My New-To-Me ZHP Improvement Thread

[Minnesota]

Hello ZHP Mafia members.

So I went out on a limb and bought myself a 2005 ZHP black on black. I say "out on a limb" because the car had a salvage/repaired title, and because the PO was not very into preventative maintenance. I got the car for a pretty good price (I think), but it is going to get some TLC from me. The PO was a female, and say what you may about women babying their cars...I don't get the impression this one was babied. Thrashed? Probably not, but it wasn't treated like the rare car it is.

I have a thread in the classifieds that was a WTB thread but kind of morphed into something else. I figured since I now have the car and am no longer in the WTB category that I should start something in the projects area to document my journey and to seek advice when needed.

For now my list of to-dos consists of:


Valve cover gasket replacement
Vanos service
Replace worn rubber parts that are in a severely deteriorated state
Save money to buy front fenders and hood
Save money to get front fenders and hood painted
Find an engine splash guard and get it installed (mine is missing)
Identify other missing or broken parts that I can't live with in their current state
Get the C-pillars recovered

[PetesZ]

Don't forget

Cooling system refresh
Every fluid changed
Front control arms

[Vas]

Welcome. Post pictures

[Cadeez]

Welcome and congrats! Sounds a little rough, but there's nothing wrong with a good project. It's also probably in your best interest to do a full routine maint sweep; plugs, air/fuel filters, belts, fluids, etc then move onto slightly more extensive "routine maint" items like the DISA, ICV and as PetesZ said a full cooling system refresh. Or at least coolant, hoses and expansion tank. Best of luck! And we all love to see pics :)

[johnrando]

Yup, welcome and good luck! Have you introduced yourself in our new members thread?

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[BMWCurves]

Congrats on the purchase! Look forward to seeing what you do with it!

[ELCID86]

Nice list. For now if the c-pillars are flapping, just rip the cloth off of them. I promise you won't even notice its missing a few days later.

[Reasoned1]

Regarding the pillars, I highly recommend pulling the old fabric off and rewrapping the pillars with 3M 1080 vinyl (adhesive). It's pretty inexpensive and easy and it looks as good or better than original. Be very careful with the old pillars, because the corners are weak and can be very brittle.

[Minnesota]

I fixed one of the pillars on Saturday. The PO had given me a roll of double-sided tape, which I was going to use for the repair. He said he had bought a whole case of it and would never use it all.
I removed the old trim piece and peeled most of the fabric off. I then added the tape, row by row, covering the entire piece and trimming the edges with a razor blade. Once I had that done I stretched the fabric back over and pressed it down. It actually stuck better than I thought it would. It turned out rather well. In hindsight I should have pulled more of the fabric off. I only removed what was already hanging. The stuff on the other side of the light hole was loose too and is now kind of disconnected from the trim, but not hanging, since both sides are attached still.
The hardest part of the job was getting the piece back in place. Maybe the tape added just a little thickness that made an already fiddly job more difficult. I managed to put a nice slice in one of my fingers as I was using the wrong tool to persuade things along. I just wrapped it in a paper towel and some electrical tape and finished the job.
The results are good. It doesn't look absolutely horrible and if I didn't call attention to it I don't think anyone would notice the pillar anymore. I plan on using spray adhesive on the other side to see how that goes. I've read a lot of stories from people who have tried it and had the adhesive bleed through and discolor the trim. My thought on this is that the adhesive should be dry enough when you put the fabric on it that the stuff can't bleed through. You can't rush the job. I'll test my hypothesis soon enough.

Project one done.

[Minnesota]

Project two was to fix the sunroof sun shade. The symptom was the shade would not open more than a few inches with the sunroof closed. It opened fine with the sunroof open, following along as the glass slid back. It would then slide shut with the glass too, stopped a few inches from the front. I read up a little on here and E46 Fanatics and dove in.

The first thing I noticed was that the rear driver's side sliding piece was off the track. It didn't take much to put this back in without disassembling anything. Unfortunately this didn't fix the problem.

I fussed and fiddled and was able to get the glass open with the shade still closed. Now I could see all the attachment points for the shade and could therefor remove it. With the shade out of the way I could get to the screws that hold the glass to the sunroof mechanism. With the glass now out I could get a good look at everything. Fortunately nothing was broken or missing. What had happened was the rear sliding piece on the drivers side had gotten out of position. There is another piece, and I can't remember what it is called, that moves along with the glass as you open and close the sunroof. This thing's job is to pull the sun shade open as you open the glass. You then have to close the glass again (move the thing forward) to allow the shade to be closed manually. The proper location for the shade slider is BEHIND this piece. This allows you to push the shade back with the glass closed. It also allows the glass frame to push the shade open as the glass opens. What had happened was the shade slider had gotten IN FRONT of the other piece. Now when you tried to open the shade with the glass closed it would jam against the very thing that was supposed to move it. Once you opened the glass this thing was moved back, so the shade could move back, but as soon as you closed the glass the shade would be forced to move forward with it, since the piece was moving forward with the glass - thus moving the shade forward too.
So what I did was just to get the glass-slider thing in the right place, and put the shade slider piece behind it. Now I could push the shade back without the glass being open, and when I open the glass it pushes the shade open too.
Things were bound up a little bit with dust and debris so I cleaned it up and shot a modest amount of silicone spray on everything. It moves much easier now and shouldn't "jump the track" anymore.
The take-home from this job is that this part of the car is sensitive and shouldn't be forced or slammed around. It is easy to get things out of whack and when things get out of whack they don't work right in the best case scenario, and they break in the worst case scenario. Luckily nothing was broken here and now the sunroof operates as it was designed.

Win II.

[Minnesota]

Here's the thing that was out of whack.

29456

The T-shaped thing to the right of the circled piece (I guess it's called the sun shade driver) was on the left, or in front of the driver when I took mine apart. This meant the shade couldn't get past the driver, and since the driver moves with the glass, the shade wouldn't open with the glass closed. Now it does open. Yay!

[Minnesota]

I should add that it was really very easy to work on the sunroof. It is all very logical how it goes together and comes apart. Lining the glass up with the roof at the end was easy too. I'd tackle it again in a heartbeat. I just hope I don't have to.

[Dave1027]

Regarding the pillars, I highly recommend pulling the old fabric off and rewrapping the pillars with 3M 1080 vinyl (adhesive). It's pretty inexpensive and easy and it looks as good or better than original. Be very careful with the old pillars, because the corners are weak and can be very brittle.

That's sounds like a good fix. Got pics?

[Minnesota]

I decided to do an oil change today. Of course this means getting the car off the ground and crawling underneath. There were a few things I noticed while I was under there. For beginners, the aluminum plate was all ripped up and bent. It looked like a tow truck driver had tried to tow the car by hooking up to this plate and the hook had just ripped through the metal. Luckily it was only the thin side that was damaged so I pounded everything straight and added some rivets to keep everything in place. It looks much better now.

While I had the plate off I noticed that the wires to the oil level sensor were all cut. How the hell does that happen? I spliced things back together. No lights had been on. We'll see if anything lights up when I start the car.

Someone had also hooked onto the front sway bar for a tow, so one of the aluminum bushing brackets was bent and the bolts on the body were slightly off. I took both brackets off and got them put right. I then straightened the bolts and put it back together.

I'm waiting for my wife to get back from town with some atf for the power steering. The old stuff looked like it had never been changed so I pulled the line off the pump and drained out the old fluid. Maybe that slight shake in my steering wheel will go away now.

Updates coming.

[ELCID86]

Wow. Someone did a heck of a bad job trying to tow it?! Think it was road debris?

[Minnesota]

Wow. Someone did a heck of a bad job trying to tow it?! Think it was road debris?

I don't think it was road debris. The most likely culprit was a poorly trained tow truck driver, or perhaps a car hauler who didn't care about tying things down properly.

[Vas]

Man that sucks

[Cadeez]

Man that's unfortunate.. But it sounds like you were able to fix everything and not get too discouraged, which is important. Keep on truckin

[Sockethead]

That aluminum piece is a structural support so if it's too damaged, you may want to think about replacing it. It's not horribly expensive IIRC.
Also there is a filter in the bottom of the power steering fluid reservoir. It's not serviceable. So normally when changing out the power steering fluid, the whole reservoir is replaced... Not that it had to be done but something you may want to consider.

[Minnesota]

That aluminum piece is a structural support so if it's too damaged, you may want to think about replacing it. It's not horribly expensive IIRC.
Also there is a filter in the bottom of the power steering fluid reservoir. It's not serviceable. So normally when changing out the power steering fluid, the whole reservoir is replaced... Not that it had to be done but something you may want to consider.

That's good to know. I saw the white thing down inside the reservoir but didn't realize it was a screen.

As to the aluminum piece, there are two sides to it. The side on the bottom, facing the street, is thinner and easily damaged. The top half, which faces the car, is much thicker and likely provides the structural support. I'm sure the thin side adds rigidity to the whole piece, but I'm not too worried about significant damage effecting the performance of the car. I will, however, keep an eye out for used plates.