Oil change today. Here's what I used.

Gave one of those friction reducers a try. Cheap enough that if it does something, great, or if it doesn't, who cares.

Tail pipes had seen better days. Replaced them with some new polished ones. I think it freshens up the rear end.

Now you can shred trails with the rest of the WiBimmers crew!

Was tired of walking everywhere at Road America, so I bought a bike. 29”Specialized Rockhopper comp.

Needed to get the bike there, so I bought BMW roof rock and a Thule top ride bike rack.

Bike goes on the rack easy, rack comes off the bars easy. Wasn’t whistling like I’ve heard some people say they can. Only really felt the drag of it when I was passing someone and was doing 75. Other than was smooth sailing.

Gonna have to check out some of the local trails around here now.

Everything to do the job.

Chemically and mechanically decontaminated the car before correction. This means strip wash, iron remover, and then clay barred.

I hav never seen more iron deposits on a car than this one, example below.

Iron remover doing its job.

There was a lot.

This step made a significant difference in the overall color of the car, the color job "popped" a lot more. 

This step took about 6 hours including drying, jacking car up and removing wheels(iron removing them as well) and taping off to prep for correction the next day.

Found @MPW3RLee's vice grip in the process.

Start of a long day of polishing and coating.

I used a Rupes polisher with Meguiars microfiber cutting pads with Jescar correction compound for the first pass.

I then used a foam yellow pad with Sonax perfect finish to complete the process.

This is the lightest color car I've ever corrected and it's much more difficult to see where you've been, what you've done, etc. The before and after's are not nearly as dramatic as they were with my E30(that had dead paint though). I didn't take any pictures because it was really hard to show the difference, but the improvements were notable. Much more clarity and depth. Not concurs ready though, it's an almost 15 year old daily so I didn't want to spend 20 hours alone polishing this.

I followed the correction with Gtechniq CSL for the base layer, with 2 coats of Gtechniq EXO V4 including the wheels. I did this on my E30 and loved the result. Added quite a bit of gloss to the finish as well.

It probably looks the same as before, but some pictures. I also took the badges off so I could correct everything, and will probable leave them off. I like the clean look.

Some small details as well.

New wheel center caps. The existing ones had this gunk on it that I thought was some kind of road grime or hardened fluid, but I think it was actually the plastic corroding. I tried to pick it off and it removed all the finish beneath. Instead of spending $60 or whatever the going rate for real center caps is, cheapo Amazon ones it is.

Looks much better. If these fail quickly I'll just buy OEM ones. I will need to get new roundels front and back as well at some point as they are showing signs of failure but still relatively good condition.

And finally, fixing my turn signal. When I took these off months ago to polish them originally, the little metal clip on the back fell into the fender. It's been double sided taped since. Cheapo Amazon to the rescue again, but not for the turn signal itself, but for the metal clip. A new OE turn signal is almost $40, and mine is in good condition, so I bought these cheap ones just to get one of the clips.

Gross.

This is what I needed. Threw these in the garbage promptly after. I had to pretty much destroy the plastic stalk to get it out any way.

I didn't polish the front bumper because of how scuffed it is. I would like to do an M sport bumper this year, but I would also like to do a new set of headlights at the same time as you have to remove the bumper to replace the headlights. I would like to do the projector headlights as well, but I STILL have not found a definitive source of someone completing this swap except for one video that is rather vague despite every thread saying that this has been discussed ad nauseam.

This is where you can see the difference of the tab and the broken off tab.

Finish is good, has the same soft touch rubber as the OE ones do.

Fit was a little wonky. The bracket on the left was a little too big, so I had to grind it down a little to fit. Even still, kind of had to push it in, where as the OE one just slides in nicely. First drive I didn't notice anything, but we will see how it goes. The cup holder does slide out much faster though, kind of shoots out as opposed to the OE one that gently slides out.

Also flushed the power steering fluid. I had the reservoir replaced when I had the valve cover done a year ago, but guessing it was just topped up with fluid and not completely flushed.

I'm not super familiar with power steering fluid wear rates, but I am guessing that this was probably ready for a change. There was really no indication that anything needed to be done, it was just something that was any easy fluid to replace and I had no record of when it had been previously done.

Brake fluid flush and coolant flush soon and then every fluid in the car should be replaced.

P_Roloff said:

I’m liking the ease of working on this car so far except for the cooling system, which seems to be complicated and fragile for no reason. I’d very much like to go back to rubber hose and hose clamps, but I suppose that’s the way of the world. 

I did the E46 cooling system, which was not terrible, but is also made of out of tooth picks and gum. I am dreading having to do the water pump whenever that gives up the ghost. But all my hoses are still in good condition, still soft and pliable, so not of an immediate concern.

SteelBlue said:

Pulling the old one off the radiator is also a major pain. It must have taken me 20 minutes of gently prying on the connector portion of it with a screw driver and just rocking it back and for in each direction by hand. I cut it in half to get a better grasp on it as the part that connects by the oil filter housing came off without issue.

I’m liking the ease of working on this car so far except for the cooling system, which seems to be complicated and fragile for no reason. I’d very much like to go back to rubber hose and hose clamps, but I suppose that’s the way of the world.

Looking good on the new wheels!

P_Roloff said:

That coolant hose is a bitch. Blew out on me when test driving my wagon, and I recently bumped it while doing the angel eyes of all things and it bent enough to burp past the o ring in the line a little. It’s been fine since so it seems to have not damaged anything, but man is it fragile. It made a hell of a cloud when it cracked, that’s for sure

Pulling the old one off the radiator is also a major pain. It must have taken me 20 minutes of gently prying on the connector portion of it with a screw driver and just rocking it back and for in each direction by hand. I cut it in half to get a better grasp on it as the part that connects by the oil filter housing came off without issue.

SteelBlue said:

Is this the "BMW approved" blue stuff? Pre mixed is also nice.

Yup! Same spec as OE, I guess G48 is the BMW name. Didn’t realize they switched specs in 2018 so maybe that’s the reason for availability changes too.

“This is the familiar blue-colored coolant that has been in use since the 1990s but is only approved for cars up to the 2018 model year. It's known internally as the G48 formula and is specific to BMW/MINI cars”

https://www.bimmerworld.com/Fluids/BMW-Coolant-Antifreeze/Genuine-BMW-Blue-Antifreeze.html

YoungCR said:

Glad you could get the part locally. I recently discovered O’Reilly’s and Fleet Farm aren’t stocking the Pentofrost NF anymore but O’Reillys does have this instead.

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/zerex/zerex-1-gallon-blue-50-50-antifreeze-coolant/

Is this the "BMW approved" blue stuff? Pre mixed is also nice.

pynacl said:

Car looks classy, I really dig the 193s! Agreed don’t replace the E90, it’s the perfect daily. Relatively easy to work on, cheap to maintain, reliable, and the hydraulic steering feels great!

Mine has BC coil overs and I’m really itching to replace them with s bilstein kit. How’s the ride quality feel?

Ride is great. A little firm on the big bumps and imperfections, but you would think it's OE suspension otherwise. Correctly sized/valved shocks and struts also make a big difference over just the standard ones or B6's. Great for daily duty.

Mine has BC coil overs and I’m really itching to replace them with s bilstein kit. How’s the ride quality feel?

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/zerex/zerex-1-gallon-blue-50-50-antifreeze-coolant/

Full suspension refresh featuring Bilstein B8's with H&R Sport springs, strut and shock mounts, hardware, etc. Pretty much everything involved with the suspension was replaced. New wheel bearings at all 4 corners as they were getting loud for the past 2-3 months. New differential fluid, transfer case fluid, transmission fluid and filter(gasket and other hardware as well). New driver rear brake caliper as it was beginning to seize and drag. All of this was completed by @MPW3RLee, so thank you to him again.

In an event to entertain that I also can still swing a wrench, I replaced the serpentine belt, idler pulley, and tensioner. Not that there was any sign of failure, but I didn't know if or when it had ever been replaced, so wanted to do it for peace of mind. Belt ended up being dated 2011 so it was probably original to the car, but was in good condition. Same with the pulleys, neither of the bearings were bad, the idler did spin pretty freely though.

Nothing is easy though. While pulling the electric fan out, it snagged the coolant line that runs from the upper radiator hose to the expansion tank and ripped the nipple off the upper hose. Decent amount of coolant on the ground, sweet. By the grace of god, Auto Zone had a Rein one in stock in town and was able to replace it within the hour. If you have pulled a fan from one of these cars, you'll know what I'm talking about when it's almost impossible to not hook the hose when pulling this out with how much you have to twist the fan. Filled it up with just tap water as I did not have the correct coolant on hand, it wasn't a lot of coolant so I am not super concerned about it. I planned to do a coolant flush soon anyway. Bled the system 3 times. Bleeding with the electric water pump is super nice, just press the gas pedal and let it do its thing.

Car looks good with the slight lowering. I was throwing around the idea of a G30 540 next year when I was without the car for a couple weeks, but as soon as I drove and cleaned it after the suspension, bearings, fluid, etc. that I think I'll drive this for the foreseeable future. It looks good, drives good, does everything I need.

M sport bumper and Xenon's soon?

I really like the black on silver more than I thought. Anovia Titans, 18x8.5 x 18x9.5 +35mm. Michelin Pilot Sport Aplin’s, 225/40 and 255/35.

How the currently sits. Style 193’s on Michelin PS4S’s, 225/40R18 and 255/35R18.

ST coil overs this coming spring more than likely, factory suspension is starting to feel a little loose.

Between these and the style 225’s, I think the E9X had some of the best M sport wheels. Looking forward to these being on the car full time. Just waiting till winter(currently on snows as stated in previous post).

Think I am going to do some ST coil overs next year to get rid of just a little bit of the wheel gap.

Could I have left this alone? Yes. Does it look better than before? Yes. Does it still bother me? Yes.

Just a temporary fix until I get an M Tech bumper next year and don't have a roached out bumper.

What it started as:

Disassembly:

As this being a temporary fix, I did what I could to make it look presentable, but not have this take multiple days. Used 220, 400, and 600 grit sand paper.

I chose not to use body filler with how flimsy these bumpers are and didn't want it to crack. And once again, temporary fix.

Needs wet sand and polish, but looks decent.

Polished up the side markers using the headlight restore kit.

M3 style trunk lip added.

Replaced the angel eye bulbs with LUX V4 ones. Tried my best to polish up the headlights, but they are still kind of pitted. Passenger side is cracked in the top, top corner. So it needs to be replaced anyway. Lenses look much worse in this picture than in person.

YoungCR said:

What carpet extractor do you have? 

I just rent the rug doctor from Home Depot. It comes with a handheld attachment. I'm sure there are automotive focused ones that would be nice to have, but it's like $40 to rent for 4 hours or something.