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bimrologist
02-10-2016, 04:52 PM
Hello all, thanks for allowing me to join your community! I found my 2nd ZHP sedan on this forum in the classifieds around the first week of January and decided to pull the trigger on it based on only 3 previous owners and average number of miles. The vehicle in question was if I'm not mistaken uncovered by Fredo on a used car lot in north San Antonio, TX.

I exchanged several emails and text messeges with the salesman about the car and immediately discovered it was a very good candidate. The mileage (159,xxx) didn't worry me since I've seen several cars working at the dealer and the shop I work for now with well over 250,000 and still going strong. After several q/a sessions with the dealer I made a deposit on the car and hopped onto American Airlines.com to buy a one-way ticket to south Texas at the crack of dawn.

Upon arrival, the car was exactly as it was described. In very good condition for its age/mileage, however as used cars go, it has flaws.. I filled 'er up with 91 and sped home, making a mental list of everything I noticed on the ground and while driving. My biggest concern was the blown-out right control arm bushing that caused the car to pull hard under braking. Learned that one in highway speed bumper to bumper traffic near downtown Austin! Got the car home with zero hiccups just as the sun was going down...

The trip was very impromptu, but was scheduled perfectly to coincide with my best friends first baby shower, another 2 hours on the road north to Wichita. Car hasn't let me down yet, no sense in putting miles on the F30 lease, put it back to it's paces! Wa, wa, wa waaaaaaa.. Plagued with the dreaded ZKW burnt bowls. I had my brights on the entire trip of 151 miles and no one even noiticed! Including myself!

It's now the weekend before last, Ive gotten my first shipment of a laundry list of parts and got the car on the lift at the shop. Replaced the valve cover, oil filter housing and oil pan gaskets that were leaving beer can size spots! Pulled the diff and replaced all 3 bushings along with the trailing arm bushings. Overhauled the shift rod bushing and installed a Z4M selector lever. Installed a new fuel filter and replaced the cracked vacuum line. Up top I tackled the intake boots, power steering intake/return hoses, expansion tank and radiator support, installed a set of AL headlights that I swapped my ZKW projector lenses into topped with new AL lenses and for some flair, I installed a euro short console with an aux input in the slider cubby.

I've finished everything on my list this last weekend to include the following: Buffed the ever-loving-hell out of every surface followed by 2 coats of butter wet wax, Factory alarm retrofit, homelink retrofit, new floor mats, stripped all the purple '90s window tint, installed a stage 1 BSW speaker kit (thanks to rattling factory HK midranges), Megan Racing lowering springs and did the coolant gauge buffer hexa reprogram.

All said it's a great car, and the combination Imola/anthracite I was searching for when i bought my alpine/sandbeige car 4 years ago. I plan on holding onto this on until I either blow it up or lose my job!

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Vas
02-10-2016, 05:12 PM
Welcome. Good color choice.

danewilson77
02-10-2016, 05:25 PM
Great intro. Good having you around.

Welcome

Sent from an S6 Edge

3ZHP
02-10-2016, 06:59 PM
Welcome!

What do you do in your spare time?

Just Kidding! Great intro.

fw_fw
02-10-2016, 07:09 PM
Welcome!!

fredo
02-10-2016, 07:09 PM
Welcome. Glad to hear I could help to find this ZHP. I can tell she's in good hands ! :thumbsup

theothersawyer
02-10-2016, 07:17 PM
Mmmmm....Imola! Welcome!

slater
02-10-2016, 07:35 PM
welcome! good work getting the issues sorted out promptly, too!

:cheers

BMWCurves
02-10-2016, 08:10 PM
Welcome! The car looks great! You did quite the laundry list of maintenance, it should hopefully tide you over for some time. Are you a BMW tech or something similar?

bimrologist
02-10-2016, 08:37 PM
Welcome! The car looks great! You did quite the laundry list of maintenance, it should hopefully tide you over for some time. Are you a BMW tech or something similar?

Thanks, yeah figured I budgeted for a car that needed help, may as well hit it all while it was on the lift. I was a tech for the dealer for 11 years, left last May to work for a good friend of mine at an independent BMW shop in Edmond, OK.

bimrologist
02-10-2016, 08:40 PM
Welcome!

What do you do in your spare time?

Just Kidding! Great intro.

lol, whats this spare time you speak of? How do you like your coby wheel?? That's on the want list, as my factory wheel currently exhibits the worn/peeling/slick characteristic..

3ZHP
02-10-2016, 08:58 PM
lol, whats this spare time you speak of? How do you like your coby wheel?? That's on the want list, as my factory wheel currently exhibits the worn/peeling/slick characteristic..

I like it, can't go wrong for the money. I've had my ZHP since about 26K and only see very slight differences from the original OEM when I got it.


Sent from my iPhone 6S using Tapatalk

Lorenzo
02-10-2016, 09:14 PM
Congratulations on your awesome ZHP! I recently did Coby wheel and love it. Highly recommend.

Jconlin16
02-10-2016, 10:25 PM
Glad to see this ZHP go into the right hands! :thumbup

Welcome to the forum.

johnrando
02-11-2016, 05:51 AM
Welcome. Congrats and nice werk.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

bimrologist
03-26-2017, 04:30 PM
Update time, took a year of searching and finally finding the common sense to make a WTB ad... Got the Performance air box from my local dealers [I]super[I] outdated display stand. Picked up the strut brace from a fellow mafia member. The brakes were a bit of a cluster but they turned out better than I expected. Purchased the set of calipers from a guy on eBay who did a disgusting paint job. Stripped them and sent them off to Tirado Custom Coatings in San Antonio. While they were being coated I ordered all new Stop Tech pistons and seal kits, EBC red stuff pads, a set of M3 blank rotors and custom length HEL stainless brake lines. Install was pretty straight forward, but bleeding was a nightmare! Im happy with the setup though, I read a lot of reviews from DIY's on the install stating that the Performance brake upgrade wasn't really that beneficial. Not sure if that's accurate or not based on brake pad - rotor surface area comparison or master cylinder bore size, etc. Regardless, this thing stops a lot quicker than it used to, plain and simple!

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Vas
03-26-2017, 04:46 PM
What was needed to install those bmw performance brakes on the rear?

bimrologist
03-26-2017, 05:00 PM
The emergency brake dust shield needs to be replaced with an M3 shield for rotor clearance, unless you want to mangle the factory shield. Also, the dust shield pokes out slightly around the inner most part and contacts the inside rotor face. I ground down a lot of the shield and didn't have any grinding issues after that. The rear rotors are E46 M3 zimmerman blanks. I custom ordered a set of HEL Performance stainless brake lines 22" in length. I ordered the male end with a 90 degree swivel connector M10x1.00 and a straight fixed female connector M10x1.00. Everything bolts on like factory otherwise.

Vas
03-26-2017, 05:05 PM
The emergency brake dust shield needs to be replaced with an M3 shield for rotor clearance, unless you want to mangle the factory shield. Also, the dust shield pokes out slightly around the inner most part and contacts the inside rotor face. I ground down a lot of the shield and didn't have any grinding issues after that. The rear rotors are E46 M3 zimmerman blanks. I custom ordered a set of HEL Performance stainless brake lines 22" in length. I ordered the male end with a 90 degree swivel connector M10x1.00 and a straight fixed female connector M10x1.00. Everything bolts on like factory otherwise.
Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation.

Are the custom brake lines expensive? 22" is the length of each line I assume
?

Also does the rear hub need to be removed to pull the brake dust shields off?

bimrologist
03-26-2017, 05:21 PM
I paid $236 for all 4, the fronts I had made 19" long with a straight swivel and then the rears 22" with the 90 deg swivel. I tried to find brake lines that were less expensive but no one discloses their length. I didn't remove the hub, just cut out the caliper side of the shield and slide it over. Yeah, 2x - 19" lines for the fronts and 2x - 22" lines for the rears.

Vas
03-26-2017, 05:28 PM
I paid $236 for all 4, the fronts I had made 19" long with a straight swivel and then the rears 22" with the 90 deg swivel. I tried to find brake lines that were less expensive but no one discloses their length. I didn't remove the hub, just cut out the caliper side of the shield and slide it over. Yeah, 2x - 19" lines for the fronts and 2x - 22" lines for the rears.
Thanks

What about the fronts? Custom adapter to mount the calipers ?

bimrologist
03-27-2017, 04:45 AM
The fronts require 1 of 2 routes for mounting, of which I chose the cheaper of the 2 given that I'd already spent s bunch of money on other aspects of the brakes. Your first option is to find a machine shop that can mill 13/64" of material from the caliper side of the stay bracket as shown below. Your other option is to visit Burkhart-engineering https://burkhart-engineering.com/epages/c2babc39-3494-4a11-bfa8-9e28d50a3799.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/c2babc39-3494-4a11-bfa8-9e28d50a3799/Products/54170 and purchase their custom made bracket set for CSL/Z4M 345mm diameter rotors. You won't find anyone who makes a custom bracket to accept factory 325mm rotors unless you commission someone.

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ELCID86
03-31-2017, 04:40 PM
Very impressive.


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"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - anonymous E46 fanatic