E87 130i - roll call

[awhc]

Originally Posted by arthurtwp

that car in question is mine actually. definitely a 09 LCI.

the head unit is different too. slightly different air con controls. the lci has chrome surrounds to the dials. headlamp cover is glass too instead of plastic.

bmw took away xenons in the lci model making them an optional extra. same for the sunroof. why they would do that in the halo model I dont know.

but yes. having owned both pre lci and lci models the easiest way is to check the tail lights and door cards. rest of its quite subtle.

When you say headlamp cover is glass, do you mean the headlights cover? Are both xenon and reflector headlights cover made of glass for LCI models? I saw a 2005 model and the headlights cover was quite yellow and fatigued.

So does your car have hydraulic steering even though it is a LCI?

[arthurtwp]

yes. I mean the head lamp cover. I have a 2009. and there is no noticeable fade at all. the side indicators are a different story though.

I don't know about the steering tbh. I thought my 2006 car had a better steering feel when I first got the 2009 car, but I never drove them back to back to really find out.

the earlier models also had fake leather apparently.

[awhc]

Got my 130i!

Looking forward to modding the car .

Looking for 135i muffler and mid section, BMW performance intake and black grilles. Also open good other mods people might be willing to sell.

[mototo]

Bumping this thread.
Not sure if people even look at forums these days lol

Proud owner of 2x pre lci 130i
His is a track toy lemans blau manual
Hers is a daily sparkling graphite gray auto

Most recent trackday at luddenham raceway


Fell in love with the chassis after driving a mate’s f20 m135i. Have had a few 120i e87’s, e46’s, e36’s. Searched high and low for a 130i manual after buying the auto for the wife for a song in 2019. Finally got this blue one in august this year for the right price and right condition ( for me, it needed work lol)

Any other Sydneysiders that frequent luddo?

[SgtChaos66]

Sydneysider here. You still have a 1?

[mototo]

Originally Posted by SgtChaos66

Sydneysider here. You still have a 1?

I still do, although mine is currently stranded at home after a OFHG replacement exercise that lead on to a VANOS solenoid o ring change followed by a rocker cover gasket change.

Have slapped on few mods since my last trackday just itching to go back out for another session. However new job is taking some time leisure time away.

was offered a hail damaged auto 130i for scrap prices($1.5k) a few weeks ago but chickened out.... should've gone for it in hindsight.

did you recently get yours?

[SgtChaos66]

Originally Posted by mototo

I still do, although mine is currently stranded at home after a OFHG replacement exercise that lead on to a VANOS solenoid o ring change followed by a rocker cover gasket change.

Have slapped on few mods since my last trackday just itching to go back out for another session. However new job is taking some time leisure time away.

was offered a hail damaged auto 130i for scrap prices($1.5k) a few weeks ago but chickened out.... should've gone for it in hindsight.

did you recently get yours?

Glad to see another 130i manual owner! I'm not alone!! haha. Everyone seems to go Golf R or BRZ!

I got mine over a year ago. It was my lockdown project. I had an e46 330ci facelift growing up in the UK. That's what gave me the straight 6 RWD manual bug.

Haven't tracked mine yet as it is my daily. Although hoping to keep it for a long time and see what it can do on the track vs other OZ favs.

I fitted MCA Pro comforts about 2 months ago, which transformed the car handling wise. The old stuff was ok condition in hindsight, just needed new bump stops.

Mechanically mine had just shy of $4k worth of work done on seals at Bavarian in the southeast of Sydney before I bought it. So soo far *touch wood* it's mechanically sound. Apart from the lifter tick.

What's been your best mod so far? Hows ownership/maintenance been?

[mototo]

Hahahah! Yeah I was not keen on the 86 and had I know how a 1er drove I would not have even bothered with the a45 😆

I’ve got bilsteins pss coilovers on it, 335i brakes and ad08r on style 188’s. Managed a 57.89s at luddenham and I was still learning how to drive the car properly as my previous track hack was a e36 318is sedan. The best mods tbh so far is the 335i brakes and the ad08r’s. I went to my first trackday with tired shocks on those rubber and the 130i still gave me good enough feedback to put it through its paces.

Another mate in our group just bought a 130i manual with my help. It needs abit of work but for the price he paid for it, one cannot complain haha.

On the ownership side of things, both me and the missus’s 130i has gone through a fair bit of reactive and preventative maintenance. Seals, gaskets, coilpacks, clutch ( mine), mechatronic seals and solenoids ( hers), ccv’s, suspension, guibo’s, water pump, engine mounts… and the list goes on Ahhahaha.
Would I give it up for anything else? Never!

Although I shudder to think if I had did all these at a workshop what the costs would be….

The wife’s car has the lifter tick but mine doesn’t. Both are prefl cars with near identical mileage (155xxx kms)

Good feedback about the mca’s. I nearly went for the tein street coilovers. The bilsteins pss are definitely stiffer but not rock hard. I still need to put this on the track to gauge it but on the street it does not feel much different to the stock msport suspension. I wanted to go with b8’s but they were out of stock for the longest time.

Have just bought the e92 m3 front strut and tension rods but will put them in after I’ve done a trackday first in this current setup

[SgtChaos66]

Never driven any of the other popular ones. 86 would prob but up there but just seems too common and underpowered. a45 fart noises put me off, but have been in one and are pretty mental, just the $$.

I was looking at KW for my e87 but went with MCA as cheaper and Australian made so gave them a shot. Also first coilovers for me, so my feedback is not the greatest. Bilstein seems to be the way to go on BMW but was scared of being too firm a ride after all the $$ spent.

Ahhh 335i brakes are definitely something I've seen and considered. Can't remember what turned me off them. Maybe the install was a bit involved for my liking. Will look into it again after this reply.

Rubber definitely would have changed the game, I'm on PS4 on some ROH Matt black 18's. Square setup, slightly oversize sidewall to again try increase comfort. Although starting to want normal coloured wheels now..

Amazing your mate got into it, almost convinced a friend who has a 86 just through the extra grunt. If you are not scared of working on these cars you could grab a bargain like it sounds you have!

Looks like you have done a fair bit of pre/maint on the two cars. If your tracking a lot I guess that's fair. Also, good sign if an e36 track goer thinks 1er is a good one I'm on the right track! Personally hoping to keep the car for a long time till I can have it as that track car. It munches the miles for me to and from work with relative small maintenance so far. I do a lot myself as I'm a fitter by trade, so not too concerned about getting dirty. Plus websites like these are brilliant. Regarding the workshop, I hope I never have to take mine in...that's all ill say on the matter.

Jealous about no lifter tick, unless it's the Italian tune-up. You must have a 5dr unicorn. Hydraulic steering, manual and no lifter tick. Mines just hit 160k, rule of thumb in the UK is to get rid of your BM before it hits that number haha, see how I go.

Why do you go for the m3 stuff? I personally thought about a Quaife LSD, pull-out rebuild job. But decided to just chill out for time being. On the roadmap is to take my muffler off and weld up the baffles. Another is the Mishimoto air intake, but hesitant about the cone with MAF sensor. But I do hear the engine loves extra breathing.

If you're ever heading to Ludd and want company id to be keen to see how things work.

[mototo]

A45 is mental but i'm still not sold on its driving dynamics despite having the optional front LSD package on it (loong story but basically Merc Syd sold NRMA a fully optioned car not knowingly as a replacement in the new for old scheme when my first one got written off. The driveaway price was also mental, I really shudder to think how much people are overpaying for the car. My first one was already cheap as it was bought together with 3 other amg's so a deal was struck but NRMA's buying power got it even cheaper)

my e36 was my foray into bmw ownership. 4 of us at my old workplace decided to buy one each in 2018 and turn them into rego'ed track hacks. all 318i manuals (except my iS). We all went the cheap ebay maxpeedingrods suspension stuff since it was meant to be cheap track hacks but over time I grew to love the car as a pretty schmick daily and realized the factory upgraded suspension parts (M bits) provided a pretty good balance to keep the car daily-able and occasional track fun. Said ex colleagues still own bmw's and 2 of them are now e8x chassis owners(one of them with the 130i that I recently just got him, he had a f20 m135i manual but sold it when he started his own company for funds).

335i brakes were literally a bolt on. Bonus for me was a wrecker listed them up on ebay as a complete hub assembly with near new slotted rotors on them(no lip at all). All for a grand total of $200 for the front pair. They listed it as e90 320i brakes lol! So when my front pads were running low, I swapped the 335i brakes over along with the rotors.

it is a bit of a unicorn! When I took the rocker covers off to do the gasket replacement, I found the entire valvetrain to be shiny clean, no varnishing and no sludge. From what I can gather it looks like the og engine so I can only deduce it has been overserviced all its life. Even the wife's 130i with 1 previous owner from new did not have such a clean valvetrain when I did the rocker cover gasket previously.

Honestly I have not found anything that I could not tackle on any of my bmw's ownership. Clutch change was the hardest but I managed to do it on jack stands on my garage floor all by myself (twice, e36 also needed a new clutch haha). Comp sys engineer by trade and did not go to any automotive schools.

Some say I'm nuts but I call it therapy....

I do tell others though that ask me about getting a BMW, my advice to them if they are not mechanically inclined, buy new and flip on its 3rd birthday (or 5th now since its a 5 year warranty?) or buy used and have $5k of rainy day funds no matter how good of a condition the car is in.

Will def let you know when we plan our next Luddo adventure. Should not be too long now, since the addition of another e87 into the group haha

[SgtChaos66]

Second A45 mental. A good friend in the UK is a prestige car salesman in The Lake District so every time I'm home he has a few toys to show me. The last one was a BMW coupe twin-turbo thing with 4wd, was weird getting sideways on roundabouts and feeling the front end pulling plus he said it was down on power because it was low on fuel haha. new cars are mental but they just feel too digital now, might as well have electric.

Be interesting to hear the long story, sounds like you did pretty well.

Your mate might be struggling with lack of power downgrading from 135i, but if he's good at what he does and has a good foundation he willl be back to m135i or M1 in a few years .

Yeah, I had a look, I think it was the imbalance that put me off. But I'm on the lookout as I'm doing them all soon, so if there's a pair to be had ill take them. Slotted on sparebox is well over $200 haha. you did well.

Maybe it had a good engine flush before you bought it, I'm too hesitant to open any wounds haha. But yeah mine still ticking heavy...annoying unless I drive it as it was stolen. What oil are you running?

Haha good on you! for what looks like a well-paid button-pusher yeah, my biggest issue with the jack stand is the lack of easy torque wrench usage. Although for cars outside of the engine I don't think it's that critical.

I get some flak too, work loves the old Big Money Waster line anytime theirs a potential issue haha, to me if you fix it yourself it's money in your pocket.

Regarding Luddo ill drop a private message. Life is busy for everyone these days but the stars may align. Be good to see what you and your boys have done to the e87.

[mototo]

Originally Posted by SgtChaos66

What oil are you running?

Castrol edge 5w-30. I stock up when it gets on sale
A bmw mech told me to to run the Ravenol 5w stuff rated for our engines. He swears by it for stopping lifter tick. He only uses ravenol for all the work he does to his and customer cars. On the odd occasion its really bad, he recommended Morey's engine oil additive.

My mate's 130i had very noisy lifter tick before I did an oil change to it. The castrol seems to have fixed it for him so far.

YMMV

https://strider.media/zg/16th-july-2022

well that was fun, nearly could not make it. was quite a last minute thing that the bunch of us decided to go. I was down in Melbourne for work and thanks to the goddamn awful flying situation, my friday night flight back to Sydney got cancelled and I only manage to fly back in satday morning. Got to the track late but still managed to cram 2 sessions in before a commodore spat diff oil all over the track.