elias

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

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.