What did you do to/for your 1er today?

[Yeineken]

Originally Posted by TridenTBoy

Anyone who's done this know the best guides/DIY/pics/videos and what tools I should be looking for *and* anything else I should be replacing at this time if the car is otherwise stock and got 90k miles? I'm wondering if it's worth it to refresh things like motor mounts and whatnot - assuming the engine isn't toast, lol... If it's gone... I don't even know what I'll do.

I just replaced my engine mounts when getting leaking oil pan gasket replaced. Was noticeable after. Repair shop said it was a good call to replace them. I’m at 93k miles.

[Fishee]

Originally Posted by TridenTBoy

Serpentine accessory belt self-destructed a couple months ago. Been away from the car and finally got the crankshaft pulley off... Belt definitely went into the engine. I suspected as much.

Now I'm trying to figure out all the tools and what I need to do.

I hadn't drained the oil yet but so far - little to no silvery specs... So, it's not like it's destroyed any bearings yet. But, the usual suspects of jumping timing and oil starvation and so forth are concerning.

I'll be dropping the oil pan but I have to buy an engine support hanger first and probably a couple other tools.

Anyone who's done this know the best guides/DIY/pics/videos and what tools I should be looking for *and* anything else I should be replacing at this time if the car is otherwise stock and got 90k miles? I'm wondering if it's worth it to refresh things like motor mounts and whatnot - assuming the engine isn't toast, lol... If it's gone... I don't even know what I'll do.

Just saw this video was uploaded recently. Fantastic, lol.

noooooooooooooo

[cerealwars]

Installed the final component to complete my DIY sport package conversion!

And then immediately put the old one back on because it made the car boring. The car's edge was gone.

The front m-sport sway made the car understeer at the limit, and made it feel like every other modern car where they let the lawyers have a go at tuning it before they ship it.

Final Setup is:
-Sport package springs matching my car's spec
-Replacement Bilsteins all the way around
-15mm rear swaybar off an AWD E90.
-Dinan fixed camber plates
-Stock comfort front sway bar

Kinda weird to think that a base model part could be an improvement on a sport package car.

M control arms are on my wishlist eventually.

[TridenTBoy]

Originally Posted by Yeineken

I just replaced my engine mounts when getting leaking oil pan gasket replaced. Was noticeable after. Repair shop said it was a good call to replace them. I’m at 93k miles.

I did this yesterday. It's been a huge saga.

I'm going to do a writeup with everything I had to order after as a very very large warning to not even start driving the car if you hear the belt squeaking.

I'm so far out *a ton* of time and money. I'll admit, I'm doing all of this on the street and that's what is taking me so long. Along with doing like 10 other somewhat necessary repairs.

But today for instance I got my used wiring harness in the mail. It said good condition, etc. It wasn't. Connectors were broken and plastic housing was half damaged and half missing.

I ended up using my existing wiring harness but just took what I could from the ebay harness to get mine working.

I'm so frustrated with this experience. So many things got destroyed besides having to drop the oil pan and all that. I'm also doing *way too much*. I decided now was a good time to do walnut media blasting the intakes, upgrade to M3 control arms, replace all my shocks, replace the engine (one of these was cracked - it was so worn) and transmission mounts, spark plugs and coils, filters, fluids, and so on. I can't even remember it all.

I'm just *tired* from working on this thing in the sun, on the street, and it's not even at my house. I'm visiting from NYC and my car is just parked at my friends in SF. What a pain!!!

[Gray_Panther]

Sorry to hear man, it is those experiences that just suck the joynout of owning these cars.
Hopefully when it is all back to normal you can enjoy it for a long time and even more so after the funds build back up.

[Fishee]

Originally Posted by TridenTBoy

I did this yesterday. It's been a huge saga.

I'm going to do a writeup with everything I had to order after as a very very large warning to not even start driving the car if you hear the belt squeaking.

I'm so far out *a ton* of time and money. I'll admit, I'm doing all of this on the street and that's what is taking me so long. Along with doing like 10 other somewhat necessary repairs.

But today for instance I got my used wiring harness in the mail. It said good condition, etc. It wasn't. Connectors were broken and plastic housing was half damaged and half missing.

I ended up using my existing wiring harness but just took what I could from the ebay harness to get mine working.

I'm so frustrated with this experience. So many things got destroyed besides having to drop the oil pan and all that. I'm also doing *way too much*. I decided now was a good time to do walnut media blasting the intakes, upgrade to M3 control arms, replace all my shocks, replace the engine (one of these was cracked - it was so worn) and transmission mounts, spark plugs and coils, filters, fluids, and so on. I can't even remember it all.

I'm just *tired* from working on this thing in the sun, on the street, and it's not even at my house. I'm visiting from NYC and my car is just parked at my friends in SF. What a pain!!!

Oof godspeed!

[TridenTBoy]

Had to give up on the walnut blasting. What I had ordered didn't work. I should've gone with one of the stereotypical kits that ECS or FCP sells but I went with something cheaper that I pieced together. It backfired and now I'm just moving on. No cleaning of ports this time. Maybe it's for the best.

On top of this, I installed the front crankshaft seal today. It was a different process than I saw for some videos. I just had to improvise a bit but it looks like it's done well enough. In addition, I'll be installing the crankshaft sealing thing from turner in a few minutes. I didn't go with an ebay option on that - knew I didn't want to fuck around with that - lol...

It's been a continual nightmare. All my parts showing up super late - my car in pieces on the side of the road for a week now. It's just bad. I hope the neighbors don't get on my case - a few are car guys so I think they understand. But man, is it a pain to work on this car! I don't think I'll even be able to remember how to put it all together. I haven't had *this* much off a car in a long time.

Oil pan gasket and OFHG kit showed up today. I'll be doing the OFHG with the oil cooler gasket (I don't know why this isn't included in the kits to begin with - I notice this leaks too). Anyway, gonna do those three things and maybe call it a day. I didn't get a lot done today but I did treat myself to a 19 piece tekton metric flex head ratcheting wrench set. I need some ratcheting wrenches - so why not. It'll get here next week. Lowes was selling them about 20% off.

[jdt10768]

Those metric ratcheting flex head wrenches are seriously useful, in so many applications. Also, I broke one and they replaced it sight unseen, for free - which is nice. Good luck - I can't believe you're attempting this in the street TridenTBoy

Today in traffic I used the rear fog lamp hack to get a tailgater to back off. That was worth the mod itself to send a fake brake check

[scratchgolf135]

Originally Posted by TridenTBoy

Had to give up on the walnut blasting. What I had ordered didn't work. I should've gone with one of the stereotypical kits that ECS or FCP sells but I went with something cheaper that I pieced together. It backfired and now I'm just moving on. No cleaning of ports this time. Maybe it's for the best.

On top of this, I installed the front crankshaft seal today. It was a different process than I saw for some videos. I just had to improvise a bit but it looks like it's done well enough. In addition, I'll be installing the crankshaft sealing thing from turner in a few minutes. I didn't go with an ebay option on that - knew I didn't want to fuck around with that - lol...

It's been a continual nightmare. All my parts showing up super late - my car in pieces on the side of the road for a week now. It's just bad. I hope the neighbors don't get on my case - a few are car guys so I think they understand. But man, is it a pain to work on this car! I don't think I'll even be able to remember how to put it all together. I haven't had *this* much off a car in a long time.

Oil pan gasket and OFHG kit showed up today. I'll be doing the OFHG with the oil cooler gasket (I don't know why this isn't included in the kits to begin with - I notice this leaks too). Anyway, gonna do those three things and maybe call it a day. I didn't get a lot done today but I did treat myself to a 19 piece tekton metric flex head ratcheting wrench set. I need some ratcheting wrenches - so why not. It'll get here next week. Lowes was selling them about 20% off.

What did you go with? If it happens to be the basic media blast like HF sells then there is info out there on how to make it work with common fittings from Lowes/HD. I just blasted mine using this setup and it went great. Albeit you do need the actual engine side parts specific to our motors (Wand and plug).

[Suprgnat]

Actually had a few minutes to spare. Managed to install the trailing arm bearings in the M3 suspension carrier. Just need to drop in the aluminum "subframe bushings" and paint the thing, but still, I'm that much closer to installing Suspension V3!

[TridenTBoy]

And now I'm missing the three bolts for the oil filter cooler part. 11427542983 I don't know where the fuck they went. My guess is that I accidentally threw them away (trash pickup was today - so they're *gone*) when I threw away a bunch of rags I was using to clean stuff. But that seems so atypical of me... and I've spent over an hour cleaning and looking for them but they're not here. So, there goes that.

New pulleys and belt is on with tension. Gonna put up on the subframe soon and install the new control arms. Unfortunately, it's going to be 93F today. Touching all my sockets is burning my hands - lol.

Gotta keep pushing forward even with parts missing.

[TridenTBoy]

Originally Posted by scratchgolf135

What did you go with? If it happens to be the basic media blast like HF sells then there is info out there on how to make it work with common fittings from Lowes/HD. I just blasted mine using this setup and it went great. Albeit you do need the actual engine side parts specific to our motors (Wand and plug).

Where is this guide? I'm curious because I don't see an obvious way to adapt.

I just bought an adapter off of amazon. Wish I had seen it earlier. Whatever.

Intake is gonna continue to be off for a few more days until I get replacement bolts in the mail. FML.

[scratchgolf135]

Originally Posted by TridenTBoy

Where is this guide? I'm curious because I don't see an obvious way to adapt.

I just bought an adapter off of amazon. Wish I had seen it earlier. Whatever.

Intake is gonna continue to be off for a few more days until I get replacement bolts in the mail. FML.

There are a few out there. There’s a better one that shows exactly how to adapt the wand but I can’t find it now. This one at least explains it and the adapter you put in the wand is in his parts list. He has an Amazon link but I was able to get it from Lowe’s.

https://youtu.be/szGUZe5yL0k?si=IBxgDLsit1h6I2AF

[iamroddy]

Had some time to work on it last night...finished up the water pump job about 1 am this morning and went for a test drive. All is good.
I like my Lexus (IS 250), but it felt good to be back behind the wheel of the 128.

[TridenTBoy]

Front and rear struts in. Transmission mounts done. (Insanely easy job. Spent more time trying to find out proper torque specs than doing the job. Kinda true of all jobs though tbh…)

Just gotta wait for a few things to come in then I can walnut blast tomorrow and move onto final assembly. The front struts aren’t fully “in”, just sitting in the knuckle and the tower mount.


Another day…

[Yeineken]

Wrapped a section on the hood and fender to test out a color change with finishing m conversion.

Ignore how crappy of a job I did applying the vinyl.

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by Yeineken

Wrapped a section on the hood and fender to test out a color change with finishing m conversion.

Ignore how crappy of a job I did applying the vinyl.

Hate to give negative feedback but I don't think that's going to result in any sort of depth for your finish

[blue135]

I have always thought BMWs look best in darker shades of blue (even though I do have a green BMW)

[Yeineken]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Hate to give negative feedback but I don't think that's going to result in any sort of depth for your finish

I think it depends on the brand. The one I’m using looks pretty good IMO. I’ve thought about doing the clear bar trick on top to give it that depth.

[Ric in RVA]

Simple little knobs to hold the PS reservoir on.

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by Yeineken

I think it depends on the brand. The one I’m using looks pretty good IMO. I’ve thought about doing the clear bar trick on top to give it that depth.

If you're married to film check out tinted PPF.

[Yeineken]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

If you're married to film check out tinted PPF.

Not married to it. Was just toying with the idea of a color change for a while. Plus it’ll be easier than panting right now.