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I am the new owner of a 1996 Z3 1.9 automatic, and I was very happy to discover the discussion board. I wanted to introduce myself, and solicit some advice.
The car is blast to drive, and once some of its neglected needs have been attended to I should be good to go for many miles. It needs some maintenance work (brakes, a new rear window, there's a leak in the front engine seal), but the one big-ticket item I need to take care of right away is tires.
Right now in the front it's got Michelin Pilot (HX?) 255/50R16s and something else (Road Hugger GTOs? 255/55R16) in the back. All four are worn down about 75%, and the car has about 57k miles, so I figure these could be the original factory tires, though I'm not certain about the back ones.
I just drove the car in the rain for the first time today, and as you might expect, the lack of traction control in this model means that even with the not-so-torquey 1.9 there's a disconcertingly pronounced tendency to tail-wag without a very delicate touch on the throttle. Whether this will always be the case or is exaggerated by the tire wear I'm not sure.
I'd like to get new tires in the next week or so. My default tendency is just to go with what BMW thought best and replace the tires with the factory choice (is that the Michelin 255/50R16s?). But I wanted to see if the board could offer recommendations/advice on my alternatives.
I live in Houston, so snow and ice performance isn't an issue. Cornering stickiness is a priority, as is safety in the rain. Relevant but less significant are ride comfort and tires noise level. I do not engage in unusually high-speed driving, but did buy the Z3 in part for its fantastic handling characteristics.
Would you recommend that I replace the tires with Pilots (HX, SX, Sport)? Should I go for a larger-size tire? Another brand? What would give me the best combination of wet and dry handling?
I wanted to ask about a couple of other small things as well. I've noticed that the driver's seat tends to rock a lot, even under pretty moderate forces like a small weight shift or just pushing a bit hard on the steering wheel, let alone under vigorous driving. Is this common? Is there a fix for it? It is a bit annoying.
Also annoying is a passenger-side dash rattle (glovebox? ventilation ducts?) -- always evident at idle and shows up at speed when the suspension is active.
Any advice about this or anything else related to my new purchase would be of enormous help as I get familiar with my new car and try to bring it up to spec.
Thanks so much!
Best wishes,
Paul
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