[HondaGoneRogue]

Originally Posted by ts0ulc

Congrats on the car. It looks great! What a journey!

Thank you! It has def been a unique ride so far!

Originally Posted by clee1982

Love everything except lower too much for my tastes

Yeah, It's quite low when the air is completely depleted. I'll take some shots at ride height which I think would be more your taste.

Originally Posted by SamienHanif35

Dam... makes my journey to my 428i pretty sham... what was your tire setups?

I think you'll find if you start a journal, over time you will be impressed with not only the journey of modification, but the joy the car has brought you over the years. Even without modification, taking pics here and there along trips and outings, will definitely be great to look back on! But I def figured there would be a story to tell about this purchase.

My tire setup is 245/35/19 Front and 265/35/19 Rear. Pretty meaty on a 19x9 and 19x10 but I do like the look and added wheel protection.

Originally Posted by 428iSoCal

Great Build sir And quite the adventure.

I am also looking at purchasing a 2015 435i Gran Coupe and I have been using CarGurus for the last few months. Looking at a couple with high mileage cars to get it more in my price range. What would you tend to look for on the Gran Coupe as far as issues now that you have had your GC awhile?

The wife's daily driver is a 2014 428i Coupe and have had no issues with it at all. 44k miles so far. I do all my own maintenance and mods so not afraid to have to fix things.

Thanks for any feedback.

I honestly haven't had any issues at all. Every unfortunate event that has befallen her so far was due to human error somehow.
So far the N55 seems a good bit more reliable than the N54, which I would still call a decent platform.

If anything, I would go over the paint well, as that seems to be a weak point across all the newer BMWs.

Good luck and feel free to PM with any questions! I'm always down to help.

[Yiolli]

Originally Posted by HondaGoneRogue

Installed the MPE with the CF finishers.


Also added a painted performance diffuser.


After that came the CF PSM spoiler:



This is currently how she sits as of Nov:




April
While I absolutely LOVE the stock 624M wheels, I felt the car needed just a bit more exclusivity.
I started searching for aftermarket wheels and eventually wound up finding these BBS Diamond Black LM 19x9 ET27 and 19x10 et37 here on the forums from AR Motorwerkz. Awesome deal and great buying experience!





I knew that this would be an aggressive fitment, and so I needed to lower the car (that was going to happen regardless haha).
I didn't want to just shoot blind and see where lowering springs would place the fitment, and I'm getting too old to have to mess with adjusting coilovers all the time.
This led me to pull the trigger on an Airlift 3P air suspension setup.
Before:




After:



The install was a breeze for the most part, and I didn't have to drill a single hole in the body of the car. A couple small holes in the trunk liner and that was it.
Everything is hidden except the air tank.





For tires I went with General G-Max RS in 245/35/19 and 265/35/19. I didn't want to go for an expensive tire before knowing how the setup would wear. I am very pleased with the tires after about 4k miles. Very comfy and quiet on the highway and they hook really well when you need them to.


A friend and I drove the new incarnation out to Vegas for a broadcasters convention. Besides a small hiccup with a piece of tire puncturing my gas tank, it was a really nice drive.


Continued down to So Cal and picked up a Morph Auto Design front lip. Easily the best looking lip for the F32/F36 imo. Sexy.





May:
Front lip is finally on after getting the bumper resprayed.

I feel your pain with damage on the first day. Drove my CPO 428i home on a slushy snowy night. Made it all the way home safe and immediately dinged the right panel and door on the side of the garage door. Completely dented and scratched the side. $800 later, good as new

[JPToadstool]

Originally Posted by HondaGoneRogue

The description for the update was really vague. It said that it improved connected drive services.

I usually read reviews before updating any electronic gadget of mine, but there was not much info out there (go figure). So I just went with being safe and having the latest software. There were no noticeable differences that I could observe.

To offer a little guidance here, the updates you performed only update the telephony side of things, improving compatibility with different phones and their software versions. You can also update your map version at home using the USB port.

To update the iDrive firmware, the head unit needs flashing. This can be done at a dealership or via someone with the correct knowledge, software and cables. This has the potential to add new features and improve overall performance.

Congratulations with your new car though! I've also had the unfortunate experience of damage to a new car. Thankfully the insurance sorted mine without any hassle.

[BigJack75]

Car looked better stock. Not a fan of 624's but the aftermarket wheels are hideous. Also the drop is way too much. This car is looking civic rice. But to each his own. It's your car and your choice to mess it up.

[vvroom]

Originally Posted by jack10525

Car looked better stock. Not a fan of 624's but the aftermarket wheels are hideous. Also the drop is way too much. This car is looking civic rice. But to each his own. It's your car and your choice to mess it up.

I couldn't disagree more. Don't know the OP but his F36 is one of the cleanest 4 series I've seen. I believe he's on air suspension, so he can be at any ride height he desires. I've witness many terrible jdm builds and this car is not close to being one.

[HondaGoneRogue]

Originally Posted by jack10525

Car looked better stock. Not a fan of 624's but the aftermarket wheels are hideous. Also the drop is way too much. This car is looking civic rice. But to each his own. It's your car and your choice to mess it up.

Thanks for your opinion.

Originally Posted by vvroom

I couldn't disagree more. Don't know the OP but his F36 is one of the cleanest 4 series I've seen. I believe he's on air suspension, so he can be at any ride height he desires. I've witness many terrible jdm builds and this car is not close to being one.

I appreciate the kind comment! Thanks for taking the time.

[USAF_MIKE]

beautiful build!

[HondaGoneRogue]

Originally Posted by USAF_MIKE

beautiful build!

Thanks Mike!

[ayycez]

Originally Posted by HondaGoneRogue

This being my second BMW (first being my 08 135i), I figured I'd start a build thread since I regretted doing it with my last.

I found my way into this 2015 435i GC by way of fortunate timing and fate.
I recently sold my AW 135i which was my baby. I loved her to death. Perfectly modded, always brought a smile to my face, and never let me down. Sadly, I had to sell her for earnest money on an investment property. It hurt.

I didn't want to leave the platform, but newer tech in the later models, and now having a 5 year old, I needed something more practical. I began looking at the following:

2013 F10 M5
2012 Panamera Turbo
2015+ 435i Gran Coupe

The practical and responsible part of me eventually ruled out the former two and settled on the latter. So my search began. I started on Autotrader, with a 500 mile radius of my BMW devoid area of South Dakota, expecting to find one in Denver. I found one. ONE. A black 2015 with 47K miles and they were firm on it's 35.5k price tag (according to them, it's Dinan exhaust was the reason lol). This was a private seller, and not CPO mind you. NEXT.

With a trip to Las Vegas ahead of me, I started looking within 500 miles of there. Jackpot. About 40 results (2015/16 w/ less than 30k miles) popped up. I quickly narrowed those down by whether or not they had M packages.

That left about 20. Next we went with color. Black, white, or silver. This narrowed the list even further down to 5. After that, I began running VINs through a decoder website to make sure the specs were what I wanted.
Adaptive LED, HUD, HK sound, higher speed limiter, etc.

This narrowed it down to 2 vehicles. A white one in Riverside CA, and a black one by private owner in Crown Valley.

The white one sold while I was on the flight to Vegas and the black one was taken down a day later. It was either budge on the options, or budge on the color. There were strangely TONS of blue ones available.

As I reloaded the saved search (this time in CarGuru app) I found a Glacier Silver one in Santa Ana that had JUST been put on the site. It looked great, 21k miles, carbon mirrors, black grills, 20" Style 624's, stunning at first glance.

I held my breath as I decoded the VIN, being sure that it would be lacking some crucial option like comfort access. The results came back and I grinned. Fully loaded besides leather. Easily the one thing I can live without.

I had my brother, who lives in Mission Viejo, drive down the next morning and give it the look over and test drive. He facetimed me while there and everything was excellent!

I nervously sat in Vegas for the next two days praying nobody would snatch it up and on my last day there, I made the call to the dealer. I told them it was my brother that came by, and I said that if the numbers looked good with financing, I would fly out to SoCal instead of back to South Dakota, and pick up the car.

It took them a minute to run the numbers, and I was literally at the airport with my flight back home boarding in an hour, when they called back and said they could meet my numbers. I swapped my flight from South Dakota to Orange County, and two hours later, I was staring at the face of this gorgeous piece of engineering.


Switching flights meant I only had Friday night in Cali, and then Saturday and Sunday to drive the 1400 mile / 20 hour trip home. It was 7pm when I got to the dealer. I approached the car with eagle eyes, it wasn't a CPO, so I knew I had to do my due diligence with inspecting it. Sure it's under warranty, but still, Carfax only catches so much.

I opened all the doors, popped the hatch and hood, and went to work. I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade, so I do thorough inspections regularly and not much misses my gaze. Everything was pristine.

My optimism started to fade when I went in the idrive and found the message "Oil measurement inactive". Inactive? How do I ensure theres oil in this thing? It also said it required the oil serviced within the next 500 miles. Being 8pm now, taking it to BMW was a no go. I texted my friend who was a master mechanic for BMW, but he was busy at the time. I then scoured the forums for this error. The results eased my tension. Normally either a bad sensor (which would be replaced under warranty) or a chewed/damaged wire. I'll take those odds.

I went ahead with the purchase, crossed my fingers in hopes I could get an appointment at Irvine BMW in the morning, and that all would be good for the trip home.



I received the response from my friend the tech around 11pm that night and he echoed the forum results, bad sensor or wire. I told him that I would take her to BMW Irvine in the a.m. and he replied "That's where I work now!" "What time you coming in?" My face lit up, as I hadn't seen him since he worked on my 1 series in Las Vegas. Needless to say, he got me in bright and early in the morning. Damaged wire fixed, and oil change good to go.


The trip had been successful and I was beyond ecstatic. I decided to drive down to San Diego for a quick visit with an old coworker before leaving back to South Dakota.

And then the unthinkable happened.

I was leaving a gas station outside of Camp Pendleton, and in the middle of a curve/on ramp, I see the face of a Dodge Challenger coming in hot and tight on the inside of the curve. I immediately knew he was over the line, and instincts yanked the wheel right as fast as I could. I barely had any speed as I just left the gas station, so the car couldn't drastically change course, and I heard the faint swish of him catching my rear quarter panel.

I immediately stopped, and looked in my review at him continuing around the curve. I couldn't believe he was running. I threw the car in reverse, and upon turning around, a passerby told me he went into the gas station. I pulled into the gas station to barely catch a glimpse of him continuing through the gas station and into a Denney's parking lot. I caught him and screamed at him to park it.

Cops called, report filed, info exchanged, heart broken.

I know it's just a car. I know we are not injured, but damn. I just put insurance on it a few hours earlier.

I ended up leaving a lot later obviously, and so the trip home was nothing notable, except the enjoyment of becoming acquainted with my new love. And the 32 MPG.
Leaving Vegas

Wyoming


So that's the story. From here on out, I hope to update regularly with what mods are soon to come. En-route are JB4, VSRF DP's, Charge Pipe, and FMIC.

Looking forward to the new adventure, even if it's started out a bit shaky.




Flaws and all. $2.6k in damage if anyone is wondering.


Current State:

God this is such a clean build. What an adventure this car went through haha. The lip is really nice too, how did you put that on? (Bolted/screwed on?)
The car is beautiful though!

[HondaGoneRogue]

Originally Posted by ayycez

God this is such a clean build. What an adventure this car went through haha. The lip is really nice too, how did you put that on? (Bolted/screwed on?)
The car is beautiful though!

Thanks so much!
Yeah, the lip is held on by 3M automotive tyape and about 6 bolts with washers and nuts (In factory hole locations.). I didn't have to modify the bumper at all.

[silvrbreez]

Chiming in to say a great job on the journal and build. Hated to see the damage after purchase. My heart hurt for you reading that. Wondering if you've updated anything over the past few months?

[HondaGoneRogue]

Originally Posted by silvrbreez

Chiming in to say a great job on the journal and build. Hated to see the damage after purchase. My heart hurt for you reading that. Wondering if you've updated anything over the past few months?

I appreciate that brother!

Sadly, I haven't done really anything notable.
Winter is so unmotivating in South Dakota, and then when it got decent, Covid.

So I've mainly just started browsing the forums for inspiration and taking pics of her.

[mdrewello]

Beautiful car and great story!

[HondaGoneRogue]

Originally Posted by mdrewello

Beautiful car and great story!

Thank you!