New 1er Owner | '09 128i M Sport

[DarkWing6]

Picked up this '09 128i M Sport 6MT a couple weeks back to commute in... and have a little fun while I'm at it. 70K on the clock and well maintained. I'm fairly new to the 1 Series game, but am very familiar with BMWs. Been playing with E30s for years (have an '89 325is) and had an '04 325i Touring at one point as well.

I've read around a bit already, but does anyone have any good tips? What are common mods people do? Good resources for info? Favorite parts suppliers?

[KNS]

Deep Sea Blue? Looks like mine but different wheels.

Many get rid of the run flats and re-do the suspension to accommodate the different tire set up. I swapped in the BMW performance suspension along with rear bushing inserts and upgraded front control arms. Handles SO much better.

A search here will give you a lot of reading...

[Winn.Nguyen]

Welcome to 1Addicts!

A common supplier I like to use is FCP Euro.
Enjoy the car!

[DarkWing6]

Originally Posted by KNS

Deep Sea Blue? Looks like mine but different wheels.

Many get rid of the run flats and re-do the suspension to accommodate the different tire set up. I swapped in the BMW performance suspension along with rear bushing inserts and upgraded front control arms. Handles SO much better.

A search here will give you a lot of reading...

I believe it's Le Mans Blue.

This one has been run-flat free since new!

[Esteban]

It does look like a dark blue. Maybe that because it's getting dark out. Have you ran the VIN in a decoder yet? It will tell you the color and a lot more. Welcome and congrats on a beautiful car!

http://bimmer.work

[DarkWing6]

Originally Posted by Esteban

It does look like a dark blue. Maybe that because it's getting dark out. Have you ran the VIN in a decoder yet? It will tell you the color and a lot more. Welcome and congrats on a beautiful car!

http://bimmer.work

Good call on confirming... Had run it before but forgot.

LE-MANS-BLAU METALLIC (381)

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by DarkWing6

Good call on confirming... Had run it before but forgot.

LE-MANS-BLAU METALLIC (381)

Very nice. My favorite color. I'm not biased or anything.

It does look darker in that light.

[mr.fabulous]

Nice car An MSport 6MT 128 is what I would buy had I known then what I know now.

[1N4ttro]

Originally Posted by KNS

Deep Sea Blue? Looks like mine but different wheels.

Many get rid of the run flats and re-do the suspension to accommodate the different tire set up. I swapped in the BMW performance suspension along with rear bushing inserts and upgraded front control arms. Handles SO much better.

A search here will give you a lot of reading...

Congrats DarkWing6 enjoy the car, that is my favorite color. Too bad I could not find one with the all the features I wanted when I was looking and ended up with 2nd color on list Space Gray.

KNS: I am looking to ditch the run flats but why does the suspension needs to change? I know the flats handle a bit better but adding slightly softer side walls make that much of difference?

[WDE82]

Clutch stop and CDV delete are the first two things you should do.

[DarthFader]

Originally Posted by WDE82

Clutch stop and CDV delete are the first two things you should do.

Those were with first 2 things I did to my previous 1er. Way more enjoyable to drive.

May wanna consider some blackline LCI tail lights to update the look.

Beautiful car!

[KNS]

Originally Posted by 1N4ttro

Congrats DarkWing6 enjoy the car, that is my favorite color. Too bad I could not find one with the all the features I wanted when I was looking and ended up with 2nd color on list Space Gray.

KNS: I am looking to ditch the run flats but why does the suspension needs to change? I know the flats handle a bit better but adding slightly softer side walls make that much of difference?

Non runflats ride softer with more side wall flex. You may like it just the way it is so swap out the runflats and see how you like it for a while before changing anything else.

[mr.fabulous]

Originally Posted by 1N4ttro

I am looking to ditch the run flats but why does the suspension needs to change? I know the flats handle a bit better but adding slightly softer side walls make that much of difference?

Stuff like this is very subjective and relative to how you use and drive your car (you will find wildly varying points of view on a forum like this). I drive my car like the old man I am... and having switched to go-flats just a few weeks ago I can say I'm very glad I did it and that this is as far as I need to go. The car rides and handles perfectly... for me.

My previous ride was an E36 coupe purchased at a very different time in my life and I replaced everything under the car. Ev-er-eee-thing. The car rode on rails, it was really tight. My stock E82 is better in every way.

YMMV

[desertman123]

An M-Sport 6MT Le Mans Blue 128i coupe?

Haha. Not jealous. Or anything.

But for real, I will 2nd that CDV delete and clutch stop will make it feel 1000x better. Not trying to tell you how to mod your car, but I (and many others) will consider these mods necessary.

ECSTuning, Turner Motorsports, RealOEM and a few others I'm forgetting will be your best friend.

I LOVE my short shift lever - I opted for just the replacement lever and not the full kit. Don't like the silver shift knob (I'm getting a ZHP knob when money builds back up - BMW driving college kid). The kit is like $300 while just the lever, clip and new bushing is ~$90. Lemme know if this interests you, I can send the links to everything you need.

Whiteline rear subframe bushing inserts ($40) are awesome, they improve feeling in the rear of the car (especially on lengthy, 'spirited' turns and going over bumps). Some will tell you to go full M3/Whiteline replacements. Definitely will be better, but much much more expensive (I think like $300 just for the bushings, plus whatever you need to install them).

Thinking about trans bushings too, some people like E46 M3 mounts but I hear they're not hard enough to really feel a difference. ECS sells some 70A durometer bushings which are supposed to improve shift feel with minimal increase in NVH.

And last but not least, the biggest mod of them all. 3 stage intake and a tune. This will add like 30whp instantly to your engine. Bimmer Performance Center and Active Autowerke are the biggest companies that offer tunes - then you just get a used manifold off like an 330i or Z4 3.0si. Also worth mentioning the Supersprint or Active Autowerke headers.

[DarkWing6]

Tons of great info in here. Thanks everyone!

Clutch stop and CDV seem to be some quick things to address and the other stuff I'll probably start to tinker with as 'while I'm in there' type of things. It is primarily a commuter (at least that's what I told my wife), so I don't want to get too crazy, too soon.