transition from JDM to Euro - 130i 6MT BSM

[Cheungs]

Very nice!

What was involved with the LCI headunit install?

My MULF has died yet again.

[JackM]

Originally Posted by hks200

Thanks Johnny.

Some little details required fixing up on the car considering it's almost a 10 year old car there will always be some wear and tear. Jumped online and ordered a new steering wheel badge from Japan of all places (genuine BMW part). Here are some pictures.

Do you have a link to the badge supplier ? Cheers

[hks200]

Originally Posted by Cheungs

Very nice!

What was involved with the LCI headunit install?

My MULF has died yet again.

sorry I don't check my thread very often, honestly the hardest part was finding a LCI headunit with all the features built in, glad I did it as i recently purchased a iPod Y cable and it works a charm. It's pretty much plug and play however you need to wire up the BT mic and forgo the CD changer in the boot unless you happen to find a headunit with the optical inputs (mine didn't). Mine was from a X1 wreck if that helps. Paid around $400pp

the label will look like this:



found one in NZ:
BMW Professional CD LCI, eBay

Originally Posted by JackM

Do you have a link to the badge supplier ? Cheers

sure do! here you go. Steering wheel emblem, ebay

I'm currently on the hunt for a rear spoiler for the car, does anyone know the best place to get the OEM aero spoiler?

[hks200]

So time finally came to install the muffler after having a 135i muffler sitting in the garage for almost 6 month. A very positive result, I was a little on the fence about the black exhaust tips but I think they suit the BSM perfectly.

Before:


A very nice series 8 RX7 RS with a genuine 74000KM on the clock, this was so clean you could almost eat off it (one of my bucket list cars)



Welding time!


Fertig!!!


What needs to be done:

modify right rear hanger (moved closer to the car)
modify center hanger on rear pipe
cut and weld onto resonator/Y pipe

approx 1-1.5HR job

[Giveway74]

excluding the muffler - what was the cost of the work?

[hks200]

Originally Posted by Giveway74

excluding the muffler - what was the cost of the work?

approx 1.5hrs of labour so cost me $200

[walkie86]

Awesome mate, good to see the shots! Was speaking to you on IG, I'm @autofocusaus

Still hunting for a muffler myself but would love to hear it in the meantime if you're ever free!

[hks200]

Originally Posted by walkie86

Awesome mate, good to see the shots! Was speaking to you on IG, I'm @autofocusaus

Still hunting for a muffler myself but would love to hear it in the meantime if you're ever free!

Ahh thought that might have been you. Yeah hit me up, I remember pinging you my details a while ago when I was searching for the 208s.

[hks200]

so just over 12 months of ownership of this beauty and I can safely say that I'm impressed! After having driven/owned other cars the e87 130i would have to be one of the best all rounders I've owned.

Practical -
Efficient -
Fun to drive -
Reliable -

I have an extremely bad habit of purchasing a car and immediately creating a shopping list whilst spending countless hours researching then almost as quickly emptying my pockets. This however doesn't seem to be the case with the 130i which goes to show how capable and amazingly well engineered/designed it is. Of course with past habits of making tweaks to almost anything I've had to do something with the car. So to date I've only really made minor changes/personalisations with the help of the internet and friends.

e82/e88 M Sport front bumper (no fogs)
e84 LCI BMW Professional head unit (BT/USB/Ipod)
e82/e88 135i (n54) muffler (have yet to do a resonator delete)
BMS replacement airfilter
oem front thrust arm.
replacement msport gearknob thanks to wakie86
a set of OEM Style 261m wheels with 225/40R18 and 255/35R18 Michelin PSS (one of my favourite tyres to date)

The trend here is OEM/maintenance. Nothing screaming aftermarket like with my previous cars (helps keep the bank account healthy). This weekend was no different and I believe I've hit the spot with the exterior. It is almost how I envisioned with the subtle OEM+ tweaks I've made thus far.

I bit the bullet and fitted the largest wheels I've ever fitted to any of my cars, a set of BMW Style 313M 19".

These are:

19x8 +37 with 225/35R19 Pirelli Pzero
19x9 +37 with 255/30R19 Bridgestone Re050a RFT

They couldn't have turned out any better as I had only seen some pictures online and nothing like it in person.

Photos:





The only issues are the rear guards scrubbing slightly under full compression or when I have a bit of a load in the car which should be solved with a light roll of the guards however I've read that it isn't as simple as just rolling guards on a BMW and that cutting may be involved?

[woosh]

Looks great mate.

[walkie86]

Awesome. Looks great - can't wait to see it in the flesh!

[hks200]

Saturday the 12th of November was a rather hot day in Sydney and being my car was left in the sun the whole day this was the catalyst of an all too common failure on our cars. As soon as I jumped in the drivers seat I noticed a rather large oval bubble in the rear view mirror. I decided to leave it til later that afternoon however the constant change in temperature by using the AC and fresh air sped up the process for the seals on the mirror to fail. You could hear pops/cracks throughout the day and further bubbles forming in the mirror.

Here you can see the mirror has a line through it due to an air bubble and the some of the liquid had escaped.




As soon as I got home I removed the mirror as there was a chance the chemical liquid would be rather corrosive like in the earlier BMWs which could damage interior trim = $$$$




Priced up a new mirror from Cotswold which came to 402GBP, rather steep for a mirror if you ask me so I decided to give repairing it myself a shot as autodimming wasn't a huge loss for me. Found on another forum a Z3M owner had attempted the same.

tools required:

- thin small box cutter
- medium flat head screwdriver (for pry off the mirror cover)
- painters tape
- windex
- microfibre towels
- powderless disposable gloves
- sidecutters
- araldite





Using the box cutter you gently scrape away at the adhesive and seal around the mirror (consists of two pieces of glass and the liquid inbetween). Once the two pieces are apart give them both a good clean with a clean microfibre cloth and windex as this will clean out all the residue. Make sure you take great care with this process as you don't want any annoying strands or streaks in your freshly repaired mirror. Also remove the metal conductors surrounding the pieces of glass as these will no longer be needed.

As you can see below this is where the mirror seal failed.



Once all is cleaned do the reverse and use painters tape to hold the two pieces of glass together with small dabs of araldite in key areas. Make sure you do not connect the connector behind the mirror as the autodimming feature will no longer function as the liquid has been removed.




Completed!!