[3erMan]

Well, I didn't do this to my 2008 335i Coupe today, but I did do it over the weekend. I sold it.

After 12 years (it was a September 2007 build), the car had lived a good life and can be someone else's baby. I really, really liked driving that car and will be a bit sad to not have it around. To say goodbye, I figured I'd describe some of the highlights and lowlights for anyone thinking about getting into an e90/e92 for the first time:

• Engine. Perhaps the car's biggest strength was its N54 inline 6. It might also be its biggest weakness. When on the top of its game (and when it's firing on all cylinders, literally), there is hardly a better feeling than this engine. Smooth, powerful, torquey, and simply brilliant. Revs up like butter with no rev hang and very little turbo lag. But, the integrated EGR system (which completely failed by 100k miles), repeated valve cover leaks, and finally a main seal leak were the final results in spite of good regular maintenance habits.
• Transmission. Mine was the 6MT, and the shifter gates were superb. Clutch can be a bit of a bear, but this was a fun manual to drive on a daily basis. Probably the best I've ever owned. Never had a problem with anything related to the transmission, shift linkage, or clutch.
• Interior/Technology. Ahead of its time but, by 2019 standards, the iDrive and navigation systems were laughable. Bluetooth would cut out, navigation DVD sometimes couldn't be read, and the "hover over the hard buttons" feature was gimmicky, at best. Sport seats? Among the best I've ever had. The Dakota leather was so-so. Kind of hard and plasticky, but quite durable. A sensor pad in the front passenger seat for seat belt/airbag sensor failed prematurely and was not worth the $1,000+ repair that was quoted to me.
• Exterior. As far as design, this was the primary reason I bought the car in the first place. Just beautiful. But, I had rust develop over the rear wheel arches. Kind of odd -- I haven't seen that in many e90s/e92s. Mine was jet black which, I figured, would be easy to touch up when scratched. I never disliked it, but it never had that glassy/gloss finish I expected after a wax. Never got rid of the swirl marks, I guess. The headlight lenses and fog light lenses got some clouding/fogging over time and weren't easy to keep polished and clean.
• Wheels/Suspension. As far as handling, one of the best cars I've owned. Sport suspension was a bit stiff, but the tradeoff was worth it for the most part. This is not a sacrifice that has to be made on the newest cars; the suspension technology has come a long ways. Bushings were starting to give out, and I probably would have had to replace all of them soon, and perhaps other components as well. Not worth a total suspension rebuild, IMHO.

This was just a fun car to own and drive as a DD. I do think it was overengineered in typical German fashion. While that results in some amazing technology, it also contributes to expensive and, sometimes, more frequent repairs. Let's just say that, after 100k miles, the 3er "BMWed" itself on me. There's a reason for the derogatory BMW names, after all. That's not to say I regret buying and owning this car; I don't. But it does mean that my new car isn't a BMW. **Cringes, shields himself from throwing of tomatoes**

To All: I didn't participate much in this forum, but I did enjoy and learn a lot from reading many posts and threads. I bid you farewell, but I'm sure I'll remain on here to read various posts. I'm still a BMW fan and will enjoy following along and seeing how the world responds to the G20/G22 3er and 4er!

[WatchWolf34]

Originally Posted by mweisdorfer

I like the rims, don't get me wrong. I wonder however, if the car would look better in the same rim but black??

Nope, it wouldn't.

[S65Hunter]

Originally Posted by unrulyteach

Need pics and how it rides compare to stock. Did i hav sport suspension

Heres how the car sits now. B8s+ H&R springs. So far it's been absolutely great. The car feels way more planted and not as floaty in the rear end. The ride is a tad but more bumpy but these E9x cars aren't the most quite and comfortable ride to begin with. I'd definitely recommend this to any one.

image upload

[colorado.e9x]

Originally Posted by AlpineE93

Heres how the car sits now. B8s+ H&R springs. So far it's been absolutely great. The car feels way more planted and not as floaty in the rear end. The ride is a tad but more bumpy but these E9x cars aren't the most quite and comfortable ride to begin with. I'd definitely recommend this to any one.

image upload

Nice! Could you measure the wheel gap on front and back?

[unrulyteach]

Originally Posted by AlpineE93

Heres how the car sits now. B8s+ H&R springs. So far it's been absolutely great. The car feels way more planted and not as floaty in the rear end. The ride is a tad but more bumpy but these E9x cars aren't the most quite and comfortable ride to begin with. I'd definitely recommend this to any one.

image upload

18s? I just put hr springs on with my b8 I'll post pics when i get car back from body shop

[Serf27]

Today I pulled off my paddle shifters to retrofit some larger paddle shifters I just bought.

[SSW]

Had the blower wiring recall and an oil/filter change, brake fluid change and a diff oil change done last week.

Forgot that I had already done the diff oil only 10k miles ago, so that was a waste of $. Only "remembered" this when I checked my build thread.

LOL!!!

[RealJ22]

Installed my charge pipe and walnut blasted the intake. Found out that the stock airbox no longer fits. Had to drive 10 miles, so I improvised Also pulled the engine from my friends 335i.










Also got my mirrors installed finally.

[RealJ22]

Installed my charge pipe and walnut blasted the intake. Found out that the stock airbox no longer fits. Had to drive 10 miles, so I improvised Also pulled the engine from my friends 335i.










Also got my mirrors installed finally.

[S65Hunter]

Originally Posted by colorado.e9x

Nice! Could you measure the wheel gap on front and back?

I cant find my tape measure lol, but I'll find a way to get back to you.

Originally Posted by unrulyteach

18s? I just put hr springs on with my b8 I'll post pics when i get car back from body shop

Yup they are 18x8.5 front and 18x9.5 rear ET35 all around.

[unrulyteach]

Originally Posted by AlpineE93

I cant find my tape measure lol, but I'll find a way to get back to you.

Yup they are 18x8.5 front and 18x9.5 rear ET35 all around.

Did u measure before and after

[S65Hunter]

Originally Posted by unrulyteach

Did u measure before and after

Sadly I did not. I got a little antsy and just started workin on it.

[vilord]

Finally made some progress putting the beast back together.
Installed the dash, seats, NBT evo (redid all the wiring), heated steering wheel, and the wiring & control stalk for adaptive cruise control.
Also attached the parts yard tailgate and prepped it (found two small rust spots on the window under the spoiler, and also found half a cup of water inside the antenna diversity amplifier)

The parts yard idrive dashboard came with aluminum trim. I had another wagon with aluminum trim throughout and didn't like it, it felt and looked cheaper (to me) than the fake wood for whatever reason.

This time I put it together with just the aluminum trim stripe across the vents, but I'm leaving the rest wood grain. What do y'all think? FUgly? Not bad?
I'm going to keep it like this for a few weeks and see if I hate it.

(picture makes it look worse because of the harsh lighting)

[pizza_nightmare]

Just got the car back from my indie mechanic. Had some kinda brake shield rattling around removed. Also had new front sway bar endlinks installed as well as an oil change. Next oil change comes in at like 173,xxx miles!

Is it possible I feel improved handling with the new bushings?

I have a new radiator hose to put on. The current one looks a little scary.

[MightyMouseTech]

Replaced the tired as hell/worn out front end. Holy crap this shit was tired.

Lined her up on my rack, man, feels like a new car , even with a leaking front strut. Even my FE has increased dramatically. Makes sense as I am no longer dragging the tires sideways.

[unrulyteach]

Originally Posted by vilord

Finally made some progress putting the beast back together.
Installed the dash, seats, NBT evo (redid all the wiring), heated steering wheel, and the wiring & control stalk for adaptive cruise control.
Also attached the parts yard tailgate and prepped it (found two small rust spots on the window under the spoiler, and also found half a cup of water inside the antenna diversity amplifier)

The parts yard idrive dashboard came with aluminum trim. I had another wagon with aluminum trim throughout and didn't like it, it felt and looked cheaper (to me) than the fake wood for whatever reason.

This time I put it together with just the aluminum trim stripe across the vents, but I'm leaving the rest wood grain. What do y'all think? FUgly? Not bad?
I'm going to keep it like this for a few weeks and see if I hate it.

(picture makes it look worse because of the harsh lighting)

Was nbt evo worth it? And did u hav to align sensor

[ATLIEN]

Added an M3 to the Fleet.

[porsche959]

Originally Posted by ATLIEN

Added an M3 to the Fleet.

Wowsa. Initial impressions versus the non-M?

[vilord]

Originally Posted by unrulyteach

Was nbt evo worth it? And did u hav to align sensor

For me, the evo was definitely worth it, I wanted google or waze maps on my dash, and better control of music that keeps me from looking down at my phone. And, I was going from pro radio, so it had no screen before at all.

This brings the entertainment system up to what's modern now, so I can drive it for another 5 years, instead of selling and buying something else.

I enjoy the project of it though...
Between the install time, the time researching parts, the time learning and coding and flashing modules, the dozen or more trips to 8 different parts yards... I'm into it 50 hours plus including all the other mods.

Also, $1000-$3000 of parts... which is kinda stupid... just buy an F series car.
I wanted a manual transmission wagon, and they never made one in an F.

Once this thing dies, I'll probably buy a gran coupe and start over adding all the things to it.


I will need to align the steering angle sensor because I replaced the clock spring. I'll do that when I have my icom hooked up this weekend

[ATLIEN]

Originally Posted by porsche959

Wowsa. Initial impressions versus the non-M?

Originally Posted by porsche959

Wowsa. Initial impressions versus the non-M?

Man, I love and am fortunate to have both cars. I've had my 335 for about 7 years and would not give it up for anything. It's mildly tuned with an upgraded inter cooler and stage 1 mhd. I've got dual cone intakes but I keep the factory intake in because I like the cleaner look. The 335 to me in this state is fast enough for me and brings a smile to my face with it's all around performance especially off the line and mid-range. It's flat out untouchable.

I've had the M3 since May of 2019 and got it for an absolute bargain at CarMax. I paid $23k for it and had it shipped from Ft.Lauderdale to me in SC for $400. It was a big gamble but I covered myself with the extended warranty for about $3k. The only thing I've done to it is swapped the Toyo Proxes to Michelin P4S which was a great improvement in overall ride quality.

As far as the differences between the two, the M3 is a legend and gets a lot of attention from car dudes and bmw drivers which is cool. You'll always get respect at the local Cars and Coffee. From a performance point of view, the M3 is very analog and it literally took me about two weeks to really learn to drive the car well as I learned the DCT shift algorithm. People talk about the lack of torque but honestly I don't feel that is the case. If you lay into the M3 it's very fast. Now it doesn't give you that warp speed feel of the 335 off the line but it puts the speed down differently and never feels like it's overpowering the car if that makes sense. Perhaps it's the LSD that helps but the DCT definitely balances the car out and is excellent when you want to go fast. The DCT can be a little clunky in stop and go traffic but you can adjust the sensitivity down to make it tolerable. The 335 is definitely the better commute car by a large margin and feels like a luxury car in comparison especially with the AS3+ tires. The intake and exhaust never get boring with the M3 but for a long trip I'd take the 335. It's smoother and quieter for that duty and uses less gas. However, the M3 on the open road is very entertaining in that it just keeps going and accelerating like it has limitless capacity.

At the end of the day, both great cars with different personalities. I drive the M3 more because it's new to me but that 335 is just as special to me as the M3.

[porsche959]

Originally Posted by ATLIEN

Man, I love and am fortunate to have both cars. I've had my 335 for about 7 years and would not give it up for anything. It's mildly tuned with an upgraded inter cooler and stage 1 mhd. I've got dual cone intakes but I keep the factory intake in because I like the cleaner look. The 335 to me in this state is fast enough for me and brings a smile to my face with it's all around performance especially off the line and mid-range. It's flat out untouchable.

I've had the M3 since May of 2019 and got it for an absolute bargain at CarMax. I paid $23k for it and had it shipped from Ft.Lauderdale to me in SC for $400. It was a big gamble but I covered myself with the extended warranty for about $3k. The only thing I've done to it is swapped the Toyo Proxes to Michelin P4S which was a great improvement in overall ride quality.

As far as the differences between the two, the M3 is a legend and gets a lot of attention from car dudes and bmw drivers which is cool. You'll always get respect at the local Cars and Coffee. From a performance point of view, the M3 is very analog and it literally took me about two weeks to really learn to drive the car well as I learned the DCT shift algorithm. People talk about the lack of torque but honestly I don't feel that is the case. If you lay into the M3 it's very fast. Now it doesn't give you that warp speed feel of the 335 off the line but it puts the speed down differently and never feels like it's overpowering the car if that makes sense. Perhaps it's the LSD that helps but the DCT definitely balances the car out and is excellent when you want to go fast. The DCT can be a little clunky in stop and go traffic but you can adjust the sensitivity down to make it tolerable. The 335 is definitely the better commute car by a large margin and feels like a luxury car in comparison especially with the AS3+ tires. The intake and exhaust never get boring with the M3 but for a long trip I'd take the 335. It's smoother and quieter for that duty and uses less gas. However, the M3 on the open road is very entertaining in that it just keeps going and accelerating like it has limitless capacity.

At the end of the day, both great cars with different personalities. I drive the M3 more because it's new to me but that 335 is just as special to me as the M3.

nice. i am on the fence myself - pony up for a v8 m3, or just bathe in the power of an e55amg.

how many miles?

[Denny347]

Decided on a nice engine wipe down after replacing the VCG, PCV system, coils, and plugs. Man it runs so strong now. 116k miles and counting.