Perpetual PITA: 2008 BMW 128i

[Senor_Taylor]

Hello all, me again. 

The fiesta was great; it really was. However, I was never proud to own it. It was really fast, faster than it should have been, but beyond that, it wasn't something that I looked back at whenever I parked and walked away. FWD is fine, but without an LSD, it's kind of annoying with high horsepower. I could go on and on about that car, but I won't. The gist of it is, I fully recommend a Fiesta ST to anyone looking for something fun, practical, reliable, and cheap. It just isn't the car for me anymore and I want good speakers and heated leather.

I owed way too much money on the Fiesta, and with my lack of commute and my E21 being well sorted, I was looking to dump that payment and get something even cheaper, but a bit more "me". I've spent the last few months looking at car listings; browsing the usual ones like E36 325i/328i models and E46s. I was looking for something cheapish, but in good condition that would be a fun and semi-reliable car to take on road trips or run to get groceries. The truck is great, but it's completely impractical to take to the grocery store or drive 4 hours by myself to visit my mom. The E21 is a load of fun to drive, but it's not something I want to be in for 4 hours and the lack of airbags or crash protection makes it less than ideal for road trips with my gf and dog. The more I thought about it, the more that these stipulations seemed to apply to E36s. They simply aren't a modern car. E46s are much nicer, but even then, they are 15 years old at best and 22 years old at worst. You're not buying one in good condition for less than 7-8k anyway and then it'll still need some work. Enter the E82. The 1 series was sold in America from 08 to 13 and they are much more upscale than an E46, but they also are arguably a downgrade in reliability and build quality. They do have a redeeming quality in the fact that they have the same power as an E36 M3, weigh the same as an E36 M3, and have a normally aspirated 3 liter straight six like an E36 M3, all while having a much nicer interior and door panels that haven't fallen off (yet). I thought long and hard about it, and came to the conclusion that I am ready to take the risk on reliability and buy a 128i.

I searched for a while and soon found that there just aren't that many manual one series for sale anymore, let alone with the sport and lighting package like I wanted.  It turns out that there were less than 300 manual 1 series cars sold per year in the US. Even then, if you find one, people are asking 15k+ for them. It would be a tough search. I put the word out that I was looking. I spoke to a few dealers and few wanted to budge on price, so I kept looking. Jake's friend Tyler who also sold a Fiesta ST to buy a manual N52 BMW reached out to me and sent me a link to one he found in North Carolina for $5500. It was an 08, 6MT, sport package, lighting package, comfort access package, grey 128i with 144,000 miles on it. I immediately reached out and set up a PPI at Carr Industries about 45 minutes north of where the seller lived. The PPI showed a 100% rust free, straight, and relatively clean car, and I sent a deposit. 12 hours of driving later, and the car was mine. The only blemishes noted to me before I drove down was some clear coat failure on the roof, a missing tow hook cover, and a scar on the rear bumper. The Fiesta was sold to a dealer near my house the next day. When I did take a closer look at the car, I noticed a few more things. The driver door seal had shruken (a la E30s), but didn't seem to cause any leaks. The vents in the dash were discolored, the sill plates were cracked on both sides of the car, there is a little carpet damage in the back, but the paint on the roof was not anywhere near as bad as it seemed in the photos. A body shop quoted me $700 to repair it and blend it properly. Everything else on the car functions without issue. 

Maintenance:
Oil pan replaced
Valve cover gasket replace
Tensioners and belts replaced
???? The rest is mystery! How fun! 

I'm not aware of a water pump replacement, but the folks at Carr told me there is literally 0% chance it hasn't been replaced. That doesn't give me much confidence though, as the mileage is high enough on the car to warrant the water pump being replaced for a second time already if the 60k service interval is to be trusted. I'll keep an eye on it. Overall the car is way cleaner than it should be for the price. I'm excited to drive it, but I fully expect this to be a huge headache. Stay tuned!

[.RJ]

Nice find... On a RWD e8x/e9x car, the water pump is not a huge headache, let that one ride a while.... keep a real close eye on the valve cover gasket, though.

[Senor_Taylor]

Nice find... On a RWD e8x/e9x car, the water pump is not a huge headache, let that one ride a while.... keep a real close eye on the valve cover gasket, though.

Yup. It was replaced in 2017, and then again by the person who sold it to me like last month I believe.

[Senor_Taylor]

Got plates for the car by sniping a DMV appointment and driving an hour right after a root canal to get them. In the last mile of my trip, I goosed it in second gear and it developed a misfire and the service engine light came on (not the check engine light). No codes. I turned the car off and back on and it was like it never happened. Ordered some OE spark plugs and I'm going to replace them when they arrive. Hopefully it's just old plugs and not a bad coil, but even then, they aren't that expensive.

[.RJ]

Replace the coils while you're in there, especially if age is unknown - and - inspect the valve cover gasket where the valvetronic sensor plugs in, or just replace it while you're working in there.

[Senor_Taylor]

Replace the coils while you're in there, especially if age is unknown - and - inspect the valve cover gasket where the valvetronic sensor plugs in, or just replace it while you're working in there.

Absolutely. I'll hold off on coils until one fails. It's a simple enough job. Sparkplug replacement is to hopefully prolong coil life. Absolutely will have a microscope on the valve cover gasket and that sensor. I got the PPI shop to check it before I bought it and they said it was clean/oil free.

[Senor_Taylor]

I've been taking some time to look through the options sheet for this car and it's really astonishing how MUCH car you can get for the money these days.

322 Comfort Access System - this is pretty high tech for 2008. Same as most modern cars, touching the door handle locks and unlocks the car if you have the key in your pocket. You don't need to put the key in the dash to start the car. A lot of E82s came without this and it really dates the car to have to stick the fob in the little charging slot before you press the start button. Glad to have this.

524 Adaptive Headlights - A lot of cars came with Halogens. Ew. Some cars came with bi-xenons and those are great, but they are only self leveling. My car came with bi-xenon, self leveling, and adaptive headlights that turn with curves and also raise up at high speed and lower at slow speeds. Only other car I've had with this was my brand new 2018 GTI with the lighting package. This car is a full 10 years olders.

Rain sensing wipers

I have the "base" audio system for the US which is still the fiber optic, million speaker system with subs under the seats. It sounds great to me

704 M Sport Suspension - The car is lower, has stiffer springs, better shocks, a bigger front sway bar, and has a rear sway where the other cars did not

Part of the sport package are the sport seats and they make ALL of the difference in comfort when driving this thing. They are definitely my favorite seats from any car I've owned. They fit me perfectly and the seat heaters are HOT.

[.RJ]

so when you going to mod it? the 330 intake manifold bolts up and the BPC tune is nice

[Senor_Taylor]

so when you going to mod it? the 330 intake manifold bolts up and the BPC tune is nice

Eventually. It's fine as it is for now. Waiting to see what breaks and what is broken that I haven't realized.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[.RJ]

i bet that thing would scoot with the 3-stage manifold and some headers

[Senor_Taylor]

i bet that thing would scoot with the 3-stage manifold and some headers

RJ: "pls don't do"

Me: "no"

RJ: "okay then pls do this way" 

Me: "okay"

[Senor_Taylor]

Well, after a month of clearing the code and hoping it won't come back, I finally bought a new fuel tank vent valve. I probably should give this car more attention.

List of things to do:
Install fiber optic loops on bluetooth module in trunk (sometimes speakers don't work because of this)
Vent valve install
Install 135i cupholder retrofit
Get the headlights polished.
Oil change? Idk if it even has oil in it
Get a new engine cover
put a heat gun on the dash to get the vinyl to reglue itself down
spend the money to get the roof repainted
replace the AC vents as they are discolored
M sport steering wheel (Current one has all of the soft touch rubber peeling)
Replace softtouch material on cup holders
Upgrade bluetooth situation (There is a way to trick the radio into thinking your bluetooth phone is an ipod and let you control the songs with the steering wheel buttons)
Would love some new wheels and tires?
Exhaust?

Also took this to a BMW CCA Autocross at Summit and it was really fun and engaging. RWD with crap all seasons is a lot more fun than FWD turbo on crap all seasons.

[Senor_Taylor]

Finally got around to actually maintaining this thing. Fuel Evap Valve has been throwing a check engine light for a month or so now, so I replaced that. Changed the oil and replaced the air filter at the same time and found that it had 140k miles on the original filter and the oil filter had started to collapse in on itself. Probably waited too long to ever even check the oil after buying it.

The iDrive equipped e82s did not have a cup holder, so BMW installed a removable cupholder that clips next to the shifter. The non iDrive cars instead got two small cup holders in the center console where the iDrive wheel usually would be. These cup holders suck so I bought a knock-off iDrive cupholder retrofit kit from eBay and have let the box slide around in the trunk for a few months. I installed it this weekend (took two hours) and it is so worth it.

After doing all of this, I had the bright idea of resetting service intervals on the dash and somehow managed to make my car think it's time for service. Every time I start the car, I get a warning triangle and a picture of a car on a lift as well as the word "brake" lit up in the cluster. I still haven't figured out how to get this to go away.

Yes, I know my car is disgusting. It takes a very long time to wash 6 cars inside and out, so the daily gets neglected.

[Senor_Taylor]

Car hasn't skipped a beat. Still has that annoying tensioner rattle. Either I got a defective one out of the box or something else is going wrong and causing that tensioner to jump around when the idle dips. The clutch has seen better days as well, but shows no signs of major slippage yet.

Took the car around summit twice this year. Once on my RRs and that was... underwhelming, and once on the stock all seasons which was a lot more fun since the brakes were no longer the limiting factor. At least, they weren't until I melted them down to the backing plates. The OE Textar brake pads are actually pretty decent on track as long as you manage the heat.

Finally got around to polishing the head lights and it made a big difference.

[Senor_Taylor]

So this car has had a rattle forever that I couldn't figure out and was seemingly getting worse. These engines are known for the belt tensioner rattling and mine definitely was. So I replaced it... twice. That never fixed the issue so I gave up and took it to a shop. They discovered that the previous owner replaced the power steering pump and reused the aluminum bolts, which broke out and started to eat away at the pulley which was rattling around. A new pulley and some bolts later and she's right as rain. Really enjoyable to drive now.