Matt

Yeah very keen to pick your brain on that. Been looking at prices, and can get the Luk DMF and clutch kit slightly cheaper than the valet SMF kit, from rockauto. When I say cheaper though, theyre near enough that they might as well be considered the same price. From what I understand, the bite point should be nicer on the SMF but at the expense of some smoothness?? Given it trying to eliminate a vibration I’m tempted to stick the to the DMF. I’ve been pretty deliberate in the rest of the build to use rubber bushings over poly for the same reason, only getting stiffer if there’s a rubber version available, like the e46 M3 gearbox mounts. One of the reasons I hear people saying to get the SMF kit is to save cost, but at the same price would you still go that route? I suppose it will help a lot next time you go to do the clutch though. Would you recommend doing the rear crankshaft seal at the same time too?

Yep it does now, or at least I hadn’t noticed it before the work done today but very noticeable now. At idle in neutral with clutch in I can’t notice so much then let the clutch out and a vibration comes in. kinda surprised the new gearbox mounts etc could make this much difference...

Is there a way to check? I didn’t do it myself, it was done by P&S auto in East Tamaki, and they’re generally pretty good with their BMW stuff!

I'm having a bad run trying to get rid of an annoying vibration I can feel at motorway speeds. Getting near to having replaced pretty much everything I think it could be and it's not helping, especially not my wallet! SO yeah, for the last while there has been an annoying vibration, which I can only really feel through the seat rather than the steering wheel. I only really notice it in 4th, 5th and 6th gear at above 80 km/h. When I am just cruising / not accelerating I don't notice it, then when I accelerate the vibration kicks in, as soon as I back off it goes away. Engine mounts were replaced last year, before this started. After it started I had the driveshaft flex discs/donuts replaced because they were cracked and that didn't fix it. Today I just had the driveshaft hanger bearing, diff mounts, and gearbox mounts replaced in case one of them was causing it, and now the vibration is even worse! Now I can feel extra vibration even at idle, especially when I don't have the clutch depressed, and the vibration at speed is much more noticeable. The gearbox mounts I used are E46 M3 ones which are stiffer, so not surprising they will be transferring more vibration. So the only thing I can think of now is that the Dual Mass Flywheel must be getting bad? Does this sound right, any other suggestions of what it could be, before I go out and buy a new flywheel and clutch kit? I asked this on the 130i fb group too, any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Pretty much my thoughts exactly when I did mine!

I do 75-80km per day commuting between Titirangi and East Tamaki, across Auckland. Pretty much always fill with Gull 98. The amount of traffic obviously has a big impact on how bad the economy is, I think worst I've had is 11.5 L/100km, and during the last level 3 lockdown I managed 9.2. Last week driving back from Whangamata it averaged 8.8 L/100km but I was driving pretty sedately. For those with the oil temp gauge, how hot do yours get? Mine will never get above 80°C unless I'm really going for it. I've heard talk of "efficiency" modes where it should be running hotter than that, and it makes me wonder whether mine ever does this. Maybe it's worth resetting adaptations, especially given all the bits I've just changed??

No dyno chart, unfortunately. Both the StageFP website and the MILV website are slightly vague on gains, I guess because it depends on other mods. This dyno chart below is from the MILV website, which is probably the best to go off? The tuner that did this is now the guy at StageFP, so probably just the same. If mine is anywhere around the 240whp mark now I'd be pretty happy. Hopefully one day will actually have the chance to test it on a dyno myself. As for fuel economy, I average 10.5-11 L/100km at the moment. It'll be super interesting to see how that changes now! I pretty much fill up weekly so should know pretty quickly.

Just managed to fit in a quick half hour drive. First impressions are really good!!! The engine feels like it has really woken up, I think the MILVs plus tune has really lived up to the promise. Although it will never be the same kind of gain as a stage 1 tune on a turbo car, it kind of just feels like previously you only had 80-90% throttle and now you've suddenly got access to all 100%, and it is right the way across the entire rev range, right from the bottom. I really notice some extra growl from the exhaust around 3000 rpm too, then it just pulls really strongly right past 7000 rpm. It might be a lot of work, and a lot of money, for not a whole lot of extra power compared to what can be done with other cars, but overall I am VERY happy with it ?

Can’t make it tomorrow unfortunately. Will definitely try and get to one of the November or December ones though. Should pretty well have the interior stuff all done by then too!

Installed the tune this morning! Nothing to report yet, spent too much time on the car lately to convince my partner to look after the 2 little kids while I go out for a drive ? While I was down in the footwell though I finally got around to installing the aluminium BMW performance pedals. This will be Step 1 in a whole bunch of interior upgrades I’ll be doing... More to come in the coming weeks!

Oh, interesting about the adaptations, I always assumed they did reset with a battery disconnect! Definitely promising in that case... Yeah, a dongle with a USB cable, plus a link to some software called iFlash. BTW, if anyone else ends up doing MILVs, I bought the spring removal tool and happy to share it round!

It's all come out about as a "while I'm in there" when doing the valve cover gasket. Can't believe how stiff and brittle the old gasket was, no wonder it was leaking! Then also also while I was in there I did both DISA valves, new PCV hose and connector, new coils and spark plugs, plus a new alternator belt, tensioner and idler pulley for good measure. So after all that, the car feels great, way better than before! But that could be as much to do with all the adaptations being reset from having the battery disconnected (I assume this happens), rather than the MILVs, or anything else. I have bought the tune from Stage Fabrication & Performance though. They seemed to be the most recommended for the MILV mod. Haven't loaded it yet though, will aim to send the standard file off to them this weekend, so hopefully get the tune back and load it in next week! Be very interesting to see how different it feels again post tune...

MILVs...!

Nice! I just bought one as well. Seems we are doing similar things... ? How much did you get it for? Trademe doesn't seem to display winning price anymore. I got mine from here https://v1vehicleparts.co.nz/products/genuine-bmw-spoiler-boot-trunk-lid-51710306667?_pos=1&_sid=9c7ad4e49&_ss=r was 5% off at the time so $305 which I thought was pretty good! Now just to get it painted...

I bought new front plates for mine, but not rears. I was lazy though and paid some blokes to do it for me so not sure exactly what they did to fit the rears, but pretty sure they just did the trimming as per the instructions? I bought braided lines locally, they were HEL Performance ones I bought from NZAD

@M3AN, here's the install instructions from BMW, if that's helpful ? BMWP Brake install.pdf

I got them second hand from a parts place in Germany. Probably paid a bit much, but oh well, the want level was high!!

Managed to get my hands on some OEM blackline tail lights so just fitted them this afternoon. Subtle difference but I love it!! Before and after below:

Funnily enough I was thinking the same thing recently. Back when I first started coming to bimmersport in the mid 2000s when I had my E30s they were definitely the common car, and I had so much fun just reading what everyone else was doing with theirs, and dreaming of doing the same. The 130i has that same kind of feel to me that the E30s had - small car, big engine etc. Except the 130i is faster, handles better and isn't broken all the time, compared to my old E30s anyway! Definitely miss them though... Nice to see a similar thing popping up now with the 130i's on here

Love the terracotta leather!! Always wished mine had that

I went to look at that silver one before I bought mine. They had it advertised for $19k at the time I think, and they wouldn't even let me test drive it unless I'd committed to buying it! It was low k's but the condition didn't match the price for me. I even offered them $16k for it (which I didn't intend to go through with, but wanted to see if that would be enough to drive it at least) and they just said no. No counter offer or anything! Guess they want it as a museum piece or something... Then I found mine with 125k on the clock, but just as good condition, and bought it for $8500. So yeah, as above, those examples at the dealers are way overpriced, but wait around and they do come up at decent prices, and I really think they are a bargain for what they are! Compare it to what people pay for Golf GTIs, and I know which one I'd rather have. I used to have a MK6 Golf R, which was a $30k car at the time, and I am much happier driving the 130!!

There ya go, not just me!! I've ordered the hifi loud speakers for mine, PN 65-13-6-964-013. Should arrive today actually! They should be plug and play into the existing housing, and the woofer in the door. May need some tweaks to the EQ though possibly as there will now be a lot more treble presumably. Really want to figure out a plan to add an amp, but really want it to be as plug and play as possible, but it all looks so confusing when I look online...

Yeah there definitely seems to be a pick and mix of options! I always assumed mine had tweeters too until I had to remove the pod to replace some trim and realised there was nothing inside ?

If it has nothing on the options list it is probably base I'd guess. Mine also has Nav/idrive but is base audio. Also, having tweeter pods on the A pillar doesn't guarantee having tweeters inside. My pods are just filled with a foam insert! Makes the tweeters easy to add if you want to though

Nice! I really need to do something like this too. My car just has the base audio - no amp, no tweeters - and it is terrible! The install instructions for the factory Alpine upgrade kit can be found online and it is pretty informative about where all the wires go to splice that into the factory wiring, if you still need to refer to something. Looks like you've got it pretty under control though!