thomasmryan

some renditions are odd to work on in Bavaria land. the early x3s need 3' of wobble extensions to get to the upper starter bolt...the later require removing the intake to get to starter land.

I kinda have no desire to own a car where the control boxes are married to the VIN but there are work arounds with a soldering gun.

LTCMontana

Regarding ZHPMafia...

They are NOT your normal BMW crowd. Everyone there is genuine. They control their membership. It is, by far, the most behaved forum. Like most forums, there are a few "grey beards" that are always there to help.

Kind of a funny story... I got a little grief from one of the grey beards one time about the M badge on the back of mine. There is a 'sighting' thread on the forum. He noticed me on the way to work one day. We ended up meeting for dinner and having a great time.

ZHPs are unique enough that the ricer crowd stays away.

John Etnier

I have only been on the ZHP forum for a couple of days, but I completely agree with LTCMontana's assessment. You should see the 'welcomes' which accumulated when I made my requested self-introduction post. I have gotten a lot of useful information in a short amount of time and never been made to feel inappropriate or dumb. Oh, and I'm no fan of the name either, but don't tell anyone.

OMFG- I was looking at WRX's for a while: those people have the civility level of badgers...

DM

Not a ZHP, but loving my 2002 330ci with sport package, sport interior and 5 speed. Only mod is short shift kit. Purchased with 55k on it 3 years ago. Now 80k. This is on the way to storage just after purchase. No winters on this car. Looking forward to getting this and the 968 out in a few months.

Cloud9...68

It's amazing that you found a ZHP with such low miles, and that's a great thing, because you're a long way from a lot of maintenance work that hits in the 80-100K range with these cars. We bought an 04 325i as our daughter's first car a few years ago, and it was an excellent car. At you car's mileage, the only things you need to keep an eye on are the front control arm bushings - for some reason, all BMWs eat these things for breakfast. Fortunately, they're easy to replace, and not too expensive, but even the so-called "heavy duty" ones are lucky to go 40K miles. You might want to consider urethane replacements - it will result in a slightly harsher ride, but they should last a lot longer.

Oh, and when it comes time to for a brake job, if you're going to do it yourself, make sure you have at least a 4-pound hammer on hand, and plenty of swinging room, as you'll find your rotors to be frozen solid to the hubs, particularly in your part of the country!

As far as the forums, my experience was overwhelmingly positive. Given the popularity of BMWs, there are a large number of forums to choose from - bimmerforums, bimmerfest, bimmerpost, e46fanatics, and of course zhpmafia. With such a large base of expertise to draw from, I had much better luck finding quick answers to my technical problems than with my 968. I even had a guy I met through one of the forums help me replace my transmission. Yes, there are the occasional know-it-alls, but you'll find that on any forum. Good luck - I'm sure you'll love the car.

John Etnier

Revisiting this forum after a long enforced absence I see these replies after I left. Thanks to Cloud9 and DM for your helpful responses.

I really miss my car (not that I don't love the ZHP). If my maintenance shop had kept things together I'd still be here, I think.

Best to all.

Boeing 717

Hey before you go, I saw a pick of your engine did you paint the cam cover and intake? If so what with?

John Etnier

I repainted the intake with off-the-shelf aluminum paint of some kind. The injector rail and cam covers were painted at the factory.