Tyler's 2011.5 Jerez Black E90 Slicktop Daily

[Tbonem3]

More composed, they have a little more rebound control, but it's still too low of a spring up front so I'm going to cut the front mounts down. I think eibach or Dinan or even just zcp springs would be better. But swift have the best visual drop.

[Tbonem3]

Well, didn't take long for me to want to recapture front travel. For E9x/E8x, you can simply shorten the length of the bushing in the front strut mounts (referred to as guide tubes). I've seen 8-10mm mentioned. My machinist took off 3/8" (9.5mm) cause he's 'murican. My mounts had about 58k, so still in good shape, but I had no problem buying new ones because I was quite sure I'd want new ones when I upgrade to Ohlins later.



Andale



OLD



NEW (see how much higher the strut comes up into the engine bay - it's exagerated a bit because I removed a washer as well.)



Front end is calmer now, the bumps don't cause the car to rebound as much as before, but it's still not as composed as my MCS (E46) or what I expect the czr to feel like with Ohlins. I just don't think the Bilsteins (E90 or E46) can handle much more spring rate than factory despite them being sold that way ("sport"). I'm like 90% happy. If I didn't care so much or didn't have the $ for better parts, I could easily stop here and be satisfied. Without spending big, it's very hard to get opposing things to work well on these cars (lower car yet maintain travel/composure), but this modified setup comes very close all for not much more than $1k.



My front brake pad warning light finally went off. I knew the pads were low and rotors had a big lip/grooved. I had already ordered new OE rotors and Textar pads.

Old stuff was still working great - wonderful bite and clamping force on these brakes. I know fade is an issue of course, but I am not dissatisfied with these binders.



Tha good shiet



Good time to clean



The pads were so low, but brake fluid reservoir had been topped off, so I had to pressurize the reservoir and bleed some out so that I could push back the pistons to fit the new, much fatter, pads, and not overflow the reservoir. I'll do a full flush in the near future, forgot to order fluid for this time.



Oh wow it's that dirty, I better flush it soon...



Done, ready for bedding




I also replaced the passenger side front wheel well liner as it had been damaged by P.O. Not only the liner, but the little triangle "wings" that meet the liner and meet the center belly pan. The pan itself is pretty beat up as well, so I'm going to need to replace all 3 pieces under there at some point. Right now, I just ordered the liner, and will replace that since I have access and it will be held in well enough even without yet replacing the bottom triangle piece. Man these stupid felt pieces are weak/expensive. I know there are metal aftermarket versions now, but I don't want something that rigid plus none of them have the shape of the OE piece so I wonder about cooling and aero abilities.




Keep your original pieces long enough to steal the old speed nuts (silver color) as the new ones (green color) supplied by BMW (when you purchase a liner/undertray) are junk! You can see that the hole is smaller, the screw won't poke through without such tremendous force that you just spin the speed nut or, worse, deform the plastic.



Ready now. I have spare screws for what was missing, but not an extra plastic nut, so I bought one of these too since it has a big pad/footprint.



Giddyup



Didn't fully flush the fluid and didn't fully fix the front end plastics situation, but at least I got the brakes done. Only did 1 bedding session and they feel great already. I'll do one more, and then I'll flush through a full liter of ATE Typ200 soon. If the rotor doesn't change color during bedding, it ain't hot enough!

[0-60motorsports]

Nice work bro.

[Tbonem3]

Got too far ahead of myself. I did my first oil change back in January at about 56k, kept it going with the TWS since there was a recent sale, but I plan to go to 3x 5L jugs of Motul next time since both of my cars need a total of 15L.


(1 bottle not pictured)

I have no experience with the S65, didn't realize that there were 2 sumps until I saw 2 copper crush washers (drain plugs) included with the oil filter kit doh! I soon realized I needed the larger collector (7L) for the rear sump drain.



Had to quickly move it over, but that's why I work over a big cardboard piece to soak up spills.



New filter/gaskets. Had to get a 36mm socket for the oil filter housing cap.



Liquid Goooooold. I put in 9 bottles, and the level came out at pretty much full. I really don't love the absence of the dipstick, nor the slowness and inconsistency of the sensor.



Now back to the future a bit, getting around to flushing the brakes with ATE TYP200 after having just replaced the front rotors/pads a week or so prior.



Put a liter in the bottle, and pumped it up to 12/13 PSI which is the point I've found where the fluid moves with some decent speed versus the suggested 10psi.

I started in the rear, of course. As you saw above, the existing fluid was quite dirty, at least the portion that was in the calipers and lines. The reservoir's fluid looked clean.

First drain was dirty, as expected.




But then, oddly, the driver side rear came out clean, but green!? Never seen green before.



I just kept going until it looked like normal, new ATE TYP200.

Finished up front, driver side, of course. Looked great when I finished. I probably drew newer fluid into the drain bottle, but am happy to do so as I prefer to use up all the new fluid (out of pressure bottle) and have the reservoir settle at the full line since my front pads are brand new and rears are still quite thick.



Still have to flush the coolant at some point, but that's it for fluids for a while. Might have mentioned it earlier, but I'm not flushing the power steering exactly, but using the turkey baster method periodically (already replaced 2/3rds of a liter so far). I'll get around to the diff at some point, but no rush, and the DCT fluid seems to actually be a lifetime fluid amazingly. Not that I won't change it at some point, but it's nice to see.

[Tbonem3]

So I decided to ceramic coat the car. We decided to sell our house at the top of the market before the increasing rates and buyer fatigue took hold, and the market stalled and now has even started to drop. Knowing my car might not be garaged for a few months or even longer, I thought a ceramic coating really made sense. When you ceramic coat a car, you also *should* be prepared to maintain it a certain way. So besides the coating itself, I also bought the right kind of soap and MF mitts/towels to impart as few new swirls as possible and iron remover to keep the coatng "unclogged."

After researching a lot, I decided to go with Gyeon's latest offering, Evo line. I decided on Pure evo as it has the highest silica content for that very glossy (really, glassy) look often referred to as "wet" or "candy gloss." I love the look of wax, and wanted to get as close to that as possible.

I started with a "decon" wash, though there wasn't much fallout to remove - the car was already fairly recently polished/protected.



Once back into the garage, I did a "paint cleansing" polish which is a polish just strong enough to remove any remaining surface contaminates and any light swirls or defects all while removing as little clear as possible.

Then I cleaned the paint with an IPA/distilled water mix before applying the coating. In hindsight, I should have used a proper panel wipe as IPA isn't completely adequate. I also used a popular coating towel to level, but figured out later that they were the common 80/20 polyester/nylon splt and not the softer 70/30% - so I'm already looking forward to coating the car again with even more perfect of a process.



One of the really appealing aspects of Gyeon coatings is how easy they've made them to install. You get a really long time (up to 10 min) before needing to remove. High spots are easier to avoid. The applicator is really friendly versus the older style of firm block with suede towellete.

I shared some more info/pics in the detailing sub section of this forum:

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/s...405#post216405

A couple of after pics:




Overall, the car looks fantastic, and is very easy to wash. The car actually got glossier over a week after application. I guess I'm firmly on the "coating" bandwagon now :P

Keeping it to aesthetics, I recently noticed that my Burkhart exhaust tips have turned a bit brown/bronze. I've seen this with other exahust pieces, and normally don't mind much, but the look I'm going for is a very chrome like look to match the chrome accents of the car and the wheels.

I think you should be able to see what I'm talking about in this pic:



So I used some Mother's mag polish (metal/chrome polish) and shined them up. Luckily, it also seemed to remove any color and restored their monochromatic, hi polished look. Then I ceramic coated them in hopes of preserving the look for longer. We'll see. It may just be something I have to redo every so often. If there were more readily available tip options, I'd probably sell these and try somethign else to be perfectly honest.

Here you can see the outside tip is back to pure silver compared to the more bronze tinged inside tip:



Done, and coated:



The beading on Gyeon Pure is amazing

[dreamdrivedrift]

GL with selling the house! One of my cars is coated with CSL/exo V2 and the other is coated with Gyeon Evo MOHS. Gyeon is easier to apply. Because of how hydrophobic it is, you should be able to do touchless washes at times for a routine maintenance washes, with leaf blower to dry, and that cuts down on any swirling that would have happened from even a good routine two-bucket wash method & towel dry method.

[Tbonem3]

Thanks, sold for top dollar which is why I bought your wheels 😁

Finding a new house has been much more difficult, unfortunately. But things are stalling and falling, so we'll be patient.

I blow dry the car, but still touch it to wash it. I don't really want to go all in on tools and time/effort. This is working fine for now. Maybe in the new house, I'll upgrade my process/tools.

[AntRyv]

For a dd this is such a beauty. Way to make it even newer and cleaner well done brother! Can’t get enough of those E46 and E90 shots close together

[Tbonem3]

Thanks!

[Tbonem3]

Passed 60k in summer last year 😭



Bought a set of Ohlins though install won't be for a while. I'm not getting camber plates, I want the OE rubber, but I'm still undecided if I'll need more than -1.9 in which case, I'd pair my "cut down" OE top hats with Dinan fixed plates for about -2.5 degrees. The thickness of the plates is 1/4", but I cut down my mounts by 3/8", so I'll still have a little more bump travel that those pairing ohlins with stock hats.



Car is still beading water very well. It's been 9 months since I coated the car (Gyeon Pure Evo).



Last shot of the AG M359s. I really enjoyed them despite not being genuine. Their weight and fitment were fantastic, but ultimately, I wasn't in love with the finish - too bright, a little cheap looking. I also wanted to switch to a set of wheels that really make this car POP. This car can be called handsome I think, but it certainly isn't as pretty as the E46, and with it looking black most of the time, I wanted somehting special that would draw your attention, and be premium.




Soooo having said that, I jumped at the chance to buy Josh (Good_M3), now Chris' (DreamDriveDrift) silver, deep pocket 18" BBS E88s!

Drove up north a bit to meet Chris and purchase them. Fun to see a car again that I knew very well, and being taken good care of!



Next post, I'll document the cleaning, polishing, ceramic coating, installation...

[rtrules]

Interesting idea with OE rubber top mounts. What is your thought process behind that?
I'm asking because I had the same idea for my E46. Right now I have ST XTA (with uniball camber plates that come with the suspension).
Thought about switching to Ohlins for more comfort. My idea was to use OE rubber top mount, and if I don't get enough camber with them, add CSL king pins.

[Tbonem3]

E46 and E90 are similar in having limited travel, but both can get more with thinner mounts. On e46, you have lots of choices, and I went with TMS street, and would also consider GC street. But with e9x, there don't seem to be any middle options only hard-core monoball or stock. At least with stock, you can trim them down.

Already tried monoball mounts on my e46 (plates, fcab) and didn't like the feel and harshness. Rtab works for me, but I'm more sensitive to front end changes.

[Tbonem3]

Prep'ing the E88s for install....

Cleaned using Meguiar's Ultimate wheel cleaner (iron remover/soap) + autofiber MF applicator






Clean




Detail time!



I also ordered, ahead of time, an extended and protected 17mm lug socket for these deep pocket centers



Time to polish. Mother's MAG polish for the barrels/lips (exposed metal), and Griot's Boss perfecting cream for the painted centers



Gyeon Pure Evo ceramic coating



All done!



Now prep'ing the vehicle's hubs. I clean off deposits/surface rust with red scotch pad and wd-40 (magic combo!) I also picked up some ceramic enamel paint, in black, to paint the inside of the hubs since they'll be exposed as these wheels don't take a center cap (BMW nor BBS).



Oh my



Fuckkkkkk



Some full body shots. I really wanted something special to set the car apart, and this is it! I'm not one for exterior/cosmetic mods, so this is my way of standing out and having both the OE+ look AND the top tier aftermarket look.




Only downside is that the tires mounted were for E46 (245/274). They're PS4S and they're not very worn, so I'm going to use them up during the winter and then go to 265/285 to finalize everything in 2024. Not loving the stretched look, but I'll survive since it's rainy season anyway. I added 3mm spacers so the stretched tires didn't look too sunken in.

[Tbonem3]

Some updates since February...

Scored a nice set of Audiotec Fischer MATCH underseat subwoofers off ebay. I've been wanting to upgrade, but these shallow neodynium driven speakers are quite pricey, and not many are available within the U.S.

These were the only stock speakers left in the car, so now everything has been upgraded. Still need to tune it a bit, but it's the same resistance and similar specs to logic7 woofers, just more bass/power. The goal would be to have such good bass response that I could ditch the 10" sealed sub in the trunk, but it's just not really possible from a shallow 8" I still will take the better bass response from these around 200hz - 80hz.




The E90 is such a sieve compared to the E46. With E46, I'd get a little water dripping from the hoffkink, but the E90 seems to spill it from all over the place, particularly the doors. Pretty neat invention from Autofiber - MF strips with magnets to soak up the dripping water. I plan to have spotless water in the future, but this is great for preventing ugly waterspots on the skirts.




Second oil change (2nd anniversary of ownership), but I'm moving to motul for both my cars. I've run castrol forever, but price and availability are worrse and worse plus the formulation is likely much different to the TWS we all grew up with. Motul was the best brand I could find at reasonable prices, esp because you can buy 5L jugs (about $50 per). For e90, I'm using the standard full synthetic 10w60 "8100 x power", but for the S54, I'm using their new 5w50 Ester ($60/5L). I trust motul, and I haven't veered far at all from castrol's specs.



When I had bought the car, the passenger fender liner was torn up and the belly panel was barely hanging on. Did my research and was leaning towards these popular alloy panels some companies are making, but I was worried about airflow and too much rigidity compared to the factory piece. I decided to buy new, at least new comes with the bowden cables, as mine were missing. I had replaced the fender liner last year, but it wouldn't fasten to the beat up pan until now.





I noticed that the original ebrake handle was getting a line of wear down the inside of the top. Not horrible, but I'm really trying to have the interior look very low mileage.



Other than the fairly worn (for 65k) steering wheel, everything's been replaced or cleaned and coming across as like new now. There are some little chips on the EDC/DSC/sport button strip which is common, but I'll just touch that up as those buttons are like $250 - no thanks. I had cleaned the interior and the camera was out, so I took some intimate shots of the "finished" interior sans steering wheel.







My usual tire supplier, America's tire was doing a sale on Michelin, and I had grown tired of seeing the stretched 245/275s on 9.5/10.5 so I bought 265/285 PS4S. I love the meaty look on 18". I recently did similar with the E46 going from 245 on 9" (no bueno) to 265 (actually 255 yoko a052 which is really a 265) on 9.5" (bueno).

Interestingly, because I bought the tires off their ebay store (rather than local store I guess), they shipped them to me. But 285s were back ordered, so I had them go to the tire shop a week later.



Putting the 3mm spacer back on and re-torquing. The little spacer gets the wheel/tire perfectly flush to fender (I don't want poke).



Rears got done the next week. I used a 3mm spacer because I wasn't sure of clearance at first, but now I see I should be able to fit a 5mm.






Other than pushing the rear out 2mm more, I've very happy with how 265/285 ps4s look and fill out the fenders. I also plan to lower the rear a little when I install the Ohlins, but this is what I've been wanting for 2 years! In between stock and a typical enthusiast look. More functional, a bit more reserved, but the shiny BBS still set the car apart, and the car feels so damn good with lighter/wider wheels/tires. Can't wait for the ohlins!

[0-60motorsports]

Wow it looks amazing