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**Z4** DIY Guides (Post links here)

364K views 147 replies 40 participants last post by  1of3MRoadster 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
This thread is meant to be Z4-specific. Post links and how-to's as replies to this thread. I/we will edit as needed.

This thread is NOT for questions. This thread is to post DIY or How-To's. If you have a question about your car, please start a new thread. Do NOT post your question here. Your post will be deleted in the interest of keeping this thread on topic.

If you have a question about a DIY posted here, feel free to ask away here or int he original thread.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Z4 Exterior mirror glass instructions







Following compliments of Palantirion:

First the mirrors. Step 1 is to slide this tab to the left to unlock the mirror (major PITA :mad:):


The mirror pulls off with its retaining clip and then you unscrew three screws to remove the motor. Also disconnect the two wires and connector:


Another view, also showing how to tilt the mirror so you can unscrew the screw holding the plastic cover in place:


Take another four screws out and release two small tabs inside the mirror housing and you can slide it off.


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#29 ·
Z4 water pump replacement (e85, m54)

OK..here is how you really change the water pump on a Z4....(E85, m54 motor, mine is a 2.5) I have done this procedure, and all you will need are one water pump with o-ring, two m6x25mm bolts, a gallon of anti-freeze, simple hand tools, a few blocks of wood, a rolling floor jack, and jack stands. It is a good time to replace the belts, so get both of them. Yes, you do have to move the engine..a little.
1. Jack up the car on one side, place a smaller jackstand under the car where the front stabalizer is bolted to the frame. You just need to get the car up enough to remove the front plastic splashpan. Now remove the splashpan, grip it firmly, and toss it at the nearest BMW engineer to show your gratitude for designing a car that has a sheet metal support with webing placed directly infront of the water pump, thereby making it necessary to move the engine in order to remove the water pump, even though there is enough room infront of the sheet metal support to be able to desing it with a slight 1" dip towards the front of the car thereby providing enough clearance to simply remove the water pump unimpeded. Now, jack up the car a little higher, and remove your small jackstand and place a big jackstand (now that you have the clearance) under the car. place the jack on the other side, and jack it up enough to place another large jackstand under the car at the point where the anti-sway bar (stabilizer) bolts to the frame. Now place a rolling floorjack under the engine and place a block of wood between the jack and the oilpan at the front of the engine. Make sure this block of wood is long enough to support the load across the entire width of the oilpan, in order to srpead the weight of the engine across as much of the oilpan as possible, for obvious reasons. You just need to jack it up to meet the oilpan, don't go any higher yet. The reason you do this now is because the underside of the engine will soon become wet with anti-freeze, making everything slippery.
2. Now remove the belt for the A/C compressor (torx bit needed for tensioner)
3. Remove the top plastic (fanshroud?) cover and loosen but don't remove the bolts on the water pump pulley. Remove the serpentine belt. 16mm socket for the tensioner.
4. Now remove the 10mm bolts on the water pump pulley. Tap the pulley gently to get it off. It is made of plastic, so be careful. Remove the 10mm nuts on the water pump. Now install your m6x25mm bolts into the threaded holes on the water pump. Tighten them, and this will remove the water pump from the engine block. The coolant will spill out, but it won't be a lot. Now remove the upper radiator hose only where it connects to the engine by prying the metal clip. Push it up out of the way against the oil filter housing. You can remove the hose before removing the pump, but I did not because it would otherwise make everything wet that I still have to work on.
5. Now remove the nut at the left engine mount. I think it is a 16mm, might have been 15mm.
6. Jack up the engine slowly, but only go up to the point where the engine mounting bolt is just at the lip of the engine mount, where it almost clears the engine mount, but no further. (I would not want to have to line that thing up upon installation. Besides, it is not necessary to go that far.) You should now be able to pull out the water pump going in the direction of the passenger side.
Ta Da! You've now saved your self a lot of money. Now install the new water pump by lubricating the new o-ring with a little ant-freeze on your hand, and install the water pump. Put the car back together. Pour in some anti-freeze. With the car and the heater running, bleed the air out of the cooling system. (With the bleeder screw located next to the resevior cap.) But keep the old water pump. You will need this during your next trip to Germany, when you get the opportunity to throw it at the head of a BMW z4 engineer. This will make them think! It would be different if these water pumps did not fail prematurely.
Hope this helps!
 
#79 · (Edited)
OK..here is how you really change the water pump on a Z4....(E85, m54 motor, mine is a 2.5) I have done this procedure, and all you will need are one water pump with o-ring, two m6x25mm bolts, a gallon of anti-freeze, simple hand tools, a few blocks of wood, a rolling floor jack, and jack stands. It is a good time to replace the belts, so get both of them. Yes, you do have to move the engine..a little.
1. Jack up the car on one side, place a smaller jackstand under the car where the front stabalizer is bolted to the frame. You just need to get the car up enough to remove the front plastic splashpan. Now remove the splashpan, grip it firmly, and toss it at the nearest BMW engineer to show your gratitude for designing a car that has a sheet metal support with webing placed directly infront of the water pump, thereby making it necessary to move the engine in order to remove the water pump, even though there is enough room infront of the sheet metal support to be able to desing it with a slight 1" dip towards the front of the car thereby providing enough clearance to simply remove the water pump unimpeded. Now, jack up the car a little higher, and remove your small jackstand and place a big jackstand (now that you have the clearance) under the car. place the jack on the other side, and jack it up enough to place another large jackstand under the car at the point where the anti-sway bar (stabilizer) bolts to the frame. Now place a rolling floorjack under the engine and place a block of wood between the jack and the oilpan at the front of the engine. Make sure this block of wood is long enough to support the load across the entire width of the oilpan, in order to srpead the weight of the engine across as much of the oilpan as possible, for obvious reasons. You just need to jack it up to meet the oilpan, don't go any higher yet. The reason you do this now is because the underside of the engine will soon become wet with anti-freeze, making everything slippery.
2. Now remove the belt for the A/C compressor (torx bit needed for tensioner)
3. Remove the top plastic (fanshroud?) cover and loosen but don't remove the bolts on the water pump pulley. Remove the serpentine belt. 16mm socket for the tensioner.
4. Now remove the 10mm bolts on the water pump pulley. Tap the pulley gently to get it off. It is made of plastic, so be careful. Remove the 10mm nuts on the water pump. Now install your m6x25mm bolts into the threaded holes on the water pump. Tighten them, and this will remove the water pump from the engine block. The coolant will spill out, but it won't be a lot. Now remove the upper radiator hose only where it connects to the engine by prying the metal clip. Push it up out of the way against the oil filter housing. You can remove the hose before removing the pump, but I did not because it would otherwise make everything wet that I still have to work on.
5. Now remove the nut at the left engine mount. I think it is a 16mm, might have been 15mm.
6. Jack up the engine slowly, but only go up to the point where the engine mounting bolt is just at the lip of the engine mount, where it almost clears the engine mount, but no further. (I would not want to have to line that thing up upon installation. Besides, it is not necessary to go that far.) You should now be able to pull out the water pump going in the direction of the passenger side.
Ta Da! You've now saved your self a lot of money. Now install the new water pump by lubricating the new o-ring with a little ant-freeze on your hand, and install the water pump. Put the car back together. Pour in some anti-freeze. With the car and the heater running, bleed the air out of the cooling system. (With the bleeder screw located next to the resevior cap.) But keep the old water pump. You will need this during your next trip to Germany, when you get the opportunity to throw it at the head of a BMW z4 engineer. This will make them think! It would be different if these water pumps did not fail prematurely.
Hope this helps!
Hi, I have a 2003 Z4 3.0i E85 Chassis with a M54 Engine. I posted back in May the failure of my Cooling System. I was gradually loosing Antifreeze over a few months and then one day the cooling system failed.

I am a true DIY but have significant experience and tools with cars other than a BMW. The forum, especially the above quote from fbriggs, gave me the confidence that the repair was DIW feasible. However the gap between feasibility and reality can be enormous at times. I would like to share my DIY experience and the "crutches" I used to make my fix a success.

When I described my failure on this forum, there were a number of failure scenarios presented based on a number of different cooling components. My serpentine belt had shredded. The first thing I did was remove the remainder of the serpentine belt and remove the intact accessory belt. When checking for failed components, I initially looked for frozen or wobbly pully wheels. Water pump was wobbling all over the place. I looked for leakage around the thermostat and any cracks in the antifreeze reservoir. (With the water pump replaced , I am still looking to verify no leakage at those points)

First, the on line discussions are great if you know the ins and outs of your car. What is lacking is figures to give oneself the confidence that what you are doing is the right thing in the right place. To quell this fear, I relied on the online BMW maintenance manual provided by Mitchell.com . It only costs $11.00 a month to get access to a well described, well illustrated manual so one can feel confident that the forum descriptions are well visualized and confirrmed. You ccan rent the manuals for a day (really cheap), a month or longer. For a cost of a socket, it is well worth the peace of mind.

Second, we all can use a better description of jack support points. I relied on multiple web sources to convince me of the support points on the vehicle to my jacking and jack standing. I didnt have a fancy jack and only felt comfortable working with the 4 visually obvious jack points on the sides of the car. You really dont want to make a mistake at this point in the game and the lack of visuals can give one pause. Also, make sure you always have a buddy system given you are a DIY and some secondary jack stand support points for insurance. Disasters happen and you dont want to be the unlucky one with a low clearance car. One thing I learned by searching on the WEB is if you want to place jack supports for the front, using the rear jack points on the Z4 will lift the whole side and allow you to place a jack stand under the front jack support point.

All in all, the first time BMW DIY'er took the time to not rush, verify each step with some kind of visualization and if something doesnt seem right, ask questions or do more research............DONT FORCE THE ISSUE!!!!!!!!! And as fbriggs said, "save the old water pump to throw at the Z4 Engineer for requiring you to lift the engine 30 cm" and be proud you saved yourself a boatload of money for a $60 replacement part and a few belts. I'll be looking over the next few weeks for any sign of leakage but I certainly feel confident on many DIY repairs going forward now that I feel confident knowing the placement of components of the engine and the chassis. Next fix should be a breeze. Thanks for all who contributed to my questions.

Pete
 
#35 ·
Beyond the trip home from the dealer (with the container bouncing around in the trunk) shaking the jug had never occured to me.

Thanks!

Glad to see you have your connection (laptop) back.
 
#38 · (Edited)
CDV install and clutch bleed





1.3mm: Smaller yet versus the 1.7mm we are used to seeing.



Tools I used.



Also used a second clamp on the reservoir clutch line output.
No leaks this way at all if you don't shake the hose.





Some other lock valves:





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clutch Bleed:

The E36 and E36/7-8 (Z3) use the same basic clutch pieces parts.
For some reason the E36/7-8 (Z3) cars engagement point is lower than the E36. On the E36/7-8 (Z3), the engagement point lowers with heat.
From checking out the E36/7-8 (Z3), developing the front shifting arm bushings, I know that the temperature in the tunnel area exceeds 200 degrees F. The stock front shifting arm bushing in my M coupe turned to mush in less than 5000 miles.
The clutch slave cylinder is in the tunnel area.
Bleeding the clutch raises the engagement point on some E36/7-8's.
I purchased the bleed tool to see what the result is using it. Will be checking this out later this year.
For the ingineer fluid folks, how would the engagement point change with air in the system versus no air in the system with heat?
In other words, is it a bleed the air out thing?




 
#39 · (Edited)
Z4-M NA Passenger side motor mount bracket problem

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233491

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=247988

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272236

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294159

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=390962&highlight

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4067789

If you want to use BMW stuff MotorSport Z4 uses the following:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=384257&highlight=motorsport

Screw 07 11 9 913 653 $0.47r
Screw 07 11 9 913 673 $0.62r
Washer 07 11 9 903 078 $0.35r



Bulletin:





Angle torque:

This is used on the connecting rod bolts and other things.

You torque the screw and then turn it degrees mentioned in the TIS torque area for what your doing.

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/all/tools/all_angle_torque.html

Retail is $191.37 now.



Motor mount bracket screws:

I had the front reinforcement plate out to clean the power steering fluid.

Good time to do the motor bracket screws.
Will do the drivers side when I remove the air collector.

I used the Motorsport 10.9 screws and washers.
Torqued all four at 24Nm with the following Sears tools.











Torque:

 

Attachments

#42 ·
switched power z4

Finally got my extra power outlets in today. I have one for xm & another to charge my phone. I hate having wires out the cigg lighter.

What I did is remove the ashtray, remove the screw under it. Then lift the unit up & back the whole thing comes out in one unit.

There are three connectors attached to this, you want the largest (brown) one.

Peel back the wire covering & locate the purple & white wire. This is hot when the switch is on. Use the ground from the cigg lighter.

I fished the wires into the glove (something,on this car that is basically useless) I have the xm & extra outlet there.

I only listen to one station on xm so I don't need to see it or have it within reach. If you do then bring the wires out at a different location as fits your needs.
 
#43 · (Edited)
Z4 Instrument Cluster System Test







Speed: km/hr X 0.6214 = miles/hr

From jragan:

1. Enter Vehicle.

2. Start Car. (You can enter test mode and test all while the car is running and moving)

3. Enter test mode (hold down the S/R button until _tESt_0._ is displayed)

4. Press the S/R button quickly until _tESt_19._ is displayed.
......After a second, _tESt_19.0 will be displayed with alternating/flashing L_oFF and L_oN.
......When L_oFF is displayed, press both the S/R and the button beside it at the same time.
......You will be returned to _tESt_0._

5. Press the S/R button quickly until _tESt_7._ is displayed.
......After a second, _tESt_7.0 will be displayed.
......Press S/R button quickly until _tESt_7.3 is displayed.

6. Drive.

7. Note speeds. (Remember the _tESt_7.3 speed is in km/h so you'll need to do some math afterwards)

8. Stop Driving.

9. Turn car off.

10. Exit vehicle.
 

Attachments

#44 ·
#48 ·
Z4 Rivets

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302441

Confusion was that it shows at group 51 but doesn't show the correct rivets.
Turns out it's under group 41.
Did someone remove your bumper before, that didn't have the right parts? Could have been from assembly.
The part you have is a pop rivet as suspected.
There is one on each side on the wheelwell at the bottom 9 inches in from the fender.



Item 10
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=DU93&mospid=49424&btnr=41_1451&hg=41&fg=10

Item 27
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=DU93&mospid=49424&btnr=41_1708&hg=41&fg=25
 
#49 · (Edited)
S54 Valve Check/Adjust

BMW shows it done every Inspection.
I checked mine on the '01 Z3 M coupe around 30K and it was in spec.

Will be doing it at 30K steps along with some other things.

Engine rotation:


Before you start, be cool on the car.



http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9755

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28710

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68387

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=337021

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97891

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=493987



I use the Craftsman off-set leaf gauge, SKU 40802, price $9.99, that has blades ranging from .005" (.127mm) to .030" (.762mm). As pointed out by Ron the .007" (.178mm) and the .009" (.229mm) work for the intake valve clearance check and the .011" (.279mm) and .013" (.330mm) for the exhaust valves.
$15.84 total delivered tax and shipping.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00940802000P?keyword=40802



.
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