New Member - Columbus, GA

[Cliff84]

Hi All,

A friend of mine owns a 2004 ZHP and I fell in love with it about 2 years ago. I've been reading/researching on the site for about the last five months leading up to my recent purchase. I got serious about purchasing my own and needed to educate myself and this is where I came. The wealth of knowledge on the site and mature membership were a welcome breath of fresh air. I hope I'm not overstepping the boundaries of the intro post, but I'd like to be as complete as possible. Thanks.

A breakdown on my ZHP:

2004 Black Sapphire, auto sedan.
-Price $7,800
-Miles 102,383
-PPI turned up: DS Front Strut Leaking, Oil Filter Housing Gasket Leaking, Front CAB worn. Not a lot considering the mileage and price (in my opinion).

Things I don't particularly like:
-Interior is beige. Probably my least favorite color combo.
-PO refinished wheels an off gunmetal color. Can't wait to refinish back to OEM color or buy new wheels altogether.
-Lack of maintenance history from PO. All warrantied maintenance records were provided by a local BMW dealer, but nothing beyond that. So, basically nothing past 2008 and what the CARFAX reported.
-Its an Auto. :eeps

Work Completed at this point (Less than 500miles since purchase):
-New Front Struts (Bilstein B4, front end sits a little high now).
-Oil Filter Housing Replaced.
-Front CAB replaced (OEM).
-Front Rotors/Brake Pads Replaced(ECS GEOMET cross drilled/slotted, Hawks HPS). Warning light came on when I was driving it back from Orlando.
-New Roundels (Hood/Trunk).
-New key FOB.

To Do:
-Flush/change all fluids (oil, differential, transmission, brake, power steering).
-Replace Water pump/fan clutch/pulley.
-New tires.

Cosmetic upgrades will come after all mechanical preventative maintenance has been completed (hopefully NLT August).


Thanks in advance for any feedback. I'll do my best to be value added to the site.

[slater]

welcome! looks like you got a nice deal on the car.

the upside to the sand color interior is that it's not so hot in the summer. :)

the exterior looks clean!

you can always retrofit some paddle shifters for the steptronic box, and i think there's aftermarket software for it too?

regarding the front being so high - that's because of the bilsteins, they are gas charged and do raise the vehicle's ride height even though logic would suggest they don't. i'd personally get some eibach pro-kit springs and new rear bilstein shocks to round out the package and bring the car back to normal height.

peter

[Vas]

Welcome.

I actually like the black exterior and sand interior.

[Cliff84]

Thanks.

Ha, yes not quite as hot, but man its taking a minute to get used to.

Exterior is clean. I'm going to clay/seal it in next weekend hopefully, its got some rough spots.

Did not know you could put paddle shifters on, i thought the only fix was a tranny swap to manual, which I'm not prepared to do right now.

I've been looking into the suspension. Apparently the Bilsteins are notorious for changing height. Ill look into the springs and changing rear shocks. thanks for the feedback and advice.

Cliff

[BMWCurves]

Welcome! I actually quite like the gunmetal on black look of the refinished wheels. Gives it a different color and a nice accent. Plus, it goes with this trend of grayscale that's been going on in clothing fashion if that's your sort of thing. I also will say that I like the beige. I had it in my old 2003 330Ci ZSP. It brightens the interior a lot and has the added benefit of hiding dust. I have a black interior in my ZHP and not five days after I vacuum and wipe it down dust seem to magically accumulate and looks like I never cleaned the interior.

All that said, I think you got a great price on it despite the lack of records from the previous owners. Your future maintenance plan looks good and as other people said, you can get paddle shifters for it that should up the fun factor.

[ELCID86]

Welcome and congrats. I was stationed at Martin Army Hospital from 98-01. Enjoyed our time there.


Thumbs, iPhone, Tapatalk.

[theothersawyer]

Welcome! I like the wheels in that color! Looks good!

[Cliff84]

Thanks all. Going to need to do a bit of research on the paddle shifters. Appreciate the warm welcome.

[theothersawyer]

You aren't too far from me, I'm in Newnan!

[3ZHPGUY]

Welcome!

[Cliff84]

About an hour. I looked through the SE section, but didn't see any real activity where we are. Am I missing something?

[theothersawyer]

There are a few ZHP owners in Atlanta, but I haven't met any of them yet. I've only had my car about 6-8 months.

[JB3]

That front ride height is crazy! I've seen HDs do the increase. Sports do not IIRC, but looks like B4 might be in the same vein. I'm currently trying to sort out my suspension correctly the first time, so I wish you luck in getting it to your liking if it's not there already.

Love the tan, wheels look primer grey in that shot though. I would probably re-paint them.

I always liked this if I weren't changing my wheels:
http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/NXTballer/BMW%20January%202011/IMG_2159.jpg?t=1298330826



Welcome aboard! Great price for something with so few needs!

[Cliff84]

Thanks.

The rims are something that originally caught my eye, but after looking at them in person (after a 4 hour drive) I realized they were a sort of blue/grey, not the color your above picture is. I assume thats a true "Gunmetal" finish?

[JB3]

Yep, gunmetal grey per the owner. Link to his for sale thread (http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=824744).

I removed the pic I posted so as not to clutter your intro thread with pics of someone else's car. Btw, are you going to pop out and paint the lower grille back to the original black?

[Cliff84]

Yes, when I finish up with all the planned maintenance I'll color match the lower grille to the matte black kidney pieces, install clear side markers and euro taillights.

[johnrando]

Welcome. I did the paddle shift mod, it's easy (I bought an already done wiring harness from someone who was selling theirs so I didn't have to build my own, but it's not hard). It does make it more fun, but it doesn't change it into a "manual" experience. There is also s/w but the difference is very, very slight, and only at high rev shift points in my experience.

Nice car, nice list, enjoy the ride!

[fredo]

Welcome, Cliff! I'm on my 4th BMW (e36, e46, e90, ZHP) and 3 of them have been black/tan. Needless to say, I love that combo !

If it was me, I would probably paint the wheels back to OEM color. GL on your decision !

[oldzilla]

Welcome, love the color combo.

[jpalazzi87]

Welcome, Ive seen the black and tan on a few e90's, its really nice, and paddle shifts are on my list for next year once I bring the exterior to par

[Cliff84]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. Definitely going to repaint the wheels. I plan to get a quote from a shop this week. My biggest issue with the interior color is the lack of leather "texture".

Not sure if this is due to the properties of the "sand" color or the leather touch up work done by the PO. My only experience with this model year interior is my buddies zhp, which has the natural brown (thats the color I was looking for). Im currently looking into cleaning the touch up product out of the seats and re conditioning the leather. I've read a few threads on the forum, but nothing that addresses removing what appears to be touch up paint.

After looking at all the amazing cars and backstories on the forum I find myself constantly critiquing the car and looking for things to change/update. Thank you all for taking pride in your vehicles and giving me an endless to do list.

[danewilson77]

Welcome

:waldo

[ELCID86]

Cliff?


Thumbs, iPhone, TaT.

[ikeupinya]

Love your car's color combo as well as the wheel's custom finish. I'm in the process of getting my Style 135Ms refinished to gunmetal as well because I don't like the OEM finish being so bright, along with its infamous weekly brake dust fade...