nfbr's 2007 Ruby Black Z4 Coupé! Blog/Build-Thread

[nfbr]

Nice, you do have to love that "power bulge" the coupes have in the roof!

Cheers man! Absolutely, it's one of the coolest features of the car, along with it's amazingly well shaped rear end...
Must resist the temptation to buy an 'M' bonnet...

Anyway... Brake line install...

So here we go! I decided to start at the rear, as these were likely to be the biggest pain to do...
Firstly, Clip removed at trailing arm mounting position, but old line all still installed.


New line installed at trailing arm mounting position, so far so good!


This point, I realised the flaw in the designs of the people who'd done these before. Had the rubber nut/circlip mount been installed the opposite way round on the hose, it'd have slipped straight through, with the fitting for the caliper, however as it was the wrong way round, this bracket had to be cut to allow the hose to pass through... (more on this later)


Hose installed at rear caliper position, showing the 'loop' under the drive shaft with good clearance


Comments regarding the original design - The overall length of the hose was slightly too long, and had to have a couple of cable ties installed to stop the hose slipping through the two rubber fittings into it's most comfortable position which left it slightly closer to a few things than I would have liked it to. With an overall length of 700mm, rather than 720mm and the 'small circlip nut' installed the opposite way around, these would have been miles easier to install!

This diagram is how I believe they would be best laid out...


Onto the fronts! These were really very straight forward and took 7 minutes per hose to install!

Here is a picture of it installed at the caliper end, with the rubber bung in the original position at the damper


and this one shows the usage of the original chassis mounting point


These are the leftovers!


Brake Bleeding...

As luck had it, myself and Mike (E46 M3) were working away on the hoses, when Kev (E46 330ci ClubSport) showed up! So we ended up doing probably the most foolproof type of brake bleeding!
Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of this as I drew the straw of sitting in the car pressing the pedal, Kev kept an eye on the fluid levels and Mike rolled around the floor with the catch bottle and brake nipple spanner.

Whilst installing the hoses, I noticed that the brake pipes were dripping fairly constantly throughout the job, so as I attached the new hoses at the hard pipe end, they were pretty much gravity bleeding themselves! This meant that by the time came for us to bleed everything up, the system actually bled up really quickly and with very little effort.

Overall we used 800ml of the ATE SuperBlue racing fluid and went round each caliper twice, working in order from the furthest away from the master cylinder, to the closest.

Road Test...

The bit where you're butt clenches when you first try the pedal - Nope! It was fine! I wouldn't say 'Rock Hard' like many people say after having braided lines, but then I'm not prone to exaggeration. The pedal was slightly firmer than it was previously and felt good!

At first, I slowly pulled the car out of the workshop and gently gave the brakes a couple of squeezes, I then drove around the works carpark just gently testing the brakes before going out onto some empty 30mph roads to do a bit of low speed braking. - All good, no issues!
I then took the car onto the bypass for a little more speed (luckily we were at Midnight, so my repeated braking / accelerating wasn't causing anyone a danger). I did some 60mph heavy stops to almost zero just to get a bit of heat into the brakes and make sure all was OK.

Conclusion...

I'd say it's been a good improvement! Hard to say what has actually improved, however noticeably stopped short of a roundabout and a set of lights and felt like I had a lot more say in what the brakes were doing. Very happy with the results and would recommend this to anybody looking to improve their brakes!

[guerra1976]

After a quiet period in which I've been mostly chasing tail... I've received my made to measure stainless steel pipes!
My plan is to give the Coupé a little more aural presence by removing the centre silencer!

Here are the pipes:


And here's the offending silencer: (Photo borrowed from someone on Z-Post)


I'm gonna have a word with our Tech genius guy Wayne and get him to do me a little Drive Away video of the standard exhaust, Then keep my fingers crossed that I measured it up right, then re-measure it all again another two or three times before cutting and joining... Then get another video on the same road with the silencer bypass pipes fitted

An update maybe later this week on these.

I made this also, and did like extra aural
But after 2 days the Light from the emissions its on, did it happen with you?

[nfbr]

I made this also, and did like extra aural
But after 2 days the Light from the emissions its on, did it happen with you?

No emissions light on mine as the 3.0Si has the catalytic converters at the part of the exhaust manifold that goes from three into one.

I believe earlier 3.0i models may have had catalytic converters where mine simply had a resonator, so removing these would put the engine light on and increase emissions.

[guerra1976]

Mine is also coupe 3.0si!!
I ve connected to diagnosis machine and erased emissions error!!!
Have been running for a few days without any problem!!
Love the subtel changes in exhaust note

[nfbr]

I can only assume that you must have disconnected or disturbed the post cat lambda probe/probes when doing the job if they have reset and stayed clear

[cossie si]

Stunning car and not far from me !

[nfbr]

Thank you

[nfbr]

So it's been a while since I updated this, Mostly because my goings on with the car have been rather Humdrum...
Recently I've done the following:
* New Pollen Filter
It's been a year since the last one, so in with the new

* New Bosch 'S5' 110 Battery
The S5 seemed to have the best spec, highest output, charge capacity and a good track record for longevity, plus my old battery had been in the car since 2007, so I figured I might as well put a good new one in

* New air freshener - California Scents Palm Tree in 'Laguna Breeze' flavour
Just because...

* Another good polishing and around 6-coats of FK1000P over a 2-week period (yes, cleaned and dried before each additional coat...)
To help protect it from the horrible weather we've had around here...

Anyway - Here's a few gratuitous pictures.




My next update will hopefully be inline with the release of the new Scorpion Exhaust system for the 2.5si and 3.0si models as my vehicle will be going to them for development work very soon!

[JINGLE]

looking good! looking forward to the new exhaust set up!

[nfbr]

Me too, however there's been a bit of a delay on that since then

On my way to Scorpion on Sunday, my waterpump decided it was going to play up. Luckily, I spotted the temp gauge as it got to 75% and pulled over quickly to allow the car to cool down, and made my way back home (only a short distance away) very slowly.

So... Some new parts have arrived so I can get this sorted this week...






I also have some genuine BMW coolant and some distilled water to go with it, so will be doing a bit of a cooling system overhaul one night this week, then getting back in touch with Scorpion to see when they can get me slotted back in for the exhaust development.

[GedS]

The first of another bunch of jobs on the Coupé this weekend! A diff oil change.

For the first part of this job, the Heatshield/Undertray protecting the diff needs to be removed to give you access to the Drain and Fill Plugs:


Next up, You need to located the fill plug, and make sure that comes out cleanly! If it doesn't come out, then stop what you're doing and do not drain the oil!


Once you have confirmed the fill plug comes out nicely, you can now locate the drain plug and eject the original diff oil! The Drain plug is just below the right hand inner CV Joint.


Here's a quick snap of a Sample of the fresh diff oil.


And now for a quick snap of the Sample of the old diff oil. I'm happy with how it's come out! Have seen this stuff much much blacker, so this shade of Cola was good news to see! Not bad at all for 75,000 miles!


As I'd lost my gearbox oil filling tool, I had to rig up a temporary filling device! This came in the way of a 18mm Silicone hose and a funnel to fashion a gravity feed
The hose needs to be inserted by around 1-2 inches to properly fill the diff.


Once in position, the funnel will need holding up high and the first litre of the oil pouring into said funnel.
This bit takes a while and you'll probably need to swap hands a few times.


Once the first litre is in, Get a spotter under neath the car and pour in another 250ml.
Once the spotter sees the oil coming out of the fill plug, that's when you're full! Get the pipe out, and pop the fill plug back in!


That's it! Done
Next job to come soon!

What diff oil did you use, and is it different for a manual gearbox? Just done the CDV delete and bled the clutch. Want to do the diff oil change this weekend.

[nfbr]

What diff oil did you use, and is it different for a manual gearbox? Just done the CDV delete and bled the clutch. Want to do the diff oil change this weekend.

For the Diff Oil, I used Castrol Syntrax Long Life 75W-90. The Oil is the same on the Auto and the Manual and the capacity is 1.2 Litres.
I have been told that the 'Manual' diff for the 3.0si doesn't have a Drain plug, so you'll need to get an oil suction pump/tube to remove the oil from the diff via the Filling hole.

I got my oil off a vendor on eBay for £28.00 for 2 litres. Here...

[GedS]

What diff oil did you use, and is it different for a manual gearbox? Just done the CDV delete and bled the clutch. Want to do the diff oil change this weekend.

For the Diff Oil, I used Castrol Syntrax Long Life 75W-90. The Oil is the same on the Auto and the Manual and the capacity is 1.2 Litres.
I have been told that the 'Manual' diff for the 3.0si doesn't have a Drain plug, so you'll need to get an oil suction pump/tube to remove the oil from the diff via the Filling hole.

I got my oil off a vendor on eBay for £28.00 for 2 litres. Here...

Cheers buddy! Got access to all the equipment, at my friends garage, so good to go...... Wanted to make sure I used the "good stuff", and knew you wouldn't be cutting corners. Good reference point you are!!

[nfbr]

Thanks Ged, you know where I am if you need any help or advice.

[enzed4]

Great thread. Just wondering what size S5 battery you fitted? I see there are 'BCI Group Size' 47, 48 and 94R but I can't find anything on my OEM battery to indicate which one would be best to replace it with.
Also, noob question, but does it matter that you're replacing (at least in my case) a 640CCA battery with an 850CCA? Just more power to crank the engine? It's still putting out 12V after all....
Cheers.
Edit - I see they also do an S5 650CCA battery ('Mega Power Silver' - seems to be aimed at 4WD vehicles)
Very confusing, so many choices