600bhp 1 Series

Ahhh.

This aged well. I’ve just been digging this post out as I’m sorting out and uploading pics for a very overdue update on this thread, and this part of my last post made me laugh.

That’s pretty much exactly what happened, I have a lovely new driveway, did some house bits and the 140 is currently SORN and without MOT and has been for some months now.

However….

Lots of things are happening, once I finish uploading the photos I’ll bang an update out this evening.

It’s still alive though, ish.

Was talking to someone today about the crazy tuned 1 series and this pops up! Looking forward to the 2024 updates

Chris

Moving onto the back end of the car, the plan was:

I bought a second hand subframe and removed all the standard subframe and diff bushes, then had this powdercoated. I had originally decided not to go PowerFlex Black Series however I don't use the car on a daily basis any more and the whole suspension refresh had suffered massive spec creep by this point anyway so I U-turned on that.

PowerFlex Black Series Subframe and Diff Bushes
All 10x New OEM rear arms
New OEM rear drop links
MMR Lowering Springs
Bilstein B8 Dampers
H&R 20mm Rear Anti-Roll Bar
Rear F80 M3 Handbrake Assembly (Different size to M140 - needed for 370mm rear disc conversion or handbrake won't work)
Rear F80 M3 Handbrake Shoes
Rear F80 M3 Brake Calipers
OEM F80 M3 370mm Discs
EBC RP-X Pads
Goodridge Braided Brake Hoses
New OEM Rear Wheel Bearings

The car is currently on Eibach lowering springs and has been for the majority of it's life, I really like the ride height and it copes with UK roads well, these are a drop of 25mm front and 20mm rear.

The move to MMR Springs gives a drop of 20mm front and 30mm rear. The logic here is, the Millway Camber plates lower the car slightly compared to stock, and the PowerFlex Black Series Rear Subframe bushes lift the back slightly, so the change in springs should leave the car roughly where it was before hopefully.

First job was to fit the subframe and diff bushes to the new subframe:


Then basically stripping off old stuff, this took longer than I'd hoped due to a lot of the fixings being more corroded than expected. The actual car is fine but the bolts had corroded in places and some took some heat and swearing to remove. Prop needed to come off along with exhaust and then once the brakes were removed and disconnected the old subframe was ready to come out:





The state of the bolts made me decide to just buy an entire set of new subframe bolts from BMW, in for a penny at this point. Shout out to BMW for managing to get the order wrong, double up on some bolts, not supply others at all, and liberate me of £240


I extracted the diff, driveshaft and hubs from the old subframe assembly and binned the rest off:


Then started building up the new subframe with all the new arms and ARB etc:




I'm pretty pleased with how it's all turning out so far, the rear Bilstein Dampers are now fitted to the car as well, and the rear braided brake hoses are on also, so it's pretty much ready for the new subframe to be lifted up into position. I ran out of time at this point, as that lot took me the 2 days, even with help from pals, so that's where we're at currently.

I think there's about 1 more day's work in it now, the rear subframe needs to go back in, the prop and exhaust need to go on, then the rear brakes need to be converted with the F80 handbrake mech and shoes, calipers and discs on, then the brakes need bled, the wheels can go on and it can get an alignment. It needs a water pump chucked in it that's going in on Tuesday morning and then that's pretty much the job done.

I'm really looking forward to getting it MOT'd and driving it, it should be a pretty big transformation from tired OEM suspension with lowering springs to all of that. Really keen to see what the brakes are like too.

I'd had a few wobbles in the last year about selling up and getting into an M5, but I've doubled down and at this point the car is definitely a keeper.

Nice work, I recently did a bit of a scope creep suspension refresh as well, it's a lot easier / more fun bolting on new parts than removing the old ones!

For the brake bleeding, I've thrown those Goodridge Speed Bleeders at every car now whenever I go near the brakes, makes it a lot more straightforward bleeding the brakes as they've got a one way check valve in :thumbsup:

As with all good plans, this 2 day job turned into almost 3 weeks

As soon as I got near mounting the rear brakes I hit problems. The rear handbrake assembly for the F80 M3 is 185mm diameter as opposed to the 165mm diameter ones that come on the M140i. I had read online that you could basically just bolt the 185mm backing plates to the hubs and then fit up the 185mm shoes etc. This turned out to be untrue and the mounting bolt holes for the backing plates were in completely different places and the actual diameter of the wheel bearing etc was also different.

I jumped on RealOEM which is an absolute godsend, and came up with the following solution:

F30 330d rear hub knuckles
F30 330d rear wheel bearings
F30 330d rear hub flanges
F80 M3 185mm handbrake assembly
Seems Legit Garage Caliper Adapter Brackets from the US. (These space out the calipers enough from an F30 330d hub to work with the F80 M3 Discs)

I'd already bought all the brake stuff by this point so I was committed, and also I really wanted to see it through, so I ordered some salvage 330d knuckles from eBay and had them glass media blasted by a local firm and then protected. New ones were a staggering £585 a side from BMW even at trade price, without wheel bearings, flanges or bushes.

I also bought new 330d rear wheel bearings and both bushes that are pressed into the hub knuckle. At this point, there is now no longer an original bush on the car.

Before and after of the hubs I supplied, taken by the blasting company:



I then pressed out and replaced both of the hub bushes, replacing with OEM BMW replacements:


I then fitted up the new 185mm backing plates and then pressed in the new wheel bearings and flanges, which left me with hopefully a correct set of hubs that would work how I wanted:


New assembled hub, and the old hub removed from the car:


I'm actually quite pleased it didn't work first time round, because the hubs were the only things I hadn't gone all out on and they look much better now they're properly refurbished and I hadn't been going to replace the hub bushes as they're a bit of a chew, but it's all done properly now.

I'd looked around online and there's a few solutions for spacing the calipers to make them work on F30 hubs, some involve moving the caliper around, with a bracket that requires grinding of both the hub and caliper to clearance, I didn't really like that and the best solution I could find was a kit from Seems Legit Garage in the states. They supply some simple brackets and bolts which require no other modification to the hub. They're horrendously expensive for what you actually get, but needs must. £252 earth pounds later...


I did a quick test fit of the discs and calipers with adapters to make sure it was all going to work, before I started pulling the rear apart again:


I then stripped the rear hub off the car, pressing the driveshafts out is quite a job, they do not like to move.


And then fitted up a new assembled hub:


And finally the handbrake mechanism for inside the larger discs:


This felt like quite a milestone as I'd been held up for 2 weeks by this point ordering new parts, having things blasted and waiting for brackets to turn up from the US.

At last I was able to fit up the new rear brake setup with the F80 M3 370mm rears:


Pretty much perfect, and apart from the caliper spacer brackets, all of the consumables are OEM products that are easily maintained and replaced. Really happy with how it turned out.



With all of the suspension / brake work completed and everything functioning correctly, I fitted the rest of the stud and nut conversion to the car and then it was ready for an alignment.







I remembered at this point thankfully I hadn't put any diff oil in it, so I sorted that:



And it's also had a slight coolant leak which appeared to be a leaking water pump seal, so I chucked a water pump on it as well:


Wheels down, for the first time in a while!




I'm really happy with how it's turned out.

Got it trailered home for a wash and some titivation, new plates etc and a check over before MOT:


And because there's something clinically wrong with me I also replaced some crusty engine bay slam panel bolts:








I could do with just a tiny bit more rear camber for clearance, as the 330d hub setup has pushed the track out wider slightly, so I've ordered some Hardrace adjustable rear camber arms which should land shortly. It drives fine currently but the tyres just hit the arch under a lot of load.



Once they're fitted, that should sort that. I also had the M Performance brake coding applied to the car which basically increases brake pressure and recalibrates the ABS interference.

And then, it was time for an MOT at long last:


Straight through, no advisories. Not that there was anything to fail on as it's all basically new underneath

So for now... it's all sorted. I taxed it yesterday and I'm looking forward to getting it out today hopefully for an initial drive!



If you got through all of that waffle thanks for reading

Errrrrrrrrrr



I mean it had some lowering springs and a few powerflex insert bushes here and there.

But mainly yes.

In fairness when I actually bought the car my intention just to keep it very clean and standard as a long term reliable ownership proposition, and it’s just of steadily spiralled downhill without a real plan as such.

I wanted to do the suspension a few years back but I also stopped using it as a daily around then and just kept buying bits to do a “bit more of a job” which has ultimately led to it being SORN for a while and now this mammoth effort in one go