[Nyxeris]

My 3-door 130i M Sport:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------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
• Second-generation high-beam assist
• Alpine upgrade w/ hifi subs, rear speakers & rear tweeters
• Cruise control
• Folding mirrors

Aftermarket/Mods:

• Genuine BMWP Intake, SSK, strut brace, bump stops, handbrake, pedals, steering wheel trim
• Custom leather/Alcantara flat-bottomed steering wheel by RSW
• 1M-Style Alcantara binnacle (also RSW)
• Summer wheels: Bola FLB in 8x17 ET40 square w/ PS4s in 235/40 97Y XL
• Winter wheels: Dare DR-X2 in 8x18 ET38 front, 8.5x18 ET43 rear w/ CrossClimate+ in 225/40 & 245/35
• Mishimoto intake boot
• EZP intake scoops
• BMW/Brembo S2NH 340mm front brakes
• Hel braided stainless brake & clutch hoses (+ CDV delete)
• Eibach Pro springs
• Whiteline subframe inserts
• 1M LCAs (+ camber pin mod), rear guide arms & rear wishbones
• E93 M3 front ARB (28mm)
• 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 :lol:

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

https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=119723&p=1490223#p1490223

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 :lol:

 

[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]

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 :lol:

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 for a little boost in clarity.

 

[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.

https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=119723&start=60#p1518358

.

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 :mrgreen:

 

[sitruc_nuahs]

Looks blooming lovely. Also want to do the Alpine kit

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[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!

 

[Nyxeris]

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

Looks blooming lovely. Also want to do the Alpine kit

Appreciate the kind words. The alpine kit is night and day different to base audio - definitely worth the money if you like your tunes. If it's still available in a year or so (winter shoes and some preventative maintenance to sort before any more big spending) I could be tempted to buy it again for the rear speakers lol!

 

[Nyxeris]

Haven't had a chance to do much over the past few weeks as the old E46 is currently occupying my axle stands to replace a bunch of MOT stuff, including a particularly uncooperative rear wheel bearing :banghead:

Trying to source a set of fancy front calipers/discs/pads for the 130 as

https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=120944

. I don't see the point in spending £4-500 on new 'correct' parts (or trying to get it done under warranty) when I'll eventually be upgrading them anyway, but it's not a great buyer's market at the moment with the BMWP BBK having gone up significantly, and most listings for E8x 135i & Fxx M-Lite brakes having various issues from price to condition to missing bits. Not sure why people seem to think their well-used calipers refurbed by Stevie Wonder's guide dog are worth nearly as much as BMW charge for brand new!

So instead... Here's a pic I took whilst the sun poked its head out for the first time in a few days

 

[markhurley]

Just keep your eyes peeled for some m135i brembos , the 6 pots are dear now.

 

[J0sephx]

As above.

Some bargains to be found on eBay with those M135i fronts. A worth while upgrade.

You'll be lucky to find some 135i 6 pots for reasonable money but M135i callipers are up quite often!

 

[Jamm1981]

Very nice looking car.
Well looked after also.