[M3_Legend]

Nice 135i, I see brakes upgrade already!! Is it Manuel, DCT or auto ?

[Prolix-2]

Originally Posted by M3_Legend

Nice 135i, I see brakes upgrade already!! Is it Manuel, DCT or auto ?

Auto. But, it's just a parts car, so brakes should be harvested soon. I've still not had anyone say whether or not I can fit a 17" wheel around these and I haven't felt my stock brakes are inadequate either.

I wonder if this is a case where I won't know what I'm missing unless I upgrade to see?

[Serf27]

I remember reading that a 17” did fit over those brakes.
Worth double checking.

[M-technik-3]

Per Bimmerworld's application fitment they fit. I would suggest a simple phone call to them. They are great and still owned independantly vs ECS owning all places. Or FCP.

[Prolix-2]

I've not really spent much time with 1's as I always thought their proportions were weird. But... them having desirable upgrades had me looking into it and this was is super sharp just sitting there. It's being an acquired taste I guess. Any comment of whether the ECS rotors are any good?

[iPee]

I’ve read in another thread or IG 328csl and the user mentioned the ECS are a few pounds lighter.

[Prolix-2]

So, I swapped the 1 series wheels over with spacers and I think it looks ace. Haven't had time to retrofit the brakes yet, but will be coming.

Two questions:

1: Is there a two piece rotor for the rear? Is the M235 rear rotors the same?

2: Does anyone run a bit larger size tires for the 18's? I have two sets of the 1 series wheels so I could run either staggered or square. Knee jerk would be to run square and maybe run with a little more sidewall? Any comment on that?

[Prolix-2]

Minor upgrades: the shifter chrome was pealing so I updated it with a later style.





I had pulled the 1 series Brembos to go on here too, but someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I let them go. I have a second set anyways, so it's no big deal. Just more time to pull. Still hunting for a good set of OE looking style wheels that are also light.

I of course like Apex and it's probably what I should go with as the best value for the $, but I keep hoping something else will show up for a factory set. I tried buying an a wrecked M3 CLS for that forged 19" set, but was bested by someone with deeper pockets than me. I don't really want a 19", but I would consider it.

[Serf27]

M Parallels-style 37 look good and are light.

[M-technik-3]

Originally Posted by Serf27

M Parallels-style 37 look good and are light.

As long as they are oem's not aftermarket.

[Prolix-2]

Originally Posted by Serf27

M Parallels-style 37 look good and are light.

I actually did not realize they were forged until just this week. That does make for a contender in the search!

I don't love dish on a wheel though. That's one of the things I'm trying to skip in my search.

[Serf27]

I’m not a huge fan of dishes either. On wheels and off.
The style 37 seems to have the perfect one though.

[Prolix-2]

After a long time of searching for sport seats in my tan interior color, I found a black interior to be able to get black sport seats. Hard to find what you want, but if you take some time, you get what you need. Dusty with some dog hair, but it'll clean up fine.

[M-technik-3]

Sadly not a sports interior. Do like the 135 wheels though. edit: ah gotcha

[Serf27]

I think he meant it’s easier to find black sport seats, so now with black interior, he can get black sport seats.

[Prolix-2]

Originally Posted by Serf27

I think he meant it’s easier to find black sport seats, so now with black interior, he can get black sport seats.

Yes, this is what I was getting at. I have a set of black sport seats already in an e90 that I can swap over. I just didn't want black seats in a tan car. Once you start down the mix and match road it's hard to leave it and get things uniform again... "oh, I forgot this bit here is the wrong color, oh, nevermind, I'll get it later." 2 years later.... "oh, huh, still forgetting..."

I've personally would rather the tan sport seats as I actually like the lighter interior, but this is the compromise.

Haha, this is more of Prolix's Extreme Couponing (TM); buying entire cars to find things to make the e91 better. There is another car on the way that's late to arrive with another rarer wheel option to try on for size. Though, the donor e91 with the black interior has a set of wheels I also want to try for comparison's sake with a super soft set of marshmallows in almost new 205/55-16 91H Michelin Defenders. Nostalgia going strong here as 10 years ago, nearly to the day, I got my fiancée a Volvo xc70 that was rolling on the same tires. Later that year we drove said car/tires around the USA on our honeymoon. 10 years ago I thought these tires were great. How will we feel today? I'll have to find out.

I am of course still looking for a final form wheel that has a stock look, but is more special in a boring understated way. The Apex EC-7R has potential as I think it looks great on the Porsche in the photo below, but most of the time whenever I see it on an e90 something about the aspect ratios look wrong and stops looking like an OE wheel. I presume it's when people are running a much more aggressive than stock size tire and more aggressive offsets

[Serf27]

You don’t have to tell me about mixing and matching. Years ago I did a gray/black color scheme in my e90. Only for the sake of keeping my gray sport seats. Swapped the carpet to black, swapped multiple plastic trims and modified the door panels.
Eventually I found terra brown and got rid of the 2 tone black/gray.

Tan would have looked nice over your paint color too. Those tan sport seats are hard to find in clean condition though.

My daily driver e91 has balloon tires on 16” and it rides a lot smoother than the 18”+. But looks are compromised.

The e92 m3 csl wheels look similar to what you posted above.

[Prolix-2]

Originally Posted by Serf27

You don’t have to tell me about mixing and matching. Years ago I did a gray/black color scheme in my e90. Only for the sake of keeping my gray sport seats. Swapped the carpet to black, swapped multiple plastic trims and modified the door panels.
Eventually I found terra brown and got rid of the 2 tone black/gray.

Tan would have looked nice over your paint color too. Those tan sport seats are hard to find in clean condition though.

My daily driver e91 has balloon tires on 16” and it rides a lot smoother than the 18”+. But looks are compromised.

The e92 m3 csl wheels look similar to what you posted above.

My experience has been that tan sports are very hard to find, yes. I found a pair but they ended up being in such poor condition I gave them away. When I tried to clean them the top surface of the leather started pealing, the foam was so flat it was no longer a sport seat, and the movement mechanisms were broken. It was very disappointing considering the time/money invested to get them.

Of course, right after taking delivery of this wagon with a black interior another option showed up for sprot seats. I'm waying in how much I want to gamble to try again. Haha, I don't want to swap the dash, so.... might gamble again.

The gray/black combo is interesting. A lot of the M3 seats I've looked at are gray and I don't love it, but if I want M3 seats, it's that or black, unless I want red; which I really strongly do not want. So far all options to collect an m3 interior have failed, but I've not given up yet.

Ideal ultimate spec is probably the same as you have with the brown seats. That will probably be even harder to find than tan sport seats! I've found plenty of sedans with it, but that doesn't get me a rear seat to match.

----

Yes, the wheels do look like the CSL wheels. The CSL is arguably one of the best looking e9x wheels, but then I'm running 19's. I would love to be running 17's myself. This is a throw back nostalgia project to my e36/e46 days where all my cars had 17's, but I can't find a 17" wheel I like. Stock e9x 17's are disappointingly heavy and not really the prettiest things either...

Style or function is always the debate.

Which 16" wheel are you running out of curiosity? I 100% am going to put the 16's on my car for nostalgic feels. It's here so why not? I know I can't keep it once I swap in the 135 brakes, but I've not had time to do that yet.

[M-technik-3]

16"s will not fit with 135i brakes it mentions it on webpages that sell them. Now that being said there is always an odd ball that does.


One can only assume that you work at a stripping/auction yard or own it.

[Serf27]

Originally Posted by Prolix-2

My experience has been that tan sports are very hard to find, yes. I found a pair but they ended up being in such poor condition I gave them away. When I tried to clean them the top surface of the leather started pealing, the foam was so flat it was no longer a sport seat, and the movement mechanisms were broken. It was very disappointing considering the time/money invested to get them.

Of course, right after taking delivery of this wagon with a black interior another option showed up for sprot seats. I'm waying in how much I want to gamble to try again. Haha, I don't want to swap the dash, so.... might gamble again.

The gray/black combo is interesting. A lot of the M3 seats I've looked at are gray and I don't love it, but if I want M3 seats, it's that or black, unless I want red; which I really strongly do not want. So far all options to collect an m3 interior have failed, but I've not given up yet.

Ideal ultimate spec is probably the same as you have with the brown seats. That will probably be even harder to find than tan sport seats! I've found plenty of sedans with it, but that doesn't get me a rear seat to match.

----

Yes, the wheels do look like the CSL wheels. The CSL is arguably one of the best looking e9x wheels, but then I'm running 19's. I would love to be running 17's myself. This is a throw back nostalgia project to my e36/e46 days where all my cars had 17's, but I can't find a 17" wheel I like. Stock e9x 17's are disappointingly heavy and not really the prettiest things either...

Style or function is always the debate.

Which 16" wheel are you running out of curiosity? I 100% am going to put the 16's on my car for nostalgic feels. It's here so why not? I know I can't keep it once I swap in the 135 brakes, but I've not had time to do that yet.

Yea, I thought tan would be easy to find. Add sport and heat options and the chase is on! Another member here and I searched for tan seats for his e91. Looked for about a year until he found some that weren’t $1k+ and in good condition.

The gray/black combo was done back when I was parting these out. Many e90s were bought because I wanted something from them for my personal car, HA.
It was an e90 with black interior, non sport. I swapped the black carpet, every dash trim I could, misc bits around the interior, removed the gray door panel inserts and glued them back onto my my gray door panels. For as many exterior pics I have oft cars, I have almost no interior pictures.. I’ll try to find some, but it looks similar to the photo posted below, with the exception of the dash, I didn’t want to swap it back then, so I left it gray.

The color combo was ok, but I didn’t love it.
A few years later, I found a car with terra brown at a pick your part. This was when LKQ had rewards points and random weekend discounts. I took the entire interior, front heated sport seats+rear folding seats, logic 7 door panels, rear sunshade. 60% off total price and it was only $110.
That’s what I have now, I’ll only change interior color if I find a complete red set.
It’d have to be from a wrecked auction car though, not paying $2k on eBay.

The terra brown stayed in the car with a gray dash for about a year. Eventually I swapped the dash out for a black dash. Swapping the dash isn’t the worst. I’ll post a photo later of how many screws had to come out.

Finding parts for the e91 that sit behind the front seats can be a challenge. I have my eye on an e91 that has something my m sport could use ..

I think the CSL wheels are my favorite. Aftermarket price starting at $1k though, I can wait a bit until I find some.

For the daily e91, the 16” does what I want it to do. For the other cars, I’ll take style and give up a little bit of comfort, though its not that much.
Those wheels you posted are the same ones I have.

[Prolix-2]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

16"s will not fit with 135i brakes it mentions it on webpages that sell them. Now that being said there is always an odd ball that does.


One can only assume that you work at a stripping/auction yard or own it.

Oh? I don't understand how you would come to that conclusion. Logic gaps!

But, yes, I know the 16's won't fit the 135 brakes. I haven't installed them yet, so it'll still work. I'm very very slow at getting all the things collected actually installed on the car. I got the very nice set off the red 135i, but then someone offered me a sum I couldn't refuse, so I sold them instead of installing. I still have a set on the silver 135i, but it's to muddy to fetch the car to harvest them.

But, is a toy pet project. In the year or two I've had this car, I think I've driven it maybe 2-300 miles. It's spend significantly more hours being tinkered with than used in any way. Goal is to have the car well sorted by the Carlisle Import car show in May as I go every year. This will be my first year taking a non-Volvo, but I've already registered, booked a house, and so on. It's a yearly thing for me.

If the weather is nice, I'll take a convertible. If it's not going to be nice I'll take the e91.

[Prolix-2]

Originally Posted by Serf27

Yea, I thought tan would be easy to find. Add sport and heat options and the chase is on! Another member here and I searched for tan seats for his e91. Looked for about a year until he found some that weren’t $1k+ and in good condition.


Finding parts for the e91 that sit behind the front seats can be a challenge. I have my eye on an e91 that has something my m sport could use ..

I think the CSL wheels are my favorite. Aftermarket price starting at $1k though, I can wait a bit until I find some.

Sounds like quite the deal on that interior. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to roam about, so I am limited to the luck of auctions to see what I can find. Which... in the tan sport seats has thus far been a complete fail. I might had a lead on a set later this week, but we'll see.

I rather like your gray interior. It's subtle, and unlike the factory themed Oyster, it probably also held up ok.

What is it you are looking for on your e91? Am I going to be bidding against you in the near future?


Whatever it's worth on the wheels: I don't have anything against them at all. I wanted a 17" wheel for mine because all my e36s and e46s back in the day had 17's and I thought the wheel to tire ratio was about perfect. Fast forward to today the daily Volvo wagon has 20's, the MBs have 18's and 19's, and here I'm looking at 16's for the retro sport e91. Everything evolves!

So far the 1 series 18's are hands down my favorites of what I've put on the car so far. If I can't convince myself to get something extra special, I'll put good correct size tires on them and call it a day.

Other set of 18's are projected to arrive on Monday, so we'll see what those look like once installed.