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BMW E81 Limited Edition+ (Pic Heavy Lol)

14K views 35 replies 18 participants last post by  Ant 
#1 ·
My E81 130i Limited Edition
Bought this back in February as I had been driving my trusty little 1.4TDI Polo for far too long and wanted another straight 6 BMW, after my E36 and Z M Coupe.

The car was all standard when it was picked up, drove really nice apart from the horrid run flats and only really needed minor work :)





Specification and Option List:

 
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#5 ·
Had the car booked in at a friends garage for a bunch of work to be done and had a load of parts posted to him, infact I had some of these parts before buying the car sat in the garage lol

Suspension overhaul:
- Bilstein B12 Sportline Suspension Kit
- Powerflex Rear Subframe Rear Mounting Insert - - Powerflex Rear Subframe Front Mount Insert - - Powerflex Front Radius Arm To Chassis Bush - - M3 Front Lower Control Arms (LCAs)
- Xenon Regulating Rod: Part number - Camber
Wheels/Tyres:
- Goodyear Eagle F1 A2 Tyres 225/40 fronts & 245/35 Rears
- Calipers Painted black with silver retainer clip. Hubs painted silver
- BMW Badges chrome surround version with metal valves
- 5mm Spacers All round

Lighting:
- LED Rear Numberplate Lights: Part number - Full Interior LED Light Kit
- Bimmian
Performance Parts:
- Performance BMW Short shift: Part number - Securing Clip: Part number - Circlip: Part number - Bearing Shift Level: Part number - Cyba Air Scoops, Painted silver
- Performance BMW Exhaust: Part number - Performance BMW Intake System: Part number
Other Parts:
- Short Stubby Antenna
- Electric Folding Wing Mirrors with window switch



Full Hunter Alignment done after getting the suspension parts fitted:
 
#6 ·
I wasn't really happy with the stereo in the car, mainly the low-end. I had a JL Audio 12W6 in my previous car which I loved and probably is regarded as one of the best subwoofers ever made in terms of sound quality. I wanted to put this in the car but didn't really want to go down the route of getting a custom enclosure made which was shame as it meant to sell my beloved JL.
I did some looking around at other options and ending up coming across the Earthquake SWS-8 subwoofers which could fit in the OEM enclosures under the front seats.
After a few PM's to Dan116 on here (cheers mate) on wiring and fitting I finally got them installed and added an amp, but the amp was a JL Audio J2 360.2 which didn't really fit in the boot under the carpet. So had to shop around for something else and ended up with another JL Audio XD400/4 amp which is tiny but packs a punch!
Fitted it all and sounds brilliant, no complaints from the music I throw at the system :D
Replaced the old single button iDrive controller for a replacement multi button version.

In-Car Entertainment:
- Earthquake SWS-8X subwoofers
- JL Audio XD400/4 v2 Amplifer (running subs at 2 x 200w RMS 4ohms bridged)
- Krystal Kable 2 Channel Twisted Pair - 4 AWG Wiring kit & 12 AWG Speaker wire
- Autoleads - BMW Dual USB Charger: Part number - Sandisk Cruzer Tiny USB Memory Stick for MP3 Audio
- BMW iDrive Controller updated version

- Earthquake Subs


- Used some weather foam seal to put around the subs in the enclosures to make them seat and sealed properly, worked spot on!


- Fitted in OEM Enclosure, the enclosures need some modifying with a Dremel but nothing too difficult.


- OEM Subs out


- JL Audio XD400/4 Amp


- Knukoncept RCA Cable


- BMW Dual USB Charger
- Sandisk Cruzer MP3 Memory Stick


- Old iDrive Controller


- BMW iDrive Controller


- Messy boot, testing and fitting


- Amp fitted :)
 
#7 ·
Interior Seats:
(looks nice and clean, trust me its not!) :nono:



The interior had seen better days since getting the car, being a light colour it gets dirty rather quickly, this actually put me off the car as soon as I saw it as I had OCD lol. The drivers bolster needed some work and some colour restoration on the passenger side. There seemed to be a mark in the seat aswell so not sure what this was. The rears were pretty much mint.
A friend of mine John who owns had worked on my previous cars and did a full custom so had to go see him for the work to be done. I asked him about the passenger side seat and he told me that the mark is the occupancy sensor coming through the leather, which required heating up and moving back down and the the leather re-coloured and restored.



I left the car with John for afew days to work his magic.

Key fob:
Ordered a new keyfob and decided to send it John to re-stitch in Lemon yellow to go with the rest of the car theme..



Interior Parts:
I had got another M Sport steering wheel as mine had bad wear on one side and emailed Jack @ about some work to be done.

- Retrim Steering wheel in Alcantara with Yellow/Lemon Stitching and add yellow stripe
- Retrim Binnacle in Alcantara with Yellow/Lemon Stitching
- Retrim Gearknob and Gaiter in Alcantara with Yellow/Lemon Stitching
- Retrim Handbrake and Gaiter in Alcantara with Yellow/Lemon Stitching

Steering Trim:
I decided I wanted the wheel to be something special to fit in with the car and one-off lol and bought a trim piece which was from an individual model. I got speaking to a company to make me a badge which would fit straight into the original trim piece and look OEM, afew emails back and forth and had the part sorted out :D

Door sills:
On my E36 I had some custom made Hartge door sills and wanted something similar in the 1er. After browsing the tinterweb I found out that there was some special lifestyle version of the 1 series coupe released in Europe somewhere and found out that they had some special door sills. I wasn't sure if they would fit the hatch version so risked it and was chuffed when they fitted without too much hassle :)

Got everything installed and interior complete :spotman:

- Re-colour seats and condition whole interior
- Retrimmed Steering wheel
- Retrimmed Gearknob and Gaiter
- Retrimmed Handbrake and Gaiter
- Binnacle Fitted
- Keyfob re-stitched
- Custom Trim Badge
- Limited Edition Door Sills
- Brushed Aluminium Footrest and Pedals
- New Genuine BMW Mats

































































 
#12 ·
Alloys

The wheels had kerb rash on all four wheels and had the dreaded run flat tyres. I ordered some Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres and got them fitted when the suspension was getting overhauled.
I managed to find a ally refurb place where I could get away with just sorting out the outer section of the wheels without messing with the BMW Motorsport decal on the wheel as I wanted to keep this original.
They did a brilliant job on look as new!

- Alloys refurbed
- Goodyear F1 tyres fitted
- New BMW centre badges
- Metal valve caps









 
#13 ·
Exterior

After getting all the suspension mods fitted my friend fitted some exterior mods to the car. I bought the carbon parts all from Teddy @ His parts and customer services is always top notch. I ordered a bunch of bits for my car and my brothers has he has a 125i but unlike me hes lazy in getting them fitted lol

Parts fitted:
- Carbon Hamann Style splitters
- Carbon Rear Diffuser
- BMW Aero Spoiler
- Performance BMW Exhaust
- Bimmian LED Smoked Repeaters
- BMW Darkline Rear Lights































 
#18 ·
Cars looking great, the seats look brand new.. Seat reconditioning now on my hit list! Liking the handbrake & gear gaiter too.

Reminds me to update my car thread when I get time.
 
#22 ·
Decided to put her up for sale :(
Going away in 4 weeks so don't want her sat in the garage for a month.

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Plate is coming off soon, should take around 2 weeks I think from today (19th)

only parts that will split (depending on buyer) if it comes to that are:

- Carbon splitters
- Carbon Diffuser
- Performance BMW Exhaust
 
#23 ·
Oh what a shame, And just as you got it looking so nice! Glwts tho mate.

On another note, if you don't mind me asking, how much was the leather reconditioning? Pm me if you prefer.

Cheers
 
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