Welcome to the second iteration of Emery's Z3 Coupe blog. The first was on Posterous.com, which closed its doors in April, 2013. I moved selected posts over here, cleaning them up and combining several as I went. This is a diary for my work, and, I hope, a useful tool for those with similar cars. This first post combines two from October, 2011.
Here it is, my latest project car: a 1999 BMW Z3 Coupe! The car doesn't look much like a project - see?
But, with over 196,000 miles, it has some issues that will need to be addressed. The GOOD part is that it has never been wrecked, and the body is incredibly straight for a 12-year-old car with that kind of mileage. Also, the engine seems to be strong and tight. The FUN part (that is, the project car part) will involve fixing some safety related stuff (ABS, traction control, etc), rebuilding the suspension and brakes and shifter and whatever else, and attending to some cosmetic issues including repainting the hood and part of the roof (some deep stone chips), maybe replacing the windshield, and having the seats recovered and repadded.
I bought the car from Chris and Kate down in Linthicum, MD, and that process was an education. The only other car I've bought from an out-of-state individual was from Maine, and they had a great process where the car was titled to me in Maine, with transfer plates to get it to PA. Maryland is not on that page yet - the owner just signs the title and gives it to me. That gave me a little heartburn, so I did some checking (Carfax, title search, etc) to make sure all was ok. And it was! I bought it, and Chris and Kate met me halfway, delivering the car in York, PA.
After getting the car titled and plated in PA, I went to Bainbridge, PA (about 20 miles away) to the shop of Jack Miller, who is a well-known BMW specialist and member of www.bimrs.org, the national association of independent BMW service technicians. His shop is called Jack's Auto and Aero. I had asked Jack to help me evaluate the new Z3, identify the things needed to pass the state safety inspection and emissions inspections, and in general make a "punch list" of things to be accomplished. He's a great guy, and has a great shop - here's a brief video I took:
On the dash, the Check Engine, ABS, DTC (traction control) and airbag warning lights were all on. Jack had already told me that, since older cars don't have ABS, DTC and airbags, I could get a safety sticker without them. Check Engine needed to be cleared to get that emissions sticker. Of course, I eventually want to get everything working, but I need those stickers to drive without hassles.
We hooked the car to his diagnostic computer, and were rewarded with a big pile of faults - some just "nuisance faults", and some genuinely serious problems.
Chris, the previous owner, thought the Check Engine light was because of the gas cap. However, Jack checked the cap on a special tester provided by PennDOT, and it passed. On a visual inspection, however, Jack saw that the boot from the airbox to the intake was cracked. Any air leaks in a fuel injection system will set a fault and turn on the light, because it causes a lean condition. Here's the first crack:
I got Jack to stand still long enough to get his picture too:
Fortunately, this is a common enough problem that Jack keeps these parts in stock. There are two boots, and when he went to remove the lower boot, it had a "little" leak too - it was hanging by a thread! Interestingly, there was evidence of a previous repair here, with putty over another leak on the boot. But, at $24 for the boot, it's much easier to replace it.
After the codes were cleared, the Check Engine light has stayed off for enough miles to declare success for now! But... lots more identified to do. Did you know that a non-working windshield sprayer is an inspection failure? Or a cracked fog light lens? I need to fix those two, along with replacing one front control arm that has a perished ball joint. The set of tires, ordered from Tire Rack, is already at Jack's shop.
And... Jack saw that the radiator has a leak on the side. BMWs are famous for sudden, catastrophic radiator failures, so that will be an immediate fix. And the value cover is leaking oil pretty badly - time to replace that piece, with some major cleanup as I go. Might as well replace belts and tensioners while in there, and a full tune-up as well. You make a clean spot, and you wind up needing a whole bath.
The punch list has 16 items, but there's more that we didn't write down. See, it really is a PROJECT CAR!
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