m135i.... a semi sensible project

[xjay1337]

So after hitting 400hp in my old Scirocco diesel project, I felt I had reached a point where I needed something a bit more suited to what my needs were.
That was something reliable for trackdays, occasional daily use and European jaunts

Was fed up of things breaking or needing to be continuously improved / fixed and fed up of having to go passenger on trackdays and ring trips etc.

So with my goal reached I called an end to the project and split the car for parts.

20180610_184944 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr


I was able to buy this m135i from a mate locally. I just said I'm looking to buy one and a few weeks later he said let's do a deal...

Was literally my ideal spec

-37k
- Auto
- Pro nav
- extended bluetooth
- harmon kardon audio

In addition it had already had

- vinyl wrapped roof in blank
- carbon spoiler
- carbon mirror caps
- already had been coded with alarm beeps, seat belt off, and the active sound thing removed
- carbon hydrodipped interior trim
- alcantara panels
- h&r springs
- m performance exhaust
- m performance steering wheel
- 10mm front spacers
- 15mm rear spacers
- just been serviced and MOT'd


So literally saved me at least £1k in doing bits I would otherwise do myself.


I bought a BMW Warranty just incase anything goes wrong and it also gives me a bit of time to come to terms with the common faults etc.
This was very reasonably priced at around £350 for the full comprehensive warranty from BMW and arranged in just a few clicks.

I immediately fitted a new set of tyres (Michelins) to replace the budgets on the front and a decent alignment as the rears were wearing a bit iffy.

As I plan on tracking the car the next thing I did was fit better pads and new front discs.


went with OEM discs (unfortunately no proper 2 piece option available in 340mm)
Pagid RS29 fronts
Ferodo DS2500 rears


20180609_100819 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

20180609_115058 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

Also just did a general check over (everything was fine) and open up the OEM cooling ducts for the front brakes which are shut off for some reason with little covers

20180609_100356 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr


Then the first session to get used to the car was an evening slot at Snetterton where I was very impressed with the car which averaged around 28mpg driving there, blasting round on track for a few hours and then driving home. On track it felt very capable for a standard car with better pads, and with a few mods could be really improved

20180612_200346 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

20180612_194616 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr


I found the standard paddles on the wheel were a bit hard to reach and from owning a Mk5 GTI DSG Golf before I knew there was a market for paddle extenders.
I found some from China which are actually really nice, look to have been CNC machined , out of metal , fit very well...cost around £25.... shame about the crap + and - signs.... I now call it the Tipextronic gearbox


20180621_203946 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr


Then had booked Anglesey and Outlon park back to back and made sense geographically.

Anglesey, wow what a circuit. Ever changing conditions ended with a sunny sky. First time at this circuit having watched many journalists hoon it round, it's a very long drive for us, it actually , in terms of time, is only 1 hour off getting to the Nurburgring, so it's a once a year place for me, but the scenery is quality.

43486077491_0b7876714f_o by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

41678863010_1c596862f4_o by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

42582705365_10991c3984_o by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

41679276960_9bb72242c6_o by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

End of the day -

20180716_174602-01 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

The next day, Oulton Park

2018-07-18_07-08-28 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

2018-07-18_07-08-45 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

2018-07-18_07-10-37 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

Chasing down my mates 500hp 4wd Golf (or rather trying to keep up :-) )

And very handy feature when keeping an eye on your tyre temps and pressures (was something like 28psi cold!)
Takes the guess work out, and accurate to within 1-2psi from my measurement.

20180717_154533 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

end of the day

20180717_161740-02 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

Anyway after this I noticed a bit of brake judder and think it's the discs warping from the excess heat - I'm always careful not to sit on the brakes and do a couple of cool down laps but nevertheless
Replaced the discs all round again this time with Mtec front units and OEM rears.
Will see how they hold up.

Eventually would like to put the F8x M3 / M2 calipers on which allow for 370mm front disc and you can get a proper 2 piece disc in these sizes (calipers are physically same just mounting holes on carriers are in a different position).

One of my closest friends parents own Elite car care in Maidenhead and they were kind enough to let me work on the car for a day.
The paint seemed to have had a hard life with several smart repairs on the bumpers and a bit of paint elsewhere but nothing too bad.

With my mates help we smashed it out in the one day and coated in Gyeon Duraflex

20180819_182054 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr


I was in a position to buy a used M performance LSD for not very much money so I made the 6 hour round trip to collect it.
And it was fitted, which helped improve traction a lot, a side effect is when it does start to slide it slides a lot more quickly now! (Although it's more predictable than before) - a worthwhile improvement especially for track use.

While diff was off, fitted a few of the Powerflex inserts to help stiffen everything up....

42503928_1104318459736819_8493851131296874496_n by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr


I then got Deustch-tech in Milton Keynes to do a resonator delete for me as I wanted just a tad more sound and it's awesome now, not drony at all but certainly has a bit more to it than just the stock system with the M-performance back box.


Went to Germany to the Nurburgring, 4s up (it's a fking squeeze I can tell you, and the boot was literally rammed full of stuff, could barely shut)

20181027_130349-01 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

Quite happy to sit on the limiter even with a gross weight of what must be over 2ton with a 4 big lads on board and luggage.

received_109437176669716 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

Did 1 lap of the ring, as you have to, and drove home. No fuss.

germany-no-plate by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr


My future plans are

- coilovers (not sure what ones, probably going to go for some h&r monotubes this time)

- camber plates (as the car desperately needs some camber up front to improve turn in and tyre wear - moving to M4 LCA doesn't appeal to me as you need to custom make some washers to fit the tension struts to keep wheels centered in arch)

- m3 front brakes so I can fit the larger discs

- upgraded front and rear anti roll bars

- m performance LED steering wheel (I am a bit of a geek and like the digi gauges...mate has one for sale at the moment hmmmm)

- polybush everything that I can

- baffled sump (few people on nurburgring & track groups reporting engine failure....for now i've just added a bit of extra oil)

- Awron gauge (fits in a dash vent and gives really cool read-outs.. it's either this or the steering wheel)

- move to a square 8 inch set up, not sure on wheels.

To be honest I've pretty much stopped modding it for now until March-ish time next year as my Mrs friend stupidly wants to get married in South Africa and I've told my mrs I'll go so need to keep money for that.
Also with the warranty I don't want to take the piss in terms of things I am doing....



I think the biggest improvement so far has been the diff , but now it just highlights the suspensions short comings, it's very over sprung and under damped so it just rebounds you up over undulating roads. It's not the end of the world but compared to the Bilstein B16's I had in the Scirocco it's very poor.


anyway cheers for reading i'm sure i'll have some updates sometime soon......

Edited by xjay1337 on Wednesday 7th November 20:24

Edited by xjay1337 on Wednesday 7th November 20:26

[Butter Face]

Nice project! If you do go for the M3 brakes and want to sell yours cheap (haha) let me know pretty sure they’re a direct fit on my wife’s 120d Xdrive

[J4CKO]

Not tempted with a map/box ?

Thats all I am doing with mine, Bluespark for £175 that gives it a bit more power, not sure how much and it didnt really need it but certainly seemed quite a bit more urgent.

[wpc692]

Great to read! It is from some time that I'm thinking to sell my track miata + daily yaris and buy something I can use for everything, like a 135i.

[thebraketester]

Nice car jay. It would be the car I would buy next I think.

[cerb4.5lee]

Enjoyed reading that.

[Jay_87]

Great car and looking forward to following the build.

[helix402]

I’m sure you have lots of your own ideas for the car but if you want some more, there is a YouTube vid of a 70ish man with a heavily modified 135i. (Now changed for a Golf R).

[Ollie-DC5]

Cool car! Is the warranty not a bit pointless with the mods you are doing and track work?

[4pot]

Looks like a great project! Always loved the M135i in white, and it looks really good with lowered suspension.

[e30m3Mark]

Just ordered a 1 series daily and thinking 135i for the future, so will be watching this thread for inspiration.

[daniel-5zjw7]

Good work, you've been busy! Odd seeing a scirocco, which i still think of as quite a new car, parted out!

[kiethton]

Took my fiancé’s M135i to Bedford and it suffered with the brake judder after.

In our case (OEM everything) it seemed to be paid deposits, a few emergency stops from 1.3 leaptons fixed that and they’ve been no issue since.

[xjay1337]

Thanks everyone for the comments .

helix402 said:

I’m sure you have lots of your own ideas for the car but if you want some more, there is a YouTube vid of a 70ish man with a heavily modified 135i. (Now changed for a Golf R).

Have seen that - the car was recently for sale for approx £26k.
Would be nice but again it's going down a rabbit hole of sinking nearly £20k into the engine and drivetrain of a car.....

Ollie-DC5 said:

Cool car! Is the warranty not a bit pointless with the mods you are doing and track work?

J4CKO said:

Not tempted with a map/box ?

Thats all I am doing with mine, Bluespark for £175 that gives it a bit more power, not sure how much and it didnt really need it but certainly seemed quite a bit more urgent.

This is the reason the engine is staying standard for now.
I have plans to go sports cat, intercooler , remap etc in the future.
And my tuner has also recently gotten access to xHP flash tool so we could put different software on the gearbox as well.

But for now, I'm not really able to afford it and as Ollie says it messes with the warranty. It's really pretty capable as it is so don't want to ruin it...

I'm not sure on the trackday / warranty stance - but since they are non competitive days etc I can't see how they can really get too funny about it in any event given the car is standard (aside from springs, so obviously any damper related issues I wouldn't claim for anyway).

[xjay1337]

daniel-5zjw7 said:

Good work, you've been busy! Odd seeing a scirocco, which i still think of as quite a new car, parted out!

It was a bit heart breaking at the time.

the next option was to put lower compression pistons and rods.
worked out costs etc this was at least £1500 in parts .
re-skim head etc
possibly newer bottom end etc
my labour rate is basically zero but it still was going to be close to £3k...

I've made back around £12k in parts sold and still have the turbo kit, intercooler pipework, ported head and block for sale which would get another £3-4k.

[swagmeister]

You need to find better fixings for your number plates they seem to keep falling off :-)

[xjay1337]

So when I said that I won't do much else to the car before March, I lied.

20181219_101044 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

20181219_152215 by Fat Bear Photography, on Flickr

On the drive back it seemed so much more pointy.

Top mounts not even at half their max adjustment and got -2 degrees up front which is plenty.

I also booked Spa on the 22nd April with Opentrack - maybe some of you may be there?

[bullawayo]

Looking good Jay

I knew you wouldn't be able to help yourself

Matt

[e46m3Mark]

Liking the look of the Bilstein. I've been considering them for the E46 and those Millway top mounts are great quality.

It would appear you're about as patient as I am when it comes to putting your own stamp on a car.

[xjay1337]

Indeed it's very hard not to put a few touches on your car!

I went to a dyno day with some friends at SRR, and just out of interest ran the car on their rollers.

There is a jb+ tuning box which I ran back to back with standard, out of interest.

The engine modifications (if you can call them that) are

K&N Panel filter
M Perf exhaust
Res delete
Forge charge pipe (as stock is a common failure)
99 octane fuel

standard car is made 321hp and around 330 lb ft
With the jb+ fitted, made 355hp and 420lb ft which is really impressive for what is a small cost unit (around £150).



I am at Snetterton tomorrow with Opentrack, if anyone else is about come and say hello