[chadillac2000]

I finally got around to doing something earlier today that I'd been meaning to do ever since purchasing the car last year -- and that was making the dreaded trip to the local dealership. Unlike most other times, this wasn't for any issue with my own car, or because I wanted to browse the inventory. I'd read a few times prior that the service department could read your key fob in order pull all service records for a vehicle.

This information would let me know what exactly had been attended to by BMW in the car's first few years, as well as confirming what the prior owner claimed had been replaced.

I happened to be assisted by someone who proved to be very helpful in gathering this information for me, and although I wasn't allowed to keep a printed copy of the information, she did allow me to snap a picture with my phone to put with my records. I quickly thanked her and hit the road.

This snapshot from BMW, coupled with a CarFax I recently pulled, gives me most of the complete history of the 135i I bought 8 years after it had been sold new after previously relying solely on the word of the previous owner.








Here is a time line of events and things I found noteworthy:

• Purchased new in Florida by the first owner, where it was kept and barely driven apparently.
  
• From October 28th, 2008 until May 11th, 2010, the car was driven less than 5,000 miles.
  
• HPFP and injectors (not sure of how many) were replaced in March of 2011 with 6,199 miles on the odometer, a very low mileage to have problems with those already (could show indication that early injectors failed because of time and not mileage).
  
• Third brake light needed replacing for the first time in September of 2011 with 7,501 miles.
  
• The first owner held the car for a little over three years, and sold it to the second owner (whom I purchased from).
  
• The second owner, just as he had told me, purchased the car from Carmax with 7,665 miles in late 2011 and registered the car in Virginia.
  
• Going back to the first owner, from October 28th, 2008 until July 5th, 2012, the car was driven less than 14,000 miles. Service records indicate that fluids were changed typically annually instead of mileage intervals.
  
• Fuel pressure sensor was replaced in 2012 with 12,564 miles on the odometer.
  
• Again as indicated by the previous owner, the tires were replaced in January of 2014 with the Michelin PSS rubber that was all used up when I received the car over two years later.

Besides re-registering the vehicle and the airbag recall, apparently the previous owner (which at this point I have no reason to not believe) had zero problems mechanically and had a local indy shop do all the oil changes every 7,500 miles until the car was sold to me with 53,677 miles on the odometer.

All the records indicate that the 2nd owner was completely truthful and transparent with his full knowledge of the car's history, which bodes well for how he claimed he cared and drove the car, which he described as meticulous and precise. It feels nice to confirm what I already knew, as well as find out some new things, about my car's full history. I can also stop second guessing whether I'm still on the original water pump, e-thermostat, belts, tensioners, etc. as now I know these have not been replaced since being assembled at the factory.

[chadillac2000]

As winter continues to wane, the warmer months here in North Carolina will be here soon and I'm already making preparations. The full machine correction on the exterior paint has been months in the works; just a matter of finding the right weekend to do it. I have also known for a while now that I'm running on borrowed time (over 70,000 miles) as far as my water pump goes, so along with the OEM replacement water pump, e-thermostat, and coolant that I got in a few weeks back, I recently added the u-shaped hose as well just to be on the safe side.



Soon after collecting all the supplies needed for these jobs, I made the decision to free up some space as well as collect some extra modding funds by selling all the parts I had removed since taking ownership. At this point there were quite a few. This helped alleviate some of the costs associated with the next round of enhancements I had sitting in an ECS wish list.

In addition to the paint correction and water pump jobs, two serious future time commitments, I added even more time in the garage when I pulled the trigger on the following:

• Side skirt splitters from FMXOMAR
• Ikon Motorsports front lip
• Made arrangements to have my calipers rebuilt and powder coated a different color
• The ECS Performance front/rear service kit complete with 2 piece drilled/slotted front rotors, GEOMET drilled/slotted rear rotors, front/rear Hawk HPS pads, pad sensors and new installation hardware
• ECS stainless steel brake lines
• The ECS Brake Fluid flush kit complete with Schwaben bleeder, bottles, wrench, and 1 liter of Pentosin Super DOT4 brake fluid
• OEM front belt kit complete with upper idler pulley, lower idler pulley, accessory belt tensioner and accessory belt
• Two five liter bottles of Motul X-Cess 5W-40 (I finally made the decision to switch from the OEM oil I've been using for years) and a Mann oil filter kit
• A set of colder NGK plugs (going to give these a try over the OEM plugs since it's getting close to change interval)
• Bosch wiper blades

As these parts trickle in over the next few weeks, I'll update this thread. This round of mods should round the car out nicely aesthetically as well as ensuring I won't fall victim to any of the usual culprits that cause issues mechanically. After all of this, a single turbo may be the last task left to tackle before calling it a day.

[suspenceful]

Crazy how similar your build is to mine. I look forward to seeing what that front lip looks like!

[ianc]

Don't forget that big ass T60 Torx you need for the belt tensioner.

Got the OEM water pump kit from Tischer which also doesn't have the U pipe in it, so as soon as I lay that in I'll be joining you on the dreaded water pump. I plan on a preemptive swap rather than waiting to fail. Hope I get there first before it decides to pack it in...

Will be looking forward to updates here,

ianc

[chadillac2000]

Originally Posted by suspenceful

Crazy how similar your build is to mine. I look forward to seeing what that front lip looks like!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Before I'd picked up my E82, I was already drooling over your car. Simple, blacked out (which I'd never done before with any of my prior vehicles) and bullying other cars power wise on stock turbos.

Your car definitely sold me on the anthracite Apex wheels on the Jet Black. And although I've went a slightly different route with my aero parts, we will probably look even more similar once everything is installed after this next round of upcoming mods.

Certainly looking forward to seeing how the lip mounts up. At such a low price, it's practically disposable, but I'll be interested to see how it fits. It arrived yesterday, so I'll post some unmounted shots here shortly, but it looks fantastic at first glance.

Originally Posted by ianc

Don't forget that big ass T60 Torx you need for the belt tensioner.

Got the OEM water pump kit from Tischer which also doesn't have the U pipe in it, so as soon as I lay that in I'll be joining you on the dreaded water pump. I plan on a preemptive swap rather than waiting to fail. Hope I get there first before it decides to pack it in...

Will be looking forward to updates here,

ianc

Appreciate the tip! I just placed an order on Amazon recently to pick up some specialty tools to complete all the upcoming work that included a highly rated Torx socket set, inverted Torx socket set, and some flexible extensions for getting to the water pump worm clamps.

And I'm the same way -- still driving on my water pump with 72,000 miles. No signs of any hiccups yet, but just keeping my fingers crossed that I can eek out another week and half. I plan on putting the car up on jack-stands next Friday where it will remain until I get everything completed.

[chadillac2000]

As I touched on in my previous post, I recently made a rather large order. Over the past week, some of those items have been delivered, opened up and inspected, and then added to the ever-growing pile of parts in the corner of my garage.

Some specialty tools for the upcoming jobs:





Some maintenance items: Motul engine oil, new NGK plugs, and a new front belt/pulley system.





Complete brake system replacement components: 2-piece ECS front rotors, 1 piece GEOMET rear rotors, Hawk HPS pads, ECS SS lines, and Pentosin fluid.









and last for now, the front lip from Ikon Motorsports. The polyurethane looks very durable, but the finish could probably use a simple coat of black paint -- it comes unfinished. I'll decide that once I can test mount the lip to the front bumper. I'm pretty sure this is exactly what I've been looking for though.

[ianc]

What a haul! Make sure Tischer sent you both plastic caps for the belt idler pulleys, the bastids forgot one of mine.

I'll be interested to see what that splitter looks like fitted. Looking forward to pics.

Water pump first!

ianc

[Bryce 135i]

How have you liked the new oil? I am considering running that same kind in my car. I use the BMW stuff but they opted for a 0W now and I just think that is too light for this car.

[chadillac2000]

Originally Posted by ianc

What a haul! Make sure Tischer sent you both plastic caps for the belt idler pulleys, the bastids forgot one of mine.

I'll be interested to see what that splitter looks like fitted. Looking forward to pics.

Water pump first!

ianc

It looks like I received the caps thankfully. I'm also very interested to see the splitter installed. I haven't seen any on-car pictures of this one yet, but I think it'll look subtle, clean and tie in well with the theme of my car. Hopefully I don't lose too much clearance; I don't scrape on anything at the moment.

Going back to what you said prior, I'm hoping my water pump lasts for 3 more days until I have the car scheduled to go up on jack stands for the planned mods and preventative maintenance. Still going strong with no signs of failure, so no reason to think I won't make it, but my last one died suddenly with no warning.

Originally Posted by Bryce 135i

How have you liked the new oil? I am considering running that same kind in my car. I use the BMW stuff but they opted for a 0W now and I just think that is too light for this car.

I haven't used it yet--I've been running the OEM oil in both of my N54 powered vehicles and I've put 175,000 miles of combined usage with out any issues, however, I've been looking to switch for some time now. Motul seems to have a stellar reputation.

[BlackJet]

Have you considered painting the non-friction areas of the rear rotors black to match the fronts?

If you do want to do this, it is super easy and is ready to go on the car in under 24 hours. I did mine in silver and it looks fantastic after 2 months:

https://www.amazon.com/POR-15-42606-.../**/B00XKTTX4M

I didn't even do a good job masking the friction area and there was no issues with pad contamination. Went on easy with a foam brush.

Love you build thread. Just got a '08 and I am basically doing everything you are doing.

[chadillac2000]

Originally Posted by BlackJet

Have you considered painting the non-friction areas of the rear rotors black to match the fronts?

If you do want to do this, it is super easy and is ready to go on the car in under 24 hours. I did mine in silver and it looks fantastic after 2 months:

https://www.amazon.com/POR-15-42606-.../**/B00XKTTX4M

I didn't even do a good job masking the friction area and there was no issues with pad contamination. Went on easy with a foam brush.

Love you build thread. Just got a '08 and I am basically doing everything you are doing.

That is a great idea! I have painted the non-friction areas of the OEM rotors on my BMWs for years in just a high-temp black and it makes them look much better, especially when they've developed some visible surface rust. It also seems to last for years without the need for touching up.

I will certainly tape off the rear rotors since before I install them and mimic the look of the front 2-piece ECS rotors with some paint.

Glad to see you're following along in the thread, thanks for the suggestion, and I'll keep a lookout for some pictures of your own build!

[crimson335]

Fantastic thread and build!

[dyezak]

Originally Posted by crimson335

Fantastic thread and build!

Agreed. And similar in spirit to what I'm going through at the moment. This will be my 2nd 335 and I'm going through the same maintenance checklist right now. About to do my own water pump/radiator/thermostat etc.

[chadillac2000]

After months of preparation, the time had come to embark on the installation of the next round of mods I’d accumulated. The first order of business was to get the car in the air. With the lowered stance, even with a low-profile jack, getting the car up in the air is a time consuming affair. I can only imagine that when the new aero parts are bolted into place that this will only become more challenging.





Wheels off to expose the before picture of the stock brake system.





Now, time to unpack all these parts I’ve accumulated.





As recommended by a fellow forum member, I decided to give the non-friction part of the rear rotors a blast of high-temp black paint to match the 2-piece look of the fronts. Prepared them with a little tape, three coats of paint and voila! I also gave the dust shields and caliper brackets a fresh coat of high temp black.







The old hardware came off without too much fuss, thanks to a few YouTube videos for clarification. Old sensors, pads, and rotors were tossed – calipers were packed up and shipped out for powder coasting and rebuilding. Then I went ahead and connected the new sensors, mounted the rotors and positioned the ECS stainless lines. Visually, I’m very impressed. The new calipers should really make everything pop.







Next on the agenda was to begin the process of the water pump replacement. This was taken after removing the air ducting. The red circle encompasses a hard plastic hose that gave out on my 535i at 150,000 miles. This line became brittle and eventually cracked, spewing coolant all over the engine bay. To avoid future problems and a mess to clean up, I’ll be locating a more robust solution while the coolant has been drained.



Radiator fan out. Surprisingly easy, although I’d already done it when installing the front MMP inlet.



And some glory shots of said MMP inlets (I’ve also added this to my original post). As you can see, my tangerine tinted BMS filters haven’t held up to the test of time. Oh well—they sure looked good when they were new! Perhaps a black filter would look better.





The water pump replacement job got messy quickly, so pictures were minimal during removal. The Bavarian Autosport video on YouTube was very helpful for reference. Some of the clearances were very tight, but with some patience and the right tools, I was able to remove the old hardware and drain the majority of the coolant.





I’ll be saving installation of the new water pump components, as well as the rest of the mods, over the next few weeks so stay tuned.

[dyezak]

So you got your water pump done before me haha. Just added a front belt kit to my stash of parts and new oil filter housing and oil cooler housing gaskets. I'll be doing my intake valve blasting too.

Next month I'll be doing my transmission fluid/filter/pan along with the brakes and rear diff. Then the last maintenance item is the damn dreaded oil pan gasket....arggg, not looking forward to that one.

After that I think I'm done with maintenance for a while.

[ianc]

Hey, that's an awesome place to work on your car; what's the story there?

You got the water pump jump on me ; I'm fixing to get stuck in this weekend. That is one grotty-looking pump you pulled out of there...

I can't remember if you've done RSFB's on this car?

I got that same jack for xmas; love it!

ianc

[chadillac2000]

Originally Posted by dyezak

So you got your water pump done before me haha. Just added a front belt kit to my stash of parts and new oil filter housing and oil cooler housing gaskets. I'll be doing my intake valve blasting too.

Next month I'll be doing my transmission fluid/filter/pan along with the brakes and rear diff. Then the last maintenance item is the damn dreaded oil pan gasket....arggg, not looking forward to that one.

After that I think I'm done with maintenance for a while.

It was a long time coming. I've had the parts for way too long and been driving on borrowed time, so I figured I'd better get it done before I found myself stranded on the side of the interstate. Removal was straight forward, let's hope installation will be as well. I still need to give some attention to my rear diff and will continue to keep an eye on my valve cover gasket and oil pan gasket.

Originally Posted by ianc

Hey, that's an awesome place to work on your car; what's the story there?

You got the water pump jump on me ; I'm fixing to get stuck in this weekend. That is one grotty-looking pump you pulled out of there...

I can't remember if you've done RSFB's on this car?

I got that same jack for xmas; love it!

ianc

Yeah, it's not too shabby. It's a garage I share with my dad; has plenty of room and an endless selection of tools, welders, etc. It's also heated and cooled for the summer and winter months. His hobby is asphalt oval track racing -- as you can see in some of the background pictures.

I was also surprised with how worn the exterior casing looked. Its condition certainly confirmed that it was the original from 2008, so glad to get the new one in there as soon as possible.

And no I haven't done RSFB's yet, but I'll start replacing components like those down the road I'm sure as I rack up more miles.

The jack is very useful now that my car has been lowered a bit. Like I mentioned in my last post, getting the car up on stands with the front lip and side splitters is going to be challenging going forward.

[dyezak]

Originally Posted by chadillac2000

It was a long time coming. I've had the parts for way too long and been driving on borrowed time, so I figured I'd better get it done before I found myself stranded on the side of the interstate. Removal was straight forward, let's hope installation will be as well. I still need to give some attention to my rear diff and will continue to keep an eye on my valve cover gasket and oil pan gasket.

I decided to remove my belly pan a few days ago so I could easily monitor my oil pan. I'm thinking I'm going to bite the bullet and do everything at once next week. Since I'd be dropping the subframe for the oil pan that would make the water pump/thermostat really easy too, and I'd have to remove the AT trans cooler lines which would require draining the ATF so I might as well do that too. That'll be an expensive (and long) adventure but I think I'm going to do it.

Oil pan, Water Pump, Thermostat, trans pan/filter, intake valve cleaning, oil filter housing gasket, oil cooler housing gasket, radiator, belts, tensioners, idler pulleys, and a nice headache. I think it'd be an overall time saver to do them together. Sigh.

[chadillac2000]

Originally Posted by dyezak

I decided to remove my belly pan a few days ago so I could easily monitor my oil pan. I'm thinking I'm going to bite the bullet and do everything at once next week. Since I'd be dropping the subframe for the oil pan that would make the water pump/thermostat really easy too, and I'd have to remove the AT trans cooler lines which would require draining the ATF so I might as well do that too. That'll be an expensive (and long) adventure but I think I'm going to do it.

Oil pan, Water Pump, Thermostat, trans pan/filter, intake valve cleaning, oil filter housing gasket, oil cooler housing gasket, radiator, belts, tensioners, idler pulleys, and a nice headache. I think it'd be an overall time saver to do them together. Sigh.

That is quite the laundry list of maintenance items to address at once, but I'd be the same way and want to knock them all out during one teardown. Having the subframe out would give you a ton of room for doing all those jobs. But just imagine the peace of mind you'll have after getting all of those boxes checked off!

[chadillac2000]

Over this past weekend I was able to get the old water pump and thermostat removed, so today I picked up where I left off and started to install the new hardware. Within the first hour of being under the car, I had the new pieces bolted into place and all the associating hose clamps and quick disconnect hoses tightened down. My old unit was not Continental branded, but had showed no signs of slowing down despite having over 70,000 miles of use (mostly highway since I've owned the car).



Prior to adding coolant, I wanted to address some other weak points of the cooling system.



The first of which was finding a better solution for BMW's thin, plastic radiator vent hose that had made a mess in my 535i. My solution was some 1/4" ID fuel hose, a few 1/4" ID brass barbed fittings, and 4 small hose clamps.







I also chose to replace the hose that connects from the top of the thermostat housing to the engine block, another problem area I had on my 535i. The old one I removed actually looked pretty good and the integrated o-ring was still intact, but while I had easy access, better safe than sorry.



Now it was time to add the coolant, so I took my jug of OEM BMW coolant, and made two gallon jugs of 50/50 coolant and distilled water mixtures.



Added a battery charger, unscrewed the coolant cap, removed the bleeder screw and added nearly 1.75 gallons of coolant before it started to come out of the screw hole. At that point, I added the bleeder screw back, replaced the coolant cap, and entered the car. Ignition on, hottest temperature setting, lowest fan setting, accelerator pedal down for 10 seconds and the automatic bleeding process began. 10 or 15 minutes later and the process was complete. I added a bit more coolant and the job was complete.



While I had access, this is when I chose to swap out the pulleys and belt. I was a bit intimidated by this job before looking into exactly what was involved, but I was surprised at how quickly I had everything replaced -- less than an hour.



The calipers reached their destination yesterday and the powder coating and rebuilding process has began. Hopefully I'll have them back by early next week and can get the pads and calipers back into place. This weekend I plan to begin the paint correction process, get the front lip mounted, as well as the side skirt splitters that arrived this afternoon.

[ianc]

Nice work knocking that water pump out; must feel good! I have to admit I'm feeling a bit of trepidation after watching Otto finagle around with it endlessly in those vids. Was it all that difficult, or just tedious?

ianc

[ucsbwsr]

For accessing the water pump and serpentine belt it looks like the E82 has all the space in the world compared to the E6X chassis. Funny.

Thanks for the continues high quality pics.
Evan

[chadillac2000]

Originally Posted by ianc

Nice work knocking that water pump out; must feel good! I have to admit I'm feeling a bit of trepidation after watching Otto finagle around with it endlessly in those vids. Was it all that difficult, or just tedious?

ianc

Yes, feels great to know I have that ticking time bomb diffused for the moment. And Otto got it through at about the same pace I did. Filming the angles must have been harder than the job itself though -- certainly not media friendly. With the right tools, I would describe it as tedious rather than difficult. Oh and inherently messy because of the coolant.

Originally Posted by ucsbwsr

For accessing the water pump and serpentine belt it looks like the E82 has all the space in the world compared to the E6X chassis. Funny.

Thanks for the continues high quality pics.
Evan

I was changing the oil on the 535i (just turned 191,350 miles) right beside the 135i yesterday, and it is unreal how much easier it is to work on the E82 than my E60. I can't imagine what working on an XI chassis must be like.

[ucsbwsr]

Originally Posted by chadillac2000

I can't imagine what working on an XI chassis must be like.

Much worse! Happy I no longer have that problem.

[chadillac2000]

And thanks to VTT -- my hand is being forced to upgrade the stock turbos sooner than planned.

http://www.n54tech.com/forums/showpo...&postcount=102