Discussion
Long time lurker - generally find myself reading BMW build threads, or some of the real good engine swaps and Lotuses, essentially anything that catches my eye.
This was my first car - well first i had any real experience on the road with anyway - a 6K2 1.4 8 valve Ibiza Cool. I had an ibiza when I was 14 after my mum got her Volvo and cars were shifted around. It left the first Ibiza looking likely to go for scrap, so I purchased it off of my step dad for the prceily sum of £100. That one had 120k miles, was also silver but was quite rusty. It didnt bother me and I ended up using what money i could earn over the next three years to modify it during the weekends as it was stored at my Nan's farm. I think the first thing was some FK coilovers secondhand, I had very little mechanical experience so had a Costco tool set bought for me one christmas, and I began taking things off in order to put the coilovers on. To be fair, i couldnt have asked for a better car to learn to work on, everything was simple. No anti roll bars, solid rear beam etc. Ended up with a host of Cupra parts, some 16" Team Dynamics in black, Cupra interior, Cupra bumper etc. Anyway, I turned 17, passed my test, the car was already MOTd so I could get driving straight away. First day, I lost my numberplate on a dual carriageway which terrified me as I didn't want to get pulled over so soon. Took it easy, got a new one. The friday night of the week that I passed, I was getting fuel at my local co-op (1.4 8v, who needs V power) when an elderly gentleman in a Megane reversed into the back of my car. Nightmare, but not as bad as what was about to happen. I went and met some friends shortly afterwards - think 17 year olds standing around in a car park.One of the guys i had been to school with, decided to simply get in my ibiza which was unlocked with the key in the ignition, start it up and take it for a drive around the business park. anyway, he crashed it. I decided not to fix it due to the damages caused by the old boy with the Megane, the rust and general roughness. So thats when I bought the car you see below.
It was completely standard, same engine, X reg. Took the following Friday off school 'sick' for my uncle to take me up to Ipswich to pick it up. It was a very clean car, had no rust and only 1 owner from new, Seat service history up untill around 2012, pedal box had been replaced etc so was a solid car. I gave £500 for it and set about going home. The following day i transferred all the main bits over from the crashed car, so coilovers, seats and a few other bits like the Cupra spoiler, tinted rear lights etc.
this was in November 2016. Over the next 10 months or so, I would go onto make it lower and lower, put some 15x8 Axe EX8 wheels on, some rare Cupra R bits and jut generally enjoyed driving it. Was impossibly low, was unable to change lanes on certain sections of motorways because it would catch cats eyes. It is worth pointing out that this did not bother me at the time due to the fact that I had a company car as my part time job was a chimney sweep, so had a near new Citroen C4 for when i actually ever needed to go anywhere.
Que August 2017, less than a year after I had passed my test. Myself and my ex girlfriend went to Roll Hard show in Braintree, Essex. There was some heavy traffic to get in, and it was a very hot day - the car ended up overheating. I assumed it was a stuck thermostat so ended up taking the housing off, and taking the thermostat out all together as a get-me-home fix. Enjoyed the show, and set off to leave along with a friend in his bagged Mk1 Cupra R. Got 10 minutes down the road, needle back up to 120, s
t. Was unable to fix it, so called my breakdown cover who were almost useless entierly. I left the car abandoned across a lovely old lady's driveway who provided myself, my ex girlfriend and friend with tea, biscuits and cold drinks for the hours we were sat waiting with the car. It got to around 7pm and I had work the next morning, so left the key with the old lady as the AA said they were going to be there around midnight. I sent her some flowers after this ordeal, she didn't have to be so helpful.
Got the car delivered home while i was at work the next day, went home to investigate the cause. The water pump had failed. Now it is worth noting that I was due to start a new job in 2-3 weeks, and i'd been having problems with the Ibiza for months before this, I just stuck at it because I loved it.
Had some money saved, and after a chat with my mum she suggested I should get a new car, which i was almost ereluctant to do at first, but once I looked at options withing my £4500 budget, and insurance costs, i was drawn to VW Sciroccos - sort of wanted to stay VAG, poor engine choices and out of budget for a good one were the reasons for this idea to be scrapped.
Volvo C30 - as mentiuoned before, my mum had a Volvo V50 D5 at the time, and I loved it. The C30 made sense, but IIRC the insursance was ludicrous (weird) and there were no nice D3 R designs with a good spec anywhere near.
BMW 1 Series - had always admired BMWs, and always wanted a 130i. My criteria was as follows - M sport, 3 door, black or blue, 120 or 123D (due to insurance and running costs) preferably with Xenons and Idrive.
So set a day to go view a few, two 120Ds and a 123D. Took a friend with me, and the first car we happened to view was a black 123D in black. It did not have xenons or Idrive, but was cheap and was clean for the milage. It was on 140k, had full BMWSH and was up for £4200. I went and viewed it, fell in love and done some emergency forum research, i was aware it was the N47 and was aware of the timing chain issues, however I placed a deposit, and agreed a price of £4000 as long as it was newly MOTd, and had the Air con regassed (peak summer).
It was however 3 door, Sapphire Black, M sport, black heated leather, cruise control and a facelift model.
The next day I went to pick it up, paid insurance, taxed it and began the drive back from North London to Kent, with my friend following in my Citroen company car. Distinctly remember having a play with a MK5 Golf GTI on the way home, the 123 pulled away without any real issues and had a chat with the driver when in some traffic, he was suprised that it was a diesel. My first taste of a moderately quick car and I was hooked. going from a 60BHP 1.4 8V to a 204BHP Twin Turbo car was quite the step up.
Here are some picture of it taken from the Auto trader ad.
When I got it home.
The only picture of the BMW and the Ibiza together.
After I had cleaned, clayed and hand polished it for the first time. This has the optional 208M 18" wheels as opposed to the lesser 17s you'll find on most, and I think thyey look great for a standard wheel (currently being used temp on my friend's E46 320CI).
I have had the car for coming up to three years now, and it has had a fair amount of work done at this point. Too much for me to sit here and document in one, so I will be uploading previous work untill I get up to date, and eventually keeping on top of work that has been done in real time.
This was my first car - well first i had any real experience on the road with anyway - a 6K2 1.4 8 valve Ibiza Cool. I had an ibiza when I was 14 after my mum got her Volvo and cars were shifted around. It left the first Ibiza looking likely to go for scrap, so I purchased it off of my step dad for the prceily sum of £100. That one had 120k miles, was also silver but was quite rusty. It didnt bother me and I ended up using what money i could earn over the next three years to modify it during the weekends as it was stored at my Nan's farm. I think the first thing was some FK coilovers secondhand, I had very little mechanical experience so had a Costco tool set bought for me one christmas, and I began taking things off in order to put the coilovers on. To be fair, i couldnt have asked for a better car to learn to work on, everything was simple. No anti roll bars, solid rear beam etc. Ended up with a host of Cupra parts, some 16" Team Dynamics in black, Cupra interior, Cupra bumper etc. Anyway, I turned 17, passed my test, the car was already MOTd so I could get driving straight away. First day, I lost my numberplate on a dual carriageway which terrified me as I didn't want to get pulled over so soon. Took it easy, got a new one. The friday night of the week that I passed, I was getting fuel at my local co-op (1.4 8v, who needs V power) when an elderly gentleman in a Megane reversed into the back of my car. Nightmare, but not as bad as what was about to happen. I went and met some friends shortly afterwards - think 17 year olds standing around in a car park.One of the guys i had been to school with, decided to simply get in my ibiza which was unlocked with the key in the ignition, start it up and take it for a drive around the business park. anyway, he crashed it. I decided not to fix it due to the damages caused by the old boy with the Megane, the rust and general roughness. So thats when I bought the car you see below.
It was completely standard, same engine, X reg. Took the following Friday off school 'sick' for my uncle to take me up to Ipswich to pick it up. It was a very clean car, had no rust and only 1 owner from new, Seat service history up untill around 2012, pedal box had been replaced etc so was a solid car. I gave £500 for it and set about going home. The following day i transferred all the main bits over from the crashed car, so coilovers, seats and a few other bits like the Cupra spoiler, tinted rear lights etc.
this was in November 2016. Over the next 10 months or so, I would go onto make it lower and lower, put some 15x8 Axe EX8 wheels on, some rare Cupra R bits and jut generally enjoyed driving it. Was impossibly low, was unable to change lanes on certain sections of motorways because it would catch cats eyes. It is worth pointing out that this did not bother me at the time due to the fact that I had a company car as my part time job was a chimney sweep, so had a near new Citroen C4 for when i actually ever needed to go anywhere.
Que August 2017, less than a year after I had passed my test. Myself and my ex girlfriend went to Roll Hard show in Braintree, Essex. There was some heavy traffic to get in, and it was a very hot day - the car ended up overheating. I assumed it was a stuck thermostat so ended up taking the housing off, and taking the thermostat out all together as a get-me-home fix. Enjoyed the show, and set off to leave along with a friend in his bagged Mk1 Cupra R. Got 10 minutes down the road, needle back up to 120, s
t. Was unable to fix it, so called my breakdown cover who were almost useless entierly. I left the car abandoned across a lovely old lady's driveway who provided myself, my ex girlfriend and friend with tea, biscuits and cold drinks for the hours we were sat waiting with the car. It got to around 7pm and I had work the next morning, so left the key with the old lady as the AA said they were going to be there around midnight. I sent her some flowers after this ordeal, she didn't have to be so helpful. Got the car delivered home while i was at work the next day, went home to investigate the cause. The water pump had failed. Now it is worth noting that I was due to start a new job in 2-3 weeks, and i'd been having problems with the Ibiza for months before this, I just stuck at it because I loved it.
Had some money saved, and after a chat with my mum she suggested I should get a new car, which i was almost ereluctant to do at first, but once I looked at options withing my £4500 budget, and insurance costs, i was drawn to VW Sciroccos - sort of wanted to stay VAG, poor engine choices and out of budget for a good one were the reasons for this idea to be scrapped.
Volvo C30 - as mentiuoned before, my mum had a Volvo V50 D5 at the time, and I loved it. The C30 made sense, but IIRC the insursance was ludicrous (weird) and there were no nice D3 R designs with a good spec anywhere near.
BMW 1 Series - had always admired BMWs, and always wanted a 130i. My criteria was as follows - M sport, 3 door, black or blue, 120 or 123D (due to insurance and running costs) preferably with Xenons and Idrive.
So set a day to go view a few, two 120Ds and a 123D. Took a friend with me, and the first car we happened to view was a black 123D in black. It did not have xenons or Idrive, but was cheap and was clean for the milage. It was on 140k, had full BMWSH and was up for £4200. I went and viewed it, fell in love and done some emergency forum research, i was aware it was the N47 and was aware of the timing chain issues, however I placed a deposit, and agreed a price of £4000 as long as it was newly MOTd, and had the Air con regassed (peak summer).
It was however 3 door, Sapphire Black, M sport, black heated leather, cruise control and a facelift model.
The next day I went to pick it up, paid insurance, taxed it and began the drive back from North London to Kent, with my friend following in my Citroen company car. Distinctly remember having a play with a MK5 Golf GTI on the way home, the 123 pulled away without any real issues and had a chat with the driver when in some traffic, he was suprised that it was a diesel. My first taste of a moderately quick car and I was hooked. going from a 60BHP 1.4 8V to a 204BHP Twin Turbo car was quite the step up.
Here are some picture of it taken from the Auto trader ad.
When I got it home.
The only picture of the BMW and the Ibiza together.
After I had cleaned, clayed and hand polished it for the first time. This has the optional 208M 18" wheels as opposed to the lesser 17s you'll find on most, and I think thyey look great for a standard wheel (currently being used temp on my friend's E46 320CI).
I have had the car for coming up to three years now, and it has had a fair amount of work done at this point. Too much for me to sit here and document in one, so I will be uploading previous work untill I get up to date, and eventually keeping on top of work that has been done in real time.
Edited by Ryan_E81 on Thursday 9th April 11:58
First real change to be done was to change the number plates so they didn’t have the dealer’s name plastered all over them. I bought some gel plates from eBay, I’ve always fixed front plates on with Velcro so they can be easily taken off for photos/cleaning – unless you spot this car parked up somewhere, then it’s almost certainly not Velcro.
A more controversial change made will have been the fact that I binned the rear wiper almost immediately, I had no rear wiper on my Ibiza, and most saloons and coupes don’t have them anyway, so was an easy way to tidy up the rear end. I tend to keep the car clean enough for this not to be a problem, and if anyone has driven a van, you’ll know that a rear view mirror becomes redundant once you’re used to side mirrors.
First spare weekend that I had the car I decided to do a service for peace of mind. At the time I used Shell Helix Ultra 5W40, with Bosch fuel, cabin and oil filters. Air Filter was replaced with a K&N drop in panel filter, the air box setup on these is adequate for the 300bhp+ 123Ds around, so I’m not going to try and improve on that. Confident the engine was in good health, I carried on using the car and got round to removing the awful Parrot kit a previous owner had installed. I think around this time we had a bank holiday weekend, so me and a few of the boys went out for a drive and got some textbook AutoCar press shots.
Brakes were looking rough so spent a few hours one evening cleaning and painting them, this was after a local fella posted on the 1 Series page on Facebook that he had a brand new set of MTEC drilled and grooved discs, with Mintex fast road pads for sale for (I think) £80. I put these in the front at the same time as painting the callipers, really freshened up the look. The M sticker was meant to make the brakes look somewhat similar to the F series 4 pots, either way – better than crusty callipers. The brakes on the 123D are actually reasonably well setup for the job as per standard. Only a single piston setup (E9x M3s of the same era also used a single piston setup still) but a 330mm disc up front, and 300mm discs at the rear. I later went on to find out just how good this setup could be, but more on that in due time.
Although quite basic, I always find the interior of the car relatively driver centric and still holds up well. Especially when comparing to the E46s.
The first real big change was the wheel change. Although I love the 208ms, they had mismatched tyres at the front, and I fancied something a little different. After a couple of weeks of casual browsing, I found a set of Bola B1s for sale local, unfortunately they were in a square 18x8.5 setup and had 225/40/18 Nankangs all round. These tyres turned out to be awful. Around the same time, I also found a set of brand new-second-hand spring that someone had bought but never fitted. They were Eibach pro line springs, 35mm drop which I thought was pretty modest. I put them on one Sunday, really liked the setup, but because I am a child I wanted it lower. This was the first of three different setups I have had on the car to date. I’m 99% sure this picture is with the Bolas and springs fitted.
Shortly after I fitted the wheels, I was driving to my Nan’s house which consist of going up a dual carriageway, and onto a motorway round quite a sharp slip road. The car was still new to me, so I booted it up the dual carriageway, braked reasonably hard, went round the slip road and onto the motorway, cruise control chucked on and relax. That is until I could feel a banging coming from the rear of the car, my first thought was diff, but, then I thought possibly a wheel has come loose, or wasn’t seated properly. Pulled over to look for any tell-tale signs of the wheel being loose, saw nothing and decided to set off again – not much to be done on the side of the M2. Got to my Nan’s house no problems, and all traces of this vibration/knocking had gone. I jacked it up while I was there, took the wheel on that side off, cleaned the hub, put the wheel back on and i didn’t see the problem again for another 6 weeks or so IIRC.
The weather was beginning to turn now, so as it does to so many people every year, it killed my battery. Never to the point it would not start, just the inevitable signs of a Beemer with a failing battery, forgetting the time, welcome lights not working etc. Being a start/stop equipped car, 8 years old with 145k miles on, I was surprised to find it was still on its original battery. Euros wanted £300+ and my usually very good local battery place wanted similar. I done some research and found an online place for the correct sized AGM battery for £99 delivered with a 3 year warranty. When it arrived I decided to go to a tuner/friend’s house so he could use his equipment to ‘code’ the battery for me. As far as I understand it just needs registering that it has a new battery so the start stop works properly. I put the battery in the boot and made my way to my friend’s house to do the swap, this required a 15 minute motorway journey, during which this vibration I had experienced weeks earlier made itself known again. I limped the car to his house and when I pulled up the driver’s side rear disc was glowing red. Obviously seized calliper. I still had to use the car daily, so for the week or so it took for the calliper rebuild kits (I done front and rear) to arrive, and for me to actually do them I pulled the dust seal off the calliper, and just sprayed it generously with WD40, this got me to and from work, but it was evident that the disc was warped, and the pads were not only now very low, but glazed too. So some MTEC C Hook rear discs were ordered, and some ATE Pads.
The reason I went for the C hook rears, is because I wasn’t happy with the noise of the drilled and grooved discs at the front, not to mention they had started to vibrate quite badly (difficult to diagnose when the rear was seized like it was. Also, not made of money.
Callipers rebuilt, new discs and pads in the rear and it was back to driving how it should be.
Was unsure with how the silver looked on the car, so got in touch with a mate with his own body shop to refurbish them in an anthracite colour for me. I think it looked good, but was slightly sad that it lost that ‘fresh’ look.
This will probably do for this one, will get round to another update soon. This brings us to probably Jan/Feb 2018 I'd say.
A more controversial change made will have been the fact that I binned the rear wiper almost immediately, I had no rear wiper on my Ibiza, and most saloons and coupes don’t have them anyway, so was an easy way to tidy up the rear end. I tend to keep the car clean enough for this not to be a problem, and if anyone has driven a van, you’ll know that a rear view mirror becomes redundant once you’re used to side mirrors.
First spare weekend that I had the car I decided to do a service for peace of mind. At the time I used Shell Helix Ultra 5W40, with Bosch fuel, cabin and oil filters. Air Filter was replaced with a K&N drop in panel filter, the air box setup on these is adequate for the 300bhp+ 123Ds around, so I’m not going to try and improve on that. Confident the engine was in good health, I carried on using the car and got round to removing the awful Parrot kit a previous owner had installed. I think around this time we had a bank holiday weekend, so me and a few of the boys went out for a drive and got some textbook AutoCar press shots.
Brakes were looking rough so spent a few hours one evening cleaning and painting them, this was after a local fella posted on the 1 Series page on Facebook that he had a brand new set of MTEC drilled and grooved discs, with Mintex fast road pads for sale for (I think) £80. I put these in the front at the same time as painting the callipers, really freshened up the look. The M sticker was meant to make the brakes look somewhat similar to the F series 4 pots, either way – better than crusty callipers. The brakes on the 123D are actually reasonably well setup for the job as per standard. Only a single piston setup (E9x M3s of the same era also used a single piston setup still) but a 330mm disc up front, and 300mm discs at the rear. I later went on to find out just how good this setup could be, but more on that in due time.
Although quite basic, I always find the interior of the car relatively driver centric and still holds up well. Especially when comparing to the E46s.
The first real big change was the wheel change. Although I love the 208ms, they had mismatched tyres at the front, and I fancied something a little different. After a couple of weeks of casual browsing, I found a set of Bola B1s for sale local, unfortunately they were in a square 18x8.5 setup and had 225/40/18 Nankangs all round. These tyres turned out to be awful. Around the same time, I also found a set of brand new-second-hand spring that someone had bought but never fitted. They were Eibach pro line springs, 35mm drop which I thought was pretty modest. I put them on one Sunday, really liked the setup, but because I am a child I wanted it lower. This was the first of three different setups I have had on the car to date. I’m 99% sure this picture is with the Bolas and springs fitted.
Shortly after I fitted the wheels, I was driving to my Nan’s house which consist of going up a dual carriageway, and onto a motorway round quite a sharp slip road. The car was still new to me, so I booted it up the dual carriageway, braked reasonably hard, went round the slip road and onto the motorway, cruise control chucked on and relax. That is until I could feel a banging coming from the rear of the car, my first thought was diff, but, then I thought possibly a wheel has come loose, or wasn’t seated properly. Pulled over to look for any tell-tale signs of the wheel being loose, saw nothing and decided to set off again – not much to be done on the side of the M2. Got to my Nan’s house no problems, and all traces of this vibration/knocking had gone. I jacked it up while I was there, took the wheel on that side off, cleaned the hub, put the wheel back on and i didn’t see the problem again for another 6 weeks or so IIRC.
The weather was beginning to turn now, so as it does to so many people every year, it killed my battery. Never to the point it would not start, just the inevitable signs of a Beemer with a failing battery, forgetting the time, welcome lights not working etc. Being a start/stop equipped car, 8 years old with 145k miles on, I was surprised to find it was still on its original battery. Euros wanted £300+ and my usually very good local battery place wanted similar. I done some research and found an online place for the correct sized AGM battery for £99 delivered with a 3 year warranty. When it arrived I decided to go to a tuner/friend’s house so he could use his equipment to ‘code’ the battery for me. As far as I understand it just needs registering that it has a new battery so the start stop works properly. I put the battery in the boot and made my way to my friend’s house to do the swap, this required a 15 minute motorway journey, during which this vibration I had experienced weeks earlier made itself known again. I limped the car to his house and when I pulled up the driver’s side rear disc was glowing red. Obviously seized calliper. I still had to use the car daily, so for the week or so it took for the calliper rebuild kits (I done front and rear) to arrive, and for me to actually do them I pulled the dust seal off the calliper, and just sprayed it generously with WD40, this got me to and from work, but it was evident that the disc was warped, and the pads were not only now very low, but glazed too. So some MTEC C Hook rear discs were ordered, and some ATE Pads.
The reason I went for the C hook rears, is because I wasn’t happy with the noise of the drilled and grooved discs at the front, not to mention they had started to vibrate quite badly (difficult to diagnose when the rear was seized like it was. Also, not made of money.
Callipers rebuilt, new discs and pads in the rear and it was back to driving how it should be.
Was unsure with how the silver looked on the car, so got in touch with a mate with his own body shop to refurbish them in an anthracite colour for me. I think it looked good, but was slightly sad that it lost that ‘fresh’ look.
This will probably do for this one, will get round to another update soon. This brings us to probably Jan/Feb 2018 I'd say.
It's great to see someone appreciate a 123d. 
I bought a 57 plate E87 123dSE Dynamic with delivery mileage in January 2008 and loved it. Dynamic meant it had the M-Sport suspension and M-Sport seats with the electric side bolsters, but SE styling and 17" wheels.
I'm amazed your battery lasted so long though! I got a battery warning light on mine before it was 5 years old! And the starter motor died before it was 7 - probably because of the stop/start nonsense, so after that I turned it off every time I got in the car!
But by then I wasn't doing the mileage to justify running a diesel with a dpf so I sold it in 2014 on 81K miles and began my love affair with N/A straight 6 petrol BMWs.
This was my 123d.
I bought a 57 plate E87 123dSE Dynamic with delivery mileage in January 2008 and loved it. Dynamic meant it had the M-Sport suspension and M-Sport seats with the electric side bolsters, but SE styling and 17" wheels.
I'm amazed your battery lasted so long though! I got a battery warning light on mine before it was 5 years old! And the starter motor died before it was 7 - probably because of the stop/start nonsense, so after that I turned it off every time I got in the car!
But by then I wasn't doing the mileage to justify running a diesel with a dpf so I sold it in 2014 on 81K miles and began my love affair with N/A straight 6 petrol BMWs.
This was my 123d.
Mr Tidy said:
It's great to see someone appreciate a 123d.
I bought a 57 plate E87 123dSE Dynamic with delivery mileage in January 2008 and loved it. Dynamic meant it had the M-Sport suspension and M-Sport seats with the electric side bolsters, but SE styling and 17" wheels.
I'm amazed your battery lasted so long though! I got a battery warning light on mine before it was 5 years old! And the starter motor died before it was 7 - probably because of the stop/start nonsense, so after that I turned it off every time I got in the car!
But by then I wasn't doing the mileage to justify running a diesel with a dpf so I sold it in 2014 on 81K miles and began my love affair with N/A straight 6 petrol BMWs.
This was my 123d.
123Ds are brilliant cars, nothing its class really like it. you would have had one of the first ones then! and good to know what the dynamic is. My girlfriend has an E92 325i N53 from 2008, thats still on its original battery too. Not to mention my mate's E46 still being on the original! 2005 320CI. I had DPF issues, but I'll put that in the next update i'd imagine, trying to keep it chronological. I bought a 57 plate E87 123dSE Dynamic with delivery mileage in January 2008 and loved it. Dynamic meant it had the M-Sport suspension and M-Sport seats with the electric side bolsters, but SE styling and 17" wheels.
I'm amazed your battery lasted so long though! I got a battery warning light on mine before it was 5 years old! And the starter motor died before it was 7 - probably because of the stop/start nonsense, so after that I turned it off every time I got in the car!
But by then I wasn't doing the mileage to justify running a diesel with a dpf so I sold it in 2014 on 81K miles and began my love affair with N/A straight 6 petrol BMWs.
This was my 123d.
adilkhalifa said:
Loving the look of the wheels, definitely much better in bronze.
The E8X cars seem to be ageing so well!
Thank you mate, you'll see in the next update they came off for a little while. That was part of the problem, they were meant to be anthracite/grey, not bronze haha. The E8X cars seem to be ageing so well!
Quite fancy another update, so following on from the last, the next thing I decided to do was put a BMW Aero spoiler on the car. The want for one was confirmed when an SE overtook me on a motorway and the spoiler made the back look like a different car. I done my research and it was a case of a genuine BMW part, or one of the eBay replicas. The replicas were about half the price of the BMW item, and when it first arrived the quality looked very well, test fit looked promising.
So had it sprayed by my friend, the same one who done the wheels, we fitted it with tiger seal and it was left at his unit overnight. Picked up the next day after work and I was happy with how it looked, no funny reactions being a GRP part, and fitment was very good. Stopped off for a quick picture. Picture of some creative fitting and a before and after:
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/zcIWvyOk.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/rQhKweWf" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/rQhKweWf.jpg)
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Some of the keen eyed people may have noticed the slightly wider rear tyres in the before and after above. As I mentioned before, the Bolas came with 225/40/18 Nankang NS2s which were very poor in all weathers, and wore very quickly on a relatively heavy car like this. With is being just after Christmas, and me being an apprentice to start with, it’s fair to say I was skint enough to warrant some part worns. I put the Pirelli P-Zero Run flats on from the standard 208Ms, not only did these tyres increase grip, but they made the rear end look more serious, and the tyre sat squarer on the wheel. As the weather showed signs of improving, I had the tracking done and simply enjoyed driving the car and keeping it clean. Out for a good drive with a mate’s 420BHP boosted Teg, and another mate’s WRX Blob.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/5PH94d6f.jpg[/img]|https://thumbsnap.com/5PH94d6f[/url] <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/TKNRB8g0" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/TKNRB8g0.jpg)
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There was a Kwik Fit next to my old work, and I was friendly with a couple of the lads there as they had low VAGs and a couple of cool old mercs. Was chatting with one of the guys there on a particularly warm February day and he mentioned the new tracking system they had fitted, a Hunter system and he said that I could be the first to have their car done on it for a good price. £50 later and 4 wheel alignment, car was driving much better. I recall the passenger side front was toeing out quite a lot.
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So this is late Feb/March 2018, and soon, the snow came. I was at college on the first day it started coming down, and jokes from both tutors and my mates about me not getting home soon ensued. We were all sent home and although potentially the most dangerous drive I’ve ever embarked on also happened to be one of the most fun. Sure enough though, I got to a dual carriageway just a couple of roads from my house and had to stop as there was a backlog of traffic. Stuck. The police were there pushing cars up the road but mine was rally not having it, so rather than just doing nothing I helped the old bill push cars up the road. Eventually a Good Samaritan with a Ford Ranger pulled me up the road and dropped me in a bus stop, I ended up getting slightly closer to my house after this, before getting stuck again and abandoning the car to get my neighbour who has a Mitsubishi Warrior and a rope. Finally home.
|https://thumbsnap.com/q6fLp5sd[/url][url]
You would have thought this would have taught me a lesson, but nope. The following days, work were insistent we should go to college every day, only to be sent home every day. I made it there every day, plenty of weight in the boot and I put my standard front wheels on the rear. These only had 215/40/18s on so slightly less contact patch to give a little more traction in ice and snow. The 245 run flats really weren’t cutting it. This turned out to be my most educational RWD experience to date, and my car control and driving techniques really improved. Spent a lot of time that week sliding around (private) roundabouts and (again, private) carparks with my aforementioned friend’s Subaru there as a backup car in case I did get stuck.
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After the snow had cleared, I put the wheels back on, gave the car a good clean and went about my usual business, enjoying the car. I was driving back from my nan’s house one Sunday evening and hit the mother of all potholes with the front left wheel. The bang was so loud it really did make me jump and exclaim a few choice words. I pulled over almost immediately, found the Bola to be bent up pretty good, and the sidewall of the Nankang split. I limped it back to a layby just next to the pothole, and called my mum to bring a spare wheel, my jack and a wheel brace. Changed the wheel there, and took some measurements of the pothole, length, depth, width, how long it had been there etc. I was fuming and wanted this to be paid for by the council, I went through all the correct avenues, got several estimates and sent it off to the council. Lazily, they simply blamed it on the snow and wouldn’t take my appeal any further. The damages were:
New wheel – many rim specialists I tried would not straighten this as it was too close to a spoke.
New tyre – obviously
New shock absorber – all of the oil fell out
Tracking – this was visibly out.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/7F8Zv1cE.jpg[/img]|https://thumbsnap.com/7F8Zv1cE[/url] <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/4wNymmXX" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/4wNymmXX.jpg)
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I put the standard wheels back on, after getting a bargain on a pair of Michelin Pilot Super sports in 225/40/18. Not the ideal tyre size for the 8.5 standard rears, but nothing wrong with it a such.
|https://thumbsnap.com/S3oQgpMZ[/url][url]
It’s fair to say the car wasn’t driving as well as it used to, but it wasn’t undrivable, I had my mate at quick fit sort the tracking again in the meantime, as I knew now that I would be going down the Coilovers route. It didn’t stop me enjoying it however, this is such a lovely little chassis, bundles of grip, nice steering, brakes and importantly, Go. One thing I felt could be improved on however, was shift feeI. had done some reading on the forums, and read about the Clutch Delay Valve. This is a valve that simply restricts the fluid engaging the clutch immediately, makes for a dead clutch feel. Easiest removal ever, centre under tray off, locate the CDV, disconnect it and join the lines simply without the valve in the middle. Pump the clutch a few times, done.
|https://thumbsnap.com/WCf4YhmV[/url]
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My commute to college and back was combined 8 miles, and this is never good for a diesel. I done my best to warm the car before driving, and always drove it to and from my ex-girlfriend’s university so I always assumed it would be okay, but one night after a spirited drive, I was greeted with a DPF light. I looked into replacements but in terms of cost effectiveness, it is cheaper and more beneficial for me to just gut it. (I could get pulled over and fined by VOSA and still be £200 up) Somebody towards the coast was selling a pre gutted DPF which I bought for £50, I then set about changing it. Reasonably easy job on the N47s, and I did not have it mapped for a few months to come yet. Ended up selling the old DPF to a scrappie for £120 too. Winner. Before I end up with the DPF police on my case, it still passes a legit MOT and doesn’t soot at all.
Minor changes after this consisted of an internal tinted sun strip being put on by my local tinting place. Went for plenty of drives with the guys.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/9qsGzRrI.jpg[/img]|https://thumbsnap.com/9qsGzRrI[/url] <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/uIDybYOz" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/uIDybYOz.jpg)
Now, in the photos above, shortly after they were taken I had my first real mechanical scare with the car. Poodling through some traffic on the way to get some food with the guys, one of them shouted forward the car was smoking really bad, loads of blue smoke in fact. Now I hadn’t seen this before, and after parking the car, having some food and going back to check the oil and see how it sounded, we concluded it was safe to drive. I continued to drive it and didn’t see this smoke for another week or so, then it puffed absolutely loads for about 10 minutes and stopped. Really strange. I looked into it, and concluded that as it was so consistent, it was the car trying to do a DPF regeneration on the DPF that was not there, so was just burning in the hollow chamber and obviously coming out the back. AKA nothing to worry about for me!
Reasonably lengthy update that, and I’ll get another one up when I get a spare hour or so. Thanks for reading, nice to know people are reading it!
Just as a side note, the clutch delay valve/wheel bending issue are clearly mixed up. I'm having to think back 2 years at this point so excuse any continuity errors!
So had it sprayed by my friend, the same one who done the wheels, we fitted it with tiger seal and it was left at his unit overnight. Picked up the next day after work and I was happy with how it looked, no funny reactions being a GRP part, and fitment was very good. Stopped off for a quick picture. Picture of some creative fitting and a before and after:
[url]Some of the keen eyed people may have noticed the slightly wider rear tyres in the before and after above. As I mentioned before, the Bolas came with 225/40/18 Nankang NS2s which were very poor in all weathers, and wore very quickly on a relatively heavy car like this. With is being just after Christmas, and me being an apprentice to start with, it’s fair to say I was skint enough to warrant some part worns. I put the Pirelli P-Zero Run flats on from the standard 208Ms, not only did these tyres increase grip, but they made the rear end look more serious, and the tyre sat squarer on the wheel. As the weather showed signs of improving, I had the tracking done and simply enjoyed driving the car and keeping it clean. Out for a good drive with a mate’s 420BHP boosted Teg, and another mate’s WRX Blob.
[url]There was a Kwik Fit next to my old work, and I was friendly with a couple of the lads there as they had low VAGs and a couple of cool old mercs. Was chatting with one of the guys there on a particularly warm February day and he mentioned the new tracking system they had fitted, a Hunter system and he said that I could be the first to have their car done on it for a good price. £50 later and 4 wheel alignment, car was driving much better. I recall the passenger side front was toeing out quite a lot.
[url]So this is late Feb/March 2018, and soon, the snow came. I was at college on the first day it started coming down, and jokes from both tutors and my mates about me not getting home soon ensued. We were all sent home and although potentially the most dangerous drive I’ve ever embarked on also happened to be one of the most fun. Sure enough though, I got to a dual carriageway just a couple of roads from my house and had to stop as there was a backlog of traffic. Stuck. The police were there pushing cars up the road but mine was rally not having it, so rather than just doing nothing I helped the old bill push cars up the road. Eventually a Good Samaritan with a Ford Ranger pulled me up the road and dropped me in a bus stop, I ended up getting slightly closer to my house after this, before getting stuck again and abandoning the car to get my neighbour who has a Mitsubishi Warrior and a rope. Finally home.
|https://thumbsnap.com/q6fLp5sd[/url][url]You would have thought this would have taught me a lesson, but nope. The following days, work were insistent we should go to college every day, only to be sent home every day. I made it there every day, plenty of weight in the boot and I put my standard front wheels on the rear. These only had 215/40/18s on so slightly less contact patch to give a little more traction in ice and snow. The 245 run flats really weren’t cutting it. This turned out to be my most educational RWD experience to date, and my car control and driving techniques really improved. Spent a lot of time that week sliding around (private) roundabouts and (again, private) carparks with my aforementioned friend’s Subaru there as a backup car in case I did get stuck.
[url]After the snow had cleared, I put the wheels back on, gave the car a good clean and went about my usual business, enjoying the car. I was driving back from my nan’s house one Sunday evening and hit the mother of all potholes with the front left wheel. The bang was so loud it really did make me jump and exclaim a few choice words. I pulled over almost immediately, found the Bola to be bent up pretty good, and the sidewall of the Nankang split. I limped it back to a layby just next to the pothole, and called my mum to bring a spare wheel, my jack and a wheel brace. Changed the wheel there, and took some measurements of the pothole, length, depth, width, how long it had been there etc. I was fuming and wanted this to be paid for by the council, I went through all the correct avenues, got several estimates and sent it off to the council. Lazily, they simply blamed it on the snow and wouldn’t take my appeal any further. The damages were:
New wheel – many rim specialists I tried would not straighten this as it was too close to a spoke.
New tyre – obviously
New shock absorber – all of the oil fell out
Tracking – this was visibly out.
[url]I put the standard wheels back on, after getting a bargain on a pair of Michelin Pilot Super sports in 225/40/18. Not the ideal tyre size for the 8.5 standard rears, but nothing wrong with it a such.
|https://thumbsnap.com/S3oQgpMZ[/url][url]It’s fair to say the car wasn’t driving as well as it used to, but it wasn’t undrivable, I had my mate at quick fit sort the tracking again in the meantime, as I knew now that I would be going down the Coilovers route. It didn’t stop me enjoying it however, this is such a lovely little chassis, bundles of grip, nice steering, brakes and importantly, Go. One thing I felt could be improved on however, was shift feeI. had done some reading on the forums, and read about the Clutch Delay Valve. This is a valve that simply restricts the fluid engaging the clutch immediately, makes for a dead clutch feel. Easiest removal ever, centre under tray off, locate the CDV, disconnect it and join the lines simply without the valve in the middle. Pump the clutch a few times, done.
|https://thumbsnap.com/WCf4YhmV[/url][url]My commute to college and back was combined 8 miles, and this is never good for a diesel. I done my best to warm the car before driving, and always drove it to and from my ex-girlfriend’s university so I always assumed it would be okay, but one night after a spirited drive, I was greeted with a DPF light. I looked into replacements but in terms of cost effectiveness, it is cheaper and more beneficial for me to just gut it. (I could get pulled over and fined by VOSA and still be £200 up) Somebody towards the coast was selling a pre gutted DPF which I bought for £50, I then set about changing it. Reasonably easy job on the N47s, and I did not have it mapped for a few months to come yet. Ended up selling the old DPF to a scrappie for £120 too. Winner. Before I end up with the DPF police on my case, it still passes a legit MOT and doesn’t soot at all.
Minor changes after this consisted of an internal tinted sun strip being put on by my local tinting place. Went for plenty of drives with the guys.
Now, in the photos above, shortly after they were taken I had my first real mechanical scare with the car. Poodling through some traffic on the way to get some food with the guys, one of them shouted forward the car was smoking really bad, loads of blue smoke in fact. Now I hadn’t seen this before, and after parking the car, having some food and going back to check the oil and see how it sounded, we concluded it was safe to drive. I continued to drive it and didn’t see this smoke for another week or so, then it puffed absolutely loads for about 10 minutes and stopped. Really strange. I looked into it, and concluded that as it was so consistent, it was the car trying to do a DPF regeneration on the DPF that was not there, so was just burning in the hollow chamber and obviously coming out the back. AKA nothing to worry about for me!
Reasonably lengthy update that, and I’ll get another one up when I get a spare hour or so. Thanks for reading, nice to know people are reading it!
Just as a side note, the clutch delay valve/wheel bending issue are clearly mixed up. I'm having to think back 2 years at this point so excuse any continuity errors!
Nice! My other half had a 123D Coupe for a while, its currently sat at the parents awaiting sale when things go back to normal - her commutes come down a lot so we've gotten an MX5 to change it up. Always liked it and found it a fun car to drive, its like a mini version of my old 335D. Yours looks cracking.
Nice write up. I really considered one of these about 3 years ago. RWD, twin-turbo and around 260 bhp after a remap sounded perfect to me. Only thing that stopped me was the major worry with the timing chain on the N47's. How's your timing chain held up? Really liking the look with the new wheels and aero spoiler. Looking forward to more updates.
I hit a pot hole just over 4 years ago (it’s was my birthday so I remember exactly when I was). Anyway long story short, it was in the entrance to a car park. I can’t remember if it was private or council but they didn’t want to know same old blames the weather etc. On the advice of a mate I rang my insurance company. They got it all fixed and chased the other party for payment. Might be worth looking at? If you want any more info let me know and I’ll look up who they claimed off etc. I do remember it was a 2k job from Bmw 😳😳😳😳
Integra- thank you mate, will get updates done hopefully every few days as I tend to write them up when i'm bored in the evenings.
Corned Beef - that is the 123Ds biggest issue, the 335D haha. The form it is in now is much more fun to drive than it was at the time of this update!
E63M6 - Mine is a late 09 car, so makes it less prone to failures, but they do still go. As of today, it is on 186k and i believe on the original chain. fast forward two years it is on a different set of wheels and has had a fair few changes since. I'm sure you'll see the updates!
Mattie- i appreciate it mate but I think that ship has sailed. I'm 20 at the moment, and honestly insurance is still the biggest pain in my backside, the less communication i have them the better frankly.
Thank you for the responses guys, like i say its good to know people are interested!
Corned Beef - that is the 123Ds biggest issue, the 335D haha. The form it is in now is much more fun to drive than it was at the time of this update!
E63M6 - Mine is a late 09 car, so makes it less prone to failures, but they do still go. As of today, it is on 186k and i believe on the original chain. fast forward two years it is on a different set of wheels and has had a fair few changes since. I'm sure you'll see the updates!
Mattie- i appreciate it mate but I think that ship has sailed. I'm 20 at the moment, and honestly insurance is still the biggest pain in my backside, the less communication i have them the better frankly.
Thank you for the responses guys, like i say its good to know people are interested!
Ryan_E81 said:
123Ds are brilliant cars, nothing its class really like it. you would have had one of the first ones then! and good to know what the dynamic is. My girlfriend has an E92 325i N53 from 2008, thats still on its original battery too. Not to mention my mate's E46 still being on the original! 2005 320CI. I had DPF issues, but I'll put that in the next update i'd imagine, trying to keep it chronological.
Yes, mine was pre-registered by a dealer on 27 September 2007 which was the month they went on sale I think. It had less than 20 miles on it when I got it, and obviously in January 2008 nobody knew anything about N47 cam-chain issues!Before that I had a 2004 320td Compact that I bought in 2005 and Sytner invited me to test drive a facelift 120d in March 2007 which I really liked, but before I followed up on that the 123d got announced so I waited a bit until I could have the most powerful 4 cylinder turbo-diesel on sale!
Diesel made perfect sense at the time as I was getting a car allowance and business mileage fuel paid for by my employer, but 6+ years later that was no longer the case and after reading about N47 issues, and being past 80K miles, I decided to try an N/A BMW petrol straight 6 and haven't looked back.
Not sure if it just BMWs, but batteries seem to last ages these days. A relative of mine with a 54 plate E46 had the original replaced earlier this year!
Anyway I'm loving your updates and your obvious enthusiasm for your 123d. And yours just proves they can cover huge mileage without serious issues.
But if you ever have to drive it in snow I would recommend some winter tyres on a RWD BMW.
Sort of in the mood to write another one of these, so here goes.
You might have noticed from the last post, a photo of a Leon Cupra, Scooby and my car at the back in the snow. Now the Leon had a tinted number plate, which id always been weary of, not for legalities, more for how it makes the front of the car look dirty. But let’s just say I grew to like them, as I still run one to this day. Done it with some old tint film I had lying around and an old plate, this really won’t be to most people’s taste, but that’s not what it’s about is it.
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I also think that around this time, I changed the discs and pads all round (excluding the rear discs, they were only a few months old at this point. I live nearby to WG Motor parts - who I highly recommend if you’re in the southeast – they were able to secure me a good deal on some Ferodo DS2500 front pads, and EBC Redstuff rear. Just for the record, I hate EBC, and will not buy their products again. But that’s an in depth discussion for another day. Anyway, I mentioned in a previous update the drilled and Grooved MTEC discs were noisy, and eventually this happened.
|https://thumbsnap.com/posYJRjp[/url][url]
Now, I know some discs do have micro cracks, but this one made the car undrivable, and really was a safety issue. So I bought some MTEC C hook discs, as they looked good and were spot on in the rear of the car. I did not change fluid at this point as I had receipts from BMW saying it had been done less than a year before I bought the car. I set about fitting the new discs and pads. Before I fitted them, I pinched some VHT paint from the back of my old Company Car. (Dad’s business, didn’t just break in)
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/EEyNJsIj.jpg[/img]|https://thumbsnap.com/EEyNJsIj[/url] <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/4jph9zml" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/4jph9zml.jpg)
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I decided that since I had four Bolas in the garage not being used, I should try and straighten the alloy, just to see how it straightened up. I used a copper mallet, and a blowtorch. Heating the metal then knocking the rim into place, there was no cracking or evidence of fracturing, so I was quite happy to give it a go, nothing to lose. Got it looking pretty bloody straight I’d say.
|https://thumbsnap.com/kBWlEelk[/url][url]
I took it down to my friendly tyre fitter with an old pair of part worns I had floating about in the garage and gave him a drink to put the tyre on and spin the wheel up, I had the other Nankang changed to a known part worn also, just as a test to see if this wheel would cause me issues, at least then it wouldn’t be taking out a Michelin PS4 or PSS. As it turns out, the wheel that I had urm, massaged required less weight than the O/S wheel.
Always really liked that picture, made the brakes stand out because of the reflection. First time the Bolas went back on, day or so before BHP car show at Lydden hill. I recall that being a bloody hot day.
Bonus photo of me sodding around with the DPF because it was rattling while my dog sits guard. The rattle put the fear of god in me, as a firewall rattle on an N47 powered beemer generally means big bills lol. Turned out to be a slightly twisted DPF.
I caught wind of there being a BMW Performance short shifter available from BMW still, so got on the phone to my local and sure enough there were two left at the time. I think it was somewhere around £69, delivered to me including a new little plastic ball thing. I must say, even to date this is one of the best things I have ever done to the car. Easy enough to fit, 30% reduce in throw and cool OEM parts always excite me.
You will remember that I hit a dirty great pothole and blew the passenger side shock to bits, but had been putting up with the less than ideal ride as I knew I would buy Coilovers. My plan was AP Coilovers, or ST-X Coilovers. Nothing special, single way adjustment but both made by KW. Anyway, this did not happen. Somebody very close to where I live was selling a set of brand new, never opened Stance Coilovers. I had read good things about these, and they are £300 brand new on eBay, and she was selling them for £200. Friday night I went and got them, and they were on by mid-afternoon Saturday. I will say, they looked well built, pretty colours, and were fitted with absolutely no issues. I fitted them with the helper springs in still at first, but once I had driven the car a little, decided I wanted it lower, so they came out at the front, and the rear simply used the adjuster to drop it slightly. Got it sitting how I wanted at the time.
Some of you may find this quite low, but remember this was my previous car.
A pet hate about this particular car, and potentially my biggest regret was not getting one with Xenons, but fortunately the aftermarket option isn’t too bad for these. A lad in Essex was trading his car in and wanted someone to swap standard headlights + £100 his way, sure enough I jumped in the car and went straight there, we swapped them on his driveway and I went on my way. They are Depo V2s, they use a H7 projector for dipped beam and H7 reflector for high beam, with LED tube for the signature BMW Halos. I ordered two sets of H7 Night eyes for hi and lo beam which arrived shortly after, easy swap.
I went for a few months without really doing anything to the car, I wore out the old Pirelli P Zeros and went for a set of Kumho Ecsta PS91s, Kumho’s answer to the Michelin Pilot super sport, and I can honestly say they are a fantastic tyre. They’re more expensive now, but at the time I don’t think my rear tyres were more than £60 each in 245/35/18, opposed to the £100+ each for the Super Sports. I was surrounded by mates with noisy petrol powered cars, and fancied having a slightly more antisocial car for when I fancied it. Speed is deceptive, and the car never felt fast in terms of noise, I had this centre box chopped out for the pricey sum of £40.
The 123D has a stainless system as standard, I believe in 2.5” diameter, and the DPF is the biggest restriction anyway. The 123s also have no back box as per standard so this left me with a nearly straight piped car. Was it loud? No. did it sound good? Obviously it’s entirely subjective, but friends knew when I was in their area, and with the window cracked on full boost it had a really entertaining screech to it. The 3” tips you see in the photos are not standard, and were done by a previous owner, however they polished up very nicely so remained.
I done some drag racing, some legal some not so. The photo of the BM and the Leon Cupra was a very entertaining race (for the record, it was a bank holiday, and a dead end road way out the way, could have been causing far more harm) The Leon was dyno’d at 330bhp on more than one occasion, and at this point the BMW was still standard, with a K&N filter and DPF gutted. We estimated the road was around 1/8 mile. The Leon won in a photo finish by a nose, little 123 launches very well, and I’m guilty of doing it on several occasions.
Now the legal drag racing, went to BMW show with a good friend riding shotgun, I was on the BMW 1 Series owners stand, however we arrived, I saw it was £15 for unlimited runs and that was it, the stand didn’t see me again. My best time was 15.01 @ 92mph I believe. Worth noting it was a bloody hot day. Worth it for the pictures though!
I had an unfortunate incident where some old goat crashed her Vauxhall Viva into my car while I was sat at a junction. She claimed it was my fault, and said at one point “I was stationary too, until I moved”.
I knew the damage to hers was considerably worse than to mine, as I saw her coming and turned hard left, so my wheel caved her bumper, headlight and bonnet in. My insurance assured me that I would keep my no claims as I didn’t claim. Turns out it was pointless as I still lost my no claims, I have a resounding hatred for insurance companies. Anyway, the car was repaired within 24 hours with a replacement wing in the right colour from a local breaker, £50 out of pocket and a reminder to watch out for anyone with a Worther’s original in the car.
And the day after, once repaired.
Went to a few car meets with the guys, Sloane street meets, locals, Pod a few times, Brands most weeks. Was a brilliant summer.
October 2018 time we decided to attend a dyno day at BHP – Broadstairs High Performance. Stevo there is a lovely fella and looks after you, keeps you in the know and genuinely nice bloke. The Leon Cupra I raced further up the post once more ran 330bhp on the dot, and the little 123D with 163k miles on at this point, ran 214bhp. This is 10bhp more than standard, I put it down to the DPF removal.
That will do for this update, up next came some braking upgrades, a remap, and some interior improvements. Keep any comments coming!
You might have noticed from the last post, a photo of a Leon Cupra, Scooby and my car at the back in the snow. Now the Leon had a tinted number plate, which id always been weary of, not for legalities, more for how it makes the front of the car look dirty. But let’s just say I grew to like them, as I still run one to this day. Done it with some old tint film I had lying around and an old plate, this really won’t be to most people’s taste, but that’s not what it’s about is it.
[url]I also think that around this time, I changed the discs and pads all round (excluding the rear discs, they were only a few months old at this point. I live nearby to WG Motor parts - who I highly recommend if you’re in the southeast – they were able to secure me a good deal on some Ferodo DS2500 front pads, and EBC Redstuff rear. Just for the record, I hate EBC, and will not buy their products again. But that’s an in depth discussion for another day. Anyway, I mentioned in a previous update the drilled and Grooved MTEC discs were noisy, and eventually this happened.
|https://thumbsnap.com/posYJRjp[/url][url]Now, I know some discs do have micro cracks, but this one made the car undrivable, and really was a safety issue. So I bought some MTEC C hook discs, as they looked good and were spot on in the rear of the car. I did not change fluid at this point as I had receipts from BMW saying it had been done less than a year before I bought the car. I set about fitting the new discs and pads. Before I fitted them, I pinched some VHT paint from the back of my old Company Car. (Dad’s business, didn’t just break in)
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/4jph9zml[/url]I decided that since I had four Bolas in the garage not being used, I should try and straighten the alloy, just to see how it straightened up. I used a copper mallet, and a blowtorch. Heating the metal then knocking the rim into place, there was no cracking or evidence of fracturing, so I was quite happy to give it a go, nothing to lose. Got it looking pretty bloody straight I’d say.
|https://thumbsnap.com/kBWlEelk[/url][url]I took it down to my friendly tyre fitter with an old pair of part worns I had floating about in the garage and gave him a drink to put the tyre on and spin the wheel up, I had the other Nankang changed to a known part worn also, just as a test to see if this wheel would cause me issues, at least then it wouldn’t be taking out a Michelin PS4 or PSS. As it turns out, the wheel that I had urm, massaged required less weight than the O/S wheel.
Always really liked that picture, made the brakes stand out because of the reflection. First time the Bolas went back on, day or so before BHP car show at Lydden hill. I recall that being a bloody hot day.
Bonus photo of me sodding around with the DPF because it was rattling while my dog sits guard. The rattle put the fear of god in me, as a firewall rattle on an N47 powered beemer generally means big bills lol. Turned out to be a slightly twisted DPF.
I caught wind of there being a BMW Performance short shifter available from BMW still, so got on the phone to my local and sure enough there were two left at the time. I think it was somewhere around £69, delivered to me including a new little plastic ball thing. I must say, even to date this is one of the best things I have ever done to the car. Easy enough to fit, 30% reduce in throw and cool OEM parts always excite me.
You will remember that I hit a dirty great pothole and blew the passenger side shock to bits, but had been putting up with the less than ideal ride as I knew I would buy Coilovers. My plan was AP Coilovers, or ST-X Coilovers. Nothing special, single way adjustment but both made by KW. Anyway, this did not happen. Somebody very close to where I live was selling a set of brand new, never opened Stance Coilovers. I had read good things about these, and they are £300 brand new on eBay, and she was selling them for £200. Friday night I went and got them, and they were on by mid-afternoon Saturday. I will say, they looked well built, pretty colours, and were fitted with absolutely no issues. I fitted them with the helper springs in still at first, but once I had driven the car a little, decided I wanted it lower, so they came out at the front, and the rear simply used the adjuster to drop it slightly. Got it sitting how I wanted at the time.
Some of you may find this quite low, but remember this was my previous car.
A pet hate about this particular car, and potentially my biggest regret was not getting one with Xenons, but fortunately the aftermarket option isn’t too bad for these. A lad in Essex was trading his car in and wanted someone to swap standard headlights + £100 his way, sure enough I jumped in the car and went straight there, we swapped them on his driveway and I went on my way. They are Depo V2s, they use a H7 projector for dipped beam and H7 reflector for high beam, with LED tube for the signature BMW Halos. I ordered two sets of H7 Night eyes for hi and lo beam which arrived shortly after, easy swap.
I went for a few months without really doing anything to the car, I wore out the old Pirelli P Zeros and went for a set of Kumho Ecsta PS91s, Kumho’s answer to the Michelin Pilot super sport, and I can honestly say they are a fantastic tyre. They’re more expensive now, but at the time I don’t think my rear tyres were more than £60 each in 245/35/18, opposed to the £100+ each for the Super Sports. I was surrounded by mates with noisy petrol powered cars, and fancied having a slightly more antisocial car for when I fancied it. Speed is deceptive, and the car never felt fast in terms of noise, I had this centre box chopped out for the pricey sum of £40.
The 123D has a stainless system as standard, I believe in 2.5” diameter, and the DPF is the biggest restriction anyway. The 123s also have no back box as per standard so this left me with a nearly straight piped car. Was it loud? No. did it sound good? Obviously it’s entirely subjective, but friends knew when I was in their area, and with the window cracked on full boost it had a really entertaining screech to it. The 3” tips you see in the photos are not standard, and were done by a previous owner, however they polished up very nicely so remained.
I done some drag racing, some legal some not so. The photo of the BM and the Leon Cupra was a very entertaining race (for the record, it was a bank holiday, and a dead end road way out the way, could have been causing far more harm) The Leon was dyno’d at 330bhp on more than one occasion, and at this point the BMW was still standard, with a K&N filter and DPF gutted. We estimated the road was around 1/8 mile. The Leon won in a photo finish by a nose, little 123 launches very well, and I’m guilty of doing it on several occasions.
Now the legal drag racing, went to BMW show with a good friend riding shotgun, I was on the BMW 1 Series owners stand, however we arrived, I saw it was £15 for unlimited runs and that was it, the stand didn’t see me again. My best time was 15.01 @ 92mph I believe. Worth noting it was a bloody hot day. Worth it for the pictures though!
I had an unfortunate incident where some old goat crashed her Vauxhall Viva into my car while I was sat at a junction. She claimed it was my fault, and said at one point “I was stationary too, until I moved”.
I knew the damage to hers was considerably worse than to mine, as I saw her coming and turned hard left, so my wheel caved her bumper, headlight and bonnet in. My insurance assured me that I would keep my no claims as I didn’t claim. Turns out it was pointless as I still lost my no claims, I have a resounding hatred for insurance companies. Anyway, the car was repaired within 24 hours with a replacement wing in the right colour from a local breaker, £50 out of pocket and a reminder to watch out for anyone with a Worther’s original in the car.
And the day after, once repaired.
Went to a few car meets with the guys, Sloane street meets, locals, Pod a few times, Brands most weeks. Was a brilliant summer.
October 2018 time we decided to attend a dyno day at BHP – Broadstairs High Performance. Stevo there is a lovely fella and looks after you, keeps you in the know and genuinely nice bloke. The Leon Cupra I raced further up the post once more ran 330bhp on the dot, and the little 123D with 163k miles on at this point, ran 214bhp. This is 10bhp more than standard, I put it down to the DPF removal.
That will do for this update, up next came some braking upgrades, a remap, and some interior improvements. Keep any comments coming!
Keep them coming mate!So as mentioned in my last update, I knew the potential of these engines once they had been remapped, with some producing in excess of 280bhp (some with rather happy dyno’s mind) with minimal mods.
Just as a rundown, my car was near standard. The DPF had been gutted, it had a K&N drop in filter, and a centre box chopped out. What difference the centre box makes is negligible, done entirely for noise, not performance. I got in touch with a few places, someone who works as an agent for GBW (Now GKR) tuning let me down, but I still uphold Glen as the guru of all diesel BMWs. I ended up using a local fella who seemed to know his stuff, it was a road map which involved data logging and road testing, I was happy with it. I asked him to map out the EGR software and swirl flap motor in preparation for me to blank them. The EGRs on N47 can cause serious issues, including coking up and burning holes in inlet manifolds, not ideal. Gave the car a fresh oil change and cleaned the K&N and went and had the car remapped, felt brilliant, smooth, was definitely quick. Had a few plays with a friend’s 317bhp Subaru, yielding the result you might expect, but closer than we both expected. Decided to get it straight down to the Stevo at BHP for another dyno run, went on a weekday with a mate’s R53 Cooper S, and another mate’s 370Z. At some point between getting the car mapped, and getting it dyno’d however, I had an expensive photo taken. I wasn’t driving like a maniac, was simply on my way to work and forgot to slow down for the speed camera I go past twice a day, every weekday for nearly 2 years. Boll*cks. Got away with speed awareness for that one. 46 in a 40 is hardly the end of the world.
The car made 250bhp and 450NM, low numbers for a car with a DPF delete, but I was happy nonetheless. The Intercooler is the next restrictive thing at this point, so I was happy to leave it where it was. The Mini made 240bhp, and the Zed made 326 so bang on the quoted numbers.
I enjoyed the car for a little while, got it really dirty after going out for a winter drive with a friend, plenty of traction control off fun in the lanes.
Now I can’t praise the standard brake setup enough. 330mm single piston sliding setup, I never needed more, but I like shiny things so incomes a sly offer on these brakes off this 435i.
I painted them myself with some high temp Estoril Blue and some M stickers, at the same time I bought a set of HEL Braided lines from WG Motor parts through my friend there. Interestingly, they have 6 lines which was odd to me, two flexis above the rear sub frame which can be replaced. Quick test fit before paint.
And painted
Fitting is easy as can be, unbolt the old setup, new discs on, new calliper on, standard mounting points, standard bolts, I obviously done the braided lines while I was there, but not even necessary since it’s the same fitment. One of the rear hard lines did split however whilst changing the rear lines. Not too much of an issue, removed the old line and took a wander down to my nearest garage and asked them to make me a new one up, they said £30 and come back in an hour. Little expensive, but needs must. Finally got them fitted and bled up, I was using the standard discs and pads at this point, the 435 had less than 20k miles on and discs and pads had very good life left, both genuine BMW so I was happy to run them.
The setup felt good, and I didn’t feel as though my brakes had gotten any worse. I sold my old callipers, discs and pads to a mate with an E87 120D for cheap as he had a sticky piston and had experienced the brakes before when he’d driven mine, so was happy to take them off my hands. I fitted them for him one apocalyptically cold day.
Now I had mentioned the Kumho Ecsta PS91s at some point in this thread, and I will maintain they are a brilliant tyre, the issue was however, their wear. I was getting around 5k to a set, and buying a pair of rears every 4-5 months. I had gone through another set and decided one last pair as I knew they were good, and I didn’t want to stump up for PS4s just yet. Perfect opportunity for a change in wheels. The bolas looked good, and were a strong enough wheel, but the fact they were square always wound me up, so I put the standard wheels on, and began the search for new wheels.
I think it was a couple of weeks of hard-core looking, until I finally stumbled across these on an Insignia page strangely enough, I recall it was quite close to Christmas, sometime between the 10th-20th December, and I was off work at the time due to holiday needing to be used up, so I organised with the owner to collect them the next morning from Peterborough.
Now, being the impatient sod I am, I got back the same day picking them up and put them on immediately. I knew I wouldn’t like the colour, but curiosity got the better of me.
Fair to say the colour scheme didn’t really do it for me, so they came off the next day, and I bought some Halfords rattle cans and prep equipment and began colour change, the wheels weren’t actually that badly curbed or anything, so cleaned up okay with a sanding disc on the rotary and took the new silver well. Drying in my living room, not ideal.
Put them on the next day with some fresh BMW Black centre caps, they fit perfectly on my car. The specs are 18x8.5 et37 with a 225/40/18 and 18x9.5 et32 with a 245/35/18.
Being young still, my mum still asks me what I want for Christmas/birthdays if there is anything specific. Imagine her confusion when I told her I wanted a steering wheel retrim. Got in touch with Royal Wheels with a request for a flat bottom, m sport stitched wheel, with smooth leather top and bottom, and perforated sides, with a red stripe at 12 o’clock for added drift points. Jack at Royal is very helpful, and the quality of their work is second to none. Wheel swapped over on Christmas morning. You’ll notice I have a BMWP gear knob now too, I don’t like alctantara so stuck with the standard leather gaiter.
Now, I thought I would have had enough of wheels at this point, but on Boxing day, a lad posted on the 1 series page saying he was moving flat the next day, and needed to get rid of these 261Ms, a standard 135i wheel that only came on coupes. They were £120 I believe for all 4, with legal tyres. No way was I saying no to that, so in the car and straight down to Canterbury that night, he was a nice lad, with a 135i convertible which he met me with the wheels in, roof down and wheels strategically placed wherever they would fit. Respect to the bloke. Couldn’t resist a quick test fit. Ended up cleaning the wheels and selling them for a -ahem- handsome profit.
New Year’s Day, after a royal p*ss up at a mate’s house.
Better look at the new wheels and brakes, dirty mind.
Now to digress from the BMW for a moment. I mentioned before my love for Volvos, and the fact that my mum had a D5 V50, had it for around 4 years and sometime in the New Year 2019, it got written off. Some pleb in a Ford Kuga didn’t give way and drove straight into the driver’s door, mum going 30mph and him an estimated 10-15mph.
Insurance took the car and wrote it off and we ended up with a courtesy car which was a brand new Mercedes GLA220, what a god awful car. Simultaneously the harshest, and least supportive suspension I’ve ever experienced. Hateful vehicle and I feel sorry for the to-be owner of it, as it had 6 miles on the clock when we got it and it was driven (by me at least) flat out at all times, what’s a rev limiter?
Anyway, car hunting began. I mentioned my interest for a C30 at the start of this thread, and my mum had no need for a wagon anymore. She has always liked Audis, but after the crash she made it clear she would like another Volvo, and I agreed and set about finding the right C30. We had a budget of around £5000, so after a few days of trawling the classifieds, I found this.
A facelift SE Lux with the D3 engine and Geartronic ‘box. After the lazy auto life in the V50, there was no going back to a manual. The one that drew me to this one was the colour, and spec. It is as follows;
SE Lux, D3, Adaptove Bixenons, Upgraded hifi, Bluetooth, Keyless entry, OEM Nav, T5 only colour (Maple Red) Hard parcel shelf, optional 18” Atreus Alloys. A drive down to Swindon –without my mother as she trusted my ability to get the right car for her- a deal was secured with the dealer, pleasant experience actually, 1 year warranty included, full tank of fuel, belt and water pump done the week we picked it up. (That was a condition of the deal). I think we paid £5200 for it, so slightly over budget but definitely worth it for the spec and condition. The car was on 102k when purchased. Not a problem for us, she does less than 8k a year, and I’ve seen D5s quite happily hit the 500k mile mark.
First picture of the beemer and the Volvo together at the dealership.
And when we got it home
I don’t feel there is enough done to the Volvo for me to have a separate thread for it here, so I’ll just chuck the odd update in here every now and then. Like I’ve said before, this is a thread for me to keep a record of what’s been done, it’s just a bonus that you guys seem to enjoy the updates.
Finally for this update, after a decent amount of miles, car was due another oil and filter change. Coincidentally at the same time as a couple of mates were doing theirs, so we had a day changing oils and generally dicking around.
Thank you for reading, i hope you're enjoying it. More updates to come!
Just as a rundown, my car was near standard. The DPF had been gutted, it had a K&N drop in filter, and a centre box chopped out. What difference the centre box makes is negligible, done entirely for noise, not performance. I got in touch with a few places, someone who works as an agent for GBW (Now GKR) tuning let me down, but I still uphold Glen as the guru of all diesel BMWs. I ended up using a local fella who seemed to know his stuff, it was a road map which involved data logging and road testing, I was happy with it. I asked him to map out the EGR software and swirl flap motor in preparation for me to blank them. The EGRs on N47 can cause serious issues, including coking up and burning holes in inlet manifolds, not ideal. Gave the car a fresh oil change and cleaned the K&N and went and had the car remapped, felt brilliant, smooth, was definitely quick. Had a few plays with a friend’s 317bhp Subaru, yielding the result you might expect, but closer than we both expected. Decided to get it straight down to the Stevo at BHP for another dyno run, went on a weekday with a mate’s R53 Cooper S, and another mate’s 370Z. At some point between getting the car mapped, and getting it dyno’d however, I had an expensive photo taken. I wasn’t driving like a maniac, was simply on my way to work and forgot to slow down for the speed camera I go past twice a day, every weekday for nearly 2 years. Boll*cks. Got away with speed awareness for that one. 46 in a 40 is hardly the end of the world.
The car made 250bhp and 450NM, low numbers for a car with a DPF delete, but I was happy nonetheless. The Intercooler is the next restrictive thing at this point, so I was happy to leave it where it was. The Mini made 240bhp, and the Zed made 326 so bang on the quoted numbers.
I enjoyed the car for a little while, got it really dirty after going out for a winter drive with a friend, plenty of traction control off fun in the lanes.
Now I can’t praise the standard brake setup enough. 330mm single piston sliding setup, I never needed more, but I like shiny things so incomes a sly offer on these brakes off this 435i.
I painted them myself with some high temp Estoril Blue and some M stickers, at the same time I bought a set of HEL Braided lines from WG Motor parts through my friend there. Interestingly, they have 6 lines which was odd to me, two flexis above the rear sub frame which can be replaced. Quick test fit before paint.
And painted
Fitting is easy as can be, unbolt the old setup, new discs on, new calliper on, standard mounting points, standard bolts, I obviously done the braided lines while I was there, but not even necessary since it’s the same fitment. One of the rear hard lines did split however whilst changing the rear lines. Not too much of an issue, removed the old line and took a wander down to my nearest garage and asked them to make me a new one up, they said £30 and come back in an hour. Little expensive, but needs must. Finally got them fitted and bled up, I was using the standard discs and pads at this point, the 435 had less than 20k miles on and discs and pads had very good life left, both genuine BMW so I was happy to run them.
The setup felt good, and I didn’t feel as though my brakes had gotten any worse. I sold my old callipers, discs and pads to a mate with an E87 120D for cheap as he had a sticky piston and had experienced the brakes before when he’d driven mine, so was happy to take them off my hands. I fitted them for him one apocalyptically cold day.
Now I had mentioned the Kumho Ecsta PS91s at some point in this thread, and I will maintain they are a brilliant tyre, the issue was however, their wear. I was getting around 5k to a set, and buying a pair of rears every 4-5 months. I had gone through another set and decided one last pair as I knew they were good, and I didn’t want to stump up for PS4s just yet. Perfect opportunity for a change in wheels. The bolas looked good, and were a strong enough wheel, but the fact they were square always wound me up, so I put the standard wheels on, and began the search for new wheels.
I think it was a couple of weeks of hard-core looking, until I finally stumbled across these on an Insignia page strangely enough, I recall it was quite close to Christmas, sometime between the 10th-20th December, and I was off work at the time due to holiday needing to be used up, so I organised with the owner to collect them the next morning from Peterborough.
Now, being the impatient sod I am, I got back the same day picking them up and put them on immediately. I knew I wouldn’t like the colour, but curiosity got the better of me.
Fair to say the colour scheme didn’t really do it for me, so they came off the next day, and I bought some Halfords rattle cans and prep equipment and began colour change, the wheels weren’t actually that badly curbed or anything, so cleaned up okay with a sanding disc on the rotary and took the new silver well. Drying in my living room, not ideal.
Put them on the next day with some fresh BMW Black centre caps, they fit perfectly on my car. The specs are 18x8.5 et37 with a 225/40/18 and 18x9.5 et32 with a 245/35/18.
Being young still, my mum still asks me what I want for Christmas/birthdays if there is anything specific. Imagine her confusion when I told her I wanted a steering wheel retrim. Got in touch with Royal Wheels with a request for a flat bottom, m sport stitched wheel, with smooth leather top and bottom, and perforated sides, with a red stripe at 12 o’clock for added drift points. Jack at Royal is very helpful, and the quality of their work is second to none. Wheel swapped over on Christmas morning. You’ll notice I have a BMWP gear knob now too, I don’t like alctantara so stuck with the standard leather gaiter.
Now, I thought I would have had enough of wheels at this point, but on Boxing day, a lad posted on the 1 series page saying he was moving flat the next day, and needed to get rid of these 261Ms, a standard 135i wheel that only came on coupes. They were £120 I believe for all 4, with legal tyres. No way was I saying no to that, so in the car and straight down to Canterbury that night, he was a nice lad, with a 135i convertible which he met me with the wheels in, roof down and wheels strategically placed wherever they would fit. Respect to the bloke. Couldn’t resist a quick test fit. Ended up cleaning the wheels and selling them for a -ahem- handsome profit.
New Year’s Day, after a royal p*ss up at a mate’s house.
Better look at the new wheels and brakes, dirty mind.
Now to digress from the BMW for a moment. I mentioned before my love for Volvos, and the fact that my mum had a D5 V50, had it for around 4 years and sometime in the New Year 2019, it got written off. Some pleb in a Ford Kuga didn’t give way and drove straight into the driver’s door, mum going 30mph and him an estimated 10-15mph.
Insurance took the car and wrote it off and we ended up with a courtesy car which was a brand new Mercedes GLA220, what a god awful car. Simultaneously the harshest, and least supportive suspension I’ve ever experienced. Hateful vehicle and I feel sorry for the to-be owner of it, as it had 6 miles on the clock when we got it and it was driven (by me at least) flat out at all times, what’s a rev limiter?
Anyway, car hunting began. I mentioned my interest for a C30 at the start of this thread, and my mum had no need for a wagon anymore. She has always liked Audis, but after the crash she made it clear she would like another Volvo, and I agreed and set about finding the right C30. We had a budget of around £5000, so after a few days of trawling the classifieds, I found this.
A facelift SE Lux with the D3 engine and Geartronic ‘box. After the lazy auto life in the V50, there was no going back to a manual. The one that drew me to this one was the colour, and spec. It is as follows;
SE Lux, D3, Adaptove Bixenons, Upgraded hifi, Bluetooth, Keyless entry, OEM Nav, T5 only colour (Maple Red) Hard parcel shelf, optional 18” Atreus Alloys. A drive down to Swindon –without my mother as she trusted my ability to get the right car for her- a deal was secured with the dealer, pleasant experience actually, 1 year warranty included, full tank of fuel, belt and water pump done the week we picked it up. (That was a condition of the deal). I think we paid £5200 for it, so slightly over budget but definitely worth it for the spec and condition. The car was on 102k when purchased. Not a problem for us, she does less than 8k a year, and I’ve seen D5s quite happily hit the 500k mile mark.
First picture of the beemer and the Volvo together at the dealership.
And when we got it home
I don’t feel there is enough done to the Volvo for me to have a separate thread for it here, so I’ll just chuck the odd update in here every now and then. Like I’ve said before, this is a thread for me to keep a record of what’s been done, it’s just a bonus that you guys seem to enjoy the updates.
Finally for this update, after a decent amount of miles, car was due another oil and filter change. Coincidentally at the same time as a couple of mates were doing theirs, so we had a day changing oils and generally dicking around.
Thank you for reading, i hope you're enjoying it. More updates to come!
Right, time for another update! Work has been flat out since the last update, so has been a while since I’ve been able to spend an hour looking through the old photos and deciding what should be going etc. I mentioned in the last update that I’d be giving the odd Volvo update here too, so one of the first things I ended up doing was removing the headlights and splitting the lenses – very easy, thank you Volvo- and spraying the chrome inserts black, makes the front of the car a whole lot moodier, still love the Maple red on this. Apparently was a T5 only colour, and somebody paid through the nose for it on this one.
I recall needing new rear tyres on the BMW at this point however, maybe the photos and videos of me doing burnouts served as a reminder, can’t confirm. Strange though, this was after being a yob, two tyre marks with an open diff, strange.
Little before and after of when I first got the car to this point, I think I took the photo so that’s not me in the driver’s or passenger seat. I think I was hanging out the boot of a Leon Cupra. You’ll notice my homemade splitter effort, still holding up. I used to have to respray it from time to time due to stone chips.
After this, I didn’t do much to the car for a little while, I just enjoyed driving it, done a lot of shows etc and just general running around. The problem with having a diesel is your mates seem to think you’re some sort of taxi service
Got another speeding ticket. On the way into Santa Pod, the scoob behind me is my friend’s, he got away with it because he was glued to my rear bumper!!
Relevant road sign.
Trip to Brands for a track day, unfortunately not participating. I always wanted to take the car round track, but always had an excuse to make. It did happen eventually, still wearing its miles well. I think it was at around 160k at this point.
Kumhos didn’t last again!! 4k out of these ones I’m sure it was. Replaced with a pair of Michelin PS4s in 245/35/18
Think this was the way back from BHP show at lydden in 2019, funny looking things these E81s.
June 2019 myself and the missus decided to go away for a few days while she had some time off work, booked the Chunnel and sort of went from there. Up early and off to Folkestone.
Ended up at some massive aquarium somewhere in northern France initially, the town it was in was a dive but the aquarium was genuinely incredible, not usually my sort of thing but we were both impressed. After this, we had booked a hotel for Bruges, and it’s a beautiful city that I’d recommend to anyone. Every restaurant serves delicious food (and beer) and the old square and museums around it are a good way to spend a few hours. Proper tourist stuff, but it was excellent. We parked the car outside the hotel and walked everywhere since it’s such a small City.
Spent 3 nights there and had to return home stopped via Ypres on the way back as we had a few hours before out Chunnel crossing, so got some dinner and saw the Last Post. Nice little break and the car averaged 52mpg for the trip. Done it on one tank of fuel actually.
Got back and immediately back into shows, this time myself and the guys were actually on a stand. Tunerfest Brands Hatch, good day out.
Having got the bug for Europe and driving in Europe, we soon planned another slight longer break, starting in Amsterdam. People complain about driving in London, and even places like Maidstone. I used to until I drove into the centre of Amsterdam. In the car, you’re a minority, and it’s near impossible to get anywhere without killing a stoner on a bicycle. Got a nice spot outside of the hotel, we had two nights in Dam, once again a fantastic city, masses of entertainment even with your girlfriend with you. We went to a large adult entertainment show, Heineken experience boat tour and of course spent some time in the coffee shops. I don’t smoke, but I’m not sure you need to in such a place.
Next day we left and headed for the holy grail of the Nurburgring. Unfortunately Ferrari had booked the track pretty much all weekend, but that’s not to say we missed out.
Stayed in a little air B&B thing called speedy’ s. Comfortable and clean for the night we were there, sat drinking cider all evening on the balcony, was lovely.
My sat nav insisted that this was a road. I’d like to clarify that it was not. The roads around the Nurburgring are a cut above any road in the UK, but I think I need to go to Wales to confirm. Pinnochios for the famous pizza. Joined by a large group of noisy Italians dressed head to toe in Ferrari Merch. That will be the test drivers then, lovely place.
Following day, we were headed for Munich. My girlfriend has family there so thought we’d incorporate a visit. First experience of unrestricted Autobahns. The standard of driving there is incredible, my girlfriend and I shared this leg of the trip as it was a reasonably long drive, so on one of the unrestricted bits I told her to go for it. She’s no stranger to speed, but this was the fastest she’d ever been.
I had an indicated 167MPH at one point, so probably closer to 155 but even still, I was impressed. Felt stable and quiet even at that speed. I will say about fuel economy however, first leg of the journey I done Kent – Amsterdam – Nurburgring on one tank of fuel. I ended up doing more than that on the drive to Munich because although we weren’t flat out all the time, there were times when we could set the cruise control to 120MPH and not touch it for up to half an hour, if you haven’t been, go!
Arrived in Munich and decided to go to the BMW Museum, must do for any petrol head. Saw some proper BMWs, none of this Turbo Diesel sh*te.
Went slightly further south to my Girlfriend’s family, who took us to some lovely restaurants and was generally good to have a catch-up, was in a place called Bad Tolz, not far from the Austrian border, another knuckle bitingly beautiful part of the world.
Our time in Munich (ish) came to an end after a couple of nights, so we made our way back up the country and stayed at the Nurburgring again since we enjoyed it so much the first time and there were things we didn’t get a chance to do. The Ring Museum and just some general mooching about namely. Stayed at Apex that night, highly recommend there too, not often your car is parked next to a laferrari at the hotel. BMW M test centre just up the road too.
Left the Nurburgring early afternoon, and stopped in Brussels (sthole) for something to eat. Got a good photo out of it though.
So got home late that evening, next day had a visit from a friend to catch-up, turns out whilst I was away he bought an N54 335i manual, wonderful!
Will do another update soon, this brings us up to July 2019.
I recall needing new rear tyres on the BMW at this point however, maybe the photos and videos of me doing burnouts served as a reminder, can’t confirm. Strange though, this was after being a yob, two tyre marks with an open diff, strange.
Little before and after of when I first got the car to this point, I think I took the photo so that’s not me in the driver’s or passenger seat. I think I was hanging out the boot of a Leon Cupra. You’ll notice my homemade splitter effort, still holding up. I used to have to respray it from time to time due to stone chips.
After this, I didn’t do much to the car for a little while, I just enjoyed driving it, done a lot of shows etc and just general running around. The problem with having a diesel is your mates seem to think you’re some sort of taxi service
Got another speeding ticket. On the way into Santa Pod, the scoob behind me is my friend’s, he got away with it because he was glued to my rear bumper!!
Relevant road sign.
Trip to Brands for a track day, unfortunately not participating. I always wanted to take the car round track, but always had an excuse to make. It did happen eventually, still wearing its miles well. I think it was at around 160k at this point.
Kumhos didn’t last again!! 4k out of these ones I’m sure it was. Replaced with a pair of Michelin PS4s in 245/35/18
Think this was the way back from BHP show at lydden in 2019, funny looking things these E81s.
June 2019 myself and the missus decided to go away for a few days while she had some time off work, booked the Chunnel and sort of went from there. Up early and off to Folkestone.
Ended up at some massive aquarium somewhere in northern France initially, the town it was in was a dive but the aquarium was genuinely incredible, not usually my sort of thing but we were both impressed. After this, we had booked a hotel for Bruges, and it’s a beautiful city that I’d recommend to anyone. Every restaurant serves delicious food (and beer) and the old square and museums around it are a good way to spend a few hours. Proper tourist stuff, but it was excellent. We parked the car outside the hotel and walked everywhere since it’s such a small City.
Spent 3 nights there and had to return home stopped via Ypres on the way back as we had a few hours before out Chunnel crossing, so got some dinner and saw the Last Post. Nice little break and the car averaged 52mpg for the trip. Done it on one tank of fuel actually.
Got back and immediately back into shows, this time myself and the guys were actually on a stand. Tunerfest Brands Hatch, good day out.
Having got the bug for Europe and driving in Europe, we soon planned another slight longer break, starting in Amsterdam. People complain about driving in London, and even places like Maidstone. I used to until I drove into the centre of Amsterdam. In the car, you’re a minority, and it’s near impossible to get anywhere without killing a stoner on a bicycle. Got a nice spot outside of the hotel, we had two nights in Dam, once again a fantastic city, masses of entertainment even with your girlfriend with you. We went to a large adult entertainment show, Heineken experience boat tour and of course spent some time in the coffee shops. I don’t smoke, but I’m not sure you need to in such a place.
Next day we left and headed for the holy grail of the Nurburgring. Unfortunately Ferrari had booked the track pretty much all weekend, but that’s not to say we missed out.
Stayed in a little air B&B thing called speedy’ s. Comfortable and clean for the night we were there, sat drinking cider all evening on the balcony, was lovely.
My sat nav insisted that this was a road. I’d like to clarify that it was not. The roads around the Nurburgring are a cut above any road in the UK, but I think I need to go to Wales to confirm. Pinnochios for the famous pizza. Joined by a large group of noisy Italians dressed head to toe in Ferrari Merch. That will be the test drivers then, lovely place.
Following day, we were headed for Munich. My girlfriend has family there so thought we’d incorporate a visit. First experience of unrestricted Autobahns. The standard of driving there is incredible, my girlfriend and I shared this leg of the trip as it was a reasonably long drive, so on one of the unrestricted bits I told her to go for it. She’s no stranger to speed, but this was the fastest she’d ever been.
I had an indicated 167MPH at one point, so probably closer to 155 but even still, I was impressed. Felt stable and quiet even at that speed. I will say about fuel economy however, first leg of the journey I done Kent – Amsterdam – Nurburgring on one tank of fuel. I ended up doing more than that on the drive to Munich because although we weren’t flat out all the time, there were times when we could set the cruise control to 120MPH and not touch it for up to half an hour, if you haven’t been, go!
Arrived in Munich and decided to go to the BMW Museum, must do for any petrol head. Saw some proper BMWs, none of this Turbo Diesel sh*te.
Went slightly further south to my Girlfriend’s family, who took us to some lovely restaurants and was generally good to have a catch-up, was in a place called Bad Tolz, not far from the Austrian border, another knuckle bitingly beautiful part of the world.
Our time in Munich (ish) came to an end after a couple of nights, so we made our way back up the country and stayed at the Nurburgring again since we enjoyed it so much the first time and there were things we didn’t get a chance to do. The Ring Museum and just some general mooching about namely. Stayed at Apex that night, highly recommend there too, not often your car is parked next to a laferrari at the hotel. BMW M test centre just up the road too.
Left the Nurburgring early afternoon, and stopped in Brussels (s
thole) for something to eat. Got a good photo out of it though. So got home late that evening, next day had a visit from a friend to catch-up, turns out whilst I was away he bought an N54 335i manual, wonderful!
Will do another update soon, this brings us up to July 2019.
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