P_Roloff

Today was my 2 year anniversary with this car and the weather turned out nice tonight so I ripped the drivers seat out and got go work. What a disgusting mess.

The rain left a slew of mold, coins molded into the carpet and some pretty heavy staining. I knew the grey carpet wasnt going to look perfect given the amount of time I had to do this job and the lack of proper tools I had but I tried my best to get it clean and looking slightly better.

Not perfect, but substancially better. I cleaned up the rest of the interior following the carpets and I couldnt be happier with the car now.

Side story - I sold the Imola parts car that the cinnamon interior came from. Ended up getting the full interior, an Eisenmann exhaust, tons of interior parts I was missing and made a pretty nice profit. Sure I’ll regret not keeping a spare S54 some day

After selling my F30, I bought an F150.  Drove my parents for a little bit and loved it, so I bought my own. Well after 8 months, I decided to move on from the truck and sell it. Loved the vehicle, just didn't love paying for it(economic crisis on the door step as well). MPG wasn't actually too bad, averaged like 17ish even with the bigger tires. On top of that, I wasn't doing anything to justify having a truck and just felt wasteful. 

Day before it sold.
2 weeks before the truck sold, I made a trip down to Chicago to pick up my brothers 2011 328xi. The car was having starting issues and he was unsure what to do with the vehicle. We figured it would be best if we brought it back to the Appleton area for further diagnosis and repair. Car made the 3 hour straight drive back to Wisconsin with out a hitch. It was around this time that I was looking for other vehicle options. I wanted to reduce my payment significantly or not have one at all, so I was looking at E46's, E70 X5's and E90s. My brother decided he wanted to find something newer so would be selling the E90. So I bought it.
2011 328xi Titanium Silver, Black Dakota leather, and Burlwood with 99,863 miles. No iDrive.
Car was running lean on both banks. After some research found it likely to be the valve cover with the built in CCV. VCG was leaking anyway so it was time for it to come off regardless. I also had the OFHG replaced along with the power steering fluid reservoir to address any immediate concern areas. Next will be cabin and intake filter, along with wiper blades.
The car is in very good condition minus a few minor things. Was a 1 owner vehicle up to 72k miles when my family bought it. Has always been garaged kept. 
Silver wasn't my first choice, but the color has really grown on me. I also can't say enough about how much I am enjoying the E90 platform.
Only two things this doesn't have which I want; Xenon projectors and comfort access. Comfort access is nightmare to add, so passing on that dream. I have been reading about being able to use the Euro Bi Xenon projectors and having to make only a few modifications to the harness for them to work as opposed to US which have leveling units.


My brother hit a construction barrel. I am going to do my best to get this looking presentable, but I plan to replace the bumper next year with an M Tech/M Sport one.


(Ignore my dinner)
 
If it's not going to be the weekend car, it has to look good and be enjoyable to be in. I have a fair number of things on the way to address both of those. But will remain largely stock( I say that now).
To start, the steering wheel. The stock one is fine, but we can do better.
Purchased this heated Sport wheel that I have some plans for. But first to clean it. I used Griot's leather 3 in 1 and leather conditioner in conjunction with a Colourlock leather brush, short hair detail brush, and a tooth brush.


You can see how much dirt is caked into the grain.

This was after one pass with the first brush.

This was after the whole wheel. Clean your steering wheels.


Grain clean, nice semi gloss matte finish.
More updates to follow.

I am. I was a little worried by the identical car ending two days after mine, but it seems like that didn't impact my auction much at all. I watched that one end today and none of the bidders were the same individuals that were bidding on my auction, which I found odd.
 
The winner is actually a local guy, so Im sure we will see the car around.

159.6k
Well, that lasted long. New head unit is awesome but I did exactly what I always do and jumped head first down the rabbit hole. I've decided to go for a total rework of the stereo system to try and get some good sound volume/quality while remaining as stealth and original looking as possible. I'm not going for trim rattling bass or audiophile sound quality, just something enjoyable while cruising around. 
 
First project is a temporary solution until I figure out the rear speakers. When I pulled the existing speakers out last time I noticed that the speaker surround was being crushed by the factory speaker grille and probably preventing it from moving freely (you can see the wrinkles in the picture in my last post). I designed and printed some 5mm spacers that go between the speaker and grille to give it the appropriate clearance. I printed them in ASA to get some good heat and UV resistance. 


Reassembled and you'd never know its there, fits the grille profile perfectly. 
 
With that done I moved on to an amplifier. The biggest issue with the Continental head unit is that it has no RCA output or signal wire ouput for an amp. Fortunately, there are amplifiers that can work off "high level inputs", which is a fancy way of saying the speaker outputs from the head unit. I came across this Sony XMS400D amp that is intended to integrate with factory stereo systems and can work with high level inputs. To get around not having an amp signal wire, it can sense incoming audio signals and turn on automatically. 
 
The only things remaining from the ABS system is the wiring and the computer. Turns out, the amp is smaller than the ABS computer and can be made to fit perfectly into it's mount! I whipped up a piece of aluminum flat stock to adapt the amp mounting tabs to the ABS computer mounts. Worked perfectly!

 
Had to basically cut out 90% of the wiring I just did with the head unit to integrate the amp but in doing that I was also able to sort out a mistake I had made. I had the constant 12v and switched 12v sources swapped, the head unit worked fine but wouldn't save the time/some settings. The amp basically just splices into the speaker wiring and has a few extra inputs for power/ground and a switched ignition source. It comes with ~40" of wire on each harness which is more than enough, I only needed to lengthen the 12v power wire to get over to the passenger side and through the firewall to reach the positive battery terminal. I also did twisted pairs on each of the speaker channels to help combat any noise. This is how the factory speaker wiring is done so I figured it wouldn't hurt. The only problem I ran into is that I broke the locking tab on one of the connectors which was annoying, but a few zip ties later it shouldn't be able to work itself out. Mounted the amp, routed/wrapped the wire harnesses in tesa tape like factory, and it's ready to go! I'm stoked that it will be totally hidden. I still need to gut the ABS wiring, but for now it's zip tied out of the way with the unplugged airbag module wiring lol. 

 
The continental head unit can put out about 25W RMS per channel, which is actually pretty decent for a head unit, but this amp can do 45W RMS on each channel (with 100W peak), so nearly double the output. Even with the old 5.25" coaxial speakers in the car the sound is very noticeably improved. Much clearer/louder at the same volume number, and definitely has a bit more bass. Really happy with the improvement so far... speakers are next. 

110,657
Oil change and filter, just received all the VANOS rebuilt parts, valve cover gasket and a few other odds and ends so I can take care of a few leaks and the VANOS system all at once. Replaced all 6 coils with Bremi units and solved an idle misfire/stumble when pulling away from lights.
Planned on replacing rear brakes due to the “low brake pad squeal” noise starting and had all the parts necessary in hand, but pulled the rear wheels and had decent pad left. Probably going to take care of them later this summer when I have more time. New giubo is also in hand, the old one is a bit cracked and provides a good excuse to replace the shift shaft and input shaft seals on the transmission as well. Also going to be a “when I get to it” project, probably slated for this fall.
 
112,8xx
Took a ~800 mile round trip to the boundary waters over Memorial Day weekend, not a single hiccup and averaged something like 23-24mpg even with a big ass canoe on the roof the whole way. Had awesome weather, great fishing, and an overall good time. Got to bomb a total of around 40 miles of forest roads to and from the entry point too, which was a riot.

In other news, I finally picked up the M-Systems! Not overjoyed with how they turned out and I think I’m going to polish them out further myself, but the bulk of the work is done. The shop that did it was unable to get into the sharp corners of the lips to fully polish them out, and also managed to round over the corners of the valve stem openings so probably wouldn’t go back, but after the 2 months that I waited I was just happy to have them back.
Pics:

 

110,657
Oil change and filter, just received all the VANOS rebuilt parts, valve cover gasket and a few other odds and ends so I can take care of a few leaks and the VANOS system all at once. Replaced all 6 coils with Bremi units and solved an idle misfire/stumble when pulling away from lights.
Planned on replacing rear brakes due to the “low brake pad squeal” noise starting and had all the parts necessary in hand, but pulled the rear wheels and had decent pad left. Probably going to take care of them later this summer when I have more time. New giubo is also in hand, the old one is a bit cracked and provides a good excuse to replace the shift shaft and input shaft seals on the transmission as well. Also going to be a “when I get to it” project, probably slated for this fall.
 
112,8xx
Took a ~800 mile round trip to the boundary waters over Memorial Day weekend, not a single hiccup and averaged something like 23-24mpg even with a big ass canoe on the roof the whole way. Had awesome weather, great fishing, and an overall good time. Got to bomb a total of around 40 miles of forest roads to and from the entry point too, which was a riot.

In other news, I finally picked up the M-Systems! Not overjoyed with how they turned out and I think I’m going to polish them out further myself, but the bulk of the work is done. The shop that did it was unable to get into the sharp corners of the lips to fully polish them out, and also managed to round over the corners of the valve stem openings so probably wouldn’t go back, but after the 2 months that I waited I was just happy to have them back.
Pics:

 

110,657
Oil change and filter, just received all the VANOS rebuilt parts, valve cover gasket and a few other odds and ends so I can take care of a few leaks and the VANOS system all at once. Replaced all 6 coils with Bremi units and solved an idle misfire/stumble when pulling away from lights.
Planned on replacing rear brakes due to the “low brake pad squeal” noise starting and had all the parts necessary in hand, but pulled the rear wheels and had decent pad left. Probably going to take care of them later this summer when I have more time. New giubo is also in hand, the old one is a bit cracked and provides a good excuse to replace the shift shaft and input shaft seals on the transmission as well. Also going to be a “when I get to it” project, probably slated for this fall.
 
112,8xx
Took a ~800 mile round trip to the boundary waters over Memorial Day weekend, not a single hiccup and averaged something like 23-24mpg even with a big ass canoe on the roof the whole way. Had awesome weather, great fishing, and an overall good time. Got to bomb a total of around 40 miles of forest roads to and from the entry point too, which was a riot.

In other news, I finally picked up the M-Systems! Not overjoyed with how they turned out and I think I’m going to polish them out further myself, but the bulk of the work is done. The shop that did it was unable to get into the sharp corners of the lips to fully polish them out, and also managed to round over the corners of the valve stem openings so probably wouldn’t go back, but after the 2 months that I waited I was just happy to have them back.
Pics:

 

Great turnout, About 70-90 cars showed up throughout the day. Seemed that the raffle was rigged as 85% of the winners are active chat/forum members. 
@Jdesigninstantly flipped his win for somecash. Honestly I expected no less from him.  

Update : This car fricken rips, couldn't have had a more fun time in the mountains. Here is a photo dump from last weeks trip. 

Anything to keep it interesting. I cant wait till he finally logs in again and has 847 notifications about the most random stuff on his build thread. 
So what did you guys do this weekend? 

Some cars just have a weird way of finding me. I was not looking for an F30, but then again, I am always looking for cars to buy and sell. After buying a 2008 Tahoe hybrid on a whim to tow my boat, I came across a listing for a unique Alpine white over Saddle brown fully loaded 2014 BMW 328D Xdrive that was lifted, deleted, and tuned. The listing stated that the owner was looking for a truck or Tahoe to trade. I messaged him thinking how dumb I would be to get rid of all of my tow vehicles (after just selling my other Tahoe), but at the same time smart because of the value difference and the possibility of finally retiring my civic hybrid of 327k miles. 
Fast forward a week later and I am a proud owner of another diesel BMW, and what better way to really prove a new cars "worth" other than to take it on a 3K mile road trip through the smoky mountain's.  I did some preparation, fixed some things, and fully inspected the car before I left, but safe to say I made it there and back without an issue.  I was thoroughly impressed by the cars capability by not only climbing up the side of a mountain with a bunch of heavily modded trucks, but keeping up with some other newer BMWs on the tail of the dragon.

For now, Im not really sure what the future may hold for the car, but I plan on keeping it for awhile. I have some thoughts in my head of lowering it back down, but for now, Im just going to do some preventative maintenance and fix some of the odds and ends that it needs. This thread will probably be more of a log for me to keep track of such.
Here is what is done to the car:
Center Line Wheels 18x8 +35 (1 of 1) TOYO TIRES 225/55/18 Open Country Black Label Lighting 30" Single Row Light Bar D.H. VinylWorx Graphics Buzzken - 328d DPF/SCR delete JR Auto Stage 3 Tune Rising Tuning lift & level kit black kidneys trunk spoiler  

We'll, this is definitely going to be a yearly event for us! The drive isn't bad and certainly part of the adventure.
The people and cars were amazing.... Even participated installing a turbo in a 2002 I the hotel parking lot the night before the show. 
 

Big update for me - I bought a house! Was lucky enough to find myself a 4 car garage. The garage needs insulation, drywall and a shit ton of love but the bones look great. Huge thank you to @Rekpointfor helping with the move!
Also got a new Husky tool chest I really dig so far. Quality is pretty good for the money, definitely no snap on, but perfect for me. Has drawer liners, soft close drawers, power etc.

I hate the way S54's sound. This is an exceptional exception! 

Pm’d

So a huge update as I am very behind with this thread. Eisenmann was removed from @pynacls parts car. Paid a shop down the road $300 to remove and re-install my welded section 2+muffler to the parts car. Only to find out the Eisenmann was sorta butchered up. Brackets were cut, rewelded to other places and was actually welded to the car on some places. Whoever "Rebuilt" that car was a total hack. I decided that I wasn't going to let such an expensive muffler go to waste. One email to Eisenmann and another to IND and I ordered a set of new stainless brackets that I will have my local machine shop weld to the muffler to make it usable again. at $90 shipped to my door. I couldn't say no still waiting on those.. 
In the meantime, @pynacllent me his stock muffler that I could pare up to the stock section 2. I installed both of those to prepare for the car to be pulled out on April 21st. Knowing I froze the 200TW Hankook RS4s, I was looking for a better option for more street driving then track driving. After consulting with @jgustyand @patsbimmer1I decided on a set of Michelin PS4s tires from non other then BLAINS FARM AND FLEET. Huge thanks to Pat as I got the set of new tires for $1003 installed utilizing their B3G1 sale. Name dropping Pat also included no fuck-ups to my wheels aswell, its hard to find good help around these parts as @KaiserRollsknows. Only problem with the new tires is that they rub on the fender liner when turning. I will let that self clearance.
Before pulling the car out I had to install my new Tanik wheel from Germany with no trim gap, a new steering wheel trim piece, the new rear view mirror, new floormats front and rear, new F10 m5 knob retrofitted to the E46 boot frame and finally a BLUEBUS. I scored 2 bluebusses, one for $300 and one on ebay for $200. Knowing they were still unavailable I was checking eBay one night to see how much the one I bought for $300 was going for. Only to find one listed for $200 that I purchased instantly. Ended up selling the $300 one for $420 on ebay. Scumbag decided to file a chargeback. So we will see what happens with that.
The BlueBus is fantastic, displays coolant temp, auto plays and displays music, tons of other options with it. LED displays RED when disconnected and GREEN when connected. Not to mention, it sounds fantastic. Truly an awesome open source device for the I-Bus equipped cars. Even plugged it in to my computer to rename it "M3" when connecting to it on Bluetooth. I still need to install the phone adaptor that goes to it as the M3 is factory equipped with the BMW Assist system and I couldn't find the plug. I did though install it with the USB wire connected and routed it for easy updates. So that's cool. I also purchased an OEM BMW sunshade for my birthday as a gift to myself as they came back in stock


 
Having not seen @pynaclsince my birthday weekend. We took a drive on the St. Croix river starting in Prescott Wisconsin ending in Durand just south of Menomonie for some Stone barn Pizza. When I woke up of course I had to start the day on the wrong foot. My new mirror already started leaking. Cant say it wasn't expected but didn't expect that so soon. Will send it out to Radar Mirror to redo it for me as I don't want to break any tabs. Mid way though the drive I got pulled over and got my first speeding ticket. Lets just say, I found a lawyer that will handle that one, as it wasn't one I could just let slide. 

On Thursday I did a full "Leatherique Treatment" to the interior of the car. I am happy to say the seats are softer then ever and cleaner then ever aswell. While I was doing that something cool showed up via UPS. I scored a Supersprint non-catted section 2 X pipe for $225 shipped to my door. After @pynacls experiment I really wanted a resonated X pipe. But at $225 I couldn't say no. If I don't like the sound I will add a resonator for not much more. 

Fast forward to this weekend the 15th I participated in the CVSCC (Chippewa Valley Sports Car Club) Auto-X at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair Grounds. I had a blast of a time. Fastest time being 52.73. Beating out a 2018 m3 in the Novice class and a bunch of other noobies. My twin brother got second place in his 128i and can no longer be in the novice class.. Shout out to Ethyn and Sam for the photos and video of my last run of the day. Also, 0 cones hit though the day, so I think I can go faster...
 

Next event will be the BMW spring Picnic on the 28th I am helping @wasnt m3put on. Cant wait to see my MKE friends again. 
Bonus pic of me leaving the UW-Stout Auto Club car show that my business sponsored. 


 

I can’t wait to see them done. Of course, their polisher has been out for a month for eye surgery (safety squints not cutting it maybe?) so this is just waiting in limbo for them to finish. Ugh. 

Thread jack, but if you want the pro strat for boat oil changes, the next time you do it buy or make a drain hose kit. My parents inboard came with this setup from the factory and it’s slick as shit, and so easy. Just snake the tube out of the boat drain plug, put a drain pan underneath, and pop the cap off. Easiest oil change I’ve ever done. 
 
Example of a kit: https://www.wholesalemarine.com/sierra-18-7891-oil-drain-kit.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_9PmkLjb9wIVBezjBx3cYQ45EAQYAiABEgKgXfD_BwE

Exhaust sounds excellent, mellows out the rasp to a nice tone! 

Ended up finding a guy to 3d print my design in black ABS and just got them back. My 3d printer doesn't have an enclosure which is necessary for ABS due to warping if cooled too rapidly without one. Bought the o-rings from mcbastard and off I went.





I think it turned out pretty awesome. The angle of the last pic was off since I was on a step stool with car on the lift, lol. But it's centered over the strut and hole is big enough to fit your hand in and adjust comfortably. 
The cap snaps in snug and pry's off with a small amount of force, which is perfect. I'm happy with it.

👀

110,657
Oil change and filter, just received all the VANOS rebuilt parts, valve cover gasket and a few other odds and ends so I can take care of a few leaks and the VANOS system all at once. I have a full set of coils and rear brake parts also on order to go in as soon as they get here. Planning for a trip to Voyageurs NP at the end of the month and need to make sure everything is all sorted for that.
 
In other news, the M-Systems are in the process of being refinished, they’re at the polishers getting the lips polished out then I’ll paint the centers in the stock black. Already have a set of Michelin Pilot A/S3+’s to go on. Can’t wait!

I’ve tried once, it improved it slightly but didn’t completely remove the slop, which sounds about par for the course. It’s still on the original steering components, so I’m hoping that replacing those helps it some.
104,870
Oil change with Mobil 10w-40, fresh NGK BKR6EK plugs as well. Noted oil in 4/6 spark plug wells, only one had any real accumulation though. Valve cover was already noted as leaking around the outer edge, so that’ll get replaced soon. I also need to replace the giubo, it’s starting to get some good cracks. Trans has a few leaks, and the diff output seals are also weeping, I plan to take care of all the seals this spring once the e30 is back on the road. Sunroof seal also needs replacement, it’s sealing but allowing movement/rattle and the general consensus online is that the gasket causes that when worn. I’ll also inspect the mechanism for wear when it’s not so damn cold. Door lock actuator in passenger rear door also needs replacing, part is on hand and just needs install.
I realized I haven’t updated this in awhile, I had to replace the alternator again after about a year and a half (oreilly special, thank god for the warranty), bearings were already semi-roached and the brushes were shot. I replaced the battery at the same time, it was pretty old and the peace of mind is nice knowing I’ll be less likely to get stranded this winter. Also had a fiasco with a door not latching in the cold, but some lube seems to have fixed that. Otherwise, pretty uneventful running lately. It definitely doesn’t enjoy sub-zero running/starting though.
Otherwise, I mounted a set of Continental VikingContact 7’s for the winter, really enjoying them. Not loud, great snow traction, and they seem to be wearing pretty well. I got the set for $350 shipped from tire rack (with rebate) so pretty hard to beat if anyone is looking for good budget snows.
I didn’t notice anything really out of the ordinary on the plugs, but I’ll post images here when I get home. If any of you see anything concerning, let me know.

Well, got under the car to do the upper control arms, and realized the lower control arm ball joint boots were toasted. I’d also been noticing fromt damping getting worse, to the point that when you combined the worn out arms and shocks, the car was getting to be frustrating to drive. Lots of steering slop, shitty tracking (if you ever needed to find microscopic changes in pavement grading though, hoo boy was this your car), clunking, and turn-in that would be best described as uninspiring.
So, after four FedEx shipments, all of which were late (not sure what’s going in the Menominee Falls FedEx hub, but I’m pretty sure it’s literally nothing, and certainly nothing with any urgency) new strut inserts, dust boots, bump stops, top mounts, 750il upper control arms, and e31 spherical lower control arms arrived and were installed on the car. Sorry, no pics, was too busy trying to not throw my old control arms through the FedEx distribution center’s windows. Did I mention I REALLY hate FedEx?
Anyways, the car handles soooo much better with the new parts. I fell back in love with it a bit again, it’s so comfy and well suited for highway driving but still is tossable enough to be fun. Turn in is much improved as is tracking with steering slop definitely improved but still not great. Might replace the steering links in the spring and see where that gets me. There’s definitely some slop in the box itself though too, and adjusting either made it too tight or left slop. Sure as shit not worth replacing the box, so I’ll leave it for now. Doing the front end also highlighted how loosey-goosey the rear is; shocks, mounts, subframe bushings and sway links will be coming in the spring. Holding off on RTABS until I absolutely have to, I’d rather not disconnect brake lines until I absolutely have to. 
 
Oh, I forgot, mileage sits at 99,xxx or so. Getting real close to the century mark. 
 
I finally got around to replacing the rear trailing arm links (dog bones) last night as well, no word on the difference they made because I installed them, then immediately shut the door and drove home in the e30. Side note, that job is cake on ramps. Most of the DIY’s say to use stands, but the links are in their unstressed position at normal suspension height, so save yourself the hassle. I’ll weigh in on the difference the links make next week probably when my RA plates come (updated registration came in the mail today!).
If you made it this far, you’re probably REALLY bored at work today. Tune in next time for me probably burning subframe bushings out of the car! Or an oil change note. Probably that. Shit, I should really do an oil change.