2013 BMW 135is

[*insertusernamehere*]

I see you updated your original photos lol. I wasn't expecting to have an erection at work, jeez man

[Senor_Taylor]

Just saw the new photos you added. Looks like you haven't learned the proper way to BMW hard park. The sunroof is supposed to be TILTED not retracted. Try again.

[ryangreen1]

Just saw the new photos you added. Looks like you haven't learned the proper way to BMW hard park. The sunroof is supposed to be TILTED not retracted. Try again.

I haven't finished evolving to the final form of fuckboi yet. I left the halos on though so I'm halfway there.

[ryangreen1]

Had my first small taste of german overengineering today and got to live up to my inner ricer with some leds. 
Swapped out the dull yellow halogen halos for some LED white ones from amazon. They aren't as blindingly bright as this picture makes it seem.


Instead of using little twist covers behind each bulb like any other car I've seen, they use covers over the entire back of the headlight. They are an absolute pain to get to seat right when putting them back due to the 2 little nubs on the bottom with the tiny amount of room to work, and the little metal clips they use to keep them in like to come off when trying to wiggle the cover back in. I ended up having to jack the car up to take off a little access panel to see what I'm doing from the bottom.
Went to jack the car up and found out the previous owner put KW coilovers on it. The dealer just thought it was lowered on springs so score for me. Who doesn't love free parts.

Jacking up these cars is super awkward with the plastic square jacking points and no frame rails in sight. For anyone that's owned these are there any tricks to doing this? I couldn't find anywhere to jack up just one corner and put a jack stand under it. I guess I need to pick up a jack adapter and possibly get new stands that have the flat circle top instead of the Y top so I don't destroy the plastic jacking points. Then jack it up from the front center jacking point and put stands under it that way.

I also ordered a wifi OBD2 adapter before I realized Bimmercode isn't compatable with the e82's, so I'm looking for another OBD2 app for iphone. Carly is expensive but it seems like its the only other option for coding these short of ncsExpert and I'd need a specific OBD2 to usb for that.

[Senor_Taylor]

I've never been a fan of jacking from the corner. Jack from the center and place stands on the jack stands points.

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[Jake]

I always jack up the rear of the side you want in the air, then get the stand under the front. Do that for both sides, then jack up the whole rear at one time using the rear center jacking point.

Those headlight covers are a gigantic PITA. Can't remember why I battled with them on my 128 but your words bring back memories of it.

[RawrImAMonster]

Make sure you 100% sure have those headlight covers on perfectly. If you don't water will get in there and ruin the motors that move the headlights up and down and left to right. Lots of people have problems with this after they switch to LEDs for the angel eyes. Replacement headlights are 1000+ if you ruin these. If you see any condensation in the lights, take the covers off and let them dry as soon as possible before using them.

You can also get jackpad adapters for the jacking points: https://www.amazon.com/Metal-BMW-Floor-J...B1MQK5YCC3

[ryangreen1]

Make sure you 100% sure have those headlight covers on perfectly.  If you don't water will get in there and ruin the motors that move the headlights up and down and left to right.  Lots of people have problems with this after they switch to LEDs for the angel eyes.  Replacement headlights are 1000+ if you ruin these.  If you see any condensation in the lights, take the covers off and let them dry as soon as possible before using them.

You can also get jackpad adapters for the jacking points: https://www.amazon.com/Metal-BMW-Floor-J...B1MQK5YCC3

Yep, I read this when I was looking on how to put them on. I didn't have them on correctly at first and the clips wouldn't seat right, so I took them off and checked from the access panel in the fender well to made sure to get them correct. I drove it through some rain yesterday and they look fine now so hopefully I wont have any problems. I have to get the Takata airbag recall done soon so I'm gonna see if the dealership will quickly double check while I'm there since they actually know how they work.
I didn't realize until a couple days after getting it that the headlights move left/right. Don't really understand how useful it is but its cool as hell.

[Sijray21]

I didn't realize until a couple days after getting it that the headlights move left/right. Don't really understand how useful it is but its cool as hell.

That is such a nice feature... I have it in in my gti and it's a lot more obvious on a dark, turn-filled road. High beams and under 25mph really make the movement more obvious/noticeable.

[JPolen01]

Active headlights are incredibly useful on poorly lit roads especially where deer love to run out. Loved that feature on our CX5. I miss it.

[ViPER1313]

I bought one of the jack pad adapters for my E34.... this is way more effective

[ryangreen1]

I bought one of the jack pad adapters for my E34.... this is way more effective

I also read hockey pucks are good to chop down and put in the slots. I'll probably try one of the two before I get an adapter.

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So yesterday I put the first trip longer than 30 minutes on the car, and its an improvement in literally every way compared to the forester. These seats seem like every little piece is infinitely adjustable to just the way I like it.
It rides way, way better on the KW coilovers than the forester did on BC's and its got infinitely more passing power even in 5th or 6th gear.
Its scary how smooth the car is if you just put it to the floor at 50-60 for a second then look down and have to wonder how you got to "arrest me" speeds so quickly.
The nav maps definitely need an update since 2 sections of my drive back home that have been built in the last 3ish years don't exist.

The only minor complaint I have is that the exhaust currently on the car has a terrible highway drone, and it has the weird resonance at exactly 80mph where it is vibrating my whole right leg along with the trans tunnel; super weird feeling. The drone isn't that bad with the windows down or the sunroof at least tilted open, but everything closed its kinda rough. My friend was in the back seat for a ~20 minute drive the other day and she said it gave her a pretty bad headache back there. 
I'm gonna get under the car and see if I can figure out what kind of exhaust it is, but when I glanced at it before I bought it, it looked like it's a muffler delete/maybe a catback. Never thought I'd say this but I'm gonna actually consider getting a quieter exhaust. Does this mean I'm getting old?

[JPolen01]

Just maturing, like a fine wine. When I was in high school I thought it was the coolest thing when we put an Nvidia N1 race exhaust on his STI. It made his entire house shake when we started it in the garage. Now I get mad when I hear a boxer engine for over a mile when I'm trying to sleep.

[ryangreen1]

And here comes the first problem. After I swapped the LED halos, I triple checked to make sure the covers were in right and perfectly sealed. Gone through a couple rain storms and car washes since with no problems and no condensation. Went through a wash today and an adaptive headlight error came up and my right side low beam/ high beam won't come on. Took off the passenger cover and there were 2 pea sized drops of water on the back inside of the cover, the rest was bone dry. If thats enough to fry a headlight thats ridiculous.

Unless I have any other options, I'm going to order a headlight bulb and hope thats all the problem is. I also read that the control module is at the bottom of the headlight where water can pool and that can get fried. If the bulb doesn't fix it I'm gonna order one of those modules off ebay and hope for the best. I will probably order new seals or covers just to make sure this doesn't happen again.

[JustinG]

Swap parts from side to side, should help you narrow down the issue.

Yank bumper and headlights, bench test it all.

[Senor_Taylor]

Fuck, marry, kill. Go.

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[ryangreen1]

"I'm not turning a bolt on this car." - me a month ago



Pulled everything like Justin suggested and swapped bulbs. No go.
Swapped the ballasts on the bottom of each headlight and problem solved. Ballast on passenger headlight had water around the connector, which is interesting as it doesn't look like its possible from water to get from inside the housing to there. The roads were wet on the way home and when I pulled the passenger headlight, there was condensation in there, which is really annoying since I don't know what I did wrong when reinstalling the cover.
Put everything back together to drive to work tomorrow morning, then gotta do this all over again when the new ballast gets here. Panel gap on the passenger headlight is atrocious now but I'll figure that out when I have to pull it again.

I am wholly unprepared for german car ownership as I had a total of 3 torx bits that go into an interchangable screwdriver so I had to make that and a couple allen keys work for all the hard to get torx bolts on this car. Definitely picking up a torx set and some extensions from harbor freight before undertaking anything else on this car.

Anyone thinking about messing with BMW headlights? Don't do it

To top off today, it poured down rain while I was inside fixing the headlight so I had to put everything back together in a dimly lit soaking wet parking lot.

[JustinG]

Pain in the D to pull and swap everything. But a few hours is better than spending a few hundred extra to replace parts that were working fine.

Glad you got it figured out.

[Senor_Taylor]

Relieved that you fixed it without having the buy some expensive parts!

[Jake]

Glad you figured it out at least!

Get a set of torx sockets and a set of e-torx. You'll thank me later.