Artic Silver 2.8 - OEM+ long term project

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5harp3y
Joined: Thu 02 Jul, 2015 20:07
Posts: 63

  Z3 roadster 2.8

Artic Silver 2.8 - OEM+ long term project

Post by 5harp3y »

Hi Everyone,

Thought i'd create a log of what i'm up to with my Z3.

Picked this up, 2.8i pre facelift, artic silver, sports seats, harmon cardon, chrome pack car a few weeks ago and will probaly spend the next year slowly upgrading with tasteful OEM upgrades aong with making it a great car for next summer.

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First upgrades were starting to detango the car to hide its age a little

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bought of German eBay for £14 and added some Amber LED bulbs for another £3
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next updated the number plate lights with some xenon white LEDs

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and then some LED festoon bulbs for the map light and boot (White not Xenon White)

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next upgrades are some seat bushes which weather depending will be done this weekend.
Last edited by 5harp3y on Mon 14 Sep, 2015 12:22, edited 1 time in total.
5harp3y
Joined: Thu 02 Jul, 2015 20:07
Posts: 63

  Z3 roadster 2.8

Re: Artic Silver 2.8 - OEM+ long term project

Post by 5harp3y »

Productive weekend for the Z.

Planned to get the seats out to do the bushes as they were gone on the passenger side and nearly gone on the drivers side.

Before i did that i whipped the mats out to clean them (they look original)

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cleaned in the shower with some fairy liquid. (wife was away for the weekend)

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Then moved outside to get the seats out and fix the bushes.

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3/8 mini breaker bar and 16mm socket is perfect for this job!

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TREASURE!

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State of the 83,000 mile bushes

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New bushes in, and i'm grateful for the community for having these made but my god they are twice as thick as they need to be. the sanding is THE MOST laborious thing i've ever done on a car. End result is great and the rest was a piece of pie!

Whilst the seats were out i hoovered the car out and cleaned all the plastics

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urgh!

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seats all in and wobble free!! :D

last little touch / mod before washing

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not technically OEM but if the car was made today i'd imagine they would put a badge on. this is an OEM+ project.

then i went to the pub

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next step is seat tilt mod (coming from USA) and a hood treatment from renovo.
Last edited by 5harp3y on Mon 14 Sep, 2015 12:24, edited 1 time in total.
5harp3y
Joined: Thu 02 Jul, 2015 20:07
Posts: 63

  Z3 roadster 2.8

Re: Artic Silver 2.8 - OEM+ long term project

Post by 5harp3y »

So, with some breaks in the rain this weekend i managed to give the Z another wash and fit my seat lift kit from Thayer Motorsport.

This is the link for the kit :

http://thayermotorsports.com/collection ... at-mod-kit

This is what you get:

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good selection of fixings

Process is easy:

Unbolt rear seat 16mm bolts
Unbolt front 13mm nuts
Lift front of the seat up

Build up like this:

Original Nut
Big Washer
Seat Rail
Big Washer
Small Washer
Threaded insert
Spacer
Small washer

Leaves you with this:
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bolt everything back up to FT

Difference in the non-tilted passenger seat.

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repeat on the other chair.

This is by far the best thing i've done on the Z after the seat bushes. The seats hug me now and i dont slide around in the car under spirited driving conditions.

So cheap to do aswell.

Few little jobs finished over the weekend.

First of which was to start treating the roof as the previous owner had obviously never done this. roof was a bit green and a bit grey too.

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out came the renovo dye, i'd already cleaned the roof a few days earlier.

roof before

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one coat and its already looking much better

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whilst this dried i cracked on with my new rear lights, quite literally a 5 minute job. one 8mm ratchet spanner is all you need.

had to tweak the bulb holders too as they had gone slightly out of shape over the years.

£50 eBay rear lights
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orange LED bulb to eradicate tango (all bulbs will be changed in due course)

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then gave the car a wax whilst i waited for the roof to dry

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Last edited by 5harp3y on Mon 14 Sep, 2015 12:25, edited 1 time in total.
5harp3y
Joined: Thu 02 Jul, 2015 20:07
Posts: 63

  Z3 roadster 2.8

Re: Artic Silver 2.8 - OEM+ long term project

Post by 5harp3y »

So after fitting the LED bulbs to the rear lights and side repeaters i was presented with hyperflashing as the relay was thrown out of sync with the lower draw from the LEDs.

3 options here;

fit resistors to all the led bulbs to 'trick' the relay or mod the relay itself.

3rd option is to fit an off the shelf LED flasher but that requires running little pigtail wires as noone makes a 7pin relay.

the resistors are easy and cheap but always feel like a bodge. so i decided to mod the relay follwing a guide on bimmerfest.

what you need:

2 x small screwdrivers to open the relay
soldering iron + tiny amount of solder
very small drill bit (dremel etc)
1 x schottkey diode (i got mine from RS 781-5616)

Go find your fuse box and the relay

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this is the original 7 pin BMW relay
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wedge open the two sides with some very small screwdivers and then the board pops out

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here are the guts

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the bit that controls the flashing frequency is the 'M'shaped piece of metal (acts as a resistor)

unsolder the 'M'

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next the holes need to be enlarged to get the diode through

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pass the diode through and solder the pins

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snip the tails off

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completed. (note the positon of the band on the diode)

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clip the relay back into the holder and pop it back in the car

start your car and test

et voila, no more hyperflashing and the ability to run LEDs all over the car :D
User avatar
Robz3sport
Joined: Thu 20 Aug, 2015 14:53
Posts: 47

  Z3 roadster 2.2i

Re: Artic Silver 2.8 - OEM+ long term project

Post by Robz3sport »

Great work......didn't even know the seat tilt kit was available, must get it ordered. Did you have to bypass the airbags before removing the seats?
5harp3y
Joined: Thu 02 Jul, 2015 20:07
Posts: 63

  Z3 roadster 2.8

Re: Artic Silver 2.8 - OEM+ long term project

Post by 5harp3y »

Robz3sport wrote:Great work......didn't even know the seat tilt kit was available, must get it ordered. Did you have to bypass the airbags before removing the seats?
I didnt even have to remove the seats to do the lift kit just unbolted and then wedged them up whilst i worked on the front.

it really does mak a difference T-Tony on the Zroadster.org site also sells the kit for less in the UK (i didnt know that before buying)

https://zroadster.org/members/t-tony.1123/

if you disconnect the seat connectors whilst the ignition is used the car will throw an airbag light.
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