Z3 stereo update

So the stealth Parrot as a radio was nice while it lasted. The parrot is now showing signs of age. Since there are no spare parts available for it I decided to bite the bullet and buy a nice stereo. 

I decided on the Blaupunkt SQR46 Bremen:

Mainly for it's looks, since I didn't want some modern flashing thing sticking out like a sore thumb. It has the added benefit of not having a CD player which means the box is a lot smaller. It also has all the acronyms I crave : BT, DAB, USB, SD, AUX

Since the Z3 wasn't firing on all speakers I also added some Focals to the order. 
Yes, that's an empty hole where there should be a speaker, so uninstalling the original speakers should be easy. 

The install proved to be interesting.  Loads of trim removed and cables exposed

The shark-fin antenna proved to be just a glued on plastic thing, which made me wonder where the antenna was hiding. 

Yes, that's an antenna hiding between the roof and the liner ... guess the previous owner didn't like the looks of the antenna and was too lazy to install a decent alternative. Go figure. 

In the end all was well. The Z3 now has tunes the way it should have been a long time ago

Bridge install

 So, some years ago I bought a secondhand bridge at work. 

I finally managed to install the thing in my garage. Well, I say managed, it's more of a case of I resigned the idea of finding a larger place to work on cars.
So I decided it's better to have a working bridge in a cramped place than a non working bridge. 

We used some levitation  ...

and some Egyptian technology ..

... to get it where it should go.

The end result is a car parked a bit higher than usual, but a lot easier to work on. 

335i .. catching up

 Ok, I've just found this blog again. So this is going to be a fast post to catch you up on the last 3 years of ownership of the 335i. 

You'll be happy to know that I still own the car, and have absolute no intention of selling it. 

Since I bought it, here is a list of things that went wrong / I changed on the car. 

- New HPFP (high pressure fuel pump) it took too long to build up fuel pressure, so this one was on it's way out. So I helped it along an replaced it

- New fuel injectors: Turns out BMW still had a recall open on the car on the injectors. Normally they should test them and only replace the faulty ones, but since it's an older action / car they were allowed to just replace all six. w00t w00t ... 6 brand new index 12 injectors. Mesa happy. 

- New ESP: This design ESP pumps are known for malfunctioning. The carbon blocks in the motor tend to wear out and get stuck in there guides, disabling the motor. Once this happens, the ESP can't build up pressure and ESP is turned off. In the beginning this was solved by occasionally tapping on the unit to dislodge the blocks. In the end I had to tap too much and had the block replaced. Especially since a side effect of no ESP is also no cruise control, which is unacceptable on a cruiser as this. 

- CCC to CIC upgrade: I upgraded the CCC navigation system to a newer generation CIC. This means out goes the DVD navigation in comes the HDD navigation. One of the main reasons for doing this is that the screen resolution of the CIC is acceptable wheras the CCC is really poor. At the same time I added a conbox to the so that I could get bluetooth phone and A2DP. 

- Xcarlink & miracast dongle: Since the navigation on the car is offline I like to use Waze, but I dislike the fact that I have to look way down to see my phone's screen. In comes the idea to cast the screen. So I bought an Xcarlink box which can project a RCA source on the CIC screen, a microsoft miracast dongle and a HDMI to RCA adapter. Once all this is put together I now have waze on my navigation screen instead of the offline maps. Since this comes with a Picture In Picture, I can still see the onboard info of the car. Perfect. 

- CIC to CIC DAB upgrade: Since there's talk of the FM frequency being disabled in the not so distance future, I installed a CIC unit with DAB built in. I also needed an antenna and tried a couple of those stick-on antennas. The reception is poor at best, so I also changed the OEM antenna booster to a DAB one, which works like a charm (well duh ... it's OEM after all) I now have digital radio w00t w00t

- BBS RS wheels: New wheels installed

- Borbet winter wheels: New to me winter wheels shod in Pirelli Sottozero rubber. These are by far the worst winter tires I had, the car was sliding all over the place as soon as I hit the throttle. This year they were finally worn enough to justify some new Continentals Wintercontact TS860. What a difference they make. Happy driver again

- BMW ZHP shifter

- Wireless charging cradle. I made a wireless charging cradle for the phone and installed it in stead of the ashtray. It's one of those fancy 20w stations, which can even charge the phone when casting and navigating. Nice. 

- CIC iPod interface. No, I didn't become an iSheep, but sometimes one has to admit that they have good products which allow for some tinkering. I got myself an iPod mini of the first generation and changed the ancient 4gb HDD for a 200gb SD. Combine this with the ipod cable and I now have a huge music collection in the car for those times when there's nothing on DAB nor FM and the cell phone doesn't have coverage for cloud music. Basically because I can. 

- FLA retrofit. FLA = FernLichtAssistent, which is German for highbeam assist. Basically it's a camera that lives behind the rearview mirror and looks to traffic ahead. When the road is clear it will activate your high beams and automatically turn them off when you have traffic ahead. Works nicely for those small roads during winter months. 

- CIC HDD to SDD upgrade: I changed the old 80Gb 5400rpm hard disk for a 256Gb SSD. The idea being that I'll have more storage space for music and that the system would speed up. This turned out to be a mistake, the SSD isn't faster and the music library on the CIC takes forever to boot. So the above mentionned ipod is a much better option (and also holds more music) In the end I took the SSD out and installed the HDD back. In the process I learned about QNX and got a nice backup image of the HDD. So if the HDD goes bad in the future I can just buy a new one and keep on driving. 

- New headlight controller. The old one died so this gave me some bumper-off fun to install the new part to the car. 

- Coding: I got a Carly dongle, so I changed about every setting in the car around. Very nice thing to have some fun with and activate functions the car has but weren't enabled from the factory. I'd rather pay for the tool then to pay the garage to enable the function. 

So there you have it, I'm sure I missed some small things, but those are the major upgrades / changes to the car. I'm always looking for things to change / improve but I'm not looking for a new car. 
It's even worse, as emission legislation is getting worse, I'm starting to look into ways to keep the car longer rather than replacing it. Every time I drive it puts a smile on my face, as a proper car should. 

COTE .... I did it again

Soo ... remember my ramblings about a 335i coup, and then about a 335i sedan. 

Well I did it, I bought a 335i I've been ogling for a long time. Unfortunately the car is 3 hours drive away from my home, which leaves not too many options to go and have a look. 

Last Sunday I went over and had a look. Turns out the car is in really good shape, has about 100000km on the clock and is owned by a car lover. He did about 8000km a year, mainly to go on holidays. 

Anyway, since this is a post i'm recuperating a couple of years after I started it, I'll cut it short. 

I bought the car, took the bus to go get it and have been enjoying it ever since. 

COTE 2 ... further toughts

So I've been thinking about the COTE, and the 335i still checks all boxes, but there's just one that could be better.
It could be a complete sleeper, or Q-car if you prefer the queen's English. In order to pull that off I have to make it look like your run of the mill 318d. Which means it should be a 4 door sedan instead of the sportier looking coupe.

I have to give credit where it's due, my SO was and still is pushing for a 4 door to transport our little family. So she put the idea in my head and it made me realise the potential.

All of this doesn't make my life easier, since most people who buy, I should say who have bought these kind of cars bought coupes. The 4 door is a bit of a rarity and then I need to find an OK one with the options I want.

Speaking of options, I want navigation, cruise control, aircon and keyless go. Let me talk you through these.

Navigation, I hear you when you say navigation will suck on this car, the maps will never be up to date and even if they are it's not an online system so you'll get stuck in traffic. I fully agree and probably will never use the navigation. I just want the screen in the car. There's a lot of hardware out there to inject other streams on the screen, even as picture in picture. So here are my brainfarts regarding the screen. Miracast for the cellphone screen. It's always nice to have waze high up on the dash. Front and rear cameras and a raspberry pi connected to the OBD plug. Also this is the first generation of 3 series where some of the cars vitals are incorporated in the navigation system. So it's a lot nicer to use a big screen in the central console to check the oil level than to fumble around with a small stalk and monochrome display in the tach.

Aircon. Well this shouldn't need an explanation. Creature comfort

Cruise control. Since it's supposed to be my daily, it'll see a lot of highway. So cruise control is a must. Not neccesary adaptive, although available and nice.

Keyless go. I like the idea to press a button to open the car, and then not to have to fumble with the key to start. My previous Focus ST had this system and I loved it. I even prefer this over a keyless entry and go system, since here you still have to lock your car with a press of a button. (call me oldschool)

So there you have it my COTE wish list. Now I only need to find the car, which is going to be a nightmare. I'm already looking as far as Switzerland so there's bound to be some more stories on here before I have the car.

COTE Z3 coupe - stereo upgrade

Remember when I first got the car and said I needed a navigation system. I did spend some time looking at a parrot asteroid. Yes, well since then I decided against it. Mainly because a modern era screen looks really out of place in the classic dashboard.

That left me with a fugly radio in the dash, which in the same logic had to go as well.

I do wanted to have some possibility of music in the car and Bluetooth hands free calling is also a must, which brought me to buy a parrot mki9100.

After some fiddling I managed to get it installed and working. Apparently the bmw needs 12v feedback from the radio to turn on the amp.
For the moment the mounting is really temporary, I just stuck a blanking plate in the radio opening and hot glued the display and mic on there. Here's a pic for those who haven't seen the Z3 recently. 

If you've read my blog you'll know I spent way too much time on the S3 to do something useful in the Z3, so the blanking plate is still there.

If you know me, you also know that my mind has been over the blanking plate situation a lot. The plan is to replace the blanking plate with 3 gauges (oil temp, oil pressure and voltage) and hide the parrot completely. The display should come in the gauge cluster and the control panel in the ashtray..... One day

COTE 2... Maybe

So, since the S3 didn't do it for me I'm looking in another car. (yes, what else is new)

So it should have more power, more cylinders, more turbos, more doors (according to my SO) and less driven wheels.
That brings me perfectly to a E92 or E90 335i with the N54 engine..... Let's see if I can find one that checks all boxes.