my 2009 128i base build

[summitp]

Grabbed a 2009 base 128i the other day. PO had a ton of work done on the motor by a shop in Jan, valve cover, valvetronic motor and seal, CCV, oil pan reseal, power steering lines, reservoir, radiator, etc... Engine runs super smooth. Did need a new belt and tensioner. I've got a new expansion tank to put in as well just because, well it sucks to get stranded, and i don't know when it was done last.
Suspension is pretty shot.
I've gotten to work. Trw M3 control arm kit up front. New tie rods. New belt and tensioner. Rear brake pads and rotors.
Due to the increased camber provided by the m3 lower arms, i performed a garage simple toe alignment. Yes there are better ways to do it, but this gets em pretty straight while waiting for the rest of the stuff to show up.

[summitp]

I found a nice set of blizzaks for $200 which is a score since the snow (yay!) keeps falling here in Utah, and i couldn't drive the car on the cheap ironman tires that had bulges in the sidewalls, seriously who buys that crap.

Ordered up a set of billy b14 pss for springs and shocks. The last piece arrives tonight and I'll get to work putting them in.

White line sub frame bushings are coming in the mail. My car has no rear sway bar, so I've got my eye out for a pair of m3 bars to toss in there and will do the bushings then to kill 2 birds with one stone.

Not my first bmw or enthusiast car, I've had several e30, a couple of e34 540/6 (awesome cars), a spec 944 race car back in the day, a 928, a 944 turbo (still have that) and like 5 different land cruisers and 4runners.

[summitp]

And just like that, the ups man shows up with the rest of the goodies so i can get cracking on it this evening, and a couple interior goodies. I didn't want to do the Zhp that everybody does, i know it's good... Had one in the 540i6.

Watch here tonight to see if i actually make any progress. I should go clean the snow off the car.........

[Blau]

This is how it's done. Get the car, nail the maintenance, enjoy the ride.

🙌🏽

[summitp]

.

[summitp]

Originally Posted by WeShallCallHerBlau

This is how it's done. Get the car, nail the maintenance, enjoy the ride.

🙌🏽

Aye

[summitp]

Making progress. No surprises yet.
Front is done. Dinner, then the back.

[summitp]

Done.
Need to raise the rear a bit, but it's bed time. On a test drive around the block, no clunks (that's an improvement right there!), felt nice and tight. I'll drive her to work tomorrow.
Need to schedule an alignment.
It's snowing again. I'll take more pics when it's not dark and snowing.

[summitp]

Nice drive to work. The rear end looks better on a level surface. The night shot last night was taken where the driveway stars to have some weird slopes.
What do you guys think? I hair higher in the back? Or leave it be? Looks pretty good.
Driving? These are very nice shocks and springs. I had b8 on my last e34 540i and hated them. Loved the Koni on the e34 540i before that. This Bilstein set is maybe the best riding setup I've put on a car in a long time. Smooth, nothing harsh, but very controlled, firm ride. Just one ride to work, and need an alignment, but i can tell, this is going to be a good setup.

[summitp]

Details yo.

The 1 hitter was looking janky from behind (where more and more people find themselves thanks to these SWEET shocks!) so a new third brake light went in. Bit of a pain in the ass if you ask me trimming out that center bit.
Put the knob and the Alcántara gaiter in...
Stepped outside for a few minutes right as the sun decided to poke through while it was still snowing. Pretty awesome. Utah rules.
One of the hubs had the stump of a rotor set screw left in it, so that was drilled out and tapped with clean threads. A new set screw or rotor retainer screw, whatever the hell you want to call it was liberally slathered with anti seize and put in.
A jack pad was missing from the pass side rear jack point... Not anymore...
And finally the gd air filter arrived and was installed. Breathe free my friend.

[summitp]

Ugh.
My back hurts just looking at it...

[summitp]

Didn't dive into the bushings. But. I saw this the other day, and the car runs fine, but this bugs me. Ever since I had an old 928, that was plagued by electrical problems, this has bugged me. On the 928, I found the ground strap looking like this, and upon cleaning it, and all ground points around the car, all the electrical gremlins, (well, most of them) went away, and stuff that didn't work started working again. So when I saw this, i had to do it just so it would quit bugging me.
It didn't fix my busted drivers side seat heater grumble grumble...
Edit.. maybe it did... Seat heaters worked both yesterday and today, twice today.

[Donkeyshins]

Originally Posted by summitp

Didn't dive into the bushings. But. I saw this the other day, and the car runs fine, but this bugs me. Ever since I had an old 928, that was plagued by electrical problems, this has bugged me. On the 928, I found the ground strap looking like this, and upon cleaning it, and all ground points around the car, all the electrical gremlins, (well, most of them) went away, and stuff that didn't work started working again. So when I saw this, i had to do it just so it would quit bugging me.
It didn't fix my busted drivers side seat heater grumble grumble...

Other than the cost (but hey, BMW), I'm surprised that they don't use woven silver wire instead of copper wire for the ground strap since silver oxide is almost as good of a conductor as silver (which is an excellent conductor).

[summitp]

I need a way to carry my bikes on this little 1 hitter. So i have my Thule rack leftover from my Mercedes e class. It needed a separate foot pack, so i bought the Thule specified 3039 foot pack.
Fit it up, and goddamn that is terrible fitment. I think they just figured e9x, eng, close enough and threw the 1 series coupe on there too. Fitment is terrible. Like really bad.
So i measured the amount it needed to drop at each corner and marked the plastic brackets, busted out the grinder, and cut them down. It did the trick. Rubber feet are now nice and tight against the body.
Seriously Thule, that is crap.

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by summitp

Didn't dive into the bushings. But. I saw this the other day, and the car runs fine, but this bugs me. Ever since I had an old 928, that was plagued by electrical problems, this has bugged me. On the 928, I found the ground strap looking like this, and upon cleaning it, and all ground points around the car, all the electrical gremlins, (well, most of them) went away, and stuff that didn't work started working again. So when I saw this, i had to do it just so it would quit bugging me.
It didn't fix my busted drivers side seat heater grumble grumble...
Edit.. maybe it did... Seat heaters worked both yesterday and today, twice today.

Curious to know what you used to clean it?

[summitp]

Vinegar and salt. Put as much salt into the vinegar as you can dissolve. Then have a separate mixture of water and baking soda prepared.
Soak the cable in the vinegar and salt solution. Swish it around. Get it in the braids, soak soak. Then, rinse it in the water and baking soda solution. This will neutralize the acid. Then rinse with water.
I then applied dielectric grease to the cable braids and connections.
It did not solve my seat heater issues. It seems that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
I did have great success with this fixing electrical gremlins on my old 928.

[mkeiser]

Originally Posted by summitp

I need a way to carry my bikes on this little 1 hitter. So i have my Thule rack leftover from my Mercedes e class. It needed a separate foot pack, so i bought the Thule specified 3039 foot pack.
Fit it up, and goddamn that is terrible fitment. I think they just figured e9x, eng, close enough and threw the 1 series coupe on there too. Fitment is terrible. Like really bad.
So i measured the amount it needed to drop at each corner and marked the plastic brackets, busted out the grinder, and cut them down. It did the trick. Rubber feet are now nice and tight against the body.
Seriously Thule, that is crap.

I might need to do this myself. I have the same Thule feet and the fitment bugs me so much! nice work. It's a lot of fun lugging around an XL mountain bike on the littler 1er

[summitp]

Yeah, I'm stoked for riding season and have been out on the road bike already a couple of times, and picked up a used Yeti sb6 in Jan. Weather this weekend definitely turned nice today, sunny, 50 degrees... But... There is so much snow up there. I drove the one hitter up to snow basin (and that was fun) with the 10 gear old, and we went bombing around the mountain with a couple buddies. Used the gps watch to check top speed on a couple of the runs and hit 52 miles an hour on my little pea shooter public enemies. Ski season is entering my favorite phase. Powder storm days and sun burn ass hauling groomer days.

All that talk about nice weather, and my car is sitting on blizzak snow tires. So imagine my pleasure when i arrived home from skiing to see these on my front stoop. Hell yeah!
Gotta order some tires tonight.
The wheels are d-force ltw5 17x8 et40 for a square setup. I am planning on sticking some 225/45/17 Firestone Indy 500 on there. Decent plan right?

[rick_flying_machine]

Thanks for sharing your progress!

I also have the same whiteline bag sitting in my garage that I've been pushing out on installing. I'd really be interested in seeing how you plan on attacking that job.

I hope it can be done without removing the brake lines and exhaust, but haven't found a good detailed DIY as most people install inserts.

[Almuliman]

Originally Posted by rick_flying_machine

Thanks for sharing your progress!

I also have the same whiteline bag sitting in my garage that I've been pushing out on installing. I'd really be interested in seeing how you plan on attacking that job.

I hope it can be done without removing the brake lines and exhaust, but haven't found a good detailed DIY as most people install inserts.

Me too. I have the bushing removal tool, but haven't gotten around to doing it yet. I've saved a couple of relevant threads from here for when I get to it: https://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=875885 and https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show...1&postcount=41.

[summitp]

Originally Posted by rick_flying_machine

Thanks for sharing your progress!

I also have the same whiteline bag sitting in my garage that I've been pushing out on installing. I'd really be interested in seeing how you plan on attacking that job.

I hope it can be done without removing the brake lines and exhaust, but haven't found a good detailed DIY as most people install inserts.

I'm waiting on the sway bars to arrive before I do it, that way I can bolt up the rear sway at the same time. Being a base 128i, I have no rear sway right now.

Maybe I'm an optimist, but I don't think it will be too bad. I'm gonna use the torch, big socket, and jack method.

[summitp]

17x8 et40 d-force ltw5
225/45/17 Firestone Indy 500
Just a shorty test drive, but no rubbing noted yet. No fender roll, no spacers. Alignment pin knocked out. Camber as far as it will go without plates. Bilstein B14 height adjustable suspension. M3 front control arms.