elias

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

thanks for the reply, can't find m3 control arms in stock anywhere atm, haven't had the pins knocked out yet, not sure if that would make enough of a difference? Would coilers with adjustable front camber plates fix it?

Hello, I have put a square set of 18x8 et38 wheels on my 2008 135i, I went with this size as they are only 0.7mm closer to the guards than apex's recommended 18x8.5 et45 wheels. I am currently running 225/40 tires all round and want to change to 235/40 or 245/40 tires for better grip and looks, apex states that 235s will fit fine no issues with this distance from the guards and 245 will fit with a 5mm spacer for shock clearance, now since my wheels are only 8 wide not 8.5 I have no issue with strut clearance so should fit 245/40 fine without spacer. My question is why do my wheels with 225/40 tires rub on the fronts? People are running 18x8.5 245/40 with effective offset of 40 (45+5mm spacer) with no rub my 18x8 225/40 et38 is rubbing??? What can I do to fix this? Guards can't be rolled much more, and can't get a lot of negative camber ive been told. Any help would be much appreciated, the rubbing is driving me crazy, anyone selling camber plates, m3 control arms please let me know, cheers, Elias

would you sell the brown interior?

good point, my bad, ideally something along the lines of 18x8.5" ET45 front and 18x9.5" ET58 rear for a staggered setup or Front & Rear: 18x8.5" ET45 for a square set up. Cheers

Hello, I am looking for a set of wheels for my 2008 e82 135i. Due to the high offset ive had a hard time finding anything, apart from a set of apex from Autoform for 3.5k which is more than I want to spend, spent all my money trying to make it go fast. If you know where to find some, where to look, or are selling some please let me know. Am looking for 18s mostly, open to most styles. Staggered or square, but no narrower than 245 tires on the rear. Photo of my car for reference: Any help is appreciated, Elias

Hello, Looking to get my e46 330ci converted to a manual. I can source the tail shaft, gearbox, pedal box and clutch kit myself, but would need a workshop to install all the parts and will obviously need a few other bits and pieces as well as the coding done. What shop would you recommend in the auckland area? Looking for a place that will do a good job but won't break the bank. Cheers

Ok ive removed absolutely everything now, still cannot find out where it has come from, has rained pretty hard recently and no new water so Im hoping the issue is solved. Only thing I can find is cracked weatherstripping on the rear quarter windows where the window motors are, but couldn't see any water coming in from there on the inside. Not sure if these actually do much since there seems to be another seal behind them. Any way of replacing these?

Hello, I have recently acquired a 2004 e46 330ci. Im having some issues with waterleaks. First issue was that a lot of water had accumulated inside the spare tire compartments as well as underneath the battery and where the CD stacker is on the other side. I dried up all the water I could see in all three compartments. After some research I narrowed it down to taillights leaking, and I used some silicone as a temporary fix (ordered new taillights still waiting on them too arrive). Since then ive had little to no new water come in except for maybe 3 drops. However now, about 2 weeks after fixing the taillight leak I notice that the rear window has fogged up and there is a bit of mould showing in the gap between the backrest and bottom of the rear seats. So I take the rear seats out and find a fair bit of water has accumulated under the rear seats. My question is, is this because I have another leak or is this just water that is still there from the old leak? Is it possible for the water to have gotten there? Ive removed most of the interior trims, carpets and seat pieces and couldn't finding water coming from the rear window (hasn't been replaced, still original) the rear window seal looks fine, and I don't have a sunroof. I honestly have no idea how the water has gotten underneath the rear seats. Any help is much appreciated! Elias

Hello, I have recently bought a 2004 m sport 330ci and have been advised by wof that my left hand side tail light isn't working properly. 2/3rds of the LEDs don't work. Any recommendations for where to get a new one? Don't really want to spend $800 + shipping on a used genuine set. Any wreckers in NZ that are likely to have one? Anyone on here got one for sale? Any help would be much appreciated! Cheers, Elias

Im thinking of getting some spacers to get the wheels to sit a bit nicer, especially for the Rear wheels which seem to sit quite far inside the arches. Does anyone know what spacers to get for front and rear, its all stock at the moment. I don't want any rub or anything too extreme just something os they sit a little more flush

thanks guys! I haven't got too much planned for the moment because im pretty broke right now and want to put some money aside so I can maintain it properly and for when the water pump/thermostat fails. But I will put some roof mount bike racks on and am getting my apple car play headunit fitted soon as well. Transmission service getting done on Thursday.

yes theyre amazing, i see you had an e91 as well

thank you! i agree

thank you! im loving it so far, and its faster than i had expected because a lot of people told me 325is were slow, maybe they have driven too many 335is.

Hello, Im new here, just bought my first bmw. A 2007 325i m sport touring. Its done 81,000km. Loving it so far, so much fun to drive. Heres a few photos i took the other day. Needs a few little things sorted out but i am getting that done next thursday. Cant wait to take this thing on some longer trips and backroads.

Ive kept an eye on trademe for similar wagons. Im not sure where youve seenany decent cheaper 325i m sport tourings. The other ones are all over $10k with similar miles/spec. Eg: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/325i/listing/2866137828?bof=eLcLhEV7 and thats the auction start price reserve not met. So im not sure ill find one any cheaper, plus with the silver 80,000km one i know what im getting because of the thorough prepurchase inspection by bavarian motors.

right ok, thing is he originally wanted $9500 for it then i got the prepurchase inspection and "low-balled" him with $7500, he then said $8000 is the lowest hell go. they're only charging 220$ in labour but the $800 is excluding the leaking washer bottle, its for the rocker cover gasket, transmission serivce and coolant. The other shop wanted $700 for the transmission service alone.

hmmm ok, its a decent spec though, msport, towbar, roofracks. Cant find anything else thats particularly interesting at that price and looks as good, the nice audis are all 11-14k. Any recommendations? Looking for a nice european station wagon that looks good, has got some power and is fun to drive.

Ok so ive found a workshop thatll do the repairs for $800. So car will cost me $8800 all up, and then be in perfect condition mechanically. Its a pretty nice car imo. Is it worth it?

yeah id like to buy this one because he did day that is was a very good example apart from the things mentioned, which are just maintenace, normal wear items not neglect. its just a lot of up front cost for me. Will work out cheaper than any other comparable one for sure. Id like to DIY it, im pretty good with mechanical things, work as a bike mechanic in summer, and am studying engineering at uni, just don't want to mess up such a nice car. Also don't know what parts to get and where to get them from. Seems to be a lot of good indtructions though and the transmission service doesnt seem overly complicated. Can get the pan, filter and bolts for $130nzd and oil is a bit more difficult to find. Might be better to get a professional mechanic to do it though, ill try get some more quotes and see where i end up.

ok so i got the silver (low km) one checked by bavarian motors. They seem to really know their stuff. It cam back a bit disapointing, needs: - change coolant to "Blue" - transmission service - rocker cover gaset - bonnet struts - recode windows - clear firewall drains - leak in washer fluid bottle - battery is still original they quoted me about $1850nzd for this. The seller will only take $400 off the price because according to him all these things are optional/my preference hahaha. Can anyone do this stuff for cheaper? What happens if i dont do the transmission service? Thanks, Elias