William's 330Ci ZHP Maintenance and Project Thread

[BMWCurves]

Hope it turns out well

Haha, been there... Hope everything goes well...

I appreciate it, gentleman!

[3ZHPGUY]

Car went to the shop today to have the following done:

• Install Z4M Front Control Arm Bushings (FCABs) (Left: 31107836862, Right: 31107836863)
• Install Z4M Rear Trailing Arm Bushings (RTABs) (2x 33326770817) plus Vorshlag limiters
• Install UUC Evo3 short shift kit with double shear selector rod (DSSR)
• Install Conforti Shark Injector (SKU: USCE2, DSSR330-6)
• Power steering fluid flush with Redline D4 ATF
• Parking brake adjustment
• Diagnose the clunking sound coming from the rear that's been there since I bought it. My guess is worn transmission bushings, but I forgot to check last time I had it up on jack stands.

Once I get the car back and have an alignment done, I plan to put the car up on jack stands again and replace the brake rotors with the BMW Performance rotors that I bought from Tippey764 on his listing here a few months back. At the same time I'll put on new pads. After reading around on some reviews here and elsewhere on the internet, I settled on Hawk HPS 5.0 pads given their performance, low dust, low noise, and price point. Guy (3ZHPGUY) helped me find the proper part numbers (Fronts: HB464B.764, Rears: HB518B.642) and informed me that they were on sale from TireRack (plus free shipping!), so I scooped up a set and they arrived today.





One note: I had already bought some run-of-the-mill anti-squeal compound but the Hawk pads came with some. See pictures below:





While I am doing all of that I'll also use the G2 Caliper Paint system I bought from Tire Rack to paint the calipers yellow. I'm hoping with how dark the rest of the car is (color-matched bumper reflectors, gloss black grilles, tinted windows) that the yellow will be a nice, clean accent. We'll see, hopefully it'll look "something" like this, but better:



Lastly, I'll be removing the front bumper so I can repainting the lower grille and intake ducts a satin black. All three are faded and gray right now which doesn't look great. Lots to do!

FYI on the parking brake adjustment. When I did the Hawk's (2nd set @ 135K) on mine this spring, I needed to replace all of the parking brake stuff. That included the shoes, hardware and the two star wheels. The linings fell off when I took off the rotor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BMWCurves]

FYI on the parking brake adjustment. When I did the Hawk's (2nd set @ 135K) on mine this spring, I needed to replace all of the parking brake stuff. That included the shoes, hardware and the two star wheels. The linings fell off when I took off the rotor.

Good advice! I hadn't thought about the parking brake parts might need to be replaced at 51k miles. Luckily the mechanic did the adjustment at the brakes rather than the handle and had no issues.

Maintenance:
09/19/2015:
I took the car to the indy shop where I got my PPI for the car back in March. The mechanic has been a BMW tech for about 15 years but liked working independently so he set up his own shop. Very nice guy, very knowledgeable, and doesn't talk down to you when he's explaining things. Anyways, what I had done:

• Replaced rear trailing arm bushings (RTABs) with Z4M RTAB bushings (part no. 33326770817 (2x)). Installed Vorshlag limiters at the same time (link).
• Replaced front control arm bushings (FCABs) with Z4M FCAB bushings (part no. left: 31107836862, right: 31107836863). Replaced the hex bolts for those bushings as well (part no. 33306760652).
• Installed the Conforti Shark Injector (part no. N745330).
• Power steering fluid flushed with Redline D4 ATF.
• Parking brake was adjusted at the rear of the car rather than the handle to minimize cable stretching.
• Installed UUC Evo3 short shift kit with double shear selector rod (DSSR) (SKU: USCE2, DSSR330-6). Unfortunately, the shifter now is incredibly stiff getting it into 5th gear and also pretty stiff getting into 6th. Gears 1-4 are nice and precise. I called UUC and they were pretty adamant the stiff 5th and 6th gears issue is an installation error as opposed to a manufacturer error and I should check if the DSSR was installed correctly (it has a bend in it so it has a specific orientation) and that the actual shifter was facing the correct direction. I checked that the shifter is indeed facing the correct way according to UUC's installation guide and William's (wsmeyer) photo (link). I am still struggling to remove the rubber boot that separates the carrier from the cabin so I can look at the DSSR, but I'm betting it's installed correctly and it's an improperly machined part. I'm headed back to the mechanic this saturday to have him look at it again, and also diagnose the clunking sound from the rear that I am guessing is the differential bushings.

09/21/2015:
Had the car aligned. I used Shawn's (username: ELCID86) and Daniel's (username: NoVAphotog) alignment numbers they sent me to get a rough estimate of what they should be with the Z4M FCABs installed. I think they kept a bit more camber than necessary up front, and a bit too much toe in the rear, but that's okay. My alignment:



I also took a photo of the front wheel because with the added caster I was a little worried about how the front wheels would look in the wheel well. Honestly, if no one said anything I wouldn't notice that the wheel sits ever so slightly forward. Not bad:



With the new suspension and bushings, the car feels great! Definitely a little more planted than before, and the car is eager to dive into corners. Hopefully it'll last me more than 50k miles!

[BMWCurves]

I took my car back to the mechanic on Saturday and ended up talking with him about my car and his work for about an hour. Incredibly nice and knowledgeable guy. He took me under the car and showed me the installation of the bushings he had done and the short shift kit. He discovered that the stiffness in 5th was actually the DSSR grinding against the carrier itself, so he wondered if maybe he had put the DSSR incorrectly front to back. He couldn't get the shifter disassembled again that day so he kept the car over the weekend. Today he realized that the DSSR was indeed installed backwards (it is ever so slightly unsymmetrical front to back), but with that discovery he found he couldn't even get it to fit, so something was wrong. He called UUC and they were adamant he installed the kit it wrong, which is what they had stated to me when I called them earlier. They also tried to deny I bought the kit directly from them, but I gave the mechanic my order number so they finally conceded they might have sent me the wrong kit. He measured the shifter from the center of the shifter ball to where the DSSR connects and the UUC tech support person said that distance was too short to be the 330 6-speed shifter. So they're mailing me the correct part and I should receive it Thursday. I'll have it installed then.

[Vas]

Interesting. You have a good mechanic though.

[BMWCurves]

Yeah, he's a great mechanic. He didn't charge me for the power steering fluid flush, kept me in the loop with everything. Everything you'd want from one.

For those looking for a BMW mechanic in the Portland area, I go to Autobahn Motorwerks.

[az3579]

That's really unfortunate the UUC tried to weasel their way out of this one. Glad you got it worked out.

[BMWCurves]

The replacement shifter from UUC arrived on Tuesday after I had left town for the week, so a family member dropped it off at the mechanic. He got it installed and it now shifts nicely with no issues other than an ever so slight backward and to the left movement when you shift into sixth gear, so it sort of "J" movement. However there are two new issues:

1. The shifter sits to the right in the neutral position. I can shift through the gears with no real issues, they're nice and tight, but 1st and 2nd gears are about where third and fourth were originally and 5th and 6th gears now almost touch the console trim. See pics and video below.
2. The shift knob will not seat, spins freely, and can be removed like it's not locked in. My mechanic tried for ages and I tried putting my weight on it, hitting it with a rubber hammer, etc. Nothing we did would get it to go on despite sharing the same dimensions as the original shifter. Granted it has a slightly different taper where the knob should lock in, but according to my eyes there shouldn't be any issue.

Looking front to back with the shifter in neutral:



Looking from the side with the shifter in neutral:



Video of shifting through the gears: https://streamable.com/f4yx

So now I'm sort of stuck on both issues. Does anyone have a UUC kit running in their ZHP? I PM'd wsmeyer but I don't know if anyone else has it. I'm planning to call UUC tomorrow and see if they have any ideas. Also, the mechanic said the new shifter had some sort of blue rubber or plastic sticking out between the UUC shifter's upper part (that adjusts height) and the lower section. He called UUC and they told him to just cut it out with a blade. I don't know if UUC's quality control has declined or what, but something seems to be up.

At any rate, any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!

[Vas]

That would drive me nuts. Hope you figure it out but it just sucks considering how much it costs.

[BMWCurves]

Spoke with UUC. They think it was potentially installed backwards despite the locking nut they use as a reference should be facing forward. As for the knob not sitting on, the tech support guy admitted it might be a machining issue.