|
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.
|