elias

Cleaned everything up, checked the crank seal, to make sure it wasn't the crank seal plate that had damaged it and caused oil to leak onto the belt, but it was all good, with no rubbing at all, so would definitely recommend the VTT crank seal plate fitment is good. Cleaned as much of the oil up as I could, so I can tell if there's still oil leaking, cleaned the belt as best as I could so I could drive home, will source new belt to be safe. Decided I may as well replace my leaky fuel injector on cylinder 1 as I already had a spare one that id put a new seal and decoupler on. Chucked that in to make sure any fuel leak wouldn't thin out my fresh oil I was about to put in. Injector swap was very easy took about 10min. Wrote down all of the calibration values for all 6 and had my friend code them for me. New filter and oil, and coolant top up and bleed, primed the oil pump which almost killed my battery. Car fired up nicely and ran smooth with no issues to report so far. Just the drive belt to replace now and keep an eye on to see if any oil is leaking out still. Also dropped off the white CSL style wheels for vapour blasting, hoping to have them back end of the week, just need to decide wether I keep them raw aluminium with clear coat or paint them gunmetal grey/shadow chrome, then tires go on and an alignment. Very happy to have the car running smoothly again, with no more leaky injector thinning out my oil.

LSD is on its way, will be a couple months till it arrives from MFactory Europe, ended up being significantly cheaper ordering it from Mfactory Europe than locally. Bought a crank seal plate for peace of mind, didn't want to worry about belt getting sucked into engine, although I have replaced oil filter housing and oil cooler gaskets as well as a new belt, better safe than sorry. Went to install the crank seal plate, removed skid plate, fan, etc etc, and found a lot of oil all over the drive belt... a lot of oil, was getting splashed all over inlets and charge pipe. Appeared to be leaking from the OFHG again, despite having replaced this not too long ago. Installed the crank seal plate cleaned everything as best as I could and drove the car home. Came back the next day and it looked significantly worse again, decided to get the car towed, didn't want to risk shredding the belt, and began taking it apart last night. Replaced the oil filter housing gasket and oil cooler gasket again, all torqued to spec, hopefully it actually lasts a bit longer this time... not a fun job with all of the mess it makes. spent a lot of time trying to clean all of the oil up, removed all of the pulleys and the tensioner, cleaned them, still need to clean up the harmonic balancer and bottom of the engine. Then some fresh oil, coolant and need to swap an injector. r Very mysterious why it was leaking after such a short time, no bolts were loose or snapped gasket was seated fine when removed it, couldn't see anything obvious that was wrong with it.. quite frustrating, but lucky that I spotted it before the engine ate the belt.

Picked up and installed the new backline taillights today, made a huge difference I think! left is new, right is old both done hoping to order LSD tomorrow, then onto getting wheels painted...

Hey, I bought them from a guy who replaced his as his tuner requested that as preventative maintenance before tuning his car, they worked perfectly fine. For new ones, definitely go FCP euro, 300NZD shipped for a pair, otherwise local wreckers will sell them out of crashed cars, try @HELLBM, or @BM WORLD

Finally got round to working on the car, replaced both boost solenoids which fixed my 30FE overboost code, pretty straightforward job just have to be careful not to drop the nuts, also wouldn't recommend doing this after driving the car, I burnt my hands about 5 times as they sit right above the exhaust manifold. Took the car for a spirited drive on some coatsville backroads and car had zero issues, no error codes no overheating, sat at 110deg the whole time. Also finally ordered a set of backline taillights, price worked out cheapest through continental cars bmw, should be here tomorrow, should help make the rear end look a little bit more modern. Also changed up the suspension set up again, more on that later...

Decided to swap out my suspension again, changed the coilovers from the aragosta to bc golds, slightly better suited to nz roads as they can be adjusted a bit softer. Ride feels smoother now and quite happy with them, am yet to test them out at higher speeds. Been having an issue with severe misfire on cold start, engine misfires for a minute or so, dumps a whole lot of fuel out of the exhaust. Did a log and the fuel trims and cylinder 1 timing correction are all over the place, seems to me that injector 1 is leaking fuel into the cylinder over night, then when the car is started it misfires till all of the fuel is burnt off. All my injectors are index 7 so will try replacing the injector with another index 7 or possibly 6 or 8 as ive heard it works fine although not officially recommend. Have bought new injector seals and decouplers so will replace those before putting in a new (used) injector. Just need to find a way of replacing the seal now, seems some special tools are required, although some have had success using a pen cap. Also been having 30FE overboots codes, so will need the boost solenoids replaced soon I believe. The new cabin filter set up is great, no water on the engine bay as the water drain route remains intact, but a lot more intake and turbo noise coming into the cabin. Lots to do on the car, little time at the moment but hopefully will be all sorted in a few weeks.

Anyone got the tools to change n54 injector seals? Got a leaky injector, found a good one to swap in but would like to change the seal before I put it in. Happy to pay to borrow it etc cheers

could be a bad quality gasket, incorrect torque spec, incorrect torquing pattern?

looks immaculate from the photos, and sounds like it was well taken care of

Cut up the cowl today, decided if I didn't like it it would be easy to get another one from a wrecker etc, especially as a lot of people run the bms filters and no cowl so there's a lot of spare cowls around. Got these cowl filters from a guy locally who 3D prints them, and they come with rain covers, much cheaper than the bms ones by the time you pay for shipping. I cut the cowl along the strut braces and left a small piece along the back edge in the middle to make sure water running off the windshield was directed into the firewall drains, sides of the cowl remained intact to ensure watertightness of DME box and brake booster box. Hopefully will hear even more turbo noises now and possibly let some of the hot air escape out the back of the bonnet.

that is a good point, I didn't think of that, will definitely keep that in mind, provided speed science doesn't charge me any additional shipping fees since it is a special order item, haven't ordered from them before.

Finished up the brake bleed, think there may be a small amount air trapped in the system but the car stops pretty well. Also finished up the guard rolling, after bashing them as flat as I could with a mallet without deforming them. Painted any scratches I had put into the underside of the car with the wire wheel, and then put some new seam sealer in to make sure nothing rusts out. Then cut the outer edge of the guard lining to keep it off the tire. Been very busy with work in the uni break at the moment trying to save up for a limited slip diff, most likely the mfactory one, now a question of wether I order it from Mfactory directly or through speed science, would cost more or less the exact same..

haha fair had another look through and found it, not sure how I missed it the first time, my bad

looks great! very tidy, where did you get the wrap from, is this the east detailing one? cheers

Looking to buy a pair of working n54 boost solenoids, auckland region preferred, new or used. Cheers

good point, probably should've explained a bit better, I undid the brake lines that are attached to the subframe, in order to not damage them when lowering the subframe, they are hardlines on the one side and don't have much flex, didn't want to snap them when moving the subframe around to get the bushings in and out

Big day on the tools today, installing the new subframe bushings. Managed to borrow a subframe bushing tool to remove the OEM bushings. Overall the job was a lot easier than most people make it out to be. The hardest part was removing the OEM bushings. Easiest way I found was to start with the rear bushings, remove the rear subframe bolts, loosen the front mounting bolts slightly, then put a jack under the subframe just behind where the diff is and gently lower it until there's enough room to get the tool in between boot floor and subframe. Then spray a lot of lithium grease in the gaps in the subframe, and pull the bushing out. For the front ones, loosen the rear mounting bolts, place the jack under the front of the diff, remove the front mounting bolts and gently lower jack till there is enough room. Then remove the bushings. Installing the new Condor speed shop UHMW bushings was extremely easy, I placed them in the freezer first thing in the morning, before getting started on the car. The bushings split into two pieces, one goes in from each side and then the aluminium sleeve goes down the hole in the middle. I sprayed some more grease into subframe, and then simply pushed the bushings in by hand, took all of about 30 seconds per bushing. Then just bolted everything back up, torqued to spec and job done. Only issue I came across was the brake lines, I lost a lot of fluid, but I was planning in doing a flush anyway so will need to flush/bleed the brakes tomorrow, got some Motul rbf600 which should do nicely. Then give the car a clean and a test drive.

@HELLBMhow much would you sell the LSD for? Looking for one for my 135i

Would definitely recommend from a driving perspective ,as far as value goes, they seem to have gone up, I paid 12.5k for my auto one less than a year ago, would be tricky to find one for that now. As far as turbos go, wastegate rattle and turbo seals are definitely an issue, obviously depends on mileage, they are a pain to get to, need to drop subframe etc etc, and rather expensive. Wastegate rattle itself isn't too much of an issue until they no longer hold boost and you get the 30FF code, in some cases this is due to vacuum line leaks rather than the wastegates themselves, but they are well known to fail. Other common issues, obviously the high pressure fuel pump, water pump, leaking injectors, as well as other general maintenance such as gaskets etc. For an enthusiast its a great car overall, especially if you enjoy working on it yourself, and don't depend on it to get to work etc, although when properly maintained, quite a reliable car. Obviously you will run into a few issues when you inevitably decide to tune it at some point, as it will expose any weaknesses such as spark plugs, coils, fuel system etc. Overall an extremely fun car to drive, with plenty of power, especially when tuned, the biggest downsides being the common issues and the lack of a LSD which can make traction an issue.

Anyone in auckland got a subframe bushing tool for e82/e9x by any chance? Need to pull out the OEM subframe bushings. Cheers

Rolling the guards on this car proved extremely difficult due to the fact that the lip is two layers of metal which is extremely stiff and hard to bend and the seam sealer stud in behind the lip. Removed the seam sealer with a wire wheel on a drill, very messy job, got the rubber dust everywhere, not pleasant in the eyes. Gave it a go with a guard roller and heat gun, 1hour later and no change. Decided to change up the approach and got a rubber mallet, with some heat and eventually managed to hammer the inside lip a lot flatter. Not a huge amount of room gained, but definitely a noticeable change, won't do anymore because I don't want to risk warping the guards. Will touch up the paint where the wheels rubbed it off and where I took it off with the wire wheel, and then fill the small area behind the lip back up with seam sealer to make sure no moisture can get trapped in there and slowly rust out the quarter panel. Then will just need to trim back the guard lining a bit to keep it away from the tire. Will most likely go to a 235/40/18 tire and adjust camber as necessary. Subframe and diff bushings also arrived today, only took 4 business days all the way from the US which was very quick. Would definitely recommend condor speedshop, great to deal with, answer emails quickly and products seem very high quality, machining is very precise with an excellent finish. Went with the UHMW bushings with aluminium inserts, they split into 2 pieces so should be much easier to install than oem ones. Looking forward to seeing how the car feels once I get them installed.

right I see, any particular places you Ould recommend for paint? Most places ive found so far seem to offer powdercoating?

Sounds good @charles28 may be able to give some insight on this, using meth injection with tuned n54 on track.

good question, only one way to find out... the thing is most people that drive n54s use them from highway glory runs or doing one or two pulls rather than repeated, high rpm driving such as on a track. Might be worth trying to search up some track builds such as the Berk time attack 135i race car and see what sort of cooling they run, most of the time they seem to spend more effort on oil coolers etc reducing engine oil temps rather than IATs. Meth injection may be worth considering as a way to cool down the IATs, Ken from Wedge-performance recommends the AEM kit.

The VRSF 7.5 one seems to be quite good from what ive heard, charge pipe meth injection could also help to reduce intake temps