heinzboehmer's 2012 Alpine White 128i

[heinzboehmer]

Recently got this as a daily and figured I'd start a journal here to document anything I do to it.

Probably won't be as detailed or frequently updated as my M3 journal, since this thing is a daily and I can't have it down for too long.

Pic right after buying:



Car is in decent condition, but does need some attention. Looks like it hasn't has a proper wash in all its life, interior soft touch plastics are peeling, headlights are faded, etc. Besides that, it's pretty solid. 76k mi, no leaks of any kind (!), no paint issues, basically no options and doesn't seem to have been abused. Pretty happy with the purchase.

Factory Specs

• Production date: 2012-02-16
• Type Code: UP93
• Body Type: Coupe
• Transmission: 6AT
• Exterior Color: Alpinweiss 3 (300)
• Engine: N51
• Interior: Manual seats, double hump
• Exterior: Slicktop, style 262s
• Options: iDrive

Yes, it's an N51 auto with iDrive, but as mentioned before, it's a daily. I tried to look for an N52 car, but they were pretty hard to find in California. Auto transmission was a requirement from the GF. Not my favorite, but did make the purchase a bit cheaper. Plus, if I ever get tired of the N51 + auto, I can buy a crashed E9x M3 and swap absolutely everything over . iDrive was something I did actually want, because —once again— daily.

That's pretty much it for the car. I don't expect to be modding this thing at all, since I just want it to work. Plus, my garage only fits one car, so working on this thing means pulling the M3 out, which is just annoying.

So yeah, I think this thing will stay pretty much exactly as it is right now. I think.

[heinzboehmer]

Okay maybe just one mod.

After having the 6MT M3 as my only car for the past 5 years, the kickdown in E82's gas pedal felt extremely weird. Decided to open it up and remove it.

Pedal was much easier to take out than in the E46. Pop a plastic cover off, undo a torx bolt and done.



Pedal was significantly harder to take apart than the E46 one though. It's held together with plastic clips instead of screws. Lots of messing around later I got the cover off:



Disassembled it further to get to the kickdown switch (square white thing). The switch is fully mechanical, so the way the car drives will not change with it missing.



Popped the switch out and reassembled everything:



As expected, the car drives exactly the same, except that now it doesn't annoy me everytime I want to go full throttle (which is admittedly not all that often in this thing).

[heinzboehmer]

Ah who am I kidding. I'll probably be messing around with this thing a lot. At least in the first months of ownership.

Next mod was the cluster. Apparently there is no temperature gauge of any kind anywhere in a 128i. Not in the cluster and not in the iDrive screen. Only thing you can do is go into the cluster's secret menu and display coolant temp, but you have to do this every time you start the car, so not an option.

This is the stock 128i cluster:



Fortunately, the 135i cluster has oil temp on it and is a direct replacement. Just need to mess around with it a bit to get rid of the tamper dot and done. Followed this guide when doing this: https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1655093

First step was to modify the programmer. I bought a test clip so I wouldn't have to desolder the EEPROM and it came with a couple boards to solder into DIP8 shaped spots. The programmer had a matching DIP8 shaped spot, but it wasn't socketed, so I added a socket first (top right of the board):



Pretty easy to attach the test clip after that:



Then grabbed the 135i cluster, disassembled it and zeroed out the VIN:



Semi-reassembled and plugged into the car to see it if was still working:



Looking good.

Also noticed that the cluster I bought had exactly 20 mi less than the original at the time of the swap (eBay listing didn't have mileage on it). Crazy close. Had I known this, I would have avoided driving the 20 miles and then just done a straight swap. Oh well.

Reassembled the cluster, coded with NCS expert (took the opportunity to code some other stuff to the car too) and went for a drive.



Much better!

[heinzboehmer]

Next "mod" is a second set of tires. Plan is to take this thing skiing at least a few times per year, so snow tires are a must.

Found some absurdly cheap ($40 for the set) style 45s on craigslist and picked them up.

Daily doing daily things:



Wheels are absolutely disgusting. Guy said he had them out in his yard and they got super dirty with the recent rain. Should clean up well and if they don't, who cares, they'll be snow wheels anyway.

Ordered a set of Michelin X-Ice snows to mount on them. Haven't driven these tires before, but they're Michelin, so should be pretty good.

[stephen]

Look into a transmission tune. It's the only reason I kept my 335d around as long as I did because it made the 6HP somewhat tolerable.

[heinzboehmer]

Look into a transmission tune. It's the only reason I kept my 335d around as long as I did because it made the 6HP somewhat tolerable.

Interesting, I hadn't even thought of that. I'll look into it and see if anyone offers tunes for this transmission. Thanks for bringing this up!

[DJAM3]

Nice....I bid on a manual slicktop on BaT last week but 2 people got auction fever. Would love to pick one up as a daily/winter beater while the M3 is down for maintenance and projects.

[heinzboehmer]

Nice....I bid on a manual slicktop on BaT last week but 2 people got auction fever. Would love to pick one up as a daily/winter beater while the M3 is down for maintenance and projects.

They're fun little cars. Really liking it so far as a daily.

And yep! It's awesome to have something to drive around while I'm messing with the M3.

[Thoglan]

Funny, I literally just bought a manual E87 130i a couple weeks ago for the same purpose. I don't think you guys in the states got them but they are cool little things.


It's a bit ropey and manual swapped so it's a bit of a project but that's the fun part. I tried to open the accelerator pedal up since it still had the kickdown in it as well, and just about every clip snapped in the process

[heinzboehmer]

Next (in progress) project is fixing the second key.

Was given two keys with the car, but one was completely dead. Tried driving around with it so that it would recharge and no dice. Then thought that maybe the key had gotten unpaired from the car, so tried repairing, but once again, no change.

Since the key was pretty much useless anyway, I decided to open it up. Managed to get it open with very little effort. Razor blade was all I needed, no heat or anything. Took out the metal key and started cutting/prying from a spot that isn't normally visible:



Worked my way around and got it open pretty quick:



Battery inside measured something like 0.8V, so yeah, pretty dead. Desoldered and rigged up a pair of AA batteries to test. Good news is the fob works just fine, so I bought a new battery on eBay for ~$10 and will finish fixing it whenever that arrives. It might turn out terrible and shitty looking, but figured it was worth a shot for the amount of money and time needed to do this.

[heinzboehmer]

Funny, I literally just bought a manual E87 130i a couple weeks ago for the same purpose. I don't think you guys in the states got them but they are cool little things.


It's a bit ropey and manual swapped so it's a bit of a project but that's the fun part. I tried to open the accelerator pedal up since it still had the kickdown in it as well, and just about every clip snapped in the process

Nice! I wish the E87 was sold in the US. Would have gotten one of those instead of an E82 without thinking twice about it.

Yeah I wish the pedal was easier to open. Took me way too long to get mine apart, but managed to not break any clips. Fortunately the hella ones (the one on my car said hella on it, so should be the same) aren't crazy expensive.

[timmo]

A daily when you barely drive the M3 and don't have a commute? Lol

You mean something for the gf to run around in instead of the M haha

[heinzboehmer]

A daily when you barely drive the M3 and don't have a commute? Lol

You mean something for the gf to run around in instead of the M haha

Lol, you're not wrong, it's not really a daily. She doesn't have a car commute either, so won't even get used for that. It's more of a weekend daily. A weekendy?

Main uses cases are going to be driving to Tahoe/Yosemite/LA/etc., running around to pick up M3 parts and using it whenever I need to park somewhere that I don't want to take the M3 to

[WestBankM4]

....whenever I need to park somewhere that I don't want to take the M3 to

This is the key! The size of that car is going to help too. Nice pickup my man!

[heinzboehmer]

This is the key! The size of that car is going to help too. Nice pickup my man!

Thanks! Size was a big factor that led me to the E82. Hard to find another non-turbo, RWD, sorta practical car of this size.