep the car for yourself & give her a bunch of flowers

 

[hard top]

Hello........

 

[Anigmalistic]

So.. Seat Bushings - DONE!!

I couldn't believe it when it started raining like mad this morning. My partner finishes work TODAY so it's the last day I had to make this repair whilst she was at work. After much swearing I decided to tackle it in her dad's garage even though space was going to be a little tight.

The first one took me 2 hours. The only difference I made from the video tutorial was that I removed the seat-belt from the seat. It't a single 16mm bolt and made the rest of the job a LOT easier.

Sanding down the new bushings is by far the longest part of the job, fortunately her dad helped me out with that.

After the first one (the driver's side) we went for a spin round the block to see if the passenger side needed doing as well, and also to test if the driver's seat was fixed. Sure enough mine was perfect, and he was sliding about when I braked hard.

The second one took an hour. It had stopped raining by this point so I took the seat out in front of the garage and moved the seat into the garage to work on it. Again he helped me with the sanding and the job went very quickly indeed.

The other thing I found which was slightly different to the tutorial was that I took a little more time before putting the adjustment screws back in the rails to make sure they were PERFECTLY even. The guy in the video had to mess about with his, putting them in and out to get them the same length, whereas that extra couple of minutes beforehand meant that mine went in absolutely perfectly even both times.

Thank you so much to Aceman for the bushings, I think I might order a couple more sets on payday so that if you're not making them another 15 years down the line I can do it all over again.

Gary, if you've got yours still to do and want a hand I'd be more than happy to help seeing as you only live 2 minutes drive from me. Doing the second one having done one already literally halved the time. In theory I reckon I could do both seats in 2 hours with 2 people sanding.

What a weight off my mind so close to the wedding!
Thanks again!
P.

 

[Titan]

Hi Pete and welcome to the madhouse
You would be well advised to heed BessieBlue - a bunch of flowers is a lot cheaper!
Congratulations on the wedding and for finding Aceman's world famous seat bushes.
What would top her Zed off nicely is a pair of my world famous MkII Stoneguards!
Drop me a PM if you want a set
Regards
Terry

 

[Anigmalistic]

Hi, and thanks!!

I'll let you know if we want a set of the guards, I can't really spend any more money just before the wedding, the seat bushes were really important because they affect how the car feels to drive, but I'll let her decide on the stone-guards... it is her car after all! (Dare I say "for the time being" here ??)

I'm not sure she would be quite as impressed with a bunch of flowers, however big... Believe it or not I spent more on her shoes for the wedding than I did on the car!!

 

[Titan]

... Believe it or not I spent more on her shoes for the wedding than I did on the car!!

Blimey
You must have got a VERY cheap Z

 

[Aceman]

Did you get the bushes fitted ok today Pete ?

 

[Anigmalistic]

Yep! Scroll up!!

Thanks again for getting them to me on time, today was literally the last day I had to do it... and now it's done!

 

[Aceman]

Lol just noticed must be going blind

Glad you got them done ok and hope the big day goes to plan.

 

[Anigmalistic]

Blimey
You must have got a VERY cheap Z

Yes, that's one of two possible options...