Hea guys... New owner of a 135i

[GotBOOST??]

Picking it up tomorrow. What are some of the things i should do or any advice about the car would be appreciated. I will be doing mods to the ride anything i should look for in steps. I have been in the car scene since a little kid but it's my first time owning a BMW so I have been researching about the 135i. Also which is the better exhaust to have for street (not to loud but nice deep rumble). I'm kind of leaning on getting the Berk Street axle back. Thanks for the help in advance.

[dtla1]

Originally Posted by GotBOOST??

Picking it up tomorrow. What are some of the things i should do or any advice about the car would be appreciated. I will be doing mods to the ride anything i should look for in steps. I have been in the car scene since a little kid but it's my first time owning a BMW so I have been researching about the 135i. Thanks for the help in advance.

Replace the chargepipe.

[Raularango]

Originally Posted by dtla1

Replace the chargepipe.

What brand you recommend

[dtla1]

Originally Posted by Raularango

What brand you recommend

Anything is better than the plastic oem one. Personally I have one from ER, but from what I've heard, most/all are a safe bet.

[Raularango]

Originally Posted by dtla1

Anything is better than the plastic oem one. Personally I have one from ER, but from what I've heard, most/all are a safe bet.

Ok I was wondering if you can help me out I got new brake disc and brake pads just wondering if they will fit

[dtla1]

Originally Posted by Raularango

Ok I was wondering if you can help me out I got new brake disc and brake pads just wondering if they will fit

That number there starting with 34 is the part number. Put that string into google and add Bmw and you should be able to find it.

[Raularango]

Originally Posted by dtla1

That number there starting with 34 is the part number. Put that string into google and add Bmw and you should be able to find it.

Ok thanks I have new a battery do I have to code it in ?

[Campose82]

Congratulations and welcome to the club! Amazing cars specs on it? N54 or n55? As far as exhaust i would recommend berk race and catless downpipes.
Im n54 with middle cats still in decent sound but aggressive once you get on it.

[GotBOOST??]

Originally Posted by Campose82

Congratulations and welcome to the club! Amazing cars specs on it? N54 or n55? As far as exhaust i would recommend berk race and catless downpipes.
Im n54 with middle cats still in decent sound but aggressive once you get on it.

It's an N54 135. Berk Race would be a lot louder than street eh? I'm not looking for super loud but I want it to sound mean when i get on it

[Campose82]

Originally Posted by GotBOOST??

It's an N54 135. Berk Race would be a lot louder than street eh? I'm not looking for super loud but I want it to sound mean when i get on it

Originally Posted by GotBOOST??

It's an N54 135. Berk Race would be a lot louder than street eh? I'm not looking for super loud but I want it to sound mean when i get on it

Personally have not tested the street, are you looking to Remove cats? If not id say do race axle back its the "loudest" you can do without removing cats but still relatively tamed since all 4 cats are still im car.

[BMWGuy4852]

Don't do anything. The car will let you know when it needs something, LOL!

[Sanchez14]

I am a relatively new owner myself. Welcome! Mine had the Power Pack (PPK) and Performance Exhaust (PE) when I bought it, so I’m not touching anything power related for now. Sounds great and is plenty fast.

I can’t recommend the PE enough. Great tone when on the throttle, no droning on the freeway, and loud but not loud enough to annoy the neighbors when I leave the house early in the morning. Plus I’m in CA, so it passes smog and I’m too old to be swapping parts out just for inspections.

If you have a manual, start with these two things. 30 minutes of work and ~$30 to significantly improve shifting.
1. Remove the clutch delay valve (CDV) or install a bypass one from BMS. This is basically a necessity for all manual BMW’s. I just removed mine.
2. Add the BMS clutch stop. Less than 5 minutes to install including reading the instructions. I had to sand down the shaft a bit to fit, so took me maybe 15 minutes.

For me, the big weaknesses with our cars stock is various handling sloppiness issues. A lot of people want to jump to the big things, but I decided to start super small and go from there.

I’ve been doing little things one-by-one to improve the handling and driving experience. Here’s what I’ve done in the order I’ve done them.

Handling
- replaced the run flats with good summer tires. I went with some slightly used general gmax on the rear and Michelin Pilot sport 4s on the front. I might move to a wider square setup, so didn’t want to drop ~$1200 on new Michelin’s all around. $300 net after selling the Front RFT’s that still had good tread.
- picked up a used e93 sway bar for $100 and installed it. The e93 (convertible) one is a bit thicker in the middle than the e90 (sedan) and e92 (coupe), so be sure to do that. Noticeably reduced body roll, which sharpened turn in some.
- installed white line rear subframe bushings. These were $50 and maybe 90-120 minutes to install. Made a huge difference in the way the rear end feels, plus smoothed out shifts even more. Our cars are sloppy in the rear. Most importantly, it made me feel a lot more confident and I noticed I’m carrying 5-10mph more in canyon drive I do a couple times a month. This is likely all mental because the rear end is far more planted and less bouncy.

Lots of people will suggest replacing the entire rear subframe bushings, but this is a much larger job that requires special tools or requires a lot of labor from a shop. For $50 and two hours of time, I’m very happy with the inserts.

These three handling mods cost less than $500 and made a huge improvement from stock. I did them one-at-a-time and waited a couple weeks between each one, so that I could feel the incremental improvement of each.

Next on my list are the Monroe rear upper shock mounts to reduce rear end bounciness even more (~$35 and ~2 hours). Then I’ll do my first track day in the car and depending on how that goes, will do 1m/m3 front control arms, wider square wheels (likely Apex), or coilovers (likely Bilstein B14s as they seem to be a great value for mono tubes).

Hopefully this is helpful. Just wanted to share my experience and why I chose each change.

[dtla1]

Originally Posted by Sanchez14

Next on my list are the Monroe rear upper shock mounts to reduce rear end bounciness even more (~$35 and ~2 hours). Then I’ll do my first track day in the car and depending on how that goes, will do 1m/m3 front control arms, wider square wheels (likely Apex), or coilovers (likely Bilstein B14s as they seem to be a great value for mono tubes).

Hopefully this is helpful. Just wanted to share my experience and why I chose each change.

Would recommend you add the rear arm upgrade to your list.

I went in mostly the same order as you, but ended up replacing the inserts with the two piece whiteline subframe bushings. Changing the arms was a much bigger change in how planted the rear felt overall than the subframe bushing upgrade, for context.
Could also be that I made the change at 100K miles so the bushings in the old arms were a bit deteriorated, but from a visual inspection, not anything major or a big failure was seen on them.

[Afam28]

Originally Posted by Raularango

Ok thanks I have new a battery do I have to code it in ?

Yes...

[Raularango]

Originally Posted by Afam28

Yes...

Should I take it to bmw or ask my friend if I can borrow his scan tool

[GotBOOST??]

Originally Posted by Campose82

Personally have not tested the street, are you looking to Remove cats? If not id say do race axle back its the "loudest" you can do without removing cats but still relatively tamed since all 4 cats are still im car.

I might do the VRSF 3" HFC's down the road should i do Berk Street if i do that?

[Sanchez14]

Originally Posted by dtla1

Would recommend you add the rear arm upgrade to your list.

I went in mostly the same order as you, but ended up replacing the inserts with the two piece whiteline subframe bushings. Changing the arms was a much bigger change in how planted the rear felt overall than the subframe bushing upgrade, for context.
Could also be that I made the change at 100K miles so the bushings in the old arms were a bit deteriorated, but from a visual inspection, not anything major or a big failure was seen on them.

Honestly, rear control arms weren’t even on my radar. Thanks for the heads up. Mine only has 57k, so I wonder if it would make as much of a difference.

[dtla1]

Originally Posted by Sanchez14

Honestly, rear control arms weren’t even on my radar. Thanks for the heads up. Mine only has 57k, so I wonder if it would make as much of a difference.

Check out one of the best threads on here: OE vs M3 Rear Suspension Arms https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1079383

[Sanchez14]

Originally Posted by dtla1

Check out one of the best threads on here: OE vs M3 Rear Suspension Arms https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1079383

Wow, that’s an amazing thread. Bookmarked to read through the whole thread over the next few weeks.

[NorthernDancer]

Originally Posted by Raularango

Should I take it to bmw or ask my friend if I can borrow his scan tool

I can't recommend this strong enough. Join BMWCCA with affiliation to Peachtree Chapter near you in Roswell. Then you'll get access to all club members who know the absolute best BMW indy garages in your area. A used 135 can drain your wallet really really fast without using knowledgeable BMW (indy) technicians.
DONOT try to code your battery with a friends scan tool.
Oops, didn't realize this thread got high jacked. My comments were directed to OP, GotBOOST?

[Afam28]

Originally Posted by Raularango

Should I take it to bmw or ask my friend if I can borrow his scan tool

If you have the Carly app...
That should suffice...
I think there are a couple of other tools you can use...
But if you don't know how or who to go to then the dealer should suffice...
Or an indy shop, I don't think an autozone can do something like that(I could be wrong)...

[Raularango]

Originally Posted by Afam28

If you have the Carly app...
That should suffice...
I think there are a couple of other tools you can use...
But if you don't know how or who to go to then the dealer should suffice...
Or an indy shop, I don't think an autozone can do something like that(I could be wrong)...

Looking to get the Autel maxicom Bluetooth for 400 or 500 what scan tool you recommend