C-R12's 2012 Alpine White 6/MT 128i Build Thread

[C-R12]

Hey everyone, wanted to share my car with you all and also have a place where I can document the things that I do it over time. I've had the car for a few months now and it's been so insane. I love driving it every time I get behind the wheel

Specs
Year and Model: 2012 128i 6/MT
Color: Alpine White over black
Mileage at purchase: 130,598
Price: $12,995 (kinda expensive, but better than not having the car at all)
Purchase pics:







Backstory
I was looking to get a sports car under 15k that had a manual, so I was doing all the research I could on the different options available to me. I wanted something that handled well, was reliable, and had some mod support.

For the longest, I was really trying to buy an FRS/BRZ, but one of my friends threw out the idea of me buying an E36 M3 while we were at cars and coffee. I had an E36 vert in high school and I was a big fan of it, so I looked into M3's and realized that clean ones were out of my budget. However, I decided to keep looking at BMWs and eventually landed on the E82. I watched a lot of videos that talked about how great the 128i is for all the reasons we all know, and it checked all of my boxes: reliability in the N52, good handling due to the chassis and hydraulic steering, and since the E8x platform shares a lot of parts with the E9x platform, there are a lot of different mods you can do. The interior/features you could get with a well optioned 1 series also just smokes anything you can get on a sub 15k FRS/BRZ.

Once I locked in on buying a 128i, I began my search. I looked at Autotrader, Autotempest and FB Marketplace almost every day for months and saw maybe 6 or 7 manual 128s during that time. I wanted an LCI (so I could have angel eyes), m-sport, with a nav system and comfort access, so I knew I would be looking for a unicorn. Over time, I came to realize that m-sport and comfort access were both extremely uncommon options when a manual 128i came up for sale, so I was ready to settle for a car without those.

Eventually, a black 2009 manual 128i came up for sale in NW Georgia at a Hyundai dealership and even though it wasn't an m-sport and didn't have comfort access, I was getting antsy, so I was ready to jump on it. Since you've already read the title of this thread, you know that I clearly wasn't fast enough since I have a completely different car, but when I called about it the day after I saw it, the dealership told me that they had sent the car to auction.

I was hurt. I had built up buying this car for so long, and one finally came up near me, but I hesitated, and it got away. I called the dealership back the next day to ask what auction the car got sent to and got the name, only to find out that it was at a dealer only auction. In that moment I was ready to give up the search, and just become a sad, sad FRS boy, but my resolve was too strong, so I was back on Autotrader later that afternoon, and I saw a 2012 Alpine White manual 128i at a small dealership even closer to me in GA.

It was more expensive than the 2009, and according to the VIN, it was optioned with the m-sport suspension, but it didn't have the bumpers which was the main reason why I wanted an m-sport. However, it was an LCI with comfort access and a nav system, so since I didn't want to get burned again, I immediately called the dealer and scheduled an appointment to see it before the day was over.

After the call, I sat back and thought about everything that was happening. This was it! My search was finally over, and I'd get one of the cars I'd been spending so much time searching for. There was only one problem. I didn't know how to drive manual. How was I going to test drive the car?

The same friend that got me to look at BMWs came to the rescue. He left work early and drove a few hours out of his way to come meet me at the dealer. When I got to the dealer, the guy showed me the car and also told me that he got a black 2009 one in earlier that day too. I was shook. What were the odds that the car I was ready to buy earlier was also here too?

Side by side, I immediately realized how much nicer the 2012 one was compared to the 2009, so I felt like fate had stepped in to steer (ha ha ha) me towards the car that was a better fit for me. My friend got to the dealership a little later and looked over the car with me. When it was time for the test drive, he drove it while I rode in the passenger seat. Even though I wasn't driving, the car felt great and there weren't any obvious issues we could spot. After the test drive, I knew I was going to buy the car, so I began the process of getting everything in place to buy it. We test drove it on Wednesday and I was prepared to purchase by Friday.

Thursday was the longest day of my life because I was so afraid that the car was going to sell before I could buy it. The seller had told me that he'd been receiving calls all day about the car and other people had come to see it the same day I first test drove it. At the time, from what I could tell from searching online, this was the only 128i of this spec for sale in the country wasn't at a private seller, so even if I was getting hit with a sales tactic, I was inclined to believe him because I knew how uncommon these cars were.

Friday finally came around and I left work on my lunch to go check on the car. It was still there. 30 minutes later, I was finally holding the keys.



I was so hyped when I sat in the car after the purchase. It was my first car that I bought with my own money as an adult, and I immediately started thinking about all the things I could do with it. Then I remembered that I still didn't know how to drive manual.

Fast forward to Saturday and my friend came to the rescue again and drove the car home for me. We got lunch and then he started teaching me how to drive in a bus station parking lot. While I was behind the wheel, the car spent more time sitting still stalled out than moving, but after a few days of constant practice I was out on the road. Fast forward to now, and I've taken the car on a few long road trips and have been semi-daily driving it to work, and it's been amazing.

Even though the car feels great to me now, mechanically, it's still stock, so there's a lot of room for improvement. It's time for me to get building.

What's been done?

• Oil change (Liquimoly 5w-40), air filter change (Mann), and cabin air filter (Mann) change at 131,134 miles
• Homelink rearview mirror with auto-dimming retrofit
• Mr12Volt to add support for Android Auto/Apple Carplay
• 135i gauge cluster swap so I can monitor oil temperature
• Transmission fluid and differential fluid (Redline 75w90) change at 132,767 miles
• M-sport bumper swap from a 135i part out

What's coming up?

• Water pump replacement - Based off the records I have, there's been no documented change of the pump, so I feel like I'm on borrowed time, so I want to change this soon
• Oil Filter Housing Gasket replacement - It's leaking slightly, and my plan is to change it while I do the water pump since the coolant will need to be drained anyway
• New wheels and tires - I'm still on the stock 17in runflats and I've read on here about how bad these tires are for handling, so I'm interested in seeing how big of a difference getting on to some different tires will be. I'm a huge fan of the new Apex ML-10s in silver, so I'm looking into getting an 18in set of those with some all-season tires. I'm currently looking at Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires since I've seen some good reviews on here about those.
• Suspension refresh? - Everything suspension wise on the car is stock. The shop I took the car to for a rotation told me that I need new control arms, so of course I started looking at the M3 control arm upgrade because why not? Whenever I do this, I'd also like to the rear subframe bushing upgrade with Whiteline inserts and then I'll also need to figure out what I'll do for the shocks/springs on the car. I've been reading that a lot of people on here upgrade the shocks, but keep the m-sport springs to keep the ride from becoming too harsh

Current Pics (Jan 2025)

[ZHPizza]

This is awesome. I have a ton of respect for you for both buying and car you weren't actually able to drive and being so candid about it here. Congrats on taking a leap and getting into an awesome collector vehicle!

[tracer bullet]

Agreed, great car and congrats! FWIW it looks like your list of stuff to do next is solid. I wouldn't disagree with a single bit of it.

By now the struts / shocks will almost guaranteed be ready to replace, and any and all of the ball joints are suspect. Not necessarily guaranteed bad, but worth scrutinizing.

If you get a wiggly rubber band feeling from the back end at times, add RSFB to your list of potential future work. Rear Subframe Bushings.

Again, congrats, it's an awesome car.

[C-R12]

Originally Posted by ZHPizza

This is awesome. I have a ton of respect for you for both buying and car you weren't actually able to drive and so candid about it here. Congrats on taking a leap and getting into an awesome collector vehicle!

Thank you! Definitely glad I took the leap because this has become one of my best ever decisions

[C-R12]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

Agreed, great car and congrats! FWIW it looks like your list of stuff to do next is solid. I wouldn't disagree with a single bit of it.

By now the struts / shocks will almost guaranteed be ready to replace, and any and all of the ball joints are suspect. Not necessarily guaranteed bad, but worth scrutinizing.

If you get a wiggly rubber band feeling from the back end at times, add RSFB to your list of potential future work. Rear Subframe Bushings.

Again, congrats, it's an awesome car.

Thank you! I've gotten the wiggle when hitting bumps at speed a few times, so will look into RSFBs. From the research I've done, I think I'd go the insert route since they look to be easier to install

[C-R12]

Got the new wheels in today! Went with a squared 18x8.5" ET40 Apex ML-10RT in Brushed Clear setup. Super excited to get them on the car soon. They came with black center caps, but I'm currently planning on rocking the blue ones

[j0000stin]

following! Love the wheel setup. Are you still on stock suspension, it looks lower than stock and please post pics of the wheels once they're mounted.

[cerealwars]

Yooo this thread is great! Congrats on your car. Well-earned for sure. Love that pic where you're holding the key.

Like you, I was planning to be a sad sad FRS-boy for a long while while I was saving. But then I remembered the 128i exists! A MUCH nicer car to daily at a hefty discount.

FYI I did 034 Motorsports aluminum RSFB inserts. After reading enough threads of people reporting back saying their whitelines had sogged out, I found these aluminum ones. Been on them for over a year now and they still feel great. Just another option.

[C-R12]

Originally Posted by j0000stin

following! Love the wheel setup. Are you still on stock suspension, it looks lower than stock and please post pics of the wheels once they're mounted.

When I looked at the vin decoded build sheet after I bought the car, it said I had the m-sport suspension, but I haven't looked at the suspension myself to validate. I'm planning to get the wheels mounted later today so I should have some updated pics soon

[C-R12]

Originally Posted by cerealwars

Yooo this thread is great! Congrats on your car. Well-earned for sure. Love that pic where you're holding the key.

Like you, I was planning to be a sad sad FRS-boy for a long while while I was saving. But then I remembered the 128i exists! A MUCH nicer car to daily at a hefty discount.

FYI I did 034 Motorsports aluminum RSFB inserts. After reading enough threads of people reporting back saying their whitelines had sogged out, I found these aluminum ones. Been on them for over a year now and they still feel great. Just another option.

Bro I'm so glad I didn't actually join FRS gang because I'd probably still be trying to unmod someone else's car instead of making the changes I'd actually want to make like I'm doing now. The 128i has been great in that aspect

Thanks for the congrats too! I need to look into those inserts because I haven't done any research on them. I know some people have concerns about additional noise when changing their RSFBs, so did these make a noticeable difference for you there? I'm kinda concerned about doing mods that make car louder/harsher on the inside, but also at the same time my other car is a 2011 sonata with 260k miles and the suspension that is absolutely busted so I honestly don't even think I'd notice a difference if I went to something harsher in the bmw

[cerealwars]

Originally Posted by C-R12

Bro I'm so glad I didn't actually join FRS gang because I'd probably still be trying to unmod someone else's car instead of making the changes I'd actually want to make like I'm doing now. The 128i has been great in that aspect

Agreed 100%! I couldn't find a twin that I wanted to touch for less than $18k. Take that out of context lol.

Originally Posted by C-R12

Thanks for the congrats too! I need to look into those inserts because I haven't done any research on them. I know some people have concerns about additional noise when changing their RSFBs, so did these make a noticeable difference for you there? I'm kinda concerned about doing mods that make car louder/harsher on the inside, but also at the same time my other car is a 2011 sonata with 260k miles and the suspension that is absolutely busted so I honestly don't even think I'd notice a difference if I went to something harsher in the bmw

lol, hell yeah to high mileage cheap cars.

The RSFB inserts have a shockingly low impact on NVH. Like, basically none. Unless I really tried to notice, I wouldn't. I would never know that the car was modified if it simply came this way from the factory (and it probably should have). Even in a lowly 128, the torque on launches causes the entire rear subframe to squirm around. Downright dangerous if you ask me, I'm blown away that this was a "solution" to something. Now, during slip angle, I can trust that the car will go where I point it.

[C-R12]

Originally Posted by C-R12

When I looked at the vin decoded build sheet after I bought the car, it said I had the m-sport suspension, but I haven't looked at the suspension myself to validate. I'm planning to get the wheels mounted later today so I should have some updated pics soon

Got unlucky and the tires didn't get delivered, so will have to wait until I'm back from vacation before I can update

[C-R12]

Originally Posted by cerealwars

Agreed 100%! I couldn't find a twin that I wanted to touch for less than $18k. Take that out of context lol.



lol, hell yeah to high mileage cheap cars.

The RSFB inserts have a shockingly low impact on NVH. Like, basically none. Unless I really tried to notice, I wouldn't. I would never know that the car was modified if it simply came this way from the factory (and it probably should have). Even in a lowly 128, the torque on launches causes the entire rear subframe to squirm around. Downright dangerous if you ask me, I'm blown away that this was a "solution" to something. Now, during slip angle, I can trust that the car will go where I point it.

Lol facts and I'm going to seriously look into the aluminum bushings then because I'd ideally like to only have to do this job once. Excited to get rid of the wiggly rear end. I've been getting more comfortable with the car and driving manual so I've been driving it harder recently and I've experienced the rear stepping out on me a decent amount now

[C-R12]

Was able to get the wheels put on the car! I think they're so insane. I absolutely love how they look on the car. I followed the Apex recommendations for a square setup and went with a set of 225/40/18 Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4s







From my initial impressions, the handling on the car is definitely better than what it was with the run flats. The ride feels smoother to me as well. I also may be imaging things, but I feel like the car is also more nimble, which I'm thinking is due to the new wheels being much lighter than the oem ones I've taken off. One downside that I'm experiencing now though is when I hit some bumps at speed, I can hear the tires hit the wheel liner in what I think is on the front passenger side. I'm thinking that this is due to the suspension being worn and me having larger wheels now that there isn't as much space for the wheel to travel like there was before. I guess this means I'll need to bump up my timeline for suspension work

My parts for replacing my water pump and oil filter housing gasket also got here this week, so I'm excited to learn how to do both of those jobs. FCP accidentally sent me 4 water pumps, so I'm really hoping this isn't ominous foreshadowing of the fate of my bmw's cooling system

[Hlsilver]

Those wheels look great!
I'm going on two years since getting rid of my ZHP and moving to an 86 and while the chassis is absolutely fantastic, the dull motor really has me looking to get back into a BMW, ideally a 6MT 128i.

[C-R12]

Thank you! I haven't had a chance to drive any of the 86 twins, but based off my experience with the 128i I don't think you'd be disappointed by the 6MT at all

[C-R12]

Ok so haven't updated this thread like I planned to, but there have been a lot of changes since I've last posted!

Everything is done now, and I've learned a ridiculous amount, but since my plan was to provide updates with how things were going as I was going through them, I wrote this for my future self to look back on to see my growth and where things started, but this is also for anyone else that reads through my thread. I'm going to write as if I was back in the moment and try to convey my thoughts and feelings about things as they were happening to me. The tenses will probably be off, but my days in English class are over, so let's go

Job #1 - Oil Filter Housing Gasket (OFHG) and Water Pump replacement
Start: 3/8/25
End: 3/18/25

When I bought the car and got my pre-purchase inspection, the shop I went to included quotes for the things they found that they felt that I needed to repair. The first of these was the OFHG at $946.55 - $46.59 for the gasket and 899.96 for labor - Since I bought this car to learn how to work on cars, fixing the oil leak made sense as a reasonable place to start. Based off the documentation that I had on the car, I also couldn't tell if the water pump ($1500 replacement quote from the shop) had been done previously, so at 130k miles it was more than enough time for it to be changed too. After some research, I learned that doing both jobs at the same time would be ideal since there's some shared work, so that's how this became my first ever repair that's more involved than an oil change.

March 8: I woke up and made the trip over to Harbor Freight for the missing tools that I needed.



This cart was a little more than $450 and I was so shook because the cart wasn't that full, and I thought I already had a lot of tools at home. When I got home, I decided I'd start with the OFHG because in the videos I watched it seemed like the easiest thing to knock out. I honestly thought that I could knock it out in a couple hours as a good warm up repair and then start on the water pump later in the day.

I was so wrong.

A common theme throughout this entire repair saga is that I would underestimate how long a job would take and I would overestimate how good of a mechanic I was. I think part of this feeling was because I'd watch a video of a repair and the person would zoom through. I'm smart enough to realize that things are cut, the people have more experience than me, have better tools, other people helping, etc. but even then, I still felt like some of the repairs were way harder than the videos made them seem.

Seeing forum posts where people claim they finished a job in 15 minutes while blindfolded and drinking a beer also made think that repairs would take me less time, but also, I think the same caveats as above apply here too. I will say that as I got more experience and better tools that my repair times dropped significantly, so to anyone reading this that's also new to working on cars: Bro things take way longer than you'd think. Ok, aside over, let's jump back to the past

Taking the oil filter housing off was way harder than I expected. After fighting with hoses and relearning righty-tighy, lefty-loosey a few times, I finally was able to get the housing off towards the end of the night. My mickey mouse flange wasn't in great shape, so I was glad that saw all the advice on replacing the flange with aluminum.









The next day I started with taking the oil pressure switch off the housing. I didn't have the correct wrench to take it off, so I had to make a quick run to Home Depot. In every video I watched, it came off super easy, in my case, it felt like it was glued on. When I finally got the switch off, I let out the weirdest groan I've ever made and I'm only including this here because it's a sound I'll never forget, but I was really excited to finally have my first part off the car.

I cleaned up the housing, put the new switch on, swapped the gasket and replaced my mickey mouse flange with an aluminum one.





When I was replacing the housing, I was able to torque 2 of the 3 bolts properly, but I wasn't able to torque the 3rd bolt next to the mickey mouse flange because the flange was in the way. Since I had such a hard time getting the flange to seat properly, I didn't want to take it off again, so I hoped that 2 of the 3 and tight enough would be good enough to hold coolant. Take your guess on if it was enough

Now it was time to start on the water pump. Swapping the expansion tank was easy, but the moment I got underneath the car and started looking at coolant hoses, I quickly became overwhelmed.



Luckily, I had called one of my friends that has a lot more car repair experience than me the night before and asked for help, so I waited for him to come over. He also brought a friend, and we made a lot of progress on removing the hoses once they got here. Whenever I learn something new, I'm pretty rigid, so I follow the exact process that was shown to me and once I get more experience, I start to deviate more and make optimizations. In this situation, I was trying to use a flathead screwdriver to remove the hose clamps and trying to do this while laying upside down on my back went about as well as you'd expect. When my friends came to help, they roasted me and then showed me that I could use a 6mm socket to loosen the clamps and I was mind-blown.

We ended the night by getting all the way to removing the large connector on the water pump, but it was extremely difficult to remove. After the 3 of us took turns trying to remove it, while also being careful to not damage the wires, we decided to call it a night.

After work the next day, it was time to get back to work. My friends came back over to help, and we were finally able to finally get the electrical connector off, but the housing was pretty beat up. From there, replacing the pump, tstat and hoses went quickly. Around midnight we were starting to wrap up and were discussing our Cookout orders that we were going to get to celebrate.



As I was putting the radiator fan back in, my friend lifted the upper expansion tank hose to help give me more space to slide the radiator fan in and after barely lifting it, the hose snapped.

Pain.

I genuinely could feel tears coming, I was so distraught. I put my hands on my head and walked down the driveway some to collect my thoughts and then I was good. I was upset because we were at the finish line and because I really wanted Cookout, but I also knew that without my friends helping, I'd still be stuck under the car because the job was a little too much for me to handle. The hose breaking so easily also meant that me lifting it the first time to remove the radiator fan was lucky, and it was probably going to break soon anyway.





I told my friend that I didn't blame him and that everything was good, and since we've known each other since college, he's seen me down bad multiple times, so he knew things were ok as well. Since it was late and we had to go to work the next day, he proceeded to play taps off Spotify, gave me a long salute, then got in his car and left

My other friend was spending the night, so he offered to help me install the ZHP shifter that I bought to help me feel better. It didn't take long to install, it looked sick, and the difference in shifter feel was nice, so I ended the night on a high note.



The next day, I ordered a new expansion tank hose, upper radiator hose, and M3 front control arms. The control arms showed up quickly, but it wasn't until after my trip to Chicago for St. Patrick's Day that I was able to get the new hoses.

When I came back from the trip, I took an evening to put on the new hoses. Removing the old upper radiator hose sucked, but after the expansion tank hose broke the week before, all light had left my eyes, so I wasn't surprised. After replacing the hoses, I poured some distilled water into the expansion tank to test my work, and water leaked from the OFHG, so I learned 2 out of 3 wasn't good enough.

It took me one more day to wrap everything up. I had to remove the mickey mouse flange again to properly torque the bolt on the front of the housing. It was good that I had to remove the flange because I actually ended up ripping the o-ring that went around it while I originally installed it. Luckily, I bought extra o-rings and I was able to reseat the flange properly and I didn't try to force it like I did before. I poured in more distilled water and there was no leak, so I proceeded to bleed the system. Things went smoothly, so I started the car for the first time in forever to let it idle and come up to temp. As soon as the car got to about 230F, the lower U hose to the water pump started to leak. After another drain, and a reseating and retightening of the hose clamp, I repeated the process and everything held.

Total Parts Cost (FCP)

• Oil change kit, water pump replacement kit, OFHG kit, expansion tank + cap, replacement hoses, ZHP shift knob: $1,174.88

Job takeaways

• I'm not good at working on cars yet, so I need to expect things to take way longer
• Gym strength != Pulling random heat cycled parts off a car strength
• Torquing things inside of the engine is important
• This car is old and slightly rusty, so I need to expect for things to break

[C-R12]

Job #2 - M3 Front Control Arms and Apex Wheel Studs
Start: 3/22/25
End: 3/26/25

Installing the wheel studs from Apex was actually as easy as all the videos and forum posts made it seem. It took me about 2 hours on a Saturday morning to knock them out. I rented a thread restoration kit from AutoZone, to ensure the studs had clean threads to go into, and the only hiccup I had was that my T30 bit broke while trying to torque one of the wheel studs down. Luckily, I bought a pack of spare lug nuts to install my wheel studs using the double nut method, so I was able to tighten the rest of them down without any issues.







The shop that did my pre-purchase inspection also noticed that my front upper control arms were leaking fluid. They quoted a total of $1,051.67 - $451.70 for driver and passenger front upper arms and $599.97 for labor. By doing the arms myself, I would be able to upgrade the upper and lower arms for cheaper than the part price they quoted. I started with the M3 control arms on Sunday, and I faced my first stuck component. While trying to remove the passenger lower control arm, the female torx on the control arm stripped. Since I could no longer counter hold the arm, I couldn't remove the nut without everything spinning.





I went back to Home Depot and bought a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade. I'm also extremely extremely cheap, so I also bought a small hacksaw. My thought process was that if I could cut the bolt with the hacksaw, then I could take the reciprocating saw back and save money. I also thought it would be kinda cool to say that I cut through metal with my hands.



I told myself that if after trying to saw the bolt for 15 minutes if I didn't make much progress, I'd switch over to the power tool. I made pretty decent progress, so I decided to stick with the hacksaw, but my arms started getting tired, and I'm dumb, so I didn't consistently saw at the same place on the bolt, so it took me about an hour in total to finally cut through everything.



What a waste of time.

When I finished, I was hype to be done, but then I just thought to myself about how much time I wasted. I thought about what I did, I realized that my friends that aren't into cars probably wouldn't care that I sawed this thing off by hand, and then my friends that have worked on their own cars would just ask me why I didn't just use the power tool and save myself a bunch of time.

There wasn't really anything else eventful that happened with the front control arm install. I finished the rest of the passenger side on Monday, then went out and bought an impact gun on Wednesday after realizing that counter holding these arms over and over kinda sucks, and I was able to do the entire drivers side extremely quickly once I decided to embrace technology.

Late that night, I tried driving the car and the experience of barely turning the wheel, but the car wanting to go to full lock was weird. When I could get the car pointed straight, I really liked how it drove compared to what I had before, and I liked the extra feedback in the wheel.

My goal was to drive my car back to my hometown for Easter, so I took the car to get an alignment the next week but unfortunately wasn't able to get it done. My tie rods were rusty, and the shop ended up breaking off the adjustment screw on the driver's side, so the alignment couldn't be done. Due to the tariff announcement, I had already gone and purchased everything else that I wanted to do to the car suspension wise just because I wasn't sure what was going to happen to part prices. At best, prices would stay the same and at worst, they'd go way up, so since I already had budgeted for the parts I needed, I went and bought:

• Ohlins Road and Track coilovers
• Lemforder rear control arm kit, tie rod kit, front and rear swaybar endlinks, shock mounts, and strut mounts
• Whiteline subframe bushing inserts
• Monroe shock mount kit
• Misc BMW shock/strut washers, gaskets, and grommets

The owner of the shop came out to talk to me about everything and explain the situation. They didn't charge anything, and then he also was like why pay for an alignment now just to have to pay for another once I installed all the other suspension pieces. He also advised me to get camber plates now since it'd be easy to install them once I did the coilovers instead of needing to take a lot of things apart later if I decided to add them later. It was probably for the best that I didn't get the alignment done since I was able to take that money and buy camber plates instead. Here's what my alignment was at the time



Total Parts Cost (FCP)

- Lemforder M3 control arm upgrade kit and BMW suspension control arm bolt kit : $373.42

Job takeaways

• If I have to take something off and I can use a power tool to take it off and not damage anything, I'm using the power tool every time
• If I need to pull another part off to make it easier to reach a bolt I need to remove, it's worth it to remove the part just to save myself time and headache trying to reach the bolt in a more uncomfortable way
• PB Blaster is so op

[C-R12]

Job #3 - Tie Rods
Start: 4/8/25
End: 4/12/25

Once everything showed up, I started with the tie rods first so that I could self-align the car and start driving it again. Removing the passenger side was pretty easy. The inner part of the tie rod gave me trouble, but nothing as bad as the stuck control arm bolt. I could tell that I was getting better at wrenching because my pace was picking up, and I spent a lot less time constantly rewinding the diy videos to try and understand what I needed to do to remove a part.





On Friday I knocked out the passenger swaybar endlink and tried to take off the drivers side tie rod. The outer came off easily, but the inner side gave me a lot of trouble. The channel locks I was using weren't getting a good grip and PB Blaster wasn't coming to my rescue. After doing some research, I saw a lot of recommendations to use a pipe wrench and to also get a torch to remove the inner bolt. My friends had been telling me that I probably needed to buy a torch for the longest, but I was trying to see how long I could go without buying another tool.

Saturday, I went to Home Depot and bought a torch but bought a larger set of channel locks instead of a pipe wrench because the pliers were a few dollars cheaper. A few more hours of trying to get the inner bolt off with no luck later, I had to stop to go run errands. While I was driving around, I opened a bottle of water and as I opened the cap, I realized that since I was laying upside down, I actually had been tightening the bolt instead of loosening it. Once I finished my errands, I bought a pipe wrench and after heating the inner bolt and spraying some PB Blaster on it while it was hot, I barely had to turn the bolt, and it came loose.

The level of happiness I felt after I got the tie rod off was insane. I took a quick break to eat dinner and then pulled an all-nighter to put the drivers side back together, perform an alignment, and do a quick road test before taking a nap and driving back to my hometown for Easter. The car drove exponentially better than when it was unaligned and the clunks that I had up front were gone as well.





Total Parts Cost (FCP)

• Lemforder tie rod kit, front and rear swaybar endlinks: $219.93

Job takeaways

• You can use one tool to do a lot of things, but having the specific tool for a specific situation makes things so much easier
• My cheapness when it comes to buying tools has costed me so much time

[C-R12]

Job #4 - Rear subframe bushing inserts and Rear control arms
Start: 4/20/25
End: 4/26/25

I didn't get any parts quotes from the shop on anything in the rear during my PPI, so not sure exactly how much money I saved by doing these jobs myself, but while I was home for Easter, all I could think about was the BMW and driving it again.

Even though I stayed up all night getting things together, I didn't drive it back home because I still didn't fully trust that my coolant system was solid after the water pump replacement since I had barely driven the car since the U hose leak. I got back on the 20th and immediately unpacked and started on the subframe bushing inserts.

I keep repeating myself, but I was so much faster at working on the car compared to the last job. I did the full job that evening and this was even with me inserting the rear upper inserts incorrectly. I drove the car, and I could feel a slight difference in how the rear felt, but I honestly think that I didn't drive the car hard enough to notice all the things people have claimed inserts improve with the driving experience.





Work was busy, so I couldn't start on the rear control arms until Friday. I had another trip back home coming up at the beginning of May, so I wanted to finish the car as quickly as I could so I could schedule another alignment and have things ready to drive it back and show everyone. Our release went super late, so I didn't get out to the garage until around 10pm and I really really didn't want to work on the car.

I hadn't eaten dinner, and I was crazy tired, but I forced myself to go out to the car so I could make progress. I figured I'd need about two days to do the passenger side, and then I could probably one-shot the drivers side on Sunday since I'd know what to do. I pulled my car up on to the ramps, and started jacking up the rear to put on to stands. I tested that the car was solid and wouldn't fall or move, but then I thought about how I would probably need a little bit more space under the car to have enough room to get my 1/2 torque wrench underneath and get leverage on the bolts to tighten things properly.

I decided that I needed to lift the car up from the lowest notch on my stands to one level higher. I had read somewhere on here months ago that I should try not to lift the car from the diff, and that lifting from the subframe right in front of the diff is better since you won't damage it. As I was bent over jacking up the car, I started thinking about how the rear of the car was lifted up kinda high and that I should for sure be high enough to get to the next level on the jackstands.

As I went to go check, the car started rolling backwards and I jumped out of the way. The car pushed the jack through the wall of the garage, but I was able to push the car forward a little bit since the rear was still lifted up. I dropped the car to the floor and then went inside to collect myself.





This was one of the dumbest moments of my life. I hadn't told anyone I was working on the car, and I had my phone across the garage on the table, so I was extremely fortunate I was able to react quick enough to move out of the way of the car, and I'm glad I wasn't laying down while lifting the car because things could've gone a lot worse. Realistically the car didn't roll that car off the ramps and wasn't in danger of completely rolling through the wall of the garage, but my tiredness caused me not to chock the front wheels or at least put it in gear to help prevent the rollback.

I sat on the couch and texted people to let them know what happened and then also ate dinner. Everyone was glad for my safety but also cautioned me against working so much while I was tired, since this wasn't the first time I worked on the car late at night after working all day. You'd think that after having a near-death experience I'd stop for the night, but I'm dumb and stubborn and I really wanted to hit my deadline, so I went back out and started on the rear arms. Jacking up the car again honestly had me a little traumatized, but I got the passenger rears removed. It took me awhile because I couldn't focus too well and due to that, I also snapped my rear brake pad wear sensor. While following the FCP video, I guess I did something out of order because the rear upper arm ripped straight through it when I loosened the outer bolt. I thought it was my brake line at first and freaked out, but after I collected myself, I realized it was something not as bad. Overall, a pretty terrible night of working on the car







I slept in late on Saturday to recover, and I promised myself that I wouldn't work on the car anymore if I was too tired to focus properly. I wouldn't try to be a hero and push through since the consequences aren't worth it. I reinstalled the passenger side and then was able to finish the driver's side on Sunday. Aligning the bolts for one of the upper arms on the drivers rear through the hub was a little annoying, but other than that the install wasn't nearly as hard once I was rested. When I drove the car again, it was back out of alignment, but the rear felt substantially tighter.

Total Parts Cost (FCP)

• Lemforder rear control arm kit, and Whiteline subframe bushing inserts: $663.81

Job takeaways

• If you're tired stop working. It's not worth it, and lack of focus costs you a lot of time
• Triple check all safety precautions when lifting up the car. Tell people when you're working on the car

[C-R12]

Job #5 - Ohlins Road and Track coilovers
Start: 5/1/25
End: 5/4/25

I finally can see the finish line. I just had to get the coilovers installed and then I'd be able to drive my car again. I scheduled my alignment appointment for the 5th, so I knew I could take my time with the install, but since my trip back home was on the 6th, I needed to get things done. I was really excited to start on the coilovers because as I did more suspension work, I became more aware of how blown out my old shocks were. My Sonata with 270k miles had a less crashy ride.

As usual, I started with the passenger side, and the rear strut and spring was straightforward to install. I went slowly and took about 4 hours to get things removed and put back together. There weren't many videos on installing the Ohlins and the instructions weren't the best, so I did a lot of rewinding on the one video I found, and looked at the ECS coilover install video too.





On Friday I installed the drivers rear and then took time to start putting together the front struts with the new Dinan fixed camber plates. I ended up using Swift Springs (Z65-178-060) for the front instead of the Ohlins front springs since while I was home, I stumbled across an amazing thread by fe1rx on their experience with the Ohlins https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show...=956039&page=2. Since I was now on 18in wheels instead of the stock 17in wheels, I would also run into clearance issues if I didn't change to a shorter front spring.

Saturday, I knocked out the passenger front. I needed to use my impact to take apart my old front strut to get the strut washer from it since I somehow was able to buy everything else for the car except for that. Taking off the front caliper also gave me some issues, but the Ryobi recipricating saw box (still unopened btw) came in clutch because I was able to use it to hold the caliper up while I moved the strut. It was pretty unnerving seeing how far I had to lower the front suspension of the car to remove the strut, but I'm also glad I installed the M3 control arms because I only had to loosen the front upper arm to lower everything. Since I was working by myself, it took a little finessery to get the front strut out, but I got it done and got the new strut reinstalled.







On Sunday, another one of my friends came to help me install the driver's front to help speed things up. We knocked that out while watching the Miami GP and then we did another self-alignment. The car was finally done. I ordered dinner for the both of us since he helped me out, and as I was eating dinner, I could feel all the stress from the past few months leaving my body. Work had been pretty stressful, and I finished a big project I was on that Friday, so finishing the car in the same weekend was huge for me. While on the drive to pick up dinner, my ABS light turned yellow and I lost DSC due to a steering angle sensor fault (5E46), but my spirits were way too high for that to bother me.

For the damping settings in the front and rear on the Ohlins, the manual recommended 10-12 clicks for street, so I went with 10 clicks from what I thought was full soft in the front and rear. The ride was a little stiff from what I expected a street setting to be, but it wasn't that bad. Even with the alignment being terrible, the crashing over bumps was gone, scraping over fast rebounds was gone even with a passenger, and the handling was a lot better. The coilovers tied everything together very well.

When lowering the car, I wanted the rear to be slightly lower than what it was on the blown-out suspension and I wanted the front to stay the same. I was able to do that, and I like how the car sits, the rear was maybe slightly lower than I would've liked. I measured from the edge of my fender to the outer edge of the bottom lip of my rims. Here are my before and after measurements:

Before

• PR: 22.25in
• DR: 22.5in
• PF: 22.375in
• DF: 22.5in

After

• PR: 21.75in (-0.5in change)
• DR: 22in (-0.5in change)
• PF: 22.375in (No change)
• DF: 22.5in (No change)

Tuesday I was able to get the car aligned and here are the results:



After getting the alignment I was blown away. The car felt smaller in the way that it handled. I barely know how to drive, but when going on curvy roads the handling is so much better, and I felt that I could take the corners faster since I could feel where the car was on the road better. The ride was also even better than when it was misaligned as well (duh). My ABS light was still on even after trying to manually recalibrate the steering angle sensor by doing the lock-to-lock procedure. I had read a post from someone saying that after they got an alignment their light eventually went away, so I was hoping that would be the case for me. I drove the car from the alignment shop to work with the light on and when I came back to the car after work and started it again, the light went away. Let's gooooooo

Total Parts Cost (FCP)

• Ohlins road and track coilovers, Swift springs (Evasive Motorsports), Dinan camber plates, other supporting bushings and grommets: $2,990.60
• Alignment: $200

Job takeaways

• Having a friend to help is really nice to keep you motivated and help finish things faster
• Even if you're too cheap to actually use the saw that you bought, your laziness in never taking it back to the store could be helpful if you need something tall to hold your brake caliper

Ok, back to present day. I was able to drive the car back home for my second trip and it was amazing. I had no issues with the suspension or the cooling system, and my parents and friends were excited to see the car and all the changes I made to it. It also has been one of the most rewarding feelings to say that I for the most part took apart the entire suspension and replaced it alongside my OFHG and water pump without having much car mechanic knowledge beyond an oil change.

There were a lot of times where I wanted to stop working on the car, but then I would think about how nice it would be to drive the car once it was done and I would remind myself that I bought the car to gain this knowledge for the future, so those two things helped me push through. I'm also extremely grateful to all the forum posts I was able to use to help figure things out, which is a big reason why I knew I needed to write this and give back and start helping others. The FCP diy videos also were a huge help in this process too.

I don't plan on doing anything to the car for a while. I've spent a trillion dollars on it, and even though I budgeted out all the money I’ve spent, and things are good, it still hurts to see my credit card bill go so high even with the points I'll get back. On the other hand, I’ve probably saved an equivalent amount of money if not more in labor costs by doing everything myself.

I have an appointment for tint scheduled and then I also need to schedule my appointment for the Vanos bolt recall, but other than that I want to drive the car and not think about working on it at least for a few months. However, I'd be lying if I said I don't lowkey miss wrenching on the car

If you read all of this, thank you so much! What do you think I should do to the car next? I want to replace my rear diffuser and I've also been looking at the F30 brake upgrade mod just so I can get blue calipers, and then I really want to do a HPDE so I can start learning how to drive for real and push the car harder in a controlled environment

Overall takeaways

• Please, please, please don't work on the car when you're tired
• Getting the right tool for the job helps save so much headache
• Being dumb and/or cheap and/or lazy costs you a lot of time
• Working on cars kinda stinks, but once things are working there's no better feeling

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Nice job, and thanks for the updates. Yeah it takes time to get comfortable working on things, knowing you have the ability and tools to *eventually* get through any project. And how hard to pull on plastic pieces, though I don't think anyone ever quite perfects that one.

I also have a hole in my garage wall from a jack handle. I had the front wheels on ramps and was lifting by the rear diff (this is my X3 actually). Instead of pulling the jack inwards when the back was going up, it instead pulled the car off the ramps. One of them anyhow, one tire on a ramp. I had so much adrenaline going and was so mad at myself it took an hour or more before I went back out to try again. I was coming at it at a slight angle and yeah the handle hit the wall.