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

[osiris]

Regardless of auto adjusting, one can still set the "neutral" position on the headlights themselves manually.

I dont know the e89 specifically, but have successfully set the aim on numerous different cars with Auto leveling and HID by simply twirling the adjusters on the headlights themselves. Just take a peek at the back of the lights..... there must be some sort of adjuster screw

If one tampers with the rods on the suspension, that could actually limit the range of your headlights. Best to leave those alone

Thanks for the feedback

I had a look at these and have done this on other bmw's that I owned in the past, I have broken a few by adjusting too far because the auto adjusters are pointing down to the ground and I tried to compensate with the manual adjustment and ended up breaking the plastic screw

I read online that these specific E89 xenons have a manual screw for fine tuning only :-/ I read a forum that I will post a link on now regarding this matter. Usually this auto adjuster sensor servo arm link twirls around backwards when the car bottoms out or hits a pothole etc and you get the dreaded lights facing the ground situation.

http://e89.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=418453

The car is going into powerflow just now to get some silencers put where the cats used to be so while its on the lift I will have a look at the front sensor and see if the arm is not flipped or the plug to the sensor hasn't jumped out.

 

[osiris]

Ok so update time.

I took the car to Powerflow Randburg today to sort out the exhaust sound as I mentioned before the cats were removed and the car had a very raspy sound that I personally don't like at all. However this particular sound was ugly as all hell and here is why.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I can quite honestly say that this is some of the worst exhaust and welding workmanship I have ever actually seen to date.

I mean there are actual holes even :skit:

Anyways Powerflow cut that mess off and built a new mid section. Stainless steel pipes with mid boxes:

You can see here how flush it is with the bottom of the car. No canisters hanging out the bottom.

First impressions so far. It doesn't feel like the same car even. It sounds beautiful, idles softly like it should and when you open the throttle it sounds beautiful, when driving around normally at 60kph in the cabin you just hear the light sounds of the turbos spooling up and down and the small dumps from the BOV. no longer hear horrible Raspy tinny wierd exhaust sounds. While on the highway at 120kph she is quite, put your foot down and the throttle response is much better and she sounds amazing.

Very happy with the sound and drive of the car now that the exhaust is done. I would love a full stock exhaust and keep the downpipes but that's never going to happen lol so this is as good as its going to get.

I found the source of my xenon problem facing down at the road, I am not even going to post pics of it as it upsets me too much, I am just going to try get a new arm for the sensor and fix this problem ASAP. BMW's quote is a bit retarded so I am going to try a few other places tomorrow and see what I can do.

 

[Fruks]

Nice work man. How come the forum members ex car is this mangled, we're u aware of all of this at time of purchase?

 

[osiris]

Nice work man. How come the forum members ex car is this mangled, we're u aware of all of this at time of purchase?

Unfortunately I never went under the car to look when I had a look at the car so I didn't know about this exhaust situation.

The little missing clips and stuff like the bonnet catch etc he did tell me about, other little things I found like missing clips here and there because I am pedantic about everything.

He did ask for the photos of the exhaust to put on hello peter and send to the manager of the exhaust place that did this shocking exhaust work. I am not going to name and shame as its not my place to do that as I never paid for this work, but if KrS24 feels that he should name and shame the place who did this exhaust he is welcome to do so. Hopefully he does so that other forum members don't get this done to there cars.

 

[Gizmo]

Wow that is some disgusting pipe work! Powerflow's work isn't helping either because they are using a crush bender when they should be using a mandrel bender. Honestly, if I were you I would dump that whole mess from the turbos back and have TMSS build some quality downpipes and full stainless mandrel bend system. You will have significant gains throughout the rev range.

 

[KrS24]

Hey bud, glad everything is coming together and you are giving the car the attention it deserves. I just never had a spare moment to sort out the little issues.
As for the exhaust, I'm as shocked as you are. I am currently trying to get a hold of the owner of Noise Boys Centurion. The workmanship is completely unacceptable!
Once the car was put back to stock the exhaust needed a bit of work. The original plan was to take it to TMSS but as this was being used daily to work and back by my wife I couldn't afford the wait. Thus the car ended up down the road to Noise Boys.

Glad you are happy with the new sound and cant wait to see her with the M Sport bumper!

 

[Gizmo]

Well at least noise boys are living up to their name. Little boys making quiet cars noisy.

 

[NAS325ci]

Dude honestly I learned my lesson with powerflow midrand these guys are absolutely useless I could even weld better myself. My next exhaust job will only be done by tmss or strada. Powerflow can't even weld straight pipe not sure how they can weld bends. This is my impression on powerflow midrand not sure if powerflow randburg is any better. My welds has holes and the welds look hideously untidy. They not even getting back to me so so much for customer service.

 

[///Avi]

Congrats on the ride bud! That exhaust work is quite shocking. However the new exhaust bends aren't that much better. But if the car is sounding better and you are enjoying it then all is well.

Post some sound clips:rollsmile:

 

[KrS24]

Powerflow Midrand made me lose faith in humanity!
I had a set of downpipes for my e92 which needed to be fitted after Powerflow Durban stuffed up my downpipes. The car was dropped off at 8 am. Around 12 I got a call saying the o2 bungs were in the wrong position and that needs to be sorted out.
I go back to the workshop at 4:30 pm. My car is the only car there and yet it's not completed. Instead of adding a new bung they tried to re-engineer the downpipes to somehow turn the o2 sensor around. So we waited (my brother and myself), time after time the pipes went on and off. 6pm.....7pm.....8pm.....still not done. I told the workshop manager No one is leaving until my car is done. 9pm.....10pm....11pm....my wife starts calling and asking what the hell is going on. I finally leave my brother there at 12 and head home. At 3 am he then comes home with the car!!! After inspecting the downpipes there was more welds and steel! Needless to say, I got a full refund. I will NEVER use them again.

 

[osiris]

Wow that is some disgusting pipe work! Powerflow's work isn't helping either because they are using a crush bender when they should be using a mandrel bender. Honestly, if I were you I would dump that whole mess from the turbos back and have TMSS build some quality downpipes and full stainless mandrel bend system. You will have significant gains throughout the rev range.

Thanks for the advice. For now to be honest I am not 100% happy with the bends in this setup either but I didn't know where else to go, I have never heard of TMSS till now. These will have to suffice for now, when I have used these pipes for a bit and built up some more cash reserves I will go get a quote from those guys and see what the damage will be, need to at least get some of my moneys worth out of these pipes lol.

For now its tackling all the little nigglies. Getting the msport bumper on once the sensor has been taken care of and other little irritations here and there.

 

[osiris]

Here is a pic of the front of the car before the Msport front bumper goes on soon.

This is actually a kak deceiving photo lol, it makes this ugly front bumper look better than what it does. I got lucky with a flattering angle :roflol:

This is more along the lines of what it looks like:
I am still trying to figure out what BMW was thinking when they decided to put this bumper on the 35i version of the Z4...It really does the car no justice at all. The Z4 should have only come out with the Msport bumper, This bumper ruins the lines of the car.

 

[PLV]

Holy shit! Those welds look like the the very first time I tried to weld and didn't have a cooking clue what I was doing - but it was fun anyway! Not what you would expect from a place you actually pay to do something properly!

Anyway, still a mean looking machine. Best of luck with all your work on her!
:clapper:

 

[osiris]

So I managed to pick up a sensor from a place I found on gumtree. was a hella long drive but worth it.

I replaced the sensor and did some manual adjustments of the lights as the sensor alone wasn't helping but the sensor did bring back auto movement of the headlights at least. So now I can at least see at night again.

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Problems I have found so far when I went under the car last night.

Coolant is leaking from somewhere. Not sure where, I looked everywhere that I could get to but can't find the source, The radiator sits on top of the intercooler and so coolant is running down both sides of the intercooler, so I am not sure if the radiator has a leak or if its a coolant pipe somewhere, its going to the mechanic tomorrow to find out.

Oil is leaking out the pipe joins where the silicon pipe joins onto the intercooler which probably means I have a boost leak too, so I will connect up my trusty boost leak tester I made for my old volvo a few years ago and see if I am loosing pressure in the system somewhere.

Right side plastic under cover that fits under the wheel well is missing, probably removed during turbo modifications etc and never put back so need to source these parts.

The rattle from the turbo wastegate is driving me completely nuts I need to have this fixed ASAP before I start riding a bicycle to work cause this is possibly one of the worst sounds I've ever heard a car make.
The JB4 software was able to remedy this problem and BMW's fix is also a software fix which stops the actuator from closing the wastegate at idle, the problem with this is that it introduces turbo lag and thus low down torque.

The other remedy is to rotate the actuator arm 2 - 2.5 revolutions which tightens up everything as it's the bush that gets worn over time and stops the wastegate from closing tightly. The other solution is to order a rattle repair kit and have someone pull the turbos and fix this shit. It is quite a big job though.

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Here is a video of how this guy fixes the problem.

[video=youtube]

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This also explains my shocking fuel consumption.

 

[osiris]

Gave the car a very good wash yesterday and took a pic or two.
Starting to come together, got my parts from BMW, the little missing clips here and there.

Will post pics up of the stuff missing before and after later on.

 

[Fruks]

looks gr8 man

 

[baverianbeauty285]

raise::clapper:

 

[MikeR]

:coolShake::clapper: looking good....

those pipes and the welding :YesNo::YesNo: no words man.

 

[Cupra08]

Car looks great, simililar to mine

 

[osiris]

Car looks great, simililar to mine

I tried to check yours out but not a single pic in your thread is working. even if I goto your photobucket page etc they are not displaying.
Would like to see it.