Darren-B

A mate of mine has just picked a Z4m convertible last weekend, fully loaded with lots of toys inc DTV . I had the pleasure of driving it last night. I have mixed views on the car. Driving around town the ride is very firm, it`s bordering on uncomfortable when in the passenger seat, but more bearable in the driving position. Motorway driving, it covers it`s speed a little to well & is a little louder than the zed, but it was a convertible. Open the taps & put it through the twisties & it`s an animal, on a tight B road It`s far quicker than my Zed, very easy to drive quickly, it does try to understeer when entering a corner quickly but a quick stab of the brakes before you turn in solves this, get the pedal down & the back just squats down & slings you out of the corner, the engine note and power delivery from 5k to the limiter is addictive. The brakes are good, taken from the e46 CSL I feel they are a little over assisted, as are the brakes in the 370z (my personal opinion) The steering is very direct although spoilt by a fat steering wheel that saps up some of the feel. Although the Z4m is significantly quicker on the road than the 350z & probably the 370z. I wouldn`t sell up my Zed for one, The Zed makes you work for the rewards whilst the BMW just gives them to you. But if I was was looking at buying either a 370z or Z4m I would probably go German

Have to disagree, Just had plenum spacer + HFCs + Milltek fitted and upreved with an '06 airbox and Cossie filter and the car is definitely quicker but more importantly pulls better throughout the revs, so just feels miles better. Maybe just the spacer on its own wouldn't be worth the cash, but as I was replacing the exhaust anyway (old one fell apart) im glad i dished out for the rest of the mods to get the most out of it. DB How much have all these mods cost you & how much have you gained?

True, it`s not done bad though

I agree, that seems to be the easy answer, (Search button) Was the noise happening when you were releasing the clutch? could be a little slip due to excessive heat......... I do find that my clutch/flywheel is noisier when the car is running a little hotter than normal

Looking at those pics I'd say there was quite an impact to cause that damage, hopefully it hasn't damaged the sub frame

Alex is not wrong, the centre seals are not replaceable without new rocker covers, I'm driving the car tonight & on Wednesday then I'll check to see if the repair has worked

No I only do the glass side of things

Yep, a bit like this one, although it looks better on me

Not quite, imboff to finish up there later so will get a pic or two online

Mixed the 2part lacquer & hardener, thinned out with cellulose & sprayed

Tbh silver is a right bugger as you can never get a perfect match so if you were to paint a door, to make it look perfect you will have to blend it in by painting the front & rear wings, I repaired a door, bumper & wing on my silver mx5, ended up painting nigh on the whole car to get it to not show up in the sunlight.

If the Esp is that intrusive it might be worth getting a 4wheel alignment done once you get your new tyres, if the alignment is slightly out this can completely change the characteristics of the car

Cheers The engine cover is black I can do them any colour you like Thats where the Rosso Red came from, just done a kitchen for a Ferrari Fanatic

I keyed the surface with a wire brush drill attachment, then cleaned with cellulose thinners, blasted with compressed air, grey primed then painted with a water based glass paint mixed with a hardener, should be good for upto 190'c. If my plenum gets that hot it won`t be the paint I`ll be worried about. Then used a 2k lacquer I painted the rocker cover of my MX-5 with a standard water based body paint & that held up at much higher temps than the zeds plenum ever gets to So in my opinion I would think that so long as the part you wish to paint is not getting excessively hot (some form of heat shield) if the item is prepped correctly & painted correctly the paint should last

Believe it or not the wall is made of foil wrapped glass with the underfloor heating stuck on top, primarily used for painting glass (the underfloor heating is used to bake the paint)

It makes a big difference, I`ve done it myself when fitting my eibach arms Heres the service manual on rear suspension, hope it helps

Borrowed from someone on google

Hope the subframes not twisted from the accident???? Are you sure you fitted the adjustment eyes up the right way?

I`m with Dan on this one, I doubt the dealer would even entertain you with subsidising the cost of tyres or doing the alignment for free. The wheel alignment can be knocked out by going over a bump/hole in the road.

I bet there's a member on here that could kill one in less than a week & prob less than 10k

Just ordered the re colouring kit myself, will post up my results as & when

Haha this is before I had the rocker covers off, I managed to drop the bolt through the lower plenum when re-intalling it the first time

So over the winter I have a few bits I need to do on the zed to keep her at her best, A week before the Jockland Hoon I gave her a service, spark plugs, engine oil, coolant, gear & diff oil. When changing the plugs I discovered that there was a small amount of oil leaking from the rocker covers into the sleeve for the no.1 & No.4 plugs. I spoke to ZMANALEX whilst on the hoon about this & he advised that the centre seals are part of the rocker cover & a new rocker cover would be required. So against his advice I ordered the replacement rocker cover gaskets (outer Seals), sub £20 delivered. With the intention to replace the outer rubber seals & make/repair the centre seals with a heat & oil resistant sealant rather than fork out for replacement rocker covers. So the last couple of evenings I got to work to repair the leaks. Before I started, completely stock other than a panel filter, 06 velocity stack & plenum spacer. Engine cover & strut bar removed coolante drained, then upper & lower plenum removed Then came the slightly trickier part of un fixing & moving the various coolant hoses & the main wiring loom to gain access to the rocker covers. This in fact took more time than it did to actually remove, clean 7 replace the gaskets on both covers. Unfortunately I didn`t manage to get any pics of the covers off as it was getting a little late & I wasn`t going to get cleaned up just to take pictures. Rocker covers fitted, torqued & cleaned, wiring loom & coolant hoses back in place Re-fitted the lower plenum, cleaned & torqued. Then went to work on the upper plenum, fancied a colour change, Red So i prepped & sprayed the upper plenum Rosso Red (matt) After putting it all back together bar the engine cover & strut brace I decided that I could see to much of the aluminium on the lower plenum so that needed painting to, also I thought it would look better with some lacquer I also painted the strut bar but forgot to take pics Lower plenum, installed once again Then upper plenum installed Strut brace, engine cover & intake installed Finally the coolant was replaced & fired her up, All seems 0k, no signs of any leaks, in fact it feels alot quicker it must be the Rosso red paint, that must be worth 50hp Next on my list are, Replacing hinges on drivers door Replacing Clutch & Flywheel (single or DMF)???? Finding a faulty airbag connection Cleaning & sealing all ali parts under the car, Under-sealing Re-spraying the bonnet, bumper & wings Removing & re-furbing Brembo callipers Possible poly bushing Doesn`t look like I`ll be spending much time with the better half this winter

I feel a bidding war coming on,

PMSL you have to put that as your signature, quality