- Joined
- Jul 29, 2025
- Points
- 28
- Model of Z
- Facelift 2.8 Z3
Hi all,
Have been poking about the forum searching things up whilst sorting out a few bits on my Z3. Figured I'd prevent necro posting and spamming up the forum by making my own thread. Here's my collection thread.
Work done
First things first, tunes. I had the shot of a cheap FM transmitter to get the car home, quality was garbage. Swapped in a DSX-A500BD head unit using a universal adapter "PC2-05-4 BMW Z3 E36 & E37 96 Onwards Car Stereo Radio ISO Harness Wiring Adaptor". £8.95 from eBay. You'll also need a universal radio cage, I found one on Amazon for £8.09 "Celsus ACG5011 Radio Cage - Sony/ Blaupunkt/ Grundig/ VDO"
Piece of p*** to pull the old one out, followed some guides online. Hardest part was removing the wires out the old head unit - you need a screwdriver and some leverage, the bracket that mounts all the plugs into the back of the radio pushes in the radio as it comes down in line with it. Hard to describe but obvious when it's in your hands. So you need to lever it out in the opposite way - up and out. I've got it hastily mounted in there by bending some tabs on the universal radio cage, foregoing a faceplate because it doesn't bother me and I want to mod my OEM Business RDS with bluetooth eventually one day. What you gain in bluetooth functionality with the aftermarket head unit, you lose in volume-by-speed you get from the BMW system. Quite an exhilarating feature to have when the speeds start climbing so will want to get this back eventually.
I then bought a leather cleaning kit Autoglym Leather Clean & Protect Complete Kit" £29.30. In this picture, either the back has been cleaned and the bottom not, or vice versa. Can you tell which way round it is?
Nope, I couldn't tell the difference even in the flesh. I guess the leather's not dirty.
Next up, exterior rubber things. The gaskets around the door handle were falling to pieces and the grommet for the aerial was looking a bit worse for wear.
Fit BMW Z3 Series E36 Aerial Antenna Grommet Rubber Seal 65218389698 Black £7.85
For BMW E36 E34 E32 Z3 3 5 7 Front LH & RH Door Handle Gasket Rubber Seals 2Pack £7.58
Door gaskets I followed my man "Moment of Zed" on Youtube's guide, with some help from this thread here. Drivers side went off without a hitch, but the passenger side only secured back in on one half, the front edge hasn't been latched properly by the slide clip thingie. Took it off and back on a few times with no improvement, anyone got ideas on this one?
Drivers side worked perfectly, what an improvement, quick and easy.
The aerial grommet was a different story. I suspect it's quite a cheap knock-off part, the rubber was exceptionally hard. Heating it up in water seemed to make no difference. My man Moment of Zed has the guide again, but I'd be lying if I told you I followed it. Gave the job to my brother and his ape strength, you'd have to ask him for any detailed tips on installation. I also tasked him with protecting the boot loom of doom, which I suspect he's just thrown buckets of leccy tape at.
With the new aerial grommet in, I slapped a tiny bee sting aerial on because I'm a millennial and don't listen to the radio.
BLACK 3 cm Carbon Car AERIAL Bee Sting Mast Antenna Mini Radio Stubby AUTO1041 £3.99
Seat bushings needed attention, so after a quick google I discovered Ian Grayson doing bushings on zroadster.net (shock, the darkside, noo!), but he's also got a thread here on .org.
Seat Bushings £12
Bit strange just sending a man some money via paypal but he was communicative and after a short delay due to family issues the bushings came through. Had to sand them down a hell of a lot to get them in the carriers. The entire job is quite fiddly and time consuming, but not hard. Moment of Zed has a guide again with more in-focus shots than this thread but Pelican Parts has the best guide.
PROTIP
Lose your keys when doing the seats. You don't need the ignition on to drive the seats forwards/backwards, and if the ignition is on when you undo the connectors under the seat, you'll trip your airbag light on. Ask me how I know.
Front badge came flying off the first time a pressure hose was pointed at it, so new set of badges from eBay:
82mm & 74mm Bonnet Boot Trunk Badge For BMW Fits 1 3 5 6 X Z M E92 E81 E60 M3 £7.99
Contrary to my very quick googling, the Z3 uses 82mm front and rear, and 74mm for the sides. So I replaced the missing front badge, and if I buy another exact same set I'll have a full compliment of badges to swap out, but the others are sticking well for now and in decent enough nick so that's been pushed to the back burner.
Easy enough to swap the front badge. A technique I found worked very well was to get a plastic debit/credit/gym/tesco card between the badge and the paintwork, then slip a flathead in between the badge and the card, and use the screwdriver to lever the badge away from the bodywork. The plastic card will protect the paintwork from the screwdriver and allow it enough purchase to pop the old badge out. Seat the new one in and cap with the grommets from the underside, easy peasy. Literal 5 minute job. Not looked into the rears or sides yet.
Got a couple of chips in my windscreen, so got a cheapy repair kit off Amazon Manelord Car Windscreen Repair Kit for Auto Windshield Chips and Cracks Repair £10.99.
Before
During
After
Not fully fixed but a damn sight better than it was. This was a quick half-hour footer, could probably get better results with more time spent. Don't see you getting a full, professional quality repair with these cheap kits though.
Garage Work
With no history of work done to the cooling system, I thought it prudent to have it handled professionally before going to the Ring in August. Took it down to Ashton Motors to Gordon to have a look at. He ended up replacing the water pump, aux belt, thermostat. An aux belt tensioner sheared off during the work, so that had to be sourced and replaced also. Got there and felt I was in the right place, had to get a tour for half an hour before we began to look at my car.
Water pump, £61.12
Aux belt £26.02
Thermostat £42.36
Tensioner £57.85
Anti-freeze £22
I also asked him to have a check of the driveline to see if he could locate the source of the clunk. Couldn't find any smoking gun, but did find the diff to have basically no oil in it, so he sorted that out for me too. Hasn't eliminated the clunk, but probably a good thing it's been topped up. £250 labour, £461.75 all in.
Whilst under there, Gordon noticed a couple of things. One of the rear springs had snapped, and the front control arm bushings had completely worn through. The bushings on the rear subframe are also quite worn, but not entirely split.
Work to do
I've got a guibo to go in - Propshaft Guibo Flex Disc Joint 6-Hole For BMW Z3 Z4 E85 E86 E89 26117511454 UK £18.99 but it seems rather cheap for the prices I've seen online. Not sure about the condition of the one in there currently, but there is a hell of a clunk in the driveline, especially low speeds and cold operation. Should be an easy install when I get round to it.
Springs have been delivered and are awaiting installation, I went with LESJÖFORS 4208435 Coil spring for BMW Z3 £86.98 for 2.
Control arms I went for MEYLE 316 050 0023/HD Link set, wheel suspension for BMW 3 Series, Z3 £194.99.
Brake pad light came on, can't be too mad, I've put nearly 2000 miles on it already. Got a discount code for EBC (PM me if you want) so got some Yellowstuff pads front and rear, £152.91 (£65.53 off!) coming.
Yellowstuff 4000 Series Street and Track Brake Pad Set (Front) £117.42
Yellowstuff 4000 Series Street and Track Brake Pad Set (Rear) £101.03
Pairing them with some Brembo discs front £110.98 and rear £64.98.
I think that about covers everything so far. So moving forward, does anyone have any experience DIY'ing control arms and rear springs and got any tips? Any people been down these paths and got any sage advice for me? I think once I get the guibo replaced, springs swapped out (fronts are on their way, but may leave them for now), control arms done, I think it's ring-ready. Not going to smash laptimes, just casual cruising and for the experience.
Also need advice on that passenger door gasket!
Oh, and does anyone have a link for grommets for the luggage rack?
Have been poking about the forum searching things up whilst sorting out a few bits on my Z3. Figured I'd prevent necro posting and spamming up the forum by making my own thread. Here's my collection thread.
Work done
First things first, tunes. I had the shot of a cheap FM transmitter to get the car home, quality was garbage. Swapped in a DSX-A500BD head unit using a universal adapter "PC2-05-4 BMW Z3 E36 & E37 96 Onwards Car Stereo Radio ISO Harness Wiring Adaptor". £8.95 from eBay. You'll also need a universal radio cage, I found one on Amazon for £8.09 "Celsus ACG5011 Radio Cage - Sony/ Blaupunkt/ Grundig/ VDO"
Piece of p*** to pull the old one out, followed some guides online. Hardest part was removing the wires out the old head unit - you need a screwdriver and some leverage, the bracket that mounts all the plugs into the back of the radio pushes in the radio as it comes down in line with it. Hard to describe but obvious when it's in your hands. So you need to lever it out in the opposite way - up and out. I've got it hastily mounted in there by bending some tabs on the universal radio cage, foregoing a faceplate because it doesn't bother me and I want to mod my OEM Business RDS with bluetooth eventually one day. What you gain in bluetooth functionality with the aftermarket head unit, you lose in volume-by-speed you get from the BMW system. Quite an exhilarating feature to have when the speeds start climbing so will want to get this back eventually.
I then bought a leather cleaning kit Autoglym Leather Clean & Protect Complete Kit" £29.30. In this picture, either the back has been cleaned and the bottom not, or vice versa. Can you tell which way round it is?
Nope, I couldn't tell the difference even in the flesh. I guess the leather's not dirty.
Next up, exterior rubber things. The gaskets around the door handle were falling to pieces and the grommet for the aerial was looking a bit worse for wear.
Fit BMW Z3 Series E36 Aerial Antenna Grommet Rubber Seal 65218389698 Black £7.85
For BMW E36 E34 E32 Z3 3 5 7 Front LH & RH Door Handle Gasket Rubber Seals 2Pack £7.58
Door gaskets I followed my man "Moment of Zed" on Youtube's guide, with some help from this thread here. Drivers side went off without a hitch, but the passenger side only secured back in on one half, the front edge hasn't been latched properly by the slide clip thingie. Took it off and back on a few times with no improvement, anyone got ideas on this one?
Drivers side worked perfectly, what an improvement, quick and easy.
The aerial grommet was a different story. I suspect it's quite a cheap knock-off part, the rubber was exceptionally hard. Heating it up in water seemed to make no difference. My man Moment of Zed has the guide again, but I'd be lying if I told you I followed it. Gave the job to my brother and his ape strength, you'd have to ask him for any detailed tips on installation. I also tasked him with protecting the boot loom of doom, which I suspect he's just thrown buckets of leccy tape at.
With the new aerial grommet in, I slapped a tiny bee sting aerial on because I'm a millennial and don't listen to the radio.
BLACK 3 cm Carbon Car AERIAL Bee Sting Mast Antenna Mini Radio Stubby AUTO1041 £3.99
Seat bushings needed attention, so after a quick google I discovered Ian Grayson doing bushings on zroadster.net (shock, the darkside, noo!), but he's also got a thread here on .org.
Seat Bushings £12
Bit strange just sending a man some money via paypal but he was communicative and after a short delay due to family issues the bushings came through. Had to sand them down a hell of a lot to get them in the carriers. The entire job is quite fiddly and time consuming, but not hard. Moment of Zed has a guide again with more in-focus shots than this thread but Pelican Parts has the best guide.
PROTIP
Lose your keys when doing the seats. You don't need the ignition on to drive the seats forwards/backwards, and if the ignition is on when you undo the connectors under the seat, you'll trip your airbag light on. Ask me how I know.
Front badge came flying off the first time a pressure hose was pointed at it, so new set of badges from eBay:
82mm & 74mm Bonnet Boot Trunk Badge For BMW Fits 1 3 5 6 X Z M E92 E81 E60 M3 £7.99
Contrary to my very quick googling, the Z3 uses 82mm front and rear, and 74mm for the sides. So I replaced the missing front badge, and if I buy another exact same set I'll have a full compliment of badges to swap out, but the others are sticking well for now and in decent enough nick so that's been pushed to the back burner.
Easy enough to swap the front badge. A technique I found worked very well was to get a plastic debit/credit/gym/tesco card between the badge and the paintwork, then slip a flathead in between the badge and the card, and use the screwdriver to lever the badge away from the bodywork. The plastic card will protect the paintwork from the screwdriver and allow it enough purchase to pop the old badge out. Seat the new one in and cap with the grommets from the underside, easy peasy. Literal 5 minute job. Not looked into the rears or sides yet.
Got a couple of chips in my windscreen, so got a cheapy repair kit off Amazon Manelord Car Windscreen Repair Kit for Auto Windshield Chips and Cracks Repair £10.99.
Before
During
After
Not fully fixed but a damn sight better than it was. This was a quick half-hour footer, could probably get better results with more time spent. Don't see you getting a full, professional quality repair with these cheap kits though.
Garage Work
With no history of work done to the cooling system, I thought it prudent to have it handled professionally before going to the Ring in August. Took it down to Ashton Motors to Gordon to have a look at. He ended up replacing the water pump, aux belt, thermostat. An aux belt tensioner sheared off during the work, so that had to be sourced and replaced also. Got there and felt I was in the right place, had to get a tour for half an hour before we began to look at my car.
Water pump, £61.12
Aux belt £26.02
Thermostat £42.36
Tensioner £57.85
Anti-freeze £22
I also asked him to have a check of the driveline to see if he could locate the source of the clunk. Couldn't find any smoking gun, but did find the diff to have basically no oil in it, so he sorted that out for me too. Hasn't eliminated the clunk, but probably a good thing it's been topped up. £250 labour, £461.75 all in.
Whilst under there, Gordon noticed a couple of things. One of the rear springs had snapped, and the front control arm bushings had completely worn through. The bushings on the rear subframe are also quite worn, but not entirely split.
Work to do
I've got a guibo to go in - Propshaft Guibo Flex Disc Joint 6-Hole For BMW Z3 Z4 E85 E86 E89 26117511454 UK £18.99 but it seems rather cheap for the prices I've seen online. Not sure about the condition of the one in there currently, but there is a hell of a clunk in the driveline, especially low speeds and cold operation. Should be an easy install when I get round to it.
Springs have been delivered and are awaiting installation, I went with LESJÖFORS 4208435 Coil spring for BMW Z3 £86.98 for 2.
Control arms I went for MEYLE 316 050 0023/HD Link set, wheel suspension for BMW 3 Series, Z3 £194.99.
Brake pad light came on, can't be too mad, I've put nearly 2000 miles on it already. Got a discount code for EBC (PM me if you want) so got some Yellowstuff pads front and rear, £152.91 (£65.53 off!) coming.
Yellowstuff 4000 Series Street and Track Brake Pad Set (Front) £117.42
Yellowstuff 4000 Series Street and Track Brake Pad Set (Rear) £101.03
Pairing them with some Brembo discs front £110.98 and rear £64.98.
I think that about covers everything so far. So moving forward, does anyone have any experience DIY'ing control arms and rear springs and got any tips? Any people been down these paths and got any sage advice for me? I think once I get the guibo replaced, springs swapped out (fronts are on their way, but may leave them for now), control arms done, I think it's ring-ready. Not going to smash laptimes, just casual cruising and for the experience.
Also need advice on that passenger door gasket!
Oh, and does anyone have a link for grommets for the luggage rack?
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