Ben's Deep Sea Blue 128i 6MT Thread

[bensoda]

Hey everyone, picked up a 2011 Deep Sea Blue 128i 6MT a couple of weeks ago and wanted to start a thread on it because I enjoy the process of documenting my ownership of a car and have found that forums like this one are a great place to meet fellow enthusiasts of a platform and mainly to ask questions about the car when I don't know what the answer is lol.

I had been looking for a fun entry-level "sports car" which really meant something that had 3 pedals, RWD, and that was in my budget. I looked at Miatas, 350Zs, BRZs/FRSs, and a few others but nothing really interested me until I started looking at the 128s. It seemed like the perfect balance between a refined and fun car that was fairly reliable mechanically. You could also find pretty clean examples that had been well cared for which seemed to be a pretty big rarity for the aforementioned cars.

So about this car, I saw it pop up for sale and jumped on it almost instantly. I was immediately drawn to it because of the color and it appeared to have been extremely well-maintained. When I went to see the car in person it looked just as good, if not better, than it had in the listing photos. After talking with the seller, who had owned the car for the past 7 years, and a short test drive I bought it. Drove it back down from LA to San Diego in rush hour traffic and fell completely in love with the car.

As far as specs it’s pretty basic. Non-Sport Package as you can probably tell but the seller had installed Biltien B8s with the OEM Sport Springs. Because of this, I didn’t really care that it didn’t have the sport package as I can find used sports seats if I really want to. Currently sits at ~100,700 miles with a lot of big service items done within the past 30k miles.

I don’t really have any large plans for this car at the moment besides just driving it and enjoying it. I will probably look into getting a slight tint on the windows but that’s not super urgent. I would like to do the water pump and thermostat sooner rather than later as I have no record of either ever being replaced and at 100K miles they’re probably due. I’ll be doing that job myself as I do all my own work on my cars (anything from oil changes to complete engine rebuilds), so if anyone has any tips let me know.

This is my first BMW so I’m excited to get to know this platform and the community along with it. Seems like there’s quite a lot of you in the SoCal area. This is already by far my favorite car I’ve owned and I’m really looking forward to getting to know the car more and really just enjoying the experience of owning and driving it.

[Blau]

Welcome, brother! Fellow DSB 128i owner. Best of luck with your car.

Sport seats are a great upgrade!

[bensoda]

Originally Posted by Blau

Welcome, brother! Fellow DSB 128i owner. Best of luck with your car.

Sport seats are a great upgrade!

Thank you! I'll definitely be on the lookout for a set of Sports Seats to pop up for sale locally to me.

[cerealwars]

Beautiful car! Very clean. I like the chrome trim around the windows on a dark colored 1, reminds me of e46 coupes.

I also like your plans for it! We have the same priorities in a car. These cars are an overlooked gem right now. I just got mine a few months ago and I am still regularly impressed with the comfort and value. Just when I thought all the fun dailies were gone for good.

[mizzourahslim]

Looks great! Well done on making the correct choice of car 😎🤣

Add to this if you haven’t seen it yet:

https://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=377277

[bensoda]

Originally Posted by cerealwars

Beautiful car! Very clean. I like the chrome trim around the windows on a dark colored 1, reminds me of e46 coupes.

I also like your plans for it! We have the same priorities in a car. These cars are an overlooked gem right now. I just got mine a few months ago and I am still regularly impressed with the comfort and value. Just when I thought all the fun dailies were gone for good.

You know before I even bought the car one of the first things I thought I was going to change was the chrome window trim. Was planning on either replacing it with actual Shadowline trim or was just going to get it wrapped. But after the first few days of owning the car, the chrome trim became one of my favorite design aesthetics of the car. Maybe it's just the way it pops against the paint but the look of it has really grown on me. No plans on changing it now.

[bensoda]

Time for an update!

The car has been amazing and I'm still completely in love with it. That said, there have been a couple of things that I've addressed that I feel have made the car even better than when I first took ownership.

The first was getting it tinted. I kind of liked the fishbowl look initially, but with the SoCal sun, it just became a bit much. I went with 30% ceramic tint all the way around, and then 70% on the windshield. Very happy with how it came out, the UV protection and added privacy made it well worth it.

The second modification I did was related to the exhaust. I knew from the day I bought the car that it was just too quiet. With music playing, I can barely hear the car which I really did not enjoy. I did a lot of research on exhaust options and honestly was pretty disappointed by the lack of selection for the 128. My ideal choice would have been a BMW PE muffler but those are unobtainium so I knew that probably wasn't happening. The next thing I looked into was modifying a 135i aftermarket muffler to work with the smaller diameter 128i runners. I was initially going to go this route until I watched a clip of someone who had done a resonator delete with an OEM 135i N55 muffler. I thought it sounded perfect and honestly pretty similar to the BMW PE so I decided to go that route. I picked up a 135i N55 muffler from a member on the forum and then had an exhaust shop cut out the resonator and welded everything together. I would have preferred to utilize the stock N55 muffler flange with the resonator delete but the exhaust shop did have the correct adapter. Not really concerned about it now because I think the car sounds awesome and I won't be changing it any time soon.

I feel the exhaust note is perfect. It's still quiet enough so you have a normal conversation in the car but when you get on it you can definitely hear it unlike before. There has been a slight bit of drone that was introduced but it's still perfectly livable and you can barely even hear it. You can also get some nice burbles on decel which I wasn't really expecting but will happily enjoy.

The next planned items are water pump + thermostat and then some shifter modifications. I'll probably tackle those items in the next month or two as I have no records of the water pump or tstat being done so the car is definitely due.

As I said before I'm still completely in love with the car. Every time I get in it and drive it I enjoy, even more so now with the exhaust.

[fast1eddy]

Great looking car. I love my 135 but I’ve always wondered if the simplicity and lightness of a 128 would be the better real world choice.