New E82 Owner (TX)

[Thunderguts]

Ugh! The remaining bolt piece is way down in there. I'd be worried that it stretched and won't want to come out because of the friction against the stretched threads. I hope it's in a place you can access it easily. Do what you can with the extractors. Get the block nice and hot and maybe that will loosen it slightly.

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by Thunderguts

Ugh! The remaining bolt piece is way down in there. I'd be worried that it stretched and won't want to come out because of the friction against the stretched threads. I hope it's in a place you can access it easily. Do what you can with the extractors. Get the block nice and hot and maybe that will loosen it slightly.

Def not easy but not the worst, depending on the bit to get in. Any rec's for extractors?

[Thunderguts]

Originally Posted by djacinto

Any rec's for extractors?

Don't buy the shit you get at the local auto parts store. Been there, broke them. I know Lisle makes some bolt extractors. See if they make something small enough. Nothing beats hardened German tool steel. You don't want to screw it up any worse than it is. You'll probably need to drill a small pilot hole in the remaining stud and then use the extractor. It sucks that you'll need to wait a few days, but it's much better to do it right the first time.

[Thunderguts]

If it were me, I'd get the Gedore extractors: https://www.amazon.com/GEDORE-265935...68&sr=8-1&th=1

I bought a set of these, but I don't know if the smallest one would fit that far up into the block. https://www.amazon.com/Williams-EXS-...s%2C380&sr=8-2

[djacinto]

So we just took a 300 mile road trip to break the new gasket in. Not our intention, but we had a family event near us and we just decided to go!

Car ran very smoothly and seemed to go well. Idrive said oil was right in the middle, so I ordered another quart of oil to top it up. Checking under the car, doesn't seem to be leaking, though I am going to take the plastic undertray off sometime in the next month to see how our broken bolt is doing.

In regards to that, I still havent decided how I want to go about that as it seems extremely tough and out of the way, but if i see a leak then I will address it

[djacinto]

Quick update on some things done,

Replaced the trunk handle as some of the rubber bits were coming off, as well as the plastic expanding nuts in the license plate bracket were kaput. Both bought on Amazon for about 15 bucks a piece and are well made.

Fuse blew on the cigarette lighter (fuse 8) so I replaced that. Pics added, need a clean on that center console one.

Passenger side dashboard has a weird squealing noise I assume is from the air blower motor. Initial searches finds a weird sound coming from the a pillar but this definitely sounds internal to the engine bay. Thoughts are welcome!

View post on imgur.com

[djacinto]

Hello friends,

It’s been quite some time! I hope you all are well.

Not too much to update but I’ll let y’all know what I’ve been up to anyways

I have yet to fix that broken bolt in the transmission to gasket, but we haven’t had any issues either. still on my radar, just haven’t gotten around to it.

-We’ve replaced the brake and rear lights to LED’s due to the driver one go out. However, the driver side outer light went out again and I think this is due to poor quality control. I was able to do this by using bimmercode’s LED retrofit and turn off voltage check and swap from halogen to led codes. Still need to do turn signal, reverse and front turns.

-Replaced the arm rest. Ours had a crappy latch and would go up any time we hit a bump. Big thanks to David for being a big help

Other than that, not much! She’s just about to hit 100k miles and one year into our ownership. It’s been a very fun year wrenching and learning about this car and it’s quirks and I hate to say it, but I almost like driving it more than my car!

I hope when I get a stable income I can give this car the true treatment it deserves.

As always, remember that smiles per mile > miles per gallon

[j128id]

Awesome thread. I recently purchased a 128i at 87k Miles and so far everything’s okay. I anticipate changing out my window regulator at some point in the next 6 months as it pauses when on the way up sometimes as well as makes an annoying noise 3/4 the time. Car is totally stock and I’m also on the halogen lights, so I think that’s one of the first couple things I’ll have done.

What do you recommend I do with the headlights? How’s your experience been so far with yours?

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by j128id

Awesome thread. I recently purchased a 128i at 87k Miles and so far everything’s okay. I anticipate changing out my window regulator at some point in the next 6 months as it pauses when on the way up sometimes as well as makes an annoying noise 3/4 the time. Car is totally stock and I’m also on the halogen lights, so I think that’s one of the first couple things I’ll have done.

What do you recommend I do with the headlights? How’s your experience been so far with yours?

Thanks man, congrats on yours as well! We just crossed 100k.

I’ve been trying to do incremental quality of life things in order to make it feel more modern, more recently with the bulbs. I just went with h7 LED’s from Amazon, however schmiedmann has lci xenón front and rear tail lights for a decent price if you want to go that route. The high and low beams still work great and it’s a much improved sight line over the basic halogens. Issue came when I tried to do the rears. I had the left outer brake bulb go out and had some led’s from my other car laying around. I swapped them over, coded through bimmercode but had 3 different bulbs burn out on the same side. I’m unsure why now, so I’m going back to halogens for now.

Window regulators can be a pain so I wish you luck. Just be sure to focus on the engine as the oil consumption can offset a lot of people. Even after doing the valve cover, it looks like I’ve got another leak unfortunately :/

[djacinto]

Hello friends,

Happy sunday, I hope all of your projects are going well.

Today I was doing some basic maintenance. Swapped out the license plate cover with a liqui moly one I got from Super lap battle, looking super sweet!

Put some air in my tires cause of all the fluctuating temperatures, think we're nice and steady going into spring here in texas now.

I consistently check the passenger side of the valve cover as I still seem to have a very small leak somewhere around the secondary air injection pump area. I've tried replacing the gasket for that last year, but I don't think it's the issue. The bolt that is behind the pump has been tightened down, but I don't want to go any further in case it snaps. Additionally, the ground suppression band (Part No. 12427578869) seems to have a bit of oil on it, may be causing some of my electrical gremlins. Would like to replace but 30 bucks for that? not in the mood lol. I'll take a look at my local junkyards to see what I can scrounge.


Outside of that, car is running strong. No maintenance seems to be necessary in the near future, and hope she runs for 200k more.

[djacinto]

Wow it’s been a year since I updated this thread! Guess it’s cause I keep posting in the daily thread lol.


Finishing up a big maintenance job with the lower control arms, both tension and wishbone, valve cover, oil filter housing gasket, csf radiator, water pump, thermostat and surrounding hoses.

Buttoning it up over the next few days as I’m quite busy, but had our first startup today after about a week and just a little bit of very translucent smoke, which I assume came from anything burning off. We turned the car off until smoke went away, restarted the car and no smoke. As I let the car sit, I will start up again and then take on a drive to the dealership to get aligned, to let the gasket heat cycle

[djacinto]

Struts and shocks will be the next to do, as it’s becoming a bit crashy over bumps. The bump stops are toast so it’s definitely needed. Keeping stock springs as the height is as low as we need for our roads. Really thinking about eibach but with planned bilstein b4’s and eibach’s claimed 1.2 inch drop, the austin roads would scrape even more than they do now

[tracer bullet]

That's a healthy to-do list!

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

That's a healthy to-do list!

So quick update, there was a pretty decent leak on the intake manifold side because the valve cover gasket had unseated when I put it on. If you’re looking at the bottom right most bolt, it was about the 5th or 6th bolt up where the gasket was basically inside rather than flat on the surface. When I had first started up the car, as I stated, there was a bit of very translucent smoke I thought was just burning off and what not. After a quick shakedown (control arms make the car feel phenomenal btw), I noticed there was a sizeable puddle of oil under the intake well. I looked at the gasket and lo and behold it wasn’t even seated on right! The car’s idle was sporadic because of this and I was scared I had broken the intake manifold gaskets first cause of the effort it took to get the back oil filter housing gasket bolt off. I thought maybe I unseated or ruptured something

So basically did the valve cover a third time lol! Lifted it up, was able to get it reseated and put back together. She sounds much happier and healthier! I’ve got a busy weekend but I’m going to let the valve cover sit for the next 2 days, double check that torque is holding, and then take it to the dealership for a quick alignment and inspection video

[djacinto]

Got everything put back together and we are ready for the alignment!

She drives great!

[Thunderguts]

Just wait until your first drive. My car was surprisingly squirrely after replacing the suspension components and M3 arms. After the alignment everything was sublime, but the drive to the shop was...interesting.

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by Thunderguts

Just wait until your first drive. My car was surprisingly squirrely after replacing the suspension components and M3 arms. After the alignment everything was sublime, but the drive to the shop was...interesting.

Fortunately the drive wasn’t bad. These were stock control arms but I had heard of alignments being really bad for people putting on the m3 arms.

Got my tech buddy to add just a touch of toe and the car is very responsive.

As I mentioned in a recent post, struts are duely needed and will most likely be done later in the year. Next priority is paint correction and dent repair. The paint is in such scratches shape I’ve been meaning to do something about it since we got the car but it’s never been something achievable at an apartment garage