130i Buying advice & fitting an android head unit

[Big Rig]

Mrs big rig wants a 1 series. She does around 800 miles a month, 80% town driving with the rest on motorway so I don't think a diesel would be best here.
I've been looking and I'm leaning towards a 130i or a 125i.

Are there any expensive common problems I need to watch out for when viewing?

Also she must have phone connectivity, I've been looking at fitting an Android Apple car play head unit, like in the video below. HAs anyone fitted one of these? Seems the earlier cars you cut the dash out but the later ones have a storage tray. Can you retro fit one of these head units to both or is there a better system anyone has used instead?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OP2eXuM2qM

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ2oG6a1tLI

[Court_S]

The N52 is pretty reliable engine really but does suffer a few common issues…

• oil leaks from the rocker cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, oil cooler gasket, sump gasket plus minor ones from the valvetronic motor gasket
• DISA valves can fail
• Vanos solenoids does but are dead easy to change
• Eccentric shaft sensors fail and it’s quite a big day out; the part is expensive and it’s under the rocker cover

Watch out for worn suspension too; it’ll make them drive like a bag of spanners as will the run flats if they’re still present and correct.

My 130i LE was a fan car and one that I really miss.



Mine was on Birds suspension and I fitted M3 arms and it was an absolute riot.

My wife had an E88 125i at the same time



This was also a fab wee car and a great companion when we did the NC500 last year.

In stock form the 125i is much slower and less urgent than the 130i due to the throttle mapping. A remap really wakes them up.

My mate had a 125i which he took to 256k.

Both are great cars and being open to either should make it easier to find a good one.

[Court_S]

Re the screen, I fitted something similar to my wife’s 125i and it actually worked really well. Sometimes it felt a bit big, but it was easy to reach and modernised the interior with CarPlay etc.



If you buy a car with a cubby in the dash you don’t need to do any cutting.

In her old 116, I fitted a double din unit that was really good and less intrusive.

[Big Rig]

Court_S said:

Re the screen, I fitted something similar to my wife’s 125i and it actually worked really well. Sometimes it felt a bit big, but it was easy to reach and modernised the interior with CarPlay etc.



If you buy a car with a cubby in the dash you don’t need to do any cutting.

In her old 116, I fitted a double din unit that was really good and less intrusive.

Thank you. When you did the 116 with the double din, where did you move the heated seat control panel to?

[Heathwood]

I’ve owned a 130i for 13 years and it’s been pretty much rock solid. I’ve had to replace the electric waterpump, which is a known failure item and is about £500 to replace if I recall correctly.

The washer jet for the rear wiper also fails and are a PITA to resolve. Many owners just leave it I believe.

Touch wood, I’ve not had any problems with oil leaks, although my understanding is that these are more inconvenient / annoying than particularly problematic.

Put some decent non-RFTs on it. It still brings a smile to my face after all these years and I don’t know what I’d replace it with unless spending considerably more.

[Court_S]

Big Rig said:

Thank you. When you did the 116 with the double din, where did you move the heated seat control panel to?

The 116i was an ES, so no heated seat button to worry about. The double din option only really works on cars without many options, hence not fitting one to the 125i that replaced the 116i.