BMW 130i OEM+ project

[Dan_Cart_94]

Hi all, new member here and I thought I’d take the opportunity to start a thread on my BMW 130i i took ownership of the other week. It was advertised on the “BMW 130i owners unite” group on Facebook for £4K initially, then £3k, but as I swapped my high mileage BMW 525d with him, it technically stands me at £2700. Which at the time of buying I’m sure made it the cheapest example in the country. More on why that’s not such a good thing later..

It’s an early 55 plate, so comes with the desirable hydraulic power steering, M Sport pack, Xenon headlights, full leather interior, and perhaps the less desirable option of a now very ancient I-Drive 🤣

[Heathwood]

That’s very cheap, so a great buy if there’s nothing much wrong with it.

[Dan_Cart_94]

First job was the removal of these nasty aftermarket mirror caps. The previous owners had done some fairly questionable mods to the car to say the least. Thankfully, some warm water poured over each one and a gentle use of the trim tool had them off within 10 minutes. They were only held on with 3M tape thankfully!

[Dan_Cart_94]

Heathwood said:

That’s very cheap, so a great buy if there’s nothing much wrong with it.

Few jobs to sort, chasing a rough idle which is surprisingly common on the N52 engine, full underside refresh at some point in the summer, and a few cosmetics I’m currently dealing with. Overall however I’m very happy with the price considering I wanted a project than a minter 😊

[Dan_Cart_94]

Next up was the 130i badge. It came with a black one on the boot, which was hard to see against the Le Mans blue, was in the wrong place, and was more wonky than if a drunk had tried having a go! 😆

I looked online and an original one from BMW was almost £40! Luckily I found the original one in the glovebox. Next challenge was finding the factory badge specifications so I knew where to place it..



Using some dental floss, I removed the old one and cleaned up the old adhesive from the back of the original badges..



Courtesy of a member of the 130i unite group, I found a link to the original BMW badge placement so I could get to town on putting the new “old” badge back on!

I “borrowed” some 3M tape from work, the thinnest they had. Cleaning the old adhesive off was the easy part, but my god sticking the new stuff on and trimming it to shape so it wasn’t visible is not a job I intend to do again. The things I do to save £40! 🤣

[Court_S]

Big fan of these having had an LE for a year (it’s a car that I miss a lot to be fair).

Mike had the ancient CCC and I managed to get CarPlay working on it. The resolution let the side down a bit but it was more than issuable and at least I could fold the screen down.

The M3 arms are a really good OE+ mode for these.

Mine came with Birds B1 suspension which was brilliant and definitely worth the cash.

[carpetsoiler]

I've just built a 135i for a client with full E92 M3 rear end, KWs, M3 control arms, and a Drexler diff. It's a little animal, really good car.

Another client used to have a 130i with all the M3 trimmings, and it too was an awesome little machine. It all bolts straight on.

Worth considering for sure, especially if you want to be a bit of a pocket rocket with extremely good handling.

[Mr Tidy]

That was quite a bargain!

I wish I had tried harder to track one down instead before I bought my E90 330i.

[Dan_Cart_94]

Had a few hours of decent weather the other day, so I took advantage and got to work on replacing the dented and keyed panels. A local lad was breaking a Le Man’s blue 118d LCI, after a bit of negotiation I got 2 passenger doors and a bonnet for just £200!

Not many pictures of the process sadly but I wouldn’t recommend doing it by yourself as I did- easy enough to swap but a bit bulky to manoeuvre



Paintwork still wants a detail, the drivers wing will want changing and there is the odd slight scuff on the lower bumpers, but it now presents itself very well for its near 18 years. Added bonus is that the replacement panels was a near perfect paint match as well!

Edited by Dan_Cart_94 on Sunday 16th April 10:55

Edited by Dan_Cart_94 on Sunday 16th April 10:56

[Dan_Cart_94]

[Dan_Cart_94]

Original 130i grill back on. Like all 6 cylinder BMW’s of this era, they have silver slats to distance them from lower versions which have black slats. The aftermarket black grill it came with was particularly nasty and really cheapened the overall look of the car.

I found these extremely difficult to get hold of. A 130i unite member came to the rescue and sold me his for just £40 delivered!

[Court_S]

Looks good; those black grilles were particularly skanky in all fairness. I usually like black grilles, but they were a horrid design.

[Dan_Cart_94]

Brief update. Sadly in early September I sold the 130i as a move to Manchester made insurance beyond difficult.

Great car, very much missed, but I have now replaced it with something arguably even more fun