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06-23-2014, 01:32 PM | #1 |
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My BMW 125i Build from start till today sort of
So I've been willing to make a write up of my build since god knows when but due to my exam sessions I had to wait a little bit. So, as I got my license my parents decided to let me choose a car for myself on a specific budget which I paid half of it myself indirectly. So my father being an e30 owner I always lusted BMW's but growing in a generation where cars like supra's evo's rx-7/8 and nissan's dominated the car scene I was sided towards Japanese cars too and at first I was going to end up buying an e46 m3 or an rx8 (now knowing yet insurance groups etc on an 18 year old person). My father opted me out to buy the e46 M3 and later that week he began searching insurance agencies were he could insure me. Sadly no one accepted to insure a freshly licensed ''child'' with a 340bhp+ engine so those dreams where briefly shattered
later on that year (end of 2011) I was searching on autotrad3r and found out some e92's which are still pretty stunning and will surely remain so in my tastes. So we went on searching a 320i. The choice of the 2.0l engine mainly was decided by the insurance agencies here in malta as the only 2 options that they would insure me on were the 320d or 320i or less and being a person that dislikes diesel engines I went to buy the 320i. I had found one with 16k miles on it, had alpine white colour with red nappa leather in the interior and with msport pack so it was basically all i could have asked for, so we went to see it and its condition was utterly horrible. It had rust on the boot tear drops on the doors (spray painted badly) and the one of the door hinges wasn't mounted properly an as a result the edges of the door to the mudguard were a bit 'wrong' so we discarded that option too. I kept on searching the net hoping to find a similar e92 but surprisingly ended up on an e82 page and it was astonished by its shape. Don't get me wrong the e92 is more of e head turner but in those days the e82 was less common to find in the streets and having a proper boot and 4 seats it was quite a handful for me. long story short I ended up seeing this car from an approved used in sytner cardiff and I fell for it immediately. I knew that I would have some issues with insurance agencies having a 3.0 engine (yes they act according to engine displacement not engine output) but anyways on july 2012 I ended up buying it as at that time I thought that spending all my money on a car was a wise move. I was amazed by the cars extra's as for a 1er to have heated seat sat nav etc was not that common in my country, actually to be completely honest I am the only owner of a 125i here so you can imagine my pride anyways Once I shipped it here my happiness was shortly lived, no insurance agency insured me so I had to wait to drive it till the next year (it was being rarely driven by my father since then so as not to leave it sitting). On July 2013 I found an insurance agency that was ready to take the risk and insure me and so my project began. Slowly but at least I managed to continue this was when it was stock My first ''mod'' was a kidney grille replacement the month after I went to a panel beater and removed my front plate and darkened just slightly the headlights and fogs with amber indicators after the small exterior touches I wanted something done in the engine so to give it a little bit of umfff So I started from the newbie basics of mods... a short ram intake. which was round last december and installed it myself taking me an hour or 2 without reading any instruction next up was in last february doing stud and lug nut conversion myself which took me a week's time and a lot of swearing in the process of doing up the study with thread locker and jacking first fronts then rears etc All that time spent was rewarding as although the lug nuts are not quite visible on stock alloys they will surely be noted in the near future. from february till this month I didn't have time for her unfortunately as I was busy passing my A' levels so progress was minimal BUT this week I installed the p-torque 125i tune which is supposed to tweak the ecu and code it to 130i specs. The results were immediately noted, the car pulls more after 3k revs and the acceleration is noticeably quicker this is all I have done to the car YET but in the near future my wishlist is something like this:
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06-23-2014, 02:12 PM | #2 |
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Thats great, congrats! So the only difference between the 125i and 130i is the ecu tune? And since doing it you now have equal output of the 130i?
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06-23-2014, 02:32 PM | #3 |
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uhmm yes sort of, I'm just doing round about 270 bhp but it is still not confirmed yet as the dyno booking is for next fortnight
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06-23-2014, 05:15 PM | #4 |
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06-24-2014, 02:44 AM | #5 |
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I don't think so as I asked my tuner if 300bhp were possible and he replied to me that 290bhp is pretty achievable with a good intake and exhaust setup
Last edited by Kizzu; 06-24-2014 at 09:12 AM.. |
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06-24-2014, 05:08 AM | #6 |
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Nice project.
I've got to say though, it's funny how you replaced the UK 'clear' headlights for 'Amber' headlights. It's just that almost every American wants to go the other way...unless you had to replace the headlights as part of the exportation process to Malta? |
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06-24-2014, 09:13 AM | #7 |
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Uhmm no actually I am looking a pair of U.S headlights as I really like the amber touch on the indicator
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06-24-2014, 09:23 AM | #8 |
but no flokka
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I'll trade you if you still have your EU ones.
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06-24-2014, 09:25 AM | #9 |
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06-24-2014, 03:00 PM | #10 |
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Wow, what I would do for those gains! But I have the n51, so it isn't happening anytime soon. I also found it funny that you swapped the clear turn signals for amber, I did the exact opposite here in the states!
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06-24-2014, 04:49 PM | #11 |
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Yes I know thing is that you guys in the U.S swap to eu headlights as they are unique there while in the eu your headlights are less common than the clear headlights thus giving it that ''look at me I'm unique'' look
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06-25-2014, 10:41 AM | #13 |
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Nice!!
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https://x-ph.com/sale/ Phone number 702-494-9435 |
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06-26-2014, 09:23 AM | #14 |
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06-26-2014, 10:24 AM | #17 |
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