I know this isn't camaro related but the car is a 96 BMW Z3 with the 1.9 litre 4 cylinder and we'd like to tune it up.
Thanks,
Donnie

Plugs, plug wires, dist cap and rotor(??? if that's the type of ignition they have...) some injector cleaner, oil change, air cleaner and a physical inspection of brake fluid and cooling system, belts and hoses. I imagine no different than any other car... I'm sure there is a computer tool for checking out the electronics but that is something you and I may not have in our home roll-a-way. You can for go a computer check up but remember the computer will adjust things to keep the engine running and mask small problems so until you run diags you may not be getting the engines full potential.

Not much you can do, I'm afraid. BMWs have a pretty sophisticated set of engine sensing computers. Even BMW techs won't do periodic maintenence, unless the computer tells them exactly what to do. For instance, on the dash there are these 5 or 6 horizontal bars...green for the first 4 then yellow then red. Thats the oil change indicator. If the car will still under the maintenece program and you took the car to BMW and asked them to change the oil while the green bars are still showing, they will politely decline, no matter how many miles were showing on the odo.
And even if you do change plugs, wires, run some injector cleaner thru the tank, clean the air filter, etc, there is no way you can clear the computer defect codes. (the computer stores codes and calls them "defect codes" even if they aren't technically defects).
By the way, BMW has a pretty good DCS (dealer comm sys) and you can go to a dealer and get a printout of all that has been done to the car and at what dates and mileages.

After owning a couple, I would say for the most part, they are just as easy to work upon as others. Dennis does suggest some ideas of what can be done with a tune-up and can be done by the mechanically inclined, especially since we own an older Camaro.

The oil change/service indicator can be reset in your driveway without the expensive tools. I used a 4 inch length of wire. Insert it into Pin 1 & 7, turn ign key to on, then when green light bar (oil schedule) or red bar (service minder) flashes, turn off key remove wire, place wire back into glove box and drive on. However, if service device flashed all the time after battery disconnect/reconnect, this tells the dash batteries are not accepting a charge anymore. They need replacement.

To view fault codes, turn ign to on, step on pedal to WOT five times. This action puts ECU into diag mode and check engine light will start splitting out codes. ECU will reset itself by removing its power and also after 50 starts, if problem is gone.

Go to Roadfly forums and all info is there. Have a good drive!! I enjoyed my BMW. I do have a list of codes I can fax to you if you can't find any.

CAUTION: BEFORE DISCONNECTING BATTERY, MAKE DAMN SURE YOU HAVE THE SECURITY CODE TO RE-ENTER in order to use the radio later, if equipped with OE.