elias

yeah definitely, good tires will make all the difference, car now decided to develop a combustion misfire on all bank 1 cylinders so will need to sort that first. Trying to figure out what could cause a misfire to occur on all of bank 1 at the same time, was thinking O2 sensor or maybe DME mosfets. Mosfets would make sense as rear tires were pretty average and traction control was stepping in every few seconds of some rather spirited driving, maybe it had to work a bit too hard and fried itself... that being said I believe its MSD81 ECU which doesn't seem to really have this issue... really hoping its not injectors.

Think I found the cause for the wastegate rattle, bad vacuum line to the vacuum canister. Will give it another go today

Decided to have some fun today and do some data logs and 0-100 times (started raining just as I left home :/) Thought I heard some wastegate rattle on start up so decided to try do some logs to see if turbos were leaking boost yet but didn't look too bad, boost was pretty close to target. 0-100 times were very bad, mostly due to the lack of traction and also the fact that the car was on the 95ron map, only targeting about 17.5psi of boost. Best time I managed was 5.8seconds using about 80% throttle, spinning 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear and moving sideways about as much as forwards, will need to try again on dry roads with some better tires, good fun though trying to hold it straight. No check engine light after consecutive pulls though which was nice.

haha fair enough, that was their words not mine. I do have the time and patience so maybe I should give it ago myself but I don't know if I trust myself to do it neatly without destroying the paint, they do need to be rolled quite a bit to fit the tires that I want to, ill see how busy auto stance is, but definitely something to consider.

After a bit of research decided to replace the 12kg/14kg f/r springs with 7.5kg/12kg f/r to achieve a better front rear balance and smoother ride overall, 12kg is ridiculously stiff for the front. Got a pair of 12kg 220mm length bc coilover springs and installed them in the rear along with some new rubber dust boots, cut some spring insulators out of a piece of 3mm rubber sheet and the rear end is now much quieter and feels a lot better over bumps, still quite stiff but not harsh. Ordered front springs from speed factor in tauranga which should be here soon hopefully. Once those go in it'll be time to sort out the ride height and finally get the guards rolled, MTS in wairau have told me they'd call me back about 5 times about getting it booked in, mag and turbo's guard rolling technician is on holiday so might just take it to auto stance... Also installed a small carbon fibre boot lip spoiler.

Results look fantastic! Also own a black car and paint is in a very sorry state, lots and lots of swirl marks with a few dull spots too, how did you apply this polish? By hand or with a polishing machine? Would like to give this a go on my car.

Looking to buy a set of coilover springs in the following sizes or as close to that as possible: Front: 60mm ID, 150mm Length, 8Kg spring rate Rear: 65mm ID, 220mm Length, 12Kg spring rate Should be similar to springs out of bc coilovers for bmw 135i Cheers

Some more progress, car was in for its wheel alignment this morning, all taken care of nicely to custom specifications by the legends at Sparg's Autotune in glenfield. Car feels much better now, still a little bit wobbly side to side with the coilovers, probably due to subframe bushings now being softer than the suspension... may need to replace those at some point. Next up is rear guard roll, then try fit the semi slicks again. Also need to look into possible changing springs, seem a little too stiff on the front especially, and the rear springs bit short, car is a bit too low and preload is maxed out. Need to adjust ride height slightly and get the proper wheels and tires on, so no shortage of things to sort out!

yeah I haven't had my car on a dyno yet but at a guess id say its over 400 probably 430ish at the crank, MHD stage 2+, FBO+inlets, 98ron map definitely struggles to put the power down, which was the reason I got coilovers in the first place, was for the camber plates to fit wider front tires so I could run a wider rear tire and have a square setup. Will look into LSD in the near future but as a broke uni student I have to focus on one thing at a time... I'll double check my spring rates and then ill call Racelign and see what they reckon, thanks for the recommendation! Yeah I was thinking 8k 12k might be a more balanced set up, maybe 10k fronts to account for the heavier n54 engine?

that looks awesome man, would love to do all of that to my car, the difference in handling must be incredible, but bank account says otherwise... yeah im thinking my bushings in the subframe might be pretty shot so might be best off replacing them, do it once and do it right I guess. I see you are in auckland too, would you be able to install them, happy to pay you for your time obviously, and totally understand if you don't want to. That way I could watch and learn something rather than just giving my money to a shop and not learning anything. Will have a look into the superpro bushings, saw you did an LSD too, that would be awesome, must grip a lot better coming out of corners! Will have another look into my spring rates too, to see if there's anything funny going on there.

right ok yeah maybe the bushings are just shot, I will check, car has done 130,000km. interesting that your setup seems to be much softer front springs than mine, Ive got a set of Aragosta coilovers, look quite similar to yours actually but a bit different, also JDM, with Rana springs(come with aragosta's) which I bought second hand after a guy removed them from a jap import car so it would pass compliance, if im not stupid, my front springs say 14k on them which seems insane compared to yours... and strange have front stiffer than rear, from what I can tell its 14k front 12k rear, might have to change front springs, I wonder how that would affect the damping though. Might have to give those inserts a go then, fcp sells the whiteline ones for about 50usd$, about 120nzd by the time its here, might be worth a go. Definitely strange about the spring rates, the fronts do feel very very stiff

thanks for the reply, much appreciated, yes can change them, they're not true rear coil-overs spring sits next to the strut, was thinking of putting in some springs from bc coilovers, they recommend 12k for the rear, although I think mine right now might be 12k, not 100% sure will have to check. Just when I hit a bump sometimes it feels like the rear of the car sways Side to side a bit which is a weird feeling. Out of curiosity what suspension are you running? How was the install on the inserts, fairly straight forward?

Hello, Ive put some coilovers in my e82 135i, and now it seems my spring rate is stiffer than the subframe bushings which makes for an interesting driving experience to say the least. Have seen 2 possible solutions to this, bussing inserts or replacing bushings with solid/poly/m3. Anybody done either of these? Are the inserts any good or best to just go straight to new bushings? Labour seems very very steep on the install been quoted about $1000 for labour. Was thinking of DIY, have done a fair bit of work on my car, including the coilover install obviously but not sure about dropping the whole subframe... if anyone here's done it would be interesting to hear how it went, getting the old bushes out and new ones in, photo of car for reference. any advice, experiences etc is much appreciated!

Anyone got a set of backline taillights for an e82 135i?

Rear coilovers went in, had a bit of trouble dropping the lower control arm on one side but eventually got it. Shocks went in pretty easy both sides, put the springs in too and all seems well. Only issue is that the springs are a bit short, even at maximum preload they aren't entirely tightly held in place at full droop, they won't fall out but not super tightly held in place. Rears are very low compared to front, tried raising ride height by extending the strut but can't spin the lower half without the whole thing spinning... something to figure out another day. Rear tires rub a lot, as to be expected, booked in for wheel alignment at Sparg's autotune on Tuesday, then will get the guards rolled and give the 245s another test fit, otherwise will go down to 235s. Still need to figure out some adjustments for the rear, maybe find a longer spring that I can buy somewhere, or how to set these ones up prolly, if there's anyone in auckland that knows their suspension stuff and would be able to help that would be appreciated, happy to supply some beers or cash for your time. Some work to do still, need to find a flat bit of ground somewhere to take some ride height measurements, but progress none the less.

A bit more progress on the 135, managed to install the front coilovers, wasn't too difficult, trickiest part was getting the old struts out but with some spring compressors and a bit of force they came out eventually. Installed the new coilovers with the camber plates set the the maximum amount of negative camber to try fit the 245 tires. Left preload untouched and shortened the struts 25mm compared to the original ones to account for the much stiffer spring rate. Tried to fit the front wheels but they wouldn't go on, tires didn't clear the coilovers, was not very happy after spending hours researching fitment and trying to find the ideal offset for it to not work. Next day, come up with a plan, preload the springs more/wind the collar up higher to get the spring to sit above the tire so it would clear, tried that, couldn't preload them enough to get them high enough. New idea, remove the helper spring to shorten the length of the springs. So coilovers had to come back out, bit of a pain, removed the helper springs and reinstalled them. Maxed out negative camber on the camber plate and the strut towers, and tried to fit the wheels/tires again, success they now cleared the struts. Did this both sides, dropped the car off the jackstands and it looks like it may just work! Desperately needs a wheel alignment as all the camber has caused a lot of toe out. Haven't driven much to test for rub but will try install Rear suspension next, then get a wheel alignment and take it for a drive on some bumpy roads and see how much rub I get. Might have to go down to a 235/40/18 tire or ideally even a 245/35/18 but those are hard to find. Ride height is still a bit high but I don't know how much I can drop it before the wheel/tire starts getting close to the spring assembly again, we will see, rear suspension next! Slow progress but with how little room there is in the front guards a 245 square set up is tricky to fit. Will be interesting to see if the 245s will fit on the rear, im fairly certain I will need a guard roll and some more negative camber, hoping that it will handle a lot better with the stiffer suspension and grippy square set up. For those wondering wheel sizes are as follows: 18x8 et38 245/40/18 dunlop direzza 03g any higher offset and it won't clear struts, any less and wheels will poke like crazy, square shoulder of these tires don't help.

nice car, these are pretty reliable if you maintain them well, would probably recommend doing spark plugs and possibly ignition coils if they haven't been changed, before tuning it, very common for misfires to start occurring after tuning.

ok cool that makes sense, glad that thats the case, not too keen on doing a whole lot of shock tower reinforcement, so threads on the strut are for adjusting overall length of strut for ride height, and collar for preloading spring then. Will install them on Sunday and see how I go, thanks for the help, appreciate it

thanks for the reply, don't have a photo of all the parts currently but will get one tomorrow morning. The parts in the photo are the only parts I got for the rear suspension (2 sets obviously, one for each side), but no extra pieces, front are reassembled with a helper spring. I also think it is a seperate spring/shock set up on the rear as there is no real spring seat on the strut and the collar/spring seat thingy (black piece in the top left of the photo) doesn't fit over or thread over the strut at all. Not sure why the seller reckons it was spring over strut, I tried assembling it that way and one end of the spring that sits next to the black collar just above the aragosta logo on the strut is almost big enough to slip over the bright orange end section, only just held din place so doesn't seem like a safe spring perch considering the loads the spring would be subjected too... will get some more photos tomorrow, hoping to install these on Sunday

Hello, I have recently purchased a set of second hand coilovers for my e82 135i. Risky I know but they were a good price and in good shape, no leaks etc. They're a set of aragosta (japanese/dutch brand) coilovers out of a e90. Now my question is are these oem-style where the spring sits in a perch next to the strut or a true coiler where the spring sits over the strut? From what I can tell they look like oem-style but seller reckons they were true coilovers? Any advice would be much appreciated. Also any adivce/suggestion on a good baseline setup would be much appreciated, new to working on suspension, overall goal for this car, is an aggressive street/track set up, not a daily driven car so not too picky with comfort etc, mostly just want good handling and cornering. Photo of coilovers:

Managed to make a little bit of progress between uni lectures, car passed its WOF, dropped 2 wheels off to have the 245 semi-slicks fitted so I can test fit them once I try install coilovers hopefully this weekend. Still need to find a pair of C spanners to adjust the coilovers with somewhere. Also got to try figure out if the rears are true coilovers or if the spring goes next to the strut, this suspension stuff is new to me so not entirely sure just by looking at them... Also cleaned the surface rust off and painted the vacuum canister bracket.

Hello, Thought id start a thread to keep track of the progress on my 2008 bmw 135i. A bit of background, before this car, I had a 2004 e46 330ci m sport that I bought for $1000 with a crash damaged front end. That was my first project car and taught me most of what I know about cars, I fixed the front end, stripped and restored the entire interior after finding water ingress, rebuilt the cooling system and replaced a few gaskets. Once finished, I felt that it was time to sell it as it wasn't a car I felt like should be modified being somewhat of a classic, I sold it to an e46 collector and began the search for my next project, it had to be small, fun and fast, preferably n54 powered for easy performance gains, decided on a 135i. I bought my sapphire black metallic, black leather interior, 135i in late October, 127,000km bone stock leaking oil, overdue a service, cracked 3rd brake light and broken LED in RHS taillight and a dirty interior, and on the drive home it went into limp mode. Great introduction to N54 life. Not really a surprise when you got it at price that makes it the cheapest low(ish) km 135i for sale. However it wasn't all bad, it had extensive service history, used to be under auto sure mechanical insurance, had the water pump and thermostat replaced, and a transmission service done as well as regular oil changes at 10k intervals, that is until the owner I bought it from got it, who only owned it for a few months. Catching up on things ive done so far: First thing I did was address the issues, scanned codes, limp mode was for exhaust Vanos mechanism, most likely just needed a clean from the old oil. Did an oil change, cleaned the Vanos solenoids and that fixed the limp mode. However I found the following issues; leaking sump, valve cover gasket, OFHG, oil cooler gasket, wrong coolant. Time for an FCP euro order, added PCV valve, top radiator hose, expansion tank hose, coolant flange and also a new drive belt to the list. I worked my way through all of the hoses, gaskets one by one, learning as I went and eventually had everything except for sump done. Valve cover took 2 attempts because I couldn't find a tool for the ground lead studs anywhere, eventually I contacted Ray from HellBM who ended up giving me one for free o massive thanks to him. Filled the cooling system with correct bmw coolant and bled it, so easy with the electric water pump. No more leaks. Gave the car a good clean, cleaned the interior, rewired the paddle-shifters for left down right up, and installed silver interior trim in the place of the woodgrain. Now the sump wasn't a job I wanted to do myself, I don't have access to a garage, nor a car lift so dropping the subframe didn't seem like a fun task, decided to let Michael from Euromotive handle this and got him to install catless downpipes and larger high flowing silicone turbo inlets too while he had the subframe out of the way. Next was coils and plugs as it had started to misfire on the way to the workshop, one of the coils in the car was a Chinese one and ripped in half, leaving rubber stuck on the spark plug after removing it, spent an hour in the car park with needle nose pliers puling bits of rubber out. Eventually got the new coils and plugs in and car ran smooth. Next step after fixing all the oil leaks and misfire was replacing the drive belt that had oil all over it from the OFHG leak. Did that, easier than I thought with the inlet in the way. Also installed pcv valve and oil catch can. At this point car was running smooth and no issues, decided it was time to make some more power, bought a bigger intercooler, metal charge pipe and installed them. Angle grinder came in very useful in making room for the intercooler. Flashed MHD stage 2+ and car felt ridiculously quick. And sounded good with the hatless downpipe and inlets. Then installed some dual cone intakes and blanked off inlets so that DV vent to atmosphere for more noise. Decided exhaust wasn't loud enough to match intake noise, so cut off muffler and welded in 2.5inch steel pipe with thin stainless exhaust tips, sounds better now but will go back and change this slightly. Decided that power was more than enough (for now) and time to move on to some handling and aesthetic changes. Bought a set of 18x8 et38 CSL style wheels (in white which is a unique look) from an e46 and they fit rather well. A little bit of rub on the front guards, but nothing a wheel alignment shouldn't fix. Also bought a set of second hand aragosta coilovers with adjustable front camber plates so that I can fit some wider tires and dial in the ride height as well as firm up the suspension. Got 6 well used dunlop direzza 03g 245/40/18 semi slick tires for free so will see if I can get them to fit to gain some traction. White wheels and a nice clean engine bay: That is where the project currently is at, waiting for a new 3rd brake light as it cracked again so I can take it for a WOF and then install my coilovers and try fit the 245 tires and hopefully get the wheels repainted soon, thinking either shadow chrome, gunmetal, or gloss black... More things coming soon

im not sure, but I will see what its like with coilovers ,will be much firmer suspension. 245s may have a bit of bulge, not sure, was told they're the max width you can do on 8inch wheels, I do like the look of wider tires on narrower wheels compared to stretched fitment. I will test fit 2 of them and see how they fit

only on big compressions on the front, didn't have any rub in corners

have picked up a set of coilover with adjustable top camber plates, that and a wheel alignment and possibly a more aggressive guard roll will hopefully fix it, will report back with photos