[eljay]

So much goodness in this thread! I'm just catching up. Very very well done sir!
I'm still after an M Sport headliner this side of the big pond.

[braziers]

Absolutely love this build, attention to detail is on point.

[LORDD]

Originally Posted by xlr88r

...and also Barty, congrats on the new E91! Given the love you've shown the Z4C I can't wait to see what you get up to with the '91.

When is the rear Lci light conversion coming ? To finish off your car 😀

[xlr88r]

Thanks so much for the kind words everyone - you're ace!

Apologies, for the umpteenth time, that I've been exceptionally dosy in posting anything new here. The car's running really well (gotta love an N52!) and it's genuinely pretty much where I want it now. It's quick enough, incredibly reliable, looks good to my ever ageing eyes, and it sounds fab both inside and out - inside especially, following some overdue tweakery today. More on that to follow.

I've not been up to much with it really of late. It had stamp number 19(!!) added to the service book on the 16th September, and its 13th oil service to date. Over its 136,000 miles that's an oil and filter change every 10,460 miles ish; well in advance of normal BMW intervals, but admittedly not as often as some I've seen online. I check the oil myself before a service, in case it's looking hideous for any reason and might warrant some TLC, but it's always been clear with maybe a little bit of a brown tinge when due. Nothing untoward then, and long may that last. At the same kinda time it had its MOT - the UK's relatively strict roadworthiness test - which it passed without fault. Good good.

What have I been up to then?

[xlr88r]

First up, the rear wiper was due a bit of attention.

You might have spotted it wasn't sitting quite right in the pics on the previous page, pointing more to 10 o'clock than 9. I started simply, opening the tailgate glass and moving the arm by hand. It was really stiff but seemed to free up a little. Closed the glass and retried it. Nope, still coming to rest too high.

Next, I took the end cap off, removed the bolt holding the wiper arm, removed that, another bolt, a circlip and a washer, and then picked a load of gunk out of the spindle with a very small pick. Doused it in WD40 and reassembled it. Moved it back and forth by hand. No joy. That's a seized spindle then.

A quick look on eBay saw a pattern part (the horrors!) arrive a couple of days later, for a whole £11.11. Could I separate the spindle from the outer handle? Could I heck as like! They'd fused fast. While trying to break up their far-too-close relationship, I ended up shearing the spindle plate in half, where it bolts onto the glass. With the spindle plate sheared and bonded to the handle on the outside, they both rotated in tandem at their respective sides of the glass. If you imagine trying to undo a jar, that's what I was trying to do. No joy, despite the best efforts of my massive un-Trumpian hands and colossal strength.

Right. Time for some forceful screwing... matron. Massive G-clamps! They'll do the job...



...or so I thought.

One Joe Mangled handle later, it was back to eBay for a replacement: another pricey pattern part for £8.57. Freepost and a 5 year guarantee - can't argue with that whatsoever. NOW I can get angry with it! But carefully angry. Loads of tape and a dinky junior hacksaw to the rescue!



Phew!

After what seemed like about 4 hours of sawing, they finally divorced and went their separate ways. Well, together, into the bin.



The aftermath!



New bits fitted in a jiffy, bit of tweaking to get the arm to sit at 9 o'clock, and we're set.

Excellent.

Well worth the effort and minimal outlay, that's for sure.



P.S. I'm aware Kill All Wipers, wiper deletes, switch blanks and so on exist, but trust me, I'm far too old for anything like that! To me, it's a feature and should work as intended. And so it does.

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by eljay

So much goodness in this thread! I'm just catching up. Very very well done sir!
I'm still after an M Sport headliner this side of the big pond.

Cheers! Good luck with the search for a headliner - I've read a few times they're pretty hard to come by over there. Fingers crossed you find one

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by braziers

Absolutely love this build, attention to detail is on point.

Cheers! Ah mate, I'm so jealous of your garage - talk about a perfect 2 car setup. Must. Save. Up!

[xlr88r]

Originally Posted by LORDD

When is the rear Lci light conversion coming ? To finish off your car 😀

Hehe, don't tempt me!

Weirdly for an old E91, everything now works in the failgate: wash/wipe, heated window, window release button, radio reception and Comfort Access sensors are good, the struts are new ish, and there's zero rust. They can be prone to getting a bit rotten around the number plate lights but, touch wood, it's still bang on.

Oh, and I love the Darklines - they took a while to find!





That said... Le Mans did carry over into LCI...

Dammit!

[xlr88r]

Really must remember that not everyone is as excited as I am when it comes to wiper maintenance or rewrapping minor interior trim pieces, so here's an actual pic of the car. This was taken on the way to the Ultimate BMW meet, from a couple of pages back. Needless to say this pic has been very, very, heavily edited.

Looks fit though. I would.

[M-technik-3]

Looking Great as always.

[xlr88r]

Missed a mod!

Way back in mid-2022 I found a US seller on eBay who had quite a few speaker sets up for sale, with reasonable postage costs to the UK. Over here, anything apart from Base and HiFi systems are hard to come by. It's by no means scientific, but I'd say that about 1 in 20 E9x cars would have Logic7 or HK here, and to date, I think I've only seen half a dozen or so with Individual Audio. Really, really rare here.

Anyway! After keeping an eye on his listings for a bit, I ordered a bundle of Individual speakers for the doors (4x mids and 4x tweeters) and the center dash coaxial speaker too. They're the same ohm as Logic7's but are higher rated, so if any further mods find their way into the cabin in future - boot sub, DSP amp perhaps? - then the doors will be up to task already.

Here's a pic of the speakers, minus the rear door tweeters. I barely took any pics back then!



Here are a few pics of them fitted. Really must take some more interior shots soon as it's a lovely place to sit, imho.







Needless to say, they introduced a load more clarity into the stereo and, good grief, they can go loud if you want!

[xlr88r]

Loud is alright, but you need balance.

As this is now a hybrid* audio system (Logic 7 amp, underseat subs, electrostatic roof speakers, and coding. Individual Audio mids, tweeters and dash coax. Android Auto MMI on top of CCC) getting things sounding good across the range was a bit of a challenge. I thought I'd got the EQ dialled in fairly well, until a new Denon AV amp found it's way into the living room.

*I thought hybrid sounded better than hotchpotch!

Playing a few familiar tracks indoors and then in the car showed a bit of muddiness in the bass, and a bit of a dip in 'midrange-ish vocals'. The calibration mic in with the AV amp inspired a thought...

A quick search online showed a few people had used a free Android app to help calibrate their stereos. Different mobiles/cellphones have different mics I guess, so this is by no means an exact science, but this seemed like a good way to get a reasonable, flat, baseline EQ profile and go from there. A quick search in Spotify found a playlist of test tones to get things underway. Geeky goodness.

After lots of switching in and out of Android Auto (which mutes the audio) to get to the Logic7 EQ, I got it dialled in fairly well. No more muddy bass, and no matter what octave someone's singing in, they're audible. Nothing really seems to overpower anything else at neighbour friendly listening volumes, and even when turned up quite a bit, the sense that every voice and instrument is making itself heard is there. As it did before, when you really turn it up the amp decides to send no more power to the 'subs', while the mids and tweeters do get louder still. At some point, some better-than-Logic7 subs, or maybe a monoblock amp and boot sub, might find their way in. For now though, I'm over the moon with it after this round of tweakery





For a £0.00 outlay and half an hour's work it's made such a big difference. If you're running any stereo with an EQ, I'd definitely suggest noting your current EQ settings and having a play with something like this. Well, well worth it.