05Imola Maintenance and Mod Ledger

[05Imola]

I never made a thread like this before but I always appreciated seeing it for cars I was interested in. I really enjoy this car and want to keep it for a while so I feel like it's worth it to finally create one. I have a habit of holding on to cars for less than a year so hopefully that won't happen again
Purchased May 2015 with 125k miles. No previous history came with the car. According to carfax the first owner had it until 80k miles and maintained it very well. Transmission and differential fluid changed around 60k and a bunch of other maintenance done. The last owner had it for only a month and in that time he had the valve cover gaskets done, some bushings and new tires with refurbished Style 135s. Car has no oil leaks and looks like it was very well maintained. Body has a ton of rock chips and paint is faded. (now fixed)

------------------May '15 125k Ordered Cobywheel interior (steering wheel, shift boot, knob, arm rest, e-brake boot)

------------------126k Installed oem spark plugs, cabin filter

------------------June '15 126k Installed Ceramic Tint 50% (expensive but worth it)

------------------126k Installed new Oem BMW roundels, fog light surrounds, depo turn signals

------------------July '15 127k Painted front end

------------------127k Refinished Oem Style 135s Chrome Shadow( e39 m5 color) and new Federal 595 RS-R (great autocross tire)

------------------127k Installed 12mm spacers in the rear, oil change done

------------------128k Installed 15mm front spacers

-------------------Installed blue tint euro mirror glass

------------------Aug '15 Installed custom Magnaflow exhaust

------------------Installed new H&R Touring Cupkit

------------------Installed Front and Rear Centric Blank rotors with StopTech pads

------------------8Hrs spent detailing the car

------------------Installed Parrot CK3000 with the Connect2 harness Bluetooth module

------------------Installed Injen Intake

------------------Sep '15 Installed M3 transmission mounts

------------------ Installed Meyle HD control arm bushings

------------------Installed new OEM left fender liner + Outside Temp sensor

------------------Oct '15 Installed cupholder delete tray

------------------133k Installed used cluster with 111k due to old cluster acting up.

------------------Nov '15 Installed new TMS F+R sway bars and adjustable sway bar links

------------------Installed new Lemforder tie rod assemblies + alignment

------------------Installed new General Altimax on e90 wheels for winter

-------------------Dec '15 Redid the exhaust. Y pipe into single pipe with Magnaflow resonator and muffler.

-------------------Feb '16 OEM expansion tank and coolant flush.

------------------ New OFHG

------------------New OE Cold Weather version CCV (117k on new cluster)

[05Imola]

Day 1


Not even a week later


Previous owner Replaced valve cover gaskets but not spark plugs


Mmmm Cobywheel


Paint!






Wheels








More pics to follow with new wheels installed and car fully assembled

[ELCID86]

Great work so far. Those plugs really needed replacement! And I like what you've done with the wheel color on the IR car.

[Vas]

Welcome. Post more pics. Curious about the interior

[05Imola]

Thanks guys! Here are some more pics. Paint came out great. Rest of the body needs a good buffing. Wheels came out great and I added many pics to get an idea how they look under different lighting.






12mm spacers in the rear. Just wanted to see how they fit but will change them to the front and put 15mm in the back.

[05Imola]

No new updates. Ordered a bunch of maintenance stuff but have not gotten to install them yet. Finally installed the armrest cover. As you can see, i am no good at gluing stuff. It has two creases but I can live with it. I have to order another shift boot since I installed it backwards the first time. Its barely on right now :D

[Vas]

That armrest cover can be tricky to install. It took me a couple of tries to make sure it came out even.

I also installed my shift boot the same way you did.

[05Imola]

So I did a few things since last time. I had a magnaflow muffler installed which makes it sound almost stock
The car received a full detail by yours truly. Spend over 8 hours: clay bar, swirl removal, polish, glaze, sealant. I'm not fully satisfied with it since the paint was in pretty rough shape and I only had some cheap pads that came with my DA when I bought it. Cake out pretty well tho. Also painted my door mouldings.





I also installed a Parrot CK3000 with the Connect2 harness Bluetooth module. What a pain in the butt that was

Also installed my Injen intake. Great quality and it is a good copy of the AFE stage 2



Two days ago I installed new brakes all around. Centric blank rotors which are some awesome rotors with stop tech brake pads. I also installed a new H&R touring cupkit. I hope to god it settles because right now the car sits higher than stock

And finally I took a 700 mile road trip helping a friend pick up a new car. The car rolled past 130k

I have a few more maintenance items to take care of and the car will be ready for winter.

[BMWCurves]

Wow, lots of stuff! Good work. What do you think of the Parrot BT system?

[johnrando]