The 130i Thread

[NZ_InFerno 371]

Car went through WoF today with no issues, only needed a license plate light bulb! 

But they did note that the brake lines are starting to crack. I had planned to replace them when I do my rotors/pads/sensors with some nice stainless lines. 

Apparently I need ones that meet nz requirements. Was planning to get some off ebay but not sure if they'd meet those specs. 

Any recommendations? 

Can always go oem but I'd like the upgrade if possible. 

[Jacko 2158]

I have HELs, from amazon I think, no issues at all and no cert needed (cert man even commented, nice brake lines  ) been through probably 6 WOFs with them. Don't quote, but I think the deal is if they are swaged fittings, no issues. I wouldn't suggest aliexpress units, but if you go BFgoodrich/HEL/etc I doubt you'll have any issues. 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Jacko

[NZ_InFerno 371]

43 minutes ago, Jacko said:

I have HELs, from amazon I think, no issues at all and no cert needed (cert man even commented, nice brake lines  ) been through probably 6 WOFs with them. Don't quote, but I think the deal is if they are swaged fittings, no issues. I wouldn't suggest aliexpress units, but if you go BFgoodrich/HEL/etc I doubt you'll have any issues. 

I was recommended HEL lines, that they would meet specs. Now I just need to source some 😁

[Angelo 24]

9 minutes ago, NZ_InFerno said:

I was recommended HEL lines, that they would meet specs. Now I just need to source some 😁

I did bit of quick research and went with Goodridge myself 

Paid $262 nzd inc shipping last year
https://www.demon-tweeks.com/nz/goodridge-stainless-steel-braided-brake-line-kit-gdrsbw1010-6c/
 

[NZ_InFerno 371]

14 minutes ago, Angelo said:

I did bit of quick research and went with Goodridge myself 

Paid $262 nzd inc shipping last year
https://www.demon-tweeks.com/nz/goodridge-stainless-steel-braided-brake-line-kit-gdrsbw1010-6c/
 

Was also recommended these lines too! 

That's quite a bit cheaper than the Hel lines. 

[M3AN 4016]

I use these, no problem with WoF:

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-2852-stoptech-stainless-steel-brake-lines-e90e92e93e82-325i-328i-330i-335i-128i-135i/

 

[NZ_InFerno 371]

24 minutes ago, M3AN said:

I use these, no problem with WoF:

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-2852-stoptech-stainless-steel-brake-lines-e90e92e93e82-325i-328i-330i-335i-128i-135i/

 

Seem to be out of stock at the usual places. 

[Jacko 2158]

Just looked, I got my HELs through ebay UK, was 130 pound.. pretty cheap.  

[Harper 559]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/665702432135488/

High mileage factory manual for 6k. Might be a good deal for someone. That's only slightly more than I paid for mine which needed a lot of love albeit at lower k's. 

[Danch 35]

15 minutes ago, Harper said:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/665702432135488/

High mileage factory manual for 6k. Might be a good deal for someone. That's only slightly more than I paid for mine which needed a lot of love albeit at lower k's. 

It's now going for 5.5k. The owner seems pretty keen to get rid of it. No service history and no proof of engine rebuild but the price reflects that I suppose.

[Jacko 2158]

Wont have had a rebuild... still dirt cheap. Be worth snapping up for that price. 

[Kees 598]

To be honest with the current car market + recent hike in petrol prices, $5.5K seems like an overly fair number. 

This one was for sale very recently - half the ks, aero spoiler, in-tact headliner and clearly far more cosmetically looked after. Would be a bit of a no-brainer to pay the extra $3-4K for a far better example imo. Would easily spend that trying to make the white one nice, plus its still got questionable history....

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1255028188576505/

[M3AN 4016]

The white one also needs new rear suspension.

But I tend to agree, it's a lot of car for 5.5k, how much is the manual gearbox itself probably worth?

[Danch 35]

How much does it cost to replace oil filter housing seals and vanos seals? I got a quote for $820 incl. Gst and it seems a bit more expensive than doing a similar job on E85 Z4 (rocket cover, valvetronic, oil filter housing change for $670 incl. Gst) Is this because vanos seals are hard to replace? Or E87 is takes more time to work on compared to E85? 

[NZ_InFerno 371]

11 minutes ago, Danch said:

How much does it cost to replace oil filter housing seals and vanos seals? I got a quote for $820 incl. Gst and it seems a bit more expensive than doing a similar job on E85 Z4 (rocket cover, valvetronic, oil filter housing change for $670 incl. Gst) Is this because vanos seals are hard to replace? Or E87 is takes more time to work on compared to E85? 

Oil filter housing gasket and oil cooler gasket are $20 each. Need new bolts for the housing, another $20-30. 

What vanos seals? There's o rings on the solenoids and the valvetronic motor has a  gasket. Sounds like they're doing a rocker cover gasket plus oil filter housing maybe? 

There's a lot less room to work on the engine  on the E87 platform with N52 compared to the Z4. 

 

[Angelo 24]

18 minutes ago, Danch said:

How much does it cost to replace oil filter housing seals and vanos seals? I got a quote for $820 incl. Gst and it seems a bit more expensive than doing a similar job on E85 Z4 (rocket cover, valvetronic, oil filter housing change for $670 incl. Gst) Is this because vanos seals are hard to replace? Or E87 is takes more time to work on compared to E85? 

Oil filter housing and oil cooler seals are easy DIY and can take 1-4hrs to do depending how experience you are and make sure you get the right tools cause unlike me that took a week due to stripped bolt lol. If you are talking about the Vanos solenoid o rings, you can either replace them or clean them (both vanos solenoid and seals/orings) using brake cleaner. Mine started showing error codes like 2a87 till I cleaned them, still works perfectly fine but when it fails again then i'll replace the whole bunch

[Danch 35]

The quote doesn't include rocker cover gasket. The vanos seals are what's in front of the engine under the rocket cover? Yeah the labour is 440 excl. Gst so I guess it just takes more time compared to Z4.

[NZ_InFerno 371]

3 minutes ago, Danch said:

The quote doesn't include rocker cover gasket. The vanos seals are what's in front of the engine under the rocket cover? Yeah the labour is 440 excl. Gst so I guess it just takes more time compared to Z4.

The vanos solenoids are there, they're usually $250 each for oem ones.  One for intake, the other exhaust. 

If they're taking them out to change the o rings hopefully they'll clean them for you too. 

Depending on kms they could be due for replacement. Cleaning them will extend their life potentially. 

[Danch 35]

8 minutes ago, NZ_InFerno said:

The vanos solenoids are there, they're usually $250 each for oem ones.  One for intake, the other exhaust. 

If they're taking them out to change the o rings hopefully they'll clean them for you too. 

Depending on kms they could be due for replacement. Cleaning them will extend their life potentially. 

I see. The labour cost may be including the cleaning.. 

[Harper 559]

On 8/10/2023 at 6:28 PM, M3AN said:

The white one also needs new rear suspension.

But I tend to agree, it's a lot of car for 5.5k, how much is the manual gearbox itself probably worth?

Weitz has a 130i conversion kit for $3400 so it's hard to imagine this cars worth any less than 5500 imo unless it's really rough.

[Eagle 1679]

To be fair his conversion kits tend to be priced a bit higher than average private seller being a business in all. Not sure what they are really worth but imagine the demand is much lower than the older stuff. Surely its way easier and cheaper to buy a manual one in the first place than convert it (at this point in time).

[Harper 559]

No harder to convert a 130i than an e46 or an e90, process is the same. The coding and wiring is straight forward and with a full kit everything just bolts up.

I'm about to sell my manual converted 130i. Will be interesting what it ends up selling for.

[Eagle 1679]

Yeah no doubt, still a fair bit of work though. Every manual swap ive done (E36,E39,E46's) owes me 3.5-5k when refreshing parts. If you got the car and kit cheap then it probably makes sense. Most manual conversions tend to be missing bits for the more OCD peeps, so i prefer buying the more costly complete wreck.

[Harper 559]

5 hours ago, Eagle said:

Yeah no doubt, still a fair bit of work though. Every manual swap ive done (E36,E39,E46's) owes me 3.5-5k when refreshing parts. If you got the car and kit cheap then it probably makes sense. Most manual conversions tend to be missing bits for the more OCD peeps, so i prefer buying the more costly complete wreck.

I think I'm about to take on an e46 330ti compact project and manual swapping with a ZF 5 speed at the same time. Pricing it all up sometimes makes the eyes water. It's definitely the details that add up.

[chuckitinbro 11]

On the android upgrade question I just put this into my wifes 130i.
https://avinusa.com/10-25-multimedia-navigation-system-for-bmw-1-series-2-series-f20-f21-f22-f23-f87.html
android 12, 8gb RAM, 128gb storage,720P version. reverse cam. ended up being $880NZD landed.

I looked around for ages, read forums etc where people say avinusa isnt really usa based etc but they still seemed to have the best deal. Only had it in the car a few days but just did a road trip to taupo and back and it worked great. It's large but doesnt really impair any vision. touch screen works great. all the steering wheen buttons work, didnt even have to hook up to the aux outlet. must do it within the wiring harness somehow.