What have you done to your car today?

Associate
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16 Apr 2014
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North East, UK
Did by far the most important thing to my car. Fitted the LCI cupholders to my 3 Series. The pre-LCI model has this annoying thing with the cup holders having a removable tray which you then have to put somewhere when you actually want to put a drink in the cup holder. I like to have the tray there sometimes as it's a good size for my phone, key or other bits to sit on but I just found it irritating having to take it out and dump it somewhere:



The LCI's cup holdfer is an inbuilt sliding tray which I think is not only much more convenient but I also think it somehow makes it look a bit fresher as well as getting rid of the pointless ashtray area at the back. The only downside being that because of the sliding tray I had to cut some of the bits of the centre console out with a hacksaw blade. Bits that you can't see, so despite it sounding bad, you can't go too far wrong:


Not sure what the elastic band over the air ducting is all about but that's actually how it is from factory. The bit I had to cut out is quite obviously where the foam is now visible, below the two screws and above the rubber band. Also had to cut a small amount out in the plastic above the gearstick. It now looks like this:



Personally I think it's much better and more convenient. Was it worth it? Probably not, but it kept me occupied for half an hour and now I don't have to stash an annoying tray somewhere whenever I have a drink in my car.


Did you have a 12v in the bit behind the cupholders? I thought the same thing with my F82 that the cupholders are very annoying to use, may look into this but I have a 12v in there?
 
Soldato
Joined
6 May 2004
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Fareham
Did you have a 12v in the bit behind the cupholders? I thought the same thing with my F82 that the cupholders are very annoying to use, may look into this but I have a 12v in there?

Yeah with my original cup holders the 12v socket was in the ashtray at the back. Now they’re at the front under the sliding tray. The same connector plugs right into the new socket in the new trim, no messing about there.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
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7,252
Wired in a module to make the mirrors auto fold with lock/unlock rather than just a button on the door card.

This was supposed to be my next job, but RM decided they wanted to play football with the package over the long weekend. I still can’t see why manually activated electric folding mirrors exist, other than in excessively cold environments which the UK rarely is.
 
Soldato
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21 Jan 2010
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22,210
This was supposed to be my next job, but RM decided they wanted to play football with the package over the long weekend. I still can’t see why manually activated electric folding mirrors exist, other than in excessively cold environments which the UK rarely is.
Never even knew it was a thing till I got the Ibiza. Feels like you're doing half the work folding them in with how stiff the rotating button :p
 
Soldato
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29 Dec 2002
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7,252
A separate button of unlock without unfolding I guess would make more sense then?

Adding a 3rd party kit creates minor issues depending on what else you are doing, for example if I enable the auto-lock function, then any time I go above 12mph my mirrors would fold in (manually pressing the button to unfold them should work). The solution to this and your issue is to make the lock impulse feed to the module conditional on a switched 12v, eg if the 12v feed is off (engine off), closed circuit and the lock impulse triggered by the button or the fob will trigger the module. If the engine is running, it’s open circuit and the lock and unlock button operates independently of the module.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 May 2004
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3,842
The module is tapped into accessory power and keeps them unfolded when that's live. The basic mode of the module is to work off just the ignition being on or not.

The wiring I did makes it aware of being locked/unlocked so adds that in.
 
Soldato
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29 Dec 2002
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7,252
Fitted my auto mirror closer kit, it’s one of those minor annoyances that just seems strange on a car with electric mirrors and a button to manually fold them. Thankfully I didn’t need an extra ray, the kit will only activate the mirror close if the switched 12v is off. Also fitted door handle protectors as people with long nails and rings on didn’t do my last car any favours over the years.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
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7,252
So you fitted door handle covers then :p
The time for protecting has passed! :D

For the other car, it certainly has. That said Toyota’s silver paint up to the mid 2000’s was always on the soft side. This is white and after a polish and clean I applied transparent films. It wasn’t worth ordering in a few meters of the stuff to cut myself, so I ordered pre-cut films, but only the handle kit has arrived, bowl inserts are AWOL still.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2004
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10,596
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Kent
Sold it :(

Took less then 18 hours of having the advert up.

Shame, I really liked your Z4. What are you planning to replace it with?

Somewhat related question...how did your wheel refurb from Rimtech hold up? I remember them still being perfect when I saw them and you'd had them done about 6 months previous IIRC. I had my wheels refurbed back at the start of 2018 at Inspraytion and suddenly, over last winter, the lacquer on them has started to peel quite ferociously despite no curbing whatsoever. I was going to give Rimtech a go next.
 
Associate
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27 Feb 2009
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On the edge of a Cliffe
That’s an excellent result timeframe wise. I think I need to do something similar, especially as I’ve kinda already purchased the replacement. I’m dragging my feet as it also makes me feel :(

I thought it would takes weeks if not months to sell it. Only one has sold in the two weeks i have been looking, but then i think the rest are over priced or just a bit naff. Within 5 mins of the advert being up i had 3 enquires. After an hour i had over 10. I had to swap from my phone to my laptop to keep track of who was who. Second or third guy who emailed has got it.

Shame, I really liked your Z4. What are you planning to replace it with?

Somewhat related question...how did your wheel refurb from Rimtech hold up? I remember them still being perfect when I saw them and you'd had them done about 6 months previous IIRC. I had my wheels refurbed back at the start of 2018 at Inspraytion and suddenly, over last winter, the lacquer on them has started to peel quite ferociously despite no curbing whatsoever. I was going to give Rimtech a go next.

I really liked it and will be sad to see it go, but I've had it 6 years and the 3.0 for 2 years before so fancy a change. That plus I had some really crap health issues last year that I am still suffering from so I've thought sod it ill spend some savings and blow a wedge on something new. No point saving and planning for retirement if you have no idea if your going to reach it.

Not sure yet, choice of newer 2 seater sports cars is quite crap ( and the price jump is mental, its looking like its going to cost me 2 or 3 times would the Z4M did back in 2015) so its going to be either a v6s f-type if I can get a newer one so I can put plenty of warranty on it or a boxster 981 S or GTS. At least once he picks up my car I will have the money so i can jump on anything quite quickly. Cars really are not hanging around if they are well specced and priced.

The wheels do need redoing but that's only due to the damage from curbs and the tire fitters, so I would still recommend them, assuming they are still as good as they where 4/5 years ago.


Also it has been far tooooooooo long since us lot had a meet up. Think we all got old and some had boring life stuff happen :p
 
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