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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Specific discussion about the E89 2009 Z4 (sDrive35is, sDrive35i, sDrive30i, sDrive23i)
sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 2:44 pm

small updates. Some cosmetic stuff.

Second round of painting the tires with a better quality paint to see if it lasts this time. Trying this out to see how it looks, might take it off but its just a new look im trying.
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So I have been running the xenon bulbs in my halo's for a while now and no burning has taken place, everything seems to be working fine.
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I would like to get my headlights polished at some point to try and get them as perfect as possible, Will then VPS them or something to protect them from any future stone chips.
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I also then did some polishing of the hubs while I had the rims off to paint the lettering and cleaned up a bit behind the wheel.
Before:
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After:
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Marlon
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by Marlon » Thu Nov 23, 2017 2:46 pm

Looks stunning - great work and very clear and informative pictures :thumbsup: can't believe how many botched jobs you've uncovered on such a young car :o
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sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 2:48 pm

A small visual update, changed the tips and painted the calipers this weekend.

So this is the reason for me wanting to change the tips, was really bugging me.
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so here are the new tips, received from CF Accessories, was really nice dealing with these guys.
I am not 100% sure of these tips as to weather they suit my car or not, However they are growing on me.
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Then I decided to fit my new rear pads as my car won't stop complaining about them even though there is still a s**t load of meat left of them. I do not like how these newer BMW's want you to change pads long before they are properly worn.
I decided to spray the calipers red while I was at it, this took me hours as I prepared the surfaces properly to be sprayed, also took the rear calipers apart so as to not spray the pads themselves or the retainer clips etc as I prefer it when the colours are broken up a bit.
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sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 2:49 pm

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sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 2:53 pm

Oki Doki,

So Quite a big update....I have been busy with this thing lately.

So first up I started removing old ugly plastidip from grills and mirrors cause it was bubbling and peeling and just really made the car look tatty.
I want these things to be black, but I will rather have them sprayed in gloss black to suite the rest of the car. I don't like the sheen that plastidip gives.

Here you can see the state it was in. I HATE PLASTIDIP!
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Kitty cat chilling on me while I'm trying to peel plastidip!
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all gone!
So it turned out that peeling the stuff off was a waste of time, if the plastidip is too thin in certain places its next to impossible to get it off so I tried a few things and the thing that eventually worked like a charm was engine cleaner, I painted it on with a brush and waited a minute and then used the same paint brush to just wipe it off gently it basically just melts the plastidip instantly.
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Next up I needed to sort this problem out on my charge pipe so that I could fit the HKS BOV to my car, so I sent the aluminum base to a metal shop called Glutek and they fabricated the same part for me out of stainless steel so that I could then send it to TMSS to get welded on nicely.

Alloy on right Stainless steel with O-Ring correctly seated on left!
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Welden on by TMSS
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Getting ready for fitment:
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sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 2:58 pm

and its on and fits perfectly!
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Now all I need to do is prime the pipe and spray it matt black, I bought a rustoleum textured black spray paint which will look great.
Want this thing to look stealth under the bonnet. Big shiny pipe with the old pink BOV didn't do it for me lol.

Now since I bought the car it had a bit of a radiator leak, it wasn't massive although if the car got hot enough in hot weather driving or pushing it, it would leak a bit more. So I finally managed to take the radiator out and send it to a radiator place to get it pressure tested to show my warranty people that it is in fact leaking and that they must pay.

So the radiator place wanted to remove the radiator for me at first and when they told me they need to remove my front bumper to remove my radiator I lost all confidence in them and told them ill remove it myself and bring it to them.

Jacking the car up and getting it on my new jack stands!
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Making sure nothing gets scratched or damaged while removing this thing!
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Metal brace removed to expose the radiator to make it nice and easy to slide it out from the top.
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let there be light!
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Intercooler out.
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Radiator bleed screw exposed and you can see coolant leaking.
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Electric fan removed as well.
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And its out! after many hours of fighting with a bottom big hose that was being blocked by a metal bar in front of the engine that I didn't see in my frustrated state!
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To be continued shortly! (BTW this image uploader having a limit is highly annoying....Just saying)

sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:04 pm

Out and good to go, To get pressure tested.
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Coolant residue showing clearly that its leaking.
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And here is the actual leak:
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Warranty approved the claim and here is my new radiator in its box!
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Problem number one! OEM screw does not fit BEHR radiator! Maybe it does and I just need bigger balls to screw it in and not worry about cracking the plastic but I wasn't willing to take that chance so I went out on saturday morning and found some screws that fit a bit more comfortably.
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So While the radiator was out I decided to remove my vanos solenoids and give them a good clean as they have thrown an error once or twice.

Before
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After
Check all the gunk that came out of these things!
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Also I saw that my oil filter housing had a oil leak, although I had no idea what scale this oil leak was on. It was VERY bad!
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sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:09 pm

Checked my belts and they seem fine.
So I ordered some new gaskets for this oil filter housing. Damn for two gaskets comes to over a grand! Thumbdown

I also got a torque wrench from my buddy so that I could do this job the right way!
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Over tightened bolts causing the gasket to pinch and caused this terrible leak. I am lucky this didn't leak onto the belt and cause a catastrophic failure where the belt gets sucked into the engine!
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oil filter housing off and stripped and ready for cleaning:
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Can see how badly its leaking here as well
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After some elbow grease and then used the dremel with a polishing fitting to clean where the oil cooler housing gasket seats.
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Over here you can see that the front top bolt was massively over tightened causing the gasket to pinch and even caused slight damage to the metal where the gasket seats on the engine!
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Anyways I got some 2000grit sandpaper and a sanding block to very lightly remove what I could of the coolant build up around that hole and then I used my dremel again to polish this whole thing so that it felt like glass it was so smooth.
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Now the gasket seals correctly!

sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:11 pm

Anyways after fitting the new gaskets and refitting the oil filter housing to the car and torquing it to the correct spec I decided it was disgustingly dirty so I decided to do something about this:

This is actually after cleaning and polishing it around a month ago, however I couldn't do it properly because when the oil pipes are back on you cannot get to this thing properly.

Before:
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After:
Nice and shiny clean:
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Right Radiator is now all fitted unfortunately I didnt have photos of me putting it back in as it turned out to be a grueling task with my injured shoulder so I just fitted it and then carried on.

Everything back together and cleaned properly:
I also took the car to the car wash where I put the car on a lift and cleaned all the oil that was caused by the oil filter housing to the front of the engine that actually dripped all the way down and dirtied everything under the engine bay too.

Another pic of how nice the oil filter housing is looking.
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So that takes care of all the gaskets, tappet cover gasket was done recently. then sump gasket was done and now oil filter housing gasket has been done.

Next up is an oil flush and change, I am not happy with the state of this so called "New oil that BMW put in my car when they fitted the new turbos!"

Once that is done, I will be fitting my after market big intercooler and charge pipe.

Stay tuned for more updates!

sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:17 pm

Update time again. I know its engine related again but I am on a role here to get this thing to look mint! Besides I just think the N54 engine is such a beautiful piece of machinery to look at!

So the plastics in the engine bay were driving me completely nuts, the airbox cover in particular was a bad one for me. and when I got a quote for a new one I almost fell over! +-R5700 then the ram air intake cover was around 2k or something. So obviously another plan needed to be made.

So here are the before and after shots.

So this is the state it was in.
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some sanding with 1200grit sand paper. (got a helper to sand for me :D )
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after the sanding, didn't want to sand it to a point of where I loose the texture of the plastic, just to the point of where you can no longer feel the scratches.
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Before
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used pratly putty steel as a filler for the very deep scratches and then sanded it down.
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After all of this I sprayed with medical alcohol and wiped it down and then sprayed it with Dupli-color Vinyl (American spelling)

once sprayed I was left with a bit of a rough surface due to bad spray painting skills probably.
I then used a dishwashing sponge rough side to get rid of that rough finish and then wiped down with a microfiber towel which left me with a very smooth surface that looked OEM!

After the Z run I got back home and took a trip to builders warehouse and bought some meguiars plastic and rubber trim restorer and wiped the parts down and that really brought them to life.

And this is the finished product.
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Engine bay is almost there now. Few more little things I want to take care of.

sachak
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by sachak » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:28 pm

Oh and here is something I will be fitting to the car soon. Probably early in the new year.
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As for more updates, I had this terrible knock sound and feeling in the steering and the steering was pulling all over the place no matter how many times I got the wheel alignment done. So today I went through to a scrap yard to buy a part (More on this later) and asked the guys there to look in my engine bay when I swing my steering wheel to tell me where the hell this knocking sound is coming from. At first glance they thought it was the universal joint and then upon further inspection they saw that my steering rack was loose.

So when BMW fitted the new turbos and dropped the subframe and steering rack they forgot to tighten the steering rack bolts leaving me with a very ugly feeling Z4. I cant even put into words how s**t it felt to drive and I could never figure out why and I got under the car many times to inspect control arm bushes and all that jazz.

Needless to say they fixed it for me and OMG the car feels amazing to drive now. awesome precise solid steering with no vibrations and knocks! its amazing how different something so seemingly small can make a car feel to drive!

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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by benv6 » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:38 pm

That is some dedication on a different level mate !! Well done !

The work you have done on the plastics is truly amazing, What a result !! :thumbsup:
Now: BMW 335D Touring
Previous: 435D Coupe, BMW Z4 E89 35i, BMW Z4 E85 2.0, BMW E46 330CI

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mcbutler
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by mcbutler » Thu Nov 23, 2017 4:39 pm

You have put a great deal of effort into this post and it is of interest to all no matter what model in so far as the dash work etc is concerned. Many thanks for that.

Not meaning to be critical but I think you should have got rid of the car a lot earlier on, took the loss which considering the time, effort and cash you have invested would have been a lot more economical, then gone and found a decent car.

More worryingly in pic img_2686_2517450973.jpg I noted you have 'take my breath away' from Top Gun playing on your iDrive :poke:

Lets hope (and pray) you are finally there.
Mark
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35i
Carmine Red
Black leather

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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by willgill » Thu Nov 23, 2017 6:28 pm

Dear god, how much did they pay you to take this car away?

brings a new meaning to the term lemon :thumbsdown:

Good work on rectifying everything thus far :thumbsup:
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2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.

Post by Marekdawg » Thu Nov 23, 2017 6:44 pm

Nice read! :thumbsup: given me a few ideas... there goes my weekends for the foreseeable future... :lol:
Silver E89 Sdrive30I Msport. Black roof and other bits. :D :driving:

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