600bhp 1 Series
Discussion
Court_S said:
That’s some pretty serious upgrades to the car again. This must be an absolute beast.
Marc always seemed like a good bloke when I bought parts from him. Shame he’s so far away from me.
Cheers chief.Marc always seemed like a good bloke when I bought parts from him. Shame he’s so far away from me.
It’s definitely quite a handful. As daft as it sounds I’m fairly used to it now, so although it’s massively quick I drive it every day anyway and it’s sort of normal.
I’ve got a PD130 A6 I use now and again which definitely puts the performance into perspective
Clearly gonna be meth next
CarPrintGuy said:
I love this project! However, to drop from 40 mpg on a run to 27 mpg isn't what I'd expect. Surely the bigger turbos are boosting less when on a light throttle? I wonder if some live mapping could rescue a few mpg. Not that that's the point, it's 600 bhp for Christ's sake! But to lose 13 mpg when cruising sounds to me like it's overfuelling. Also my old E55 could touch 26 mpg on a run, so surely even with big turbos this 140 should be more efficient than the big old Merc? Either way, keep up the great work!
Thanks for your reply! It’s a reasonable point to make. It’s on a whole different map now so I will do a new “economy” run soon once the last revision is sorted, we’ll see where we’re at!Just ordered 60L of Ethanol so will be looking to dial in ethanol map v soon, then get it on the dyno.
Small update, nothing massively exciting..
I collected 60L of VP Racing's finest X98 Ethanol the other week, so that's sat in the garage waiting for some time off and good weather to get the E map dialled in.
I then let my younger brother have a go, first time I've been a passenger in it in a very long time! In his words "F*** me that's scary"
It was fairly uncomfortable from the passengers seat too in fairness.
Finally last night I got round to changing out my spark plugs. They've done nearly 17k so I wanted to change them for piece of mind before pushing the car on an E tune. All 6 looked reasonable, no evidence of oil or degradation to the plugs themselves, maybe a little on the lean side but to be fair to the plugs they've been through quite a bit of tuning to get the car to where it is now. Oil change again tomorrow as I ran out of time, going back to Fuchs 5w/40 fully synth.
Some new OE TU plugs replaced these, gapped to 0,022".
I also had the opportunity to take my pals M2 Comp for a spin.
I drove the M2C, and he drove my 140.
My impressions were that the M2C is absolutely a lot more surefooted than my car is, however I've not done masses suspension wise yet really, that's very much next on the list. Power wise it was a long way behind the 140 and felt it, and in all honesty I'm not sure which gearbox changed faster. The DCT is lovely to use but I'm not sure it's any faster than the HP70 swap in my 140.
Interesting experience for sure. The M2C is a lovely place to be and the seats are delightful, it definitely feels more special inside.
If anyone does have instahamz and wants to follow me, my tag is @D4MJT
I collected 60L of VP Racing's finest X98 Ethanol the other week, so that's sat in the garage waiting for some time off and good weather to get the E map dialled in.
I then let my younger brother have a go, first time I've been a passenger in it in a very long time! In his words "F*** me that's scary"
It was fairly uncomfortable from the passengers seat too in fairness.
Finally last night I got round to changing out my spark plugs. They've done nearly 17k so I wanted to change them for piece of mind before pushing the car on an E tune. All 6 looked reasonable, no evidence of oil or degradation to the plugs themselves, maybe a little on the lean side but to be fair to the plugs they've been through quite a bit of tuning to get the car to where it is now. Oil change again tomorrow as I ran out of time, going back to Fuchs 5w/40 fully synth.
Some new OE TU plugs replaced these, gapped to 0,022".
I also had the opportunity to take my pals M2 Comp for a spin.
I drove the M2C, and he drove my 140.
My impressions were that the M2C is absolutely a lot more surefooted than my car is, however I've not done masses suspension wise yet really, that's very much next on the list. Power wise it was a long way behind the 140 and felt it, and in all honesty I'm not sure which gearbox changed faster. The DCT is lovely to use but I'm not sure it's any faster than the HP70 swap in my 140.
Interesting experience for sure. The M2C is a lovely place to be and the seats are delightful, it definitely feels more special inside.
If anyone does have instahamz and wants to follow me, my tag is @D4MJT
Another couple of months has passed, this year is just flying by.
Updates for the 140 then, some good, some not as good.
I can't remember if I'd mentioned it in a previous update but last time the oil was dropped we moved to a fully synth Millers 0w/30. Immediately the car started to use oil fairly impressively, and I was topping up around a litre every 4-500 miles. So I've since dropped the oil again and gone back to Fuch's Titan Race 5/w40. Not used a drop since so that's good
Also at the same time chucked in a magnetic sump plug:
Disclaimer* Although the inappropriate footwear is inexcusably mine, the beaker sat on the engine bay is my 2yr old daughters, I can manage a big boys glass these days. Almost.
Oil change done and some actual sunshine for a few weeks, I had a couple of runs out in it which was nice. I was parked next to a new Megane RS the other week, and I was staggered by the size of the thing! It made the 140 look like a toy in comparison.
And I also managed to get up to the Hartside Pass which is always a nice drive. I bumped into fellow PH'er ScottOs up there when he was running in his new Yaris GR, they're a properly impressive bit of kit!
Last in my series of "my car parked up with other cars" shots
Had to nab a photo of this as I can't remember the last time I saw one, came back to the car the other day and a really smart E32 750iL had parked next to me. MOT History shows it's just been recommissioned after over 10 years off the road.
And that brings me nicely up to my first mechanical failure. Had to happen didn't it!
The diff died a horrible death sadly. I noticed a "brake caliper sticking" sort of chirping whilst parking up at low speed, however braking made no difference to the noise, so I knew it wasn't going to be as simple as something stuck in the dust shield etc.
Up on a ramp and it was fairly easy to establish the diff was not a happy chappy
I believe YouTube video's are allowed nowadays, so if you fancy a chuckle: https://youtu.be/hyRiSiO0n8s
Due to it being an unplanned failure, we've just stuck another OE diff back in as handily Marc had a lightly used one on the shelf and I needed the car as it's obviously in daily use.
Still, the stock diff didn't do badly really, way over factory power for the vast majority of it's working life and 75k miles on the clock now.
I think I may have an M Performance LSD sorted in the next week or so, so it's probably not going to be in there long. Handily it's only about an hours work to swap the diff's, super easy job.
We also fitted some PowerFlex Black Series diff bush inserts whilst we were there.
So, 1 mechanical failure, but bar that, still in good fighting order and generally behaving itself.
Updates for the 140 then, some good, some not as good.
I can't remember if I'd mentioned it in a previous update but last time the oil was dropped we moved to a fully synth Millers 0w/30. Immediately the car started to use oil fairly impressively, and I was topping up around a litre every 4-500 miles. So I've since dropped the oil again and gone back to Fuch's Titan Race 5/w40. Not used a drop since so that's good
Also at the same time chucked in a magnetic sump plug:
Disclaimer* Although the inappropriate footwear is inexcusably mine, the beaker sat on the engine bay is my 2yr old daughters, I can manage a big boys glass these days. Almost.
Oil change done and some actual sunshine for a few weeks, I had a couple of runs out in it which was nice. I was parked next to a new Megane RS the other week, and I was staggered by the size of the thing! It made the 140 look like a toy in comparison.
And I also managed to get up to the Hartside Pass which is always a nice drive. I bumped into fellow PH'er ScottOs up there when he was running in his new Yaris GR, they're a properly impressive bit of kit!
Last in my series of "my car parked up with other cars" shots
Had to nab a photo of this as I can't remember the last time I saw one, came back to the car the other day and a really smart E32 750iL had parked next to me. MOT History shows it's just been recommissioned after over 10 years off the road.
And that brings me nicely up to my first mechanical failure. Had to happen didn't it!
The diff died a horrible death sadly. I noticed a "brake caliper sticking" sort of chirping whilst parking up at low speed, however braking made no difference to the noise, so I knew it wasn't going to be as simple as something stuck in the dust shield etc.
Up on a ramp and it was fairly easy to establish the diff was not a happy chappy
I believe YouTube video's are allowed nowadays, so if you fancy a chuckle: https://youtu.be/hyRiSiO0n8s
Due to it being an unplanned failure, we've just stuck another OE diff back in as handily Marc had a lightly used one on the shelf and I needed the car as it's obviously in daily use.
Still, the stock diff didn't do badly really, way over factory power for the vast majority of it's working life and 75k miles on the clock now.
I think I may have an M Performance LSD sorted in the next week or so, so it's probably not going to be in there long. Handily it's only about an hours work to swap the diff's, super easy job.
We also fitted some PowerFlex Black Series diff bush inserts whilst we were there.
So, 1 mechanical failure, but bar that, still in good fighting order and generally behaving itself.
Finally the stars aligned and I had some free time on a nice evening with decent weather this week, and got the E30 map dialled in nicely for the car.
The car responded really well to E30 and there is a significant power bump, reflected in the Dragy time I put out. I think on a cooler night and when I've got the shift points set up better in xHP there's without doubt a low 6 in the car as it is. This was with me shifting manually.
Still very very pleased with that, it's a properly quick time for 62-124mph (100-200kmh)
I had a quick look online and that now puts it ahead of far more exotic machinery such as the Ferrari Enzo, 599GTB, Mercedes McLaren SLR, 991 Turbo S etc. Obviously that's just one stat, I'm not for a second trying to suggest a little 1 series would hold a candle to those cars, but I think it's still very impressive for what is still a completely stock unopened engine with a few bolt-ons effectively. The B58 is a brilliant engine.
It's hilariously good fun. I've organised a dyno day at JM Imports in October for some pals and I, so we'll see what it's putting out this year in it's current trim shortly.
The car responded really well to E30 and there is a significant power bump, reflected in the Dragy time I put out. I think on a cooler night and when I've got the shift points set up better in xHP there's without doubt a low 6 in the car as it is. This was with me shifting manually.
Still very very pleased with that, it's a properly quick time for 62-124mph (100-200kmh)
I had a quick look online and that now puts it ahead of far more exotic machinery such as the Ferrari Enzo, 599GTB, Mercedes McLaren SLR, 991 Turbo S etc. Obviously that's just one stat, I'm not for a second trying to suggest a little 1 series would hold a candle to those cars, but I think it's still very impressive for what is still a completely stock unopened engine with a few bolt-ons effectively. The B58 is a brilliant engine.
It's hilariously good fun. I've organised a dyno day at JM Imports in October for some pals and I, so we'll see what it's putting out this year in it's current trim shortly.
J4CKO said:
That is an amazing 100 - 200 time, faster than an Enzo ! mind boggling for what is a small hatchback.
Thanks mate, quite surreal. To be honest it doesn't actually feel that dramatic, I think I'm quite "used" to it now as I do loads of miles in the car, but a few pals who have been in it have all commented that although the speedo gathers pace sharply, it doesn't "feel" as ridiculous as they expected it to beA little revision to the map and no baggage in the car resulted in a new best effort.
I've also bought a spare rear subframe for the car. I'm getting restless hands on the evenings so over the next few weeks I'm going to strip the standard bushes out of this, clean it up and get it powdercoated, then start gathering polybushes and bushing it up as part of a suspension swap out / refresh / upgrade.
Little October update. It was time for rear tyres again, so that seemed like a good excuse for a decent clean up, so I whipped the rear wheels off, removed all the weights and cleaned the barrels up of any remaining adhesive and gave them a good machine polish, seal and wax before taking it for new boots. I think the lad fitting the tyres thought I was some sort of psychopath.
They're starting to get the odd bit of bubbling corrosion here and there, but generally they really are in pretty good order for a set of wheels that have done 4 winters and almost 80,000 miles.
Managed to press mini-me into action 'helping' as well
That sort of spiralled into a proper clean up, so I whipped the seats out again and hoovered / cleaned the carpets up properly and got a chance to really clean the seats down as well, back to looking pretty factory fresh again now, it's mad the difference a real decent clean with a fabric brush attachment for the drill and some good leather cleaner makes to the colour.
I also organised a dyno day with a few local lads and mates down at JM Imports again. Almost a year since the car was last on the dyno there, and a few map improvements etc. I dropped the oil again beforehand and put fresh in:
A nice day out and the car ran really well, making 631bhp and 635ft-lb's.
Feels great, stronger than ever so I'm really happy with it. I'm going to get it in for a transmission service again this week to keep the box fresh and then basically it'll be a case of just taking it easy over winter and stockpiling suspension refresh parts to hit that in the spring.
At the moment, I'm planning to fit port methanol injection next summer and try and get it to 700bhp. We'll see, that's the plan currently!
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
They're starting to get the odd bit of bubbling corrosion here and there, but generally they really are in pretty good order for a set of wheels that have done 4 winters and almost 80,000 miles.
Managed to press mini-me into action 'helping' as well
That sort of spiralled into a proper clean up, so I whipped the seats out again and hoovered / cleaned the carpets up properly and got a chance to really clean the seats down as well, back to looking pretty factory fresh again now, it's mad the difference a real decent clean with a fabric brush attachment for the drill and some good leather cleaner makes to the colour.
I also organised a dyno day with a few local lads and mates down at JM Imports again. Almost a year since the car was last on the dyno there, and a few map improvements etc. I dropped the oil again beforehand and put fresh in:
A nice day out and the car ran really well, making 631bhp and 635ft-lb's.
Feels great, stronger than ever so I'm really happy with it. I'm going to get it in for a transmission service again this week to keep the box fresh and then basically it'll be a case of just taking it easy over winter and stockpiling suspension refresh parts to hit that in the spring.
At the moment, I'm planning to fit port methanol injection next summer and try and get it to 700bhp. We'll see, that's the plan currently!
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
Max M4X WW said:
Nice update, I struggle to get my head round it as my leased stock M135i I had back in 2014 made 330bhp I think!
Thanks.Yeah it's mad isn't it. The B58 in the 40i cars only made about 10-15bhp more than the outgoing N55 in the 35i cars, but it's so much stronger in comparison and you can push it hard.
It's a closed deck block design as opposed to the N55 with liners, and it's got things like the girdle plate that bolts across the bottom of the main end bolts to help strengthen the block even more etc. There's some silly numbers in the states on stock block B58's.
I've still got this as well.
I still haven't gotten around to sorting the suspension refresh, however I'm determined to sort it over the winter this year.
It's had a new 3.5" downpipe and midpipe made this year which is insanely loud, and a bit too much for me tbh, so it'll be getting a silencer / resonator added soon.
Apart from that it's just disgusting reliable for what it is, and very silly in a straight line indeed. Incidentally, I've never owned a car as long as I've owned this one, coming up for 5.5 years now and I've got no plans of changing it at all.
I still haven't gotten around to sorting the suspension refresh, however I'm determined to sort it over the winter this year.
It's had a new 3.5" downpipe and midpipe made this year which is insanely loud, and a bit too much for me tbh, so it'll be getting a silencer / resonator added soon.
Apart from that it's just disgusting reliable for what it is, and very silly in a straight line indeed. Incidentally, I've never owned a car as long as I've owned this one, coming up for 5.5 years now and I've got no plans of changing it at all.
scottos said:
Nice one Matt, been hoping to bump into you up Hartside since the last time, its been over a year which is crazy. Feels like the other week!
Me too! It's not had much time out this year tbh, I'm hoping to fettle it over winter like last year that didn't happen and try again next year hahaGlenn63 said:
Glad to hear it’s holding up! Mines currently in the garage having work with the puma speed x37 turbo going from stock to hopefully around 520bhp so should be fun! I follow you on insta as well, you eat like a king
Hahahaha, I love a bit of a cook!What's your username mate? That will be lovely that!
Mr911lover said:
Enjoyed coming back to this thread.
Very close to where i would like to get my car spec wise.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks Very close to where i would like to get my car spec wise.
Keep up the good work.
I've still got this, I haven't really used it much this year, I still have lots of plans for it they're just progressing slower than usual thanks to a lovely cocktail of adulting / child things / house renovations / work, all the dull annoying stuff that gets in the way of going fast
Things are tootling on in the background, it's taken me a year to sort it but I've got my new subframe back from the powder coaters so that's now taken up residence in the slowly growing pile of suspension parts for it's refresh.
I've chickened out of Black Series bushes for this and I'm going to go with PowerFlex Purple bushes as I think they'll be horrendous enough for road use and I don't want to completely ruin it. I've had the subframe done in a very subtle shade of JCB yellow to match my Bilstein's which have also been sat patiently in the garage for a year waiting for me to do something with them. I think it'll also double as a handy aid to locate it easily when it's upside down in a hedge at some point.
I've just realised the MOT's ran out as well, so I've booked that in for the 19th, I might even wash it, then stick it away again for the winter.
Rough plans for 2023 include actually getting round to and finishing the suspension refresh, it's probably due brakes again, I'd like to get the wheels refurbished, it'll be due tyres at some point next year, I think I might just go for some semi slicks and just starting taxing it for 6 months a year and not use it over winter.
It could also do with the front bumper painting due to stone chips, probably the windscreen replaced for similar reasons, I think I'm going to give in and get a sports cat as I'm getting too old for decat life and I'd quite like to lash a big boys high pressure fuel pump on it and the ProTuningFreaks Flex Fuel set up for running E Blends on the fly.
I'm also quite tempted to forge it and turn it up some more.
What will probably happen is I'll wash it twice, get roped into doing our driveway or the garden again, not use it much for another year, and this can all become plans for 2024
Mezzanine said:
I love this project and thread.
As for the JCB yellow subframe acting as an accident location device -
As for the JCB yellow subframe acting as an accident location device -
Best to be realistic about these things.As much as I jest...
Since I posted this photo, the green wrapped one has been sold, my pal still has the black one parked to the left of mine, and the red and white ones have sadly both been written off
D4MJT said:
What will probably happen is I'll wash it twice, get roped into doing our driveway or the garden again, not use it much for another year, and this can all become plans for 2024
Ahhh.
This aged well. I’ve just been digging this post out as I’m sorting out and uploading pics for a very overdue update on this thread, and this part of my last post made me laugh.
That’s pretty much exactly what happened, I have a lovely new driveway, did some house bits and the 140 is currently SORN and without MOT and has been for some months now.
However….
Lots of things are happening, once I finish uploading the photos I’ll bang an update out this evening.
It’s still alive though, ish.
Sometime in like 2021 or something, I'd decided to start upgrading the suspension a bit on the car. It's been a bit of a strange journey really modification wise because I never actually intended to modify the car when I bought it 7 years ago, and then bit by bit it's just sort of trundled to where it is now by chance and chatting with pals etc. So I felt that I'd like to refresh the suspension and sharpen it up a bit, and I bought some Bilstein B8 dampers AGEESSSS ago now, which have sat in the garage ever since. I've been promising myself I'd sort it all out in one go and do a really nice job of upgrading it at the same time, but life has gotten in the way, more housey bits, a lot busier at work and a 4 year old who turns 5 next week all do an amazing job of consuming any free time I ever have haha.
Ultimately last November the MOT was due to expire and I decided to SORN the car and take it off the road to force my hand into making time to do the suspension bits. Fast forward another 5 months of doing nothing and a couple of weeks back I just decided it needed to happen and if I didn't force it into the calendar it never would. I made a list of everything I wanted to do, and then absolutely hammered the old online shopping. It's been like Christmas every day for the last 2 weeks while everything started to land
Quick parts check last week and I'd accumulated this lot, all that was missing at this point was rear F80 M3 brake discs, rear pads and H&R Anti Roll Bars, and rear drop links.
I'm fortunate that one of my best mates runs a BMW Performance Shop and is always encouraging me to do silly things with the car anyway, and he arranged a free ramp for me to use for 2 days this week. Since it's been parked up it seems the water pump seal has failed and it's dropped its coolant, and along with having no MOT and being SORN, it needed moved there, so I got shifted on Friday morning ahead of Day 1's spannering.
The list was quite ambitious for 2 days, and turned out to be too ambitious, as it's still not done
Front End:
PowerFlex Black Series Engine Mount inserts
New OEM Thrust Arms fitted w/ PowerFlex Black Series bushes
New OEM Control Arms fitted w/ PowerFlex Black Series bushes
H&R 28mm Front Anti Roll Bar
Bilstein B8 Dampers
MMR Lowering Springs
Millway Camber Adjustable Top Mounts w/ Spherical Bearings
New OEM Track Rod Ends
Adjustable Drop Links
Front 380mm F80 M3 Brake Conversion
Goodridge Braided Brake Lines
RBF600 Fluid
EBC RP-X Pads
All of that is now pretty much done and on, ready for alignment.
Front subframe and hubs / arms removed from the car:
PowerFlex engine mount inserts:
Fitted:
Front Struts built up with Bilstein B8's, Millway Top Mounts and MMR Springs, worth noting the Millway Top Mounts do not come with a top mount bearing so you have to use an OEM one:
H&R Front ARB fitted to the subframe:
New OEM arms w/ Black Series bushes then fitted to the subframe:
Front Struts reinstalled:
F80 M3 380mm Fronts installed w/ EBC RP-X and braided lines. The M140 and F80 M3 calipers are the same caliper, but the mounting points on the bracket differ, the piston size etc is all the same. You can either swap out the calipers or use a caliper spacing bracket, I've done this for the front as my calipers are in good conditions and smart, and I've sourced a pair of rear F80 Calipers for the back, as it's more complicated at the rear:
I can't remember while I'm typing this if I ever updated the thread about new wheels or not, but some time ago I had the chance of some 19" Style 763M alloys which came in satin black, black wheels aren't my thing but I knew I wanted to do this brake upgrade and I knew it didn't fit under the stock 18" 463M wheels, so I got the 19's. I've since had them refurbished in OEM Ferric Grey, I think they look really nice now:
Arguably there is a better choice of track oriented tyres etc and sizes for 18" wheels and there are plenty of BBK kits and OEM 340mm options that stop the car well, but I wanted to do this and I like it.
An underneath shot of lots of shiny new things:
I need to make a list of fixing hardware etc for underneath that needs replaced to get rid of some rusty bits, but all in all she's in pretty good shape for 92,000 miles and 7 years.
Moving onto the rear in the next post...
Ultimately last November the MOT was due to expire and I decided to SORN the car and take it off the road to force my hand into making time to do the suspension bits. Fast forward another 5 months of doing nothing and a couple of weeks back I just decided it needed to happen and if I didn't force it into the calendar it never would. I made a list of everything I wanted to do, and then absolutely hammered the old online shopping. It's been like Christmas every day for the last 2 weeks while everything started to land
Quick parts check last week and I'd accumulated this lot, all that was missing at this point was rear F80 M3 brake discs, rear pads and H&R Anti Roll Bars, and rear drop links.
I'm fortunate that one of my best mates runs a BMW Performance Shop and is always encouraging me to do silly things with the car anyway, and he arranged a free ramp for me to use for 2 days this week. Since it's been parked up it seems the water pump seal has failed and it's dropped its coolant, and along with having no MOT and being SORN, it needed moved there, so I got shifted on Friday morning ahead of Day 1's spannering.
The list was quite ambitious for 2 days, and turned out to be too ambitious, as it's still not done
Front End:
PowerFlex Black Series Engine Mount inserts
New OEM Thrust Arms fitted w/ PowerFlex Black Series bushes
New OEM Control Arms fitted w/ PowerFlex Black Series bushes
H&R 28mm Front Anti Roll Bar
Bilstein B8 Dampers
MMR Lowering Springs
Millway Camber Adjustable Top Mounts w/ Spherical Bearings
New OEM Track Rod Ends
Adjustable Drop Links
Front 380mm F80 M3 Brake Conversion
Goodridge Braided Brake Lines
RBF600 Fluid
EBC RP-X Pads
All of that is now pretty much done and on, ready for alignment.
Front subframe and hubs / arms removed from the car:
PowerFlex engine mount inserts:
Fitted:
Front Struts built up with Bilstein B8's, Millway Top Mounts and MMR Springs, worth noting the Millway Top Mounts do not come with a top mount bearing so you have to use an OEM one:
H&R Front ARB fitted to the subframe:
New OEM arms w/ Black Series bushes then fitted to the subframe:
Front Struts reinstalled:
F80 M3 380mm Fronts installed w/ EBC RP-X and braided lines. The M140 and F80 M3 calipers are the same caliper, but the mounting points on the bracket differ, the piston size etc is all the same. You can either swap out the calipers or use a caliper spacing bracket, I've done this for the front as my calipers are in good conditions and smart, and I've sourced a pair of rear F80 Calipers for the back, as it's more complicated at the rear:
I can't remember while I'm typing this if I ever updated the thread about new wheels or not, but some time ago I had the chance of some 19" Style 763M alloys which came in satin black, black wheels aren't my thing but I knew I wanted to do this brake upgrade and I knew it didn't fit under the stock 18" 463M wheels, so I got the 19's. I've since had them refurbished in OEM Ferric Grey, I think they look really nice now:
Arguably there is a better choice of track oriented tyres etc and sizes for 18" wheels and there are plenty of BBK kits and OEM 340mm options that stop the car well, but I wanted to do this and I like it.
An underneath shot of lots of shiny new things:
I need to make a list of fixing hardware etc for underneath that needs replaced to get rid of some rusty bits, but all in all she's in pretty good shape for 92,000 miles and 7 years.
Moving onto the rear in the next post...
Edited by D4MJT on Sunday 5th May 22:05
Moving onto the back end of the car, the plan was:
I bought a second hand subframe and removed all the standard subframe and diff bushes, then had this powdercoated. I had originally decided not to go PowerFlex Black Series however I don't use the car on a daily basis any more and the whole suspension refresh had suffered massive spec creep by this point anyway so I U-turned on that.
PowerFlex Black Series Subframe and Diff Bushes
All 10x New OEM rear arms
New OEM rear drop links
MMR Lowering Springs
Bilstein B8 Dampers
H&R 20mm Rear Anti-Roll Bar
Rear F80 M3 Handbrake Assembly (Different size to M140 - needed for 370mm rear disc conversion or handbrake won't work)
Rear F80 M3 Handbrake Shoes
Rear F80 M3 Brake Calipers
OEM F80 M3 370mm Discs
EBC RP-X Pads
Goodridge Braided Brake Hoses
New OEM Rear Wheel Bearings
The car is currently on Eibach lowering springs and has been for the majority of it's life, I really like the ride height and it copes with UK roads well, these are a drop of 25mm front and 20mm rear.
The move to MMR Springs gives a drop of 20mm front and 30mm rear. The logic here is, the Millway Camber plates lower the car slightly compared to stock, and the PowerFlex Black Series Rear Subframe bushes lift the back slightly, so the change in springs should leave the car roughly where it was before hopefully.
First job was to fit the subframe and diff bushes to the new subframe:
Then basically stripping off old stuff, this took longer than I'd hoped due to a lot of the fixings being more corroded than expected. The actual car is fine but the bolts had corroded in places and some took some heat and swearing to remove. Prop needed to come off along with exhaust and then once the brakes were removed and disconnected the old subframe was ready to come out:
The state of the bolts made me decide to just buy an entire set of new subframe bolts from BMW, in for a penny at this point. Shout out to BMW for managing to get the order wrong, double up on some bolts, not supply others at all, and liberate me of £240
I extracted the diff, driveshaft and hubs from the old subframe assembly and binned the rest off:
Then started building up the new subframe with all the new arms and ARB etc:
I'm pretty pleased with how it's all turning out so far, the rear Bilstein Dampers are now fitted to the car as well, and the rear braided brake hoses are on also, so it's pretty much ready for the new subframe to be lifted up into position. I ran out of time at this point, as that lot took me the 2 days, even with help from pals, so that's where we're at currently.
I think there's about 1 more day's work in it now, the rear subframe needs to go back in, the prop and exhaust need to go on, then the rear brakes need to be converted with the F80 handbrake mech and shoes, calipers and discs on, then the brakes need bled, the wheels can go on and it can get an alignment. It needs a water pump chucked in it that's going in on Tuesday morning and then that's pretty much the job done.
I'm really looking forward to getting it MOT'd and driving it, it should be a pretty big transformation from tired OEM suspension with lowering springs to all of that. Really keen to see what the brakes are like too.
I'd had a few wobbles in the last year about selling up and getting into an M5, but I've doubled down and at this point the car is definitely a keeper.
I bought a second hand subframe and removed all the standard subframe and diff bushes, then had this powdercoated. I had originally decided not to go PowerFlex Black Series however I don't use the car on a daily basis any more and the whole suspension refresh had suffered massive spec creep by this point anyway so I U-turned on that.
PowerFlex Black Series Subframe and Diff Bushes
All 10x New OEM rear arms
New OEM rear drop links
MMR Lowering Springs
Bilstein B8 Dampers
H&R 20mm Rear Anti-Roll Bar
Rear F80 M3 Handbrake Assembly (Different size to M140 - needed for 370mm rear disc conversion or handbrake won't work)
Rear F80 M3 Handbrake Shoes
Rear F80 M3 Brake Calipers
OEM F80 M3 370mm Discs
EBC RP-X Pads
Goodridge Braided Brake Hoses
New OEM Rear Wheel Bearings
The car is currently on Eibach lowering springs and has been for the majority of it's life, I really like the ride height and it copes with UK roads well, these are a drop of 25mm front and 20mm rear.
The move to MMR Springs gives a drop of 20mm front and 30mm rear. The logic here is, the Millway Camber plates lower the car slightly compared to stock, and the PowerFlex Black Series Rear Subframe bushes lift the back slightly, so the change in springs should leave the car roughly where it was before hopefully.
First job was to fit the subframe and diff bushes to the new subframe:
Then basically stripping off old stuff, this took longer than I'd hoped due to a lot of the fixings being more corroded than expected. The actual car is fine but the bolts had corroded in places and some took some heat and swearing to remove. Prop needed to come off along with exhaust and then once the brakes were removed and disconnected the old subframe was ready to come out:
The state of the bolts made me decide to just buy an entire set of new subframe bolts from BMW, in for a penny at this point. Shout out to BMW for managing to get the order wrong, double up on some bolts, not supply others at all, and liberate me of £240
I extracted the diff, driveshaft and hubs from the old subframe assembly and binned the rest off:
Then started building up the new subframe with all the new arms and ARB etc:
I'm pretty pleased with how it's all turning out so far, the rear Bilstein Dampers are now fitted to the car as well, and the rear braided brake hoses are on also, so it's pretty much ready for the new subframe to be lifted up into position. I ran out of time at this point, as that lot took me the 2 days, even with help from pals, so that's where we're at currently.
I think there's about 1 more day's work in it now, the rear subframe needs to go back in, the prop and exhaust need to go on, then the rear brakes need to be converted with the F80 handbrake mech and shoes, calipers and discs on, then the brakes need bled, the wheels can go on and it can get an alignment. It needs a water pump chucked in it that's going in on Tuesday morning and then that's pretty much the job done.
I'm really looking forward to getting it MOT'd and driving it, it should be a pretty big transformation from tired OEM suspension with lowering springs to all of that. Really keen to see what the brakes are like too.
I'd had a few wobbles in the last year about selling up and getting into an M5, but I've doubled down and at this point the car is definitely a keeper.
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