99 z3 2.8l roadster

[Sijray21]

Did you blur the license plates hanging on your wall?

blur/pixelated - yes

likely a little overkill and not consistent with what i've done in the past, but eh

Yeah, your actual license plate for this car is two pages ago.

Thanks, I stopped being lazy; I had to be more consistent. I mostly did the 'pixelation of plate' thing for the IG posts, but I fixed the images in this thread.

[Evan]

hot damn those wheels look good

[ScottyB]

Z's already look great with any concave wheel thanks to dem thicc hips but damn these came out great. 265's are yuge, i have a feeling you're going to start finding reasons to go around some on-ramps a 2nd or 3rd time just for the hell of it....

[Sijray21]

Finally able to take some proper pictures after I cleaned her up. She rubs a very slight amount in the front on heavy compression; not concerned. Other than that I like the fitment and driving feel a lot. The pilot sport 4s are quite grippy.

[.RJ]

Looking sharp!

[Jake]

God I love the big ol' hips on Z3s.

[ScottyB]

[Senor_Taylor]

Omg. I'm dying

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[Sijray21]

well, in classic old bmw fashion i went to get a safety inspection done earlier in the month and as i pull into the queue for the inspection the SRS light comes one... fantastic. I don't even shut off the car and i turn around and head back to work. I pulled the codes and it mentioned the seat buckle for the driver's seat. I decide to try and clear the codes, start it, and checking it again to see if it was legitimate. A few seconds after starting it i heard a big 'POP' and some smoke from under the seat... Turns out the pretensioner detonated. I pulled the seat to find out the wire loom connecting the harness to the buckle was pinched and the wires were exposed (probably just shorted). Ordered the new buckle/pretensioner, installed it, buttoned up the wires and covered them with a harder plastic loom, and routed them in a way that wouldn't get them pinched in the future. I cleared the codes, started her back up, and everything seems good.



In the midst of all this i find out that the driver's side hood latch is sticking. I'll need to take that apart and clean it. I'm able to get it open, but it's a 2-person job as i yank the cable from under the hood (taking out one of the kidney grills) as a person pulls the hood release. Janky BMW is janky.

i'm hoping it's just a cleaning issue and hopefully i don't need to replace the whole cable.

Also next up is an oil change since it's been a year and replacing the oil level sensor.

[Jake]

I've done the oil level sensor before, on an ex's M54 330i sedan. It was a super easy job. Sucks about the pretensioner (code brown!) but sounds like that wasn't too bad to replace either.

[Sijray21]

aaaaand the hood latch cable snapped right at the driver's side latch... the driver's side headlight is partially uninstalled since i tried doing that before the cable snapped. with the removed driver's side kidney grill i can get the passenger latch to release with the secondary cable, but depending on the quote from the shop i'll be bringing this in to get taken care of. Just looking to get this safety inspected.

yeah, i saw how easy the oil level sensor was, which was nice. once i get this hood latch issue taken care of i'll do that. Also heard a tight pulley, so i may look into that soon, too. Yay, old bmws.

[.RJ]

has your floorboard ripped out yet?

[Sijray21]

OK, so with the help of my wife I was able to get the hood to pop.

Without a second person to pull the hood release lever while I watched the latch area I couldn't tell where exactly the cable snapped. I waited until she was home last night and found that the cable wasn't actually snapped; instead i saw that the housing was destroyed and the cable didn't have any leverage to pull the latch release mechanism. I was able to snag the housing/cable with what was left with a loop pick thanks to the driver's side headlight being partially out.

Once the hood was popped open I immediately unbolted the hood latches. I already had a replacement hood release cable since I replaced the plastic lever mechanism that broke last year and didn't replace the cable itself... [emoji849]. I installed that last night and am waiting for the new oem hood latch replacements and secondary cable to arrive. I would've reused the existing hood latches, but at $17 for a new latch i figured that wasn't too much to spend on a new latch that should last as long as i have the car. I also noticed that the power steering cooler hard line needed to be replaced (heavily corroded), so that's also in the mail to get replaced soon.

Oh, well. Glad that's out. Should be on the road again soon.

[Sijray21]

Finished reinstalling the hood Latches and cables the other day and just had enough time to reinstall the power steering cooling line tonight. I work slow with limited time.

Also ran into an issue with the harness for the driver's corner bulb didn't want to snap back together for some reason, but after a quick spray of deoxit they mated.

The old cooling line was pretty corroded from the outside, but wasn't leaking. I thought it was due for a replacement before it blew. The rest of the PS hoses and reservoir were replaced last year.

[Senor_Taylor]

Oof, those look gnarly. Probably a good idea to replace them.

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[Sijray21]

Of course i drove it today so I could get it inspected at lunch and the turn signal stalk is failing for right turns. [emoji849]

Ordering a new stalk, but I hope it works when I send it for the test.

[.RJ]

did your rear subframe fall out yet?

[Sijray21]

did your rear subframe fall out yet?

not yet. i'll order some duct tape, too

[JPolen01]

*stalk

[Sijray21]

*stalk

Thanks. Corrected. (the autocorrect was something different. I'm just bad at spelling/grammar)