Project 'Modern E36' - My 2009 BMW 128i

[Jake]

Okay, okay, so after nearly a year of owning a hot hatch that was really only good at carrying an entire Ikea bedroom set home at 21psi of boost in a straight line, I decided I should look around and get into a daily driver that was a better fit for me. I wanted to feel very "at home" in it, wanted it to be simple yet new-ish, have three pedals, and cost less per month than the Focus ST did.

Enter: the modern E36 M3. It's a 2009 BMW 128i. Before someone claims blasphemy, lemme mention the power-to-weight of each car. The 128i weighs 3,252 lbs and produces 230 hp (motor). The M3 weighs 3,380 lbs and produces 240 hp (motor). So, the 128i has a PtW ratio of 14.1 lbs/hp and the M3 is 14.08 lbs/hp. Really.

This greatly helped my decision to buy the 128 over a 135. I had no desire to have a turbo BMW out of warranty (that sounded, frankly, horrifying) and while more power is always more better (thank you, Lord Clarkson), I really liked how the E36 M3 felt. So, why not get another one that's got modern safety features and newer electronics? And an interior that's not falling apart?

Porsche of Arlington gave me good money on trade for the Focus, and I paid a smidge under KBB for the BMW. It has 44k miles on it and the options list from BMW ETK is two pages long. Mostly-fully loaded with M-Sport, cold weather, premium and technology packages.

It's snowing, so my photos suck:











Also, iDrive is hard. It's got the newest version of it, and I still had to break out the owner's manual to figure out how to set my radio presets. I am hoping the learning curve will lessen as I own the car a bit. Graphics and responsiveness are both better than MyFord Touch, though.

Really dig the car so far. Here's hoping I keep this one more than a year.

[JustinG]

Out of all the hate I give to BMWs, especially modern ones, this is probably one I would actually own. Nice power to weight, modern features, and IMO very affordable. Good pick up, hope this one fits the bill for your DD duties.

Too bad the weather isn't cooperating enough for you to play around with it.

[SlimKlim]

I drove it last night (somewhat tentatively, given the near freezing conditions and summer tires) and it's a peach to drive. Steering feels heavy and direct which is nice for a modern car, and the interior is like a bank vault. It really does feel like driving an E36 with an interior that doesn't rattle. With the way it's optioned it's like the smallest luxury car in the world.

The most noticeable differences in how it drives from my '95 are the delay valve on the clutch and the sluggish, emissions friendly throttle that needs to be smushed all the way to the floor to blip it for a downshift. Both of those are easily correctable if he cared enough though.

[Goodspeed]

Nice pickup Jake, the black on red is excellent. Enjoy it!

Pics of a RWD car in snow

Too bad the weather isn't cooperating enough for you to play around with it.

Old Man Justin, have you forgotten your roots?

[Evan]

I dig it.
This was on my short list for replacing my 99 miata, went so far as to persue a new 1M at the dealer.

Love the interior too.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Enter: the modern E36 M3. It's a 2009 BMW 128i. Before someone claims blasphemy, lemme mention the power-to-weight of each car. The 128i weighs 3,252 lbs and produces 230 hp (motor). The M3 weighs 3,380 lbs and produces 240 hp (motor). So, the 128i has a PtW ratio of 14.1 lbs/hp and the M3 is 14.08 lbs/hp. Really..

I will ignore this blatant lie of an E36 M3 weighing 3380 (curb weight of 3180 to 3215)

That said, I really do think the 128i is a great car! Nice pickup and I LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEE the red interior.

[BLINGMW]

This greatly helped my decision to buy the 128 over a 135. I had no desire to have a turbo BMW out of warranty (that sounded, frankly, horrifying) and while more power is always more better (thank you, Lord Clarkson), I really liked how the E36 M3 felt. So, why not get another one that's got modern safety features and newer electronics? And an interior that's not falling apart?

So nice to see other people here that realize the "fastest" model isn't a requirement, especially considering that yesterday's sports car is today's Camry, and today's sports car is a rocket ship. I mean, we joke about "winning" the track day, but what would the 135 do that the 128 won't? Win the street? :dunno:
Should be a fun car! :thumbup: (ALSO love the red interior)

[Jake]

I will ignore this blatant lie of an E36 M3 weighing 3380 (curb weight of 3180 to 3215)

Well, talk to Dave Allen. He's one of the ones who pushed my whale of an M3 across the scales at VIR a few months ago. I guess it's 3380 with my 180-lb self in it, so curb weight of ~3200.

Still, they're close enough.

ALSO. Although I was all happy because I had "the new iDrive" that was first installed on the 09's (08 and earlier have the dim display, harder-to-use system), there are differences year to year. Figures. THANKS BMW. This means that while my iPhone worked with the white Apple USB cord on my buddy's '13 135i, it shows as "Device Unsupported" on my '09.

So I have to use one of these "iPod Y-Adapter" cords that BMW developed back in the day, plus a 30-pin to Lightning adapter. Fortunately, Wayne at RRT confirmed that it will work, and also had a few spares kicking around. So, I saved $74 (which is retail BMW pricing on this dumb cord). Thank you Wayne.



I'm also getting a set of all-seasons mounted up to my skinny 7.5" DSII wheels from the M3. The 1 came on the same Bridgestone RE050A's as my dad's Miata, which have a 140 TW rating and are scary in the cold. Should all be installed tonight, so look for pix tomorrow of 128i HerpDerp Mode.

[Jake]

The car drives so much better in these cold temperatures with proper tires on it. These all-seasons are brand-new-ish and came on a set of DSII's I bought from DJ a few months ago. My goal was a 7.5" square street set, and an 8.5" square track set, which I achieved by pairing two sets of the same staggered M3 setup.

So, that said, I have all four 7.5" wheels on the 1er now. The fronts have 225-width tires and the rears have 245-width. The boys at RRT were able to squeeze the fat tire on the skinny wheel, so... hooray?

I find it mildly amusing that my winter setup has wider wheels and tires than the stock summer setup (7" wheels with 205s on them, eep).

[JPolen01]

It strangely doesn't look that bad with those wheels. Does RRT just send you a bill at the end of the month with all of your mounting/dismounting/balancing at this point?

[Jake]

Does RRT just send you a bill at the end of the month with all of your mounting/dismounting/balancing at this point?

No, but I don't pay retail, either :thumbup:

Oh, forgot to mention. RRT broke TWO sockets getting the rear wheels off of the car. They were also kind enough to break the front lugs free so I could easily pop the new front wheels on once I got home.

Thanks for nothing (and gratuitous use of air tools), Porsche of Arlington.

[BLINGMW]

So, that said, I have all four 7.5" wheels on the 1er now. The fronts have 225-width tires and the rears have 245-width. The boys at RRT were able to squeeze the fat tire on the skinny wheel, so... hooray?

meh, wider isn't better for snow

Thanks for nothing (and gratuitous use of air tools), Porsche of Arlington.

Hey, their typical clientele probably doesn't swap their own wheels, so who cares!

[*insertusernamehere*]

biddy voice* omg it's so cute you should have gotten a convertibblleeeee. (nice whip, yo!)

[JustinG]

Does RRT just send you a bill at the end of the month with all of your mounting/dismounting/balancing at this point?

No, but I don't pay retail, either :thumbup:

Oh, forgot to mention. RRT broke TWO sockets getting the rear wheels off of the car. They were also kind enough to break the front lugs free so I could easily pop the new front wheels on once I got home.

Thanks for nothing (and gratuitous use of air tools), Porsche of Arlington.

This is the main reason I dont like taking my car to a shop to have work done.

An impact is not needed to reinstall an oil drain plug. It is also uneccessary to bang the impact gun on a lugnut for 5 minutes to make sure its tight.

I remember one time I asked the local Merchants to please be sure to torque the lugs on my GSX with a torque wrench and not the gun, the guy looked at me like I was asking him to wax my balls. The first Oil change on a used car can typically tell you how the rest of the maintenance is going to go on the car. If I need a breaker bar to remove the oil change plug....im probably gonna have a bad experience else where.

[Jake]

meh, wider isn't better for snow

Oh, I'm aware of that. This was just the easiest/cheapest option to keep me from skittering off into a guardrail on an off-ramp. The "hooray" was more for someone being able to fit a 245 tire on a 7.5" wheel. Sounded kinda difficult.

[WRXtranceformed]

Love the interior color combo dude! Well played

[.RJ]

I remember one time I asked the local Merchants to please be sure to torque the lugs on my GSX with a torque wrench and not the gun, the guy looked at me like I was asking him to wax my balls.

I had a lol

[Kaan]

I LOLed too

can i drive please?

[Jake]

I LOLed too

can i drive please?

Sure, just say when.

[Jake]

Mileage: 44,250

I've started perusing forums to read about what people do with these cars for mods, updates, and so on. The car is largely an E90 328i that got shrunk in the dryer, so while most of the 1-series forums are all about turbos, bro, you can head over to the E9x forums and talk about natural aspiration all day.

In my reading, I discovered a thread about "The 2014 Nav maps are here!" so I clicked it. The dealership will charge something like $400 to update your iDrive navigation maps. Each year. Which is stupid. However, there are some enterprising gentlemen who may or may not have access to the 2014 maps, and may or may not seed a torrent for them. So I may or may not have downloaded them last night after discovering that my car had maps from 2009:



The (hypothetical, of course) process is to download the maps, extract the compressed files, and either burn them to three Dual-Layer DVDs or copy them to three 16 GB flash drives (each file is 7.99 GB, so an 8 GB drive won't hold it). The 2009 cars had a mid-year firmware update that added USB updating ability, and I don't know if my car has been updated. Also, I can't find my 16 GB flash drive. So, I went the DVD route, which works but is slower to upload to the car.

Started the process this morning and it is slow. You put Disc 1 in, and it asks for a "FSC code" which is specific to the 2014 maps and your car. I (theoretically) paid the guy who did the torrents to generate the code for me. It's a million letters long and hard to type in before you have your coffee:



The car will allow you to turn it off during the update. It just picks up where it left off. After sitting in the driveway for 30 minutes and commuting for another 25, it's at ~27% completion. It does allow you to use the full capabilities of iDrive while it is updating, though, so the experience is really not bad. Just slow. And when the update only costs $50, I'm okay with slow.