Hi, I expect most of you know me by now...or know my 'dodgy' driving style and at least one or two of my cars...Well here is the the old beast...my modified 1.8iS.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Then just before I sold it Scotty did a feature on the car for Car of the month June 2009:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]14/8/09I'm going to call the car "Project Pink" due to the colour being Calypso red, not the rarest but definitly a very unique colour none the less. Lets get on with it...heres how the car first appeared in an advert on Pistonheads:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]With the car being located and sold less than 3 miles away, I thought why not view the car and see what it had that was so special. Well as you've guessed falling in love with the car I bought it. As a result no longer believe 4 potters are all there cracked up to be. Anyway lets get back to the 2.8.
It arrived in a really "dirty" state, evident in the above pictures. It hadn't been clean within months and the grime and slime of normal driving were covered over every aspect of the car and the caked alloy wheel in brake dust were a state, but I got a good deal and an excellent car for that matter so didn't care
It had a full M3 kit inc clear lights but all lighting was basically standard ///M parts. It had Lux skirts which to be honest acctually look very good vs the Mtec kit! It also had 18'' MV2's which I wasn't a fan of to begin with but starting to see the appeal and filled arches, I'll get round to them later.
Under the hood it had a Dave F and an ETec aluminium strut brace (cheap and cheerful) and that was it, no BBTB or inlet from an M50 yet
but its only appeared on the driveway. It had an AC Schnitzer letterbox exhaust, which was the main reason I bought the car. It just sounds incredible combined with the Dave F up front.
Suspension wise it came with the full "yellow" Bilstein pack lowered with eibach red springs to a hight of -50mm or something, but looks alot lower than my 318iS which was lowered by 40mm, so to the eye it looks lower and holds a better all round stance. It had the rear top mounts from a Z3 (cheap chearful) which help which rear loading to give better handling. So all in all it was a good starting platform with these good points.
With any older 2nd hand car there is always an element where you need to do or fix something, this car was no exception and to be honest for a car from the exact middle of the nineties not too many. There are one or two electrical issues to get my teeth into; the passenger window switch refuses to work and the sunroof slides back ok but when raising up it doesn't slide back? It also has a message "check coolant level" appear on the OBC on start up sometimes which again an electrical problem. The only other issue I've noticed is at speed over bumps etc is that the geometry within the car is out along with rolling radius (proven by Mr Tom Tom reading a higher speed of 13mph that the speedometer) but thats more I feel to do with the 18 inch wheels, so I'm solving that Problem by soon buying a set of 17'' OEM wheels. It also is rubbing badly but this will be due to worn bushes or something up front but time will tell.
No major rust only along bottom corner of drivers door with the arches the cleanest I've ever owned. So it'll be only small cosmetic alterations
Anyway this is a good start to show how the car looks now after owning it for a month, sorry no real good car pictures but will all be added some time soon. But this picture taken by a friend at a recent event shows the colour and heart of the car.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Picture credit: Scotty, salisburycruize.co.uk
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]So I think you've got an idea of the car and I'm just going to the garage to fill up (again
) and start enjoying the car as its an awesome car with an incredible note coming from that balanced and tight engine
No plans, thought I'd start a journal towards my new 6 potter and fill in some back ground knowledge before I got to grips with what I want to do with it. This time it'll be a standard sleeper car
15/8/09Thanks mate, I spent almost a week just going and cleaning the bodywork getting it clean and a fruitful shine back, if you seen it arrived you would have lost heart from day one. To be honest I didn't expect it to come out in such a beautiful colour as it did Well chuffed. You'll see it at the Pod on the 20th anyway.
On the subject of wheels I wish I kept the BBS's from my 1.8iS but to be honest I don't think they would have suited this coupe they way they suited my old black coupe, plus I'm a massive fan of the Stlye 5 with the massive chrome dish...something along these lines:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]But now I'm concentating getting the car comfortable again...No track madness in this one, yet! I'm going to eventually get Vaders and the like in there so it should really become a nice car in the coming months ready for the shows next year. But I think project Pink is approriate considering that was the 1st colour I ever saw it
19/8/09I took it for a jont in the countryside last night and found that it was snatching from extreme understeer to major oversteer at upper speeds...Thinking I had a bent strut and asuming the worse I've been under the car today and looked at the power steering fluid pipe...theres a leak, so took it up the road after putting some new fluid in it and its running like a treat. Also the drivers side lower wishbone looks like its on its way out so that will need replacing. I may have sourced a "get me by till I get the ones I want" 17' inch wheels so I'll see how the Handling improves/varies after that. Within the next day I'm gonna clean the under side of the car and determine where the fluid leak is coming from. Checking the whole car over it is and seems totally straight...so I am 100% the wheels were causing the most issues.
Also need to clean the MAF as there is a definite blump in power...the Dave F induction cone wasn't 100% secure and came loose whilst driving (I never went far and no rain/water etc would/could have got in) so I'm sure after I put it bachk on and tightend it up, its got some crud on it.
Niggling problems but we're getting there!
20/8/09No I wasn't driving like a retard...far from it. On a back road I know like the back of my hand I noticed the car didnt feel 100%, 1st time since buying it I gave it hell leather...What I meant is the car was skipping and feeling wobbly through bends. Whereas the 1.8iS (using as a comparison though different car) went round with ease. I noticed with applying power it straightend out but was still bad. I think there is a few things needing replacing underneath if I'm honest with myself. The car itself is tight as a nut running. What I'm saying that steering to the left is great but steering to the right takes some work. I took it to Southampton tonight via backroads and only booted it a little. And It felt similar. Dan, There is 100% evident leak coming from the power steering area of the car??? I'm trying to decribe how the car is handling and its pretty difficult with my low adjective count being scottish. Basically the car doesn't feel secure through bends and its nothing to do whether I'm a retard driver or the stig, the handling isn't good. In a straight line (checked on a few roads with no camber or truck weight lines) its pulling to left, quite exteme.
As for the wheel, situation, I'm hopefully putting some 17''s on tomorrow (well today look at the time LOL) and am going to check whether the car is any better. Once I've ticked that box, I can concentrate on the rest of the car. Something I forgot to mention (sorry no pictures) but the wheel has rubbed so badly that the wheel has smoothed the inside of the arch where it was touching and left a smooth dark shiny mark (on both full lock and in the upper part of the arch).
So if anyone can make sense of that, that is what I'm struggling with trying to work out why and how to fix it. Main thing is putting smaller wheels > check > no difference/difference in handling > next step
Also got a new OEM steering wheel today so that should be on at some point this week to replace the worn (badly I must say) one in there.
2/9/09Here is a picture of the car from today, basically its dirty and looks minging but it gives you gives a chance to see what I'm working with. The rubbing strips are a tad faint and you can see the only major rust bubble on the door. There is also the bang in the front arch where the car is too low with the massive wheels. Now I know how and am able, I'll update progress soon and provide pictures of car in its current state. Stage one...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Salisbury Cathedral
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The passenger side, pretty clean me thinks??? Got a few jobs and tlc to take care off but heres the car...I love the colour, need some polished shots to really show it off.
It doesn't look as "pretty" as my last car but it'll get used to it 4 I suppose
Oh, popped the hood and found this LoL
Plans are M50 inlet (i have one reserved , yippeee) and the BBTB to complement the induction kit and the exhaust. Getting there...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]3/9/09Anyway, the conditions were disgusting tonight, wind and blizzard rain, I thought I'd go for a drive. Realising very quickly NOBODY was out I went to my local multi story to see if anybody was sheltering underneath that I knew. Well you guessed it...empty. Well hearing the car as I entered I thought, um, this sounds fruity, and with my Nokia 5800 I thought I'd make a small video of the DaveF bark in an enclosed empty ish space. So I kicked my bro out and I accelerated half hard up to about 5k just to get the note, then slammed the brakes. Plus it was too slippy under the wheels to push it along with the direct feed CCTV to my local plod I behaved myself and made this, short, video for your inspections.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]P.S The MTech diffuser needs fitting again as it came off a few weeks back whilst driving down road. Little TLC, but here it is now as said before a blank canvas.
7/9/09Well as you know I've been having weird handling issues from previous posts and after too much unstabi,ity on her majesties public highway both at speed and over miniscule bumps...I decided enough is enough. So I got te spare set of cruded up M3 Sport Replica wheels (with brand new tires all round) and put them on the car just to see how much the car had differed with the wheel change. If there was no change I would put the MV2's back on...well here is what I found and after closer inspection it was worse than I thought...
Car overall beforehand (bearing in mind the car has just come from my mates farm and diffuser still not on LOL):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]As you can see the wheels look odd to the eye but I've never had a set of 18''s before this car so didn't think alot of it.
Right Rear internally:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Well here is how the back left looked on the car:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here is what it looked like removing the wheel:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]You can see where it was bouncing off the arch blatently...It wasn't good to say the least.
Okay that was the back...have a look at the Front Left arch:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Once wheel removed...here is what I found on close closer inspection: I think the words now are a picture says a thousand words...I'm letting the pictures below speak for themselves:
By brake cooling channel:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Top of the front left arch:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]And this will make you guys all sick:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I know the bearing on the front are going and the front arm too (deal with that when money in) as there was eccessive play in the front wheel when parked you could wobble it, and driving down the road there is some play in the steering wheel (not as much as Jeremy Clarkson when he drove the Ford Pickup a few years back though LOL) so I knew I had issues woth the car as it turned easier on one side than the other.
OKAY DON'T MAKE ME FEEL SMALL READING THIS, I REALLY DIDN'T KNOW ND I'M LEARNING WITH TIMEI had the wheels off and realised that the wheels have been chopped and changed and the back left was on the front right (yeah a wider wheel) and the front left with a new tyre in its place in the rear arch. Effective from this knowledge I had a wheel that was rotating the wrong way (rotational tires) on the front left with the wider wheel. Ok. That meant that the two widers were on the right side and two narrows on the left side...that explains why it was a nightmare turning side to
side from one being better to the other. Ok never owning (or caring) before this point about MV'2's I didn'tt fully understand how to tell if they were staggered as I had 225/40 18 tires all round...so effectivily had tire streching and to my idiot eyes couldn't tell the difference, but reviewing the situation I now feel better equipped for the future.#
Well this is a close up of the front right drivers arch with the damage incured due to the above...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]That'll need sorting out in future either with repairing or a new arch, whichever is cheapest
To cut a longer story short put on the 17" reps...in terrible condition...and took the car down a country lane and made sure I drove over bumps and got the car to flow through the corners at speed to see how these wheels and tires (215/45 R17 all round) would feel on the car at speed and how the balance of the car would change.
Road report:
The car is awesome, I can drive at speed and not worry about the car skipping or bouncing clanging, I can get full lock rather than 3/4 then it sticks. It feels stable on road and planted. I have confidence in the car building up everytime I drive it and love the 17" wheels on 215 wide tires in combination with how the car was previously set up it needs a few tweeks granted (bushes geometry and so on) but for now I love my car...heres what I did to the MV2s (not looking back as I hated them anyway to be fair):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Well they are now on this 318iS and the guy loves them and they don't look too bad either whereas this is the picture you wanted to see:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Let me know your thoughts on the car now...Its making progress and I'm really finding heart in the car.
Thanks for reading even though I'm a tad ammature, but as said above its a learning curve and progress is built on errors and mistakes.
LATER COMMENT
Dan thats the worry, but since changing the MV2's over to the wheels on now its totally transformed the car, if you look at the picture, which I have now and for the first time only just noticed that the rear left wheel has an M badge and a 13 stamped in the centre whereas the other three don't...Correct me if I'm wrong it looks to me like I have sets from different wheels??? So if that were the case I would not only have the pending issues on page 4 but also different wheel weights and rolling radious's to contend with, so more weight and width to one side than the other. Sorry I thought I'd post this up as this could be another factor in the story.
I forgot to mention that the car would pull to one side whilst driving (iirc the right but 2 days is a long time to reflect back on) and now it doesn't. The 17''s are balanced, with brand new rubber and running at 32 PSI all round and set up for the coupe, thats why I put them on to find out.
Guys what I can't believe is how different the overall feel on road the car has now, as it doesn't feel loose and clunky (if you can decifer my Scottishness from that) but feels altogether firm and controllable. At the higher parts of 4th and 5th gear it feels straight and when turning at speed also it now goes where I want it to go. I took it out to see if I dreamt it up earlier, but the car is 110% better all round. I'm confused.com
Putting handling issues aside, I took some pictures of the car on a multi story in the city earlier today really just to compare how the car has changed, so looking away from todays (very helpful) posts I thought I'd post these up and show how the car is sitting and what the offsets are and how it (exterior wise) looks as now...CLICK ON PICTURES FOR FULL SIZE AS THEY ARE LINKS
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Tilt your screens perpendicular to the desk
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.](Just for you Ollie, the ghey sticker is gone, window ones when its a warmer day)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Just Awesome...the spoiler is going, part from that I like how it looks...maybe GT splitter and so on.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Oh and I removed the armrest as I hate them, I feel contained rather than breathable in the car so did a personal mod before I put the non armrest lower thingy onto the car.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]It really works LOL
10/9/09Here is something relitively cheap and different to try on your coupe. What we have here is an experiment I tried earlier, OEM Tango vs Fried egg. I couldn't be bothered taking the indicators out so I held the OEM one over (like a pro) the white indicator to get a comparison of the differences. (Click pictures to enlarge them)
Well here is the result, I think I know which way I'm heading
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]My hypothesis is correct they do totally work against the calypso red bodywork. Once I get the other bits I'm converting to the OEM side!
12/9/09I've been looking for this part for months now and I sorced one by accident and here is the result...very simple and very mean looking.
Okay thought I'd post this up...I like the idea of smooth lines and a simple look (RosesE36 don't qoute me
but I don't know where I want the car to go mate)
I thought the car looked a bit too "common" so I got a hold of a simple part and feel I've transformed the whole front end by removing the number plate and doing something I've always wanted to do to the car...whether its entirly legal in the UK I'm not too sure
You alll know the drill, click pics to enlarge guys[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I don't know what the part is called but here it is before I wanged it on the car.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Trial stage over and ready to remove the numberplate
Okay here is it on car...Looks awesome...simple yet effective...Judge for yourselves
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Gives a more aggressive front end
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]As said I dont know how legal it is so I've put number plate in window just for road driving and took it through town and had no problems from any police. Sorry to post a lotof pictures of a bit of plastic...I just can't believe how clean the front end looks now and how much I really like it on the car :smt007
Tomorrow I'm replacing the steering wheel hopefully if I get time
The sticker is GONE before you look LOL[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.](Click pic to enlarge)I was thinking about this comment looking at the car earlier and here is a picture from the Portsmouth meet the other weekend in which I borrowed a fibreglass (pretty ruined
) under Evo splitter, it was bodged under with two CD cases and a helpful good sir
I thought of one of the £200 carbon replica GT splitter jobbies on the car. I think it doesn't look half bad to be honest. Its the country roads around here I travel on and enjoy that put me off buying one just to bash it off! :smt057
13/9/09Starting to make headway of the car and make it mine
Okay where to start, well the beginning natrually. I haven't had the time to spend on the car off late so a sleepy sunday morning seemed to be the perfect chance to get my teeth stuck into the car. Well truth be told you all know I've been having weird handling issues with the car at the moment. Whether that involves something related to springs, bushes, struts or something else I was determined to find out.
Well here is how the car begun the day ahead of it, after I washed it for the first time in a month the previous evening:
(BY now you all know the drill, CLICK ON PICTURE to enlarge it)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]DAVE F:
Work on the car began by popping the hood. I really wanted to get an idea of fluids and oil levels on the car. Well all was great and well within the constrained limits defined by BMW. I then looked in the corner of my eye at the air filter and I don't know whether the sun light hit it wrong but it looked like it hadn't been oiled correctly and just slammed onto the car. So I decided that a cean was in order. I removed the induction cone to really inspect the dirt, bugs and general condition of it...LOL
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]So there was nothing I could do other than clean it back to a fresh clean state. I initially sprayed it in K and N dirt remover/lifter liquid and let it really soak in for a good half hour:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]After 30mins and four hot chocolates later I gave the induction cone a well earned shower:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]With nothing to do at this stage other than allowing it alot of time to drip dry and getting the moisture out of the foam/cotton I left it to do exactly just that.
Well seeing as the induction cone was off I I thought I would clear all the way to the Throttle body. The car off late has been running quite sluggish so I thought what's the worst that could happen?? Actually nothing bad happened like the Dr Pepper advert would suggest but here is what I did and uncovered whilst doing so.
Before anything was to occur I got some trusty cleaning chemicals and brake cleaner came into play:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Well I started by removing the rest of Mr Dave F's induction kit. On doing so I found a sensor within the thick heat sheild which looks like its been deleted from the car altogether. Whether its an air sensor or something else I don't know but here is a picture:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I then removed the MAF:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]which then left the rubber tubing from the MAF to the throttle body to come off. Well I don't need to write that much as a picture says a thousand words...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]It is pretty well rotted but looking how lucky I am it looks like there is no air being drawn in. Being a sunday finding replacement parts ain't the easiest job so I shot down to my local dodgy scrap merchant which had every version of 3 and 5 series BMW but not a 2,8 or the required part of tubing I needed.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]With the plan I had evident as a failure I shot home and carried on work with finding solutions to pending issues I've been having in the past few weeks since buying the car.
Using trusted brake cleaner LOL and other chemical cleaning agents and lubricating fluids also I started to clean the cars lungs and allowing it to breath (again) more freely. Heres me cleaning the MAF, the rubber tube thingy and the throttle body:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Clean MAF
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Pressing the throttle pedal to clean the throttle body
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]When I had my foot on the throttle pedal I thought why don't I adjust the throttle potentionmetre. Well after some tweeking and fiddling the throttle pedal felt alot better and hd more feel to it, which is a very positive result in my book
So cutting back to the air filter cleaning. I loosely fitted the air filter for the running test to check whether I messed anything up.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Well the proof is in te pudding and the car ran more smooth note than before and didn't sound clogged up since it had since day one of ownership. To say the least I was smiling
So now knowing the car was running sweeter than it did before I decided it would sense make to re oil the induction cone my way to make sure it WAS!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I left it to soak in before I put it back together, later.
SUSPENSION ISSUES:
Well that was one issue solved above. I now set about looking at the suspension and trying to make head way of what really is happening ad costing (in my head) how much it'll be to correct it.
So whilst looking back at previous photographs of my car when I was changing from 18''s to the 17''s I discovered this by looking close at the pix:
Right side:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Left side:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]As you can see, it appears that the left spring looks like it is on its way to collapse. So I decided on flat ground to check the ride heights and wheelbase to check for anomolies. I measured from the centre of the BMW badge in each wheel along the side.
RESULT - Wheelbase:
Left: 270mm
Right: 270mm
So there is nothing wrong to note with wheelbase as they are identical both sides, so I checked the ride heights. Here are the results:
Ride height result:
LF: 33.5
RF: 33
LR: 32.5
RR: 31 ----- This looked a bit odd?
After seeing the results I opened the boot and engine bay and had a good jump up and down to try and unsettle and then level the car. So after leveling the suspension here are the amended results:
LF: 33.5
RF: 33
LR: 31.5 ----------- Came down 10mm
RR: 31
So knowing the car is sitting pi$$ed ad not level I tried to suss the issue out further by finding that there was a clanging and clunking noise coming from the front left side of the car...so I popped the caps off the top of the strut mount on top of the turret and everything started to make sense.
Left mount:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Right mount:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]It all became clear as the bearings (small balls) on the left hand side had crushed/broke down on that side of the car crunching the bolt up. I unsettled and shoke the car further and it was obvious this was the major problem area needing fixed. So I'll need to replace it and find out after a geometry check/re set up that could be the problem solved...but I'll update that issue as it happens.
DIFFUSER:
So many of you guys have seen my car up close and personal and know it has a MTech diffuser missing from the rear bumper as its hidden in the boot. I'm not going to lie and say it fell off. Well cutting a long story short this is what happened: less thn 20 minutes into owning the car and still excited by the fact I was driving a 2,8, it got the better off me. Here is the video showing what happened...and at around 45 seconds you can see the diffuser ripped off. I'm not proud but this helps with the explanation:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Here is the aftermath:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Well I'm not giving a write up but here is how I fixed it back onto the car uing homemade shims and windscreen bonding agent stuff:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here is is on the car consdering it was a cowboy bodge I'm well happy with the result:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Oh and how could I not resist the temptation of posting this shot of the internal part of the exit of my AC Schnitzer exhaust...you like
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Okay, I know I was a silly boy and learnt my lesson the hard way ^^^^^^^ nuff said!
OSF ARCH:
Last but not least I thought it was about time to do something to at least tidy up the damage to the arch inflicted by the 18'' wheel that was on there beforhand. Here is a shot of the damage with the current 17" rep:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I jacked the car up and with no more than the basicist of basic tools I straightend the arch back to a normal ish looking state:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here is 5 mins of careful rolling back and the result to the body ain't too bad until I can afford to take the car at a later stage to get it into a body shop to repair the damage and correct some of the patches of rust here and there...look at my efforts, I know its bad but its better thn before:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]TODAY'S CONCLUSION:
After all the above I decided to call it a day attach all parts back together and set about planning to allocate time to look and ammend any other issues and problems affecting the car at the moment. So I put the car back together, to be honest doesn't look any different than it did before but it does breath easier and the wire connecting into the MAF isn't resting and vibrating off the strut in motion.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Well the road test confirms the car feels more responsive and has more feel, can't stop now I'm just getting started...oh wait I've just found next weeks update already, so theres plenty to be done to get it right:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Subject: Dean's BMW 328i - New Pictures added, its off road now ;) 
Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:33 pm
:-X :-* ;D 
