Nyxeris' E81 130i

[Nyxeris]

My 3-door 130i M Sport:











I'm trying to keep this thread up-to-date as I change things so scroll on to read all about my descent into poverty

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Specs-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Factory: Boston Lemon leather | Heated seats | 208Ms | Auto wipers | Pro HU | Rear PDC | Dimming mirrors | Lighting pack | Storage pack

OE Retrofits:

• Adaptive Bi-Xenons & LED Darklines
• Alpine upgrade
• Hifi subs, rear speakers & rear tweeters
• BMWP SSK, Handbrake, Pedals
• Cruise control
• Folding mirrors
• E9x lidded sunglasses tray

Aftermarket/Mods:

• Dare DR-X2 wheels (8x18 ET38 front, 8.5x18 ET43 rear)
• Custom perforated leather & Alcantara flat-bottomed steering wheel by Royal Steering Wheels
• 1M-Style Alcantara binnacle (also RSW)
• Mishimoto intake boot
• EZP intake scoops
• Pipercross filter
• F2x Brembo 4-pot 340mm front brakes
• Hel braided stainless brake & clutch hoses (replacing CDV)
• Eibach Pro springs
• BMWP Bump stops
• Whiteline subframe inserts
• M3 LCAs (+ camber pin mod and E92 M3 alignment)
• Yellow fogs
• Sport aerial
• Black grilles
• OEM-style Aero spoiler

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Original Post-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pre-tinkering:



First mods:

BMWP SSK & handbrake

SSK is lovely and for £120 including the trim it's a good buy. Really does make the car more fun on the B roads! Got the handbrake trim to match, ML Performance had it for a good price and got some fantastic service from the owner after I stuffed up the order. Highly recommended, plus they're a site sponsor.



BMWP pedal covers

...they just look pretty



Sport antenna

Didn't want to trundle around with original Corsa-looking aerial. Wasn't expensive at all and makes a nice difference to the silhouette of the car.



Alpine upgrade

The kit (courtesy of Cotswold) went in a week or so ago, car already had two subs from the hifi system (instead of the single sub from the base system) so it sounds much better than you'd expect for the money. Feel like a bit of a badge wan*er though because I managed to find Logic7 tweeter grilles for roughly half the price of unbadged - need to find a way to remove the Harman/Kardon badge without damaging the grilles and add the Alpine one



While I had the boot apart I swapped the parcel shelves for the hifi ones, I'll be adding hifi system mids & tweeters there in the future, plus an amp so that I can code the car to hifi audio without affecting the PDC pings. Not an urgent project though.



Steering wheel retrim

Edit: Installed - pics below!

Think that just about covers it. Been here a few weeks now (and spent months lurking here before I pulled the trigger on the car) and figured it was worth documenting my fall into poverty so that everyone else knows what they're in for

[holland130i]

Very nice 130i you bought...and good to see you are doing the right mods(or emptying your wallet... )already....!!!

Yeah the bilstein b12 and especially throwing away the runcraps and put proper tyres on will make the biggest difference!!...




Mark.

[Nyxeris]

Very nice 130i you bought...and good to see you are doing the right mods(or emptying your wallet... )already....!!!

Yeah the bilstein b12 and especially throwing away the runcraps and put proper tyres on will make the biggest difference!!...

Mark.

Cheers mate, yours is a beauty too, quite the thread you've got! Think I'd have no spare time at all if I was that close to the autobahn too

Both of those jobs are on the cards under my ownership, will just be dictated by the condition of the old parts... Mostly because I need to fork out for a set of 17s and winter tyres at some point first. Once I've taken the runcraps off for a season I probably won't want to put them back on anyway

[Octavius]

I have a set of LED’s for the interior lighting if you’re interested. Osram and Philips. Not cheap ones.
Don’t do the map lights. Don’t work with LED lamps.

[Nyxeris]

I have a set of LED’s for the interior lighting if you’re interested. Osram and Philips. Not cheap ones.
Don’t do the map lights. Don’t work with LED lamps.

Appreciate the offer but I need to hold off on the spending for a while - plus I already have a pile of stuff waiting to fit that I'm getting nagged about! Thanks for the tip on the map lights too.

[Nyxeris]

Took the opportunity to swap the front-end bulbs whilst the clouds had broken. Had a bad experience with high output bulbs in the past (Philips RacingVision heated the lenses on my E46 so much they bubbled up and needed replacing - ) so rather than go for pure power I got a set of Osram "Cool Blue Boost" bulbs which still claim to be up-to 50% brighter than standard. Under £30 on Amazon for the lot as well.

Edit: the new sidelight bulbs pictured below are rubbish, far too yellow in comparison to the dipped/main beam so have been replaced. See here.

Before:


After:


Much nicer. Most of the blue is just the reflection of the bulb coating, they're much whiter than standard but they're not going to be mistaken for HIDS and a quick rear-view test in the old car confirms they focus nicely and don't dazzle (which you'd expect given that they're just tinted H7s).

[Nyxeris]

Retrimmed steering wheel with BMWP Alcantara trim installed



In shot with the gearstick, SSK & pedal covers - the silver stitching & stripe goes with the other stuff perfectly!



In other news the Paypal claim for the BMWP air filter did the trick and I've got a refund. Would have been nice for the seller to respond at some point though!

[Ezzra]

Nicely.

[Nyxeris]

Quick job this morning - gloss black kidneys. Also added a couple of little vinyl decals to the badge to test the water on blacking it out - quite like it tbh.



M3 LCAs turned up today too, added to the pile. It's getting bigger...

[Octavius]

The steering wheel looks fabulous

[Nyxeris]

The steering wheel looks fabulous

Very happy with it, especially with the BMWP insert!

[Twenny]

Some very nice subtle mods there buddy.

Looking very very nice.

[markhurley]

Looking good there will be following, I need the alpine kit in mine

[sitruc_nuahs]

Looks blooming lovely. Also want to do the Alpine kit


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[Nyxeris]

Some very nice subtle mods there buddy.

Looking very very nice.

Much obliged. Already keeping an eye on your topic, not sure I’ll be going full murdered out on a hatchback lol, but your coupe looks stunning!