[lllRazorlll]

Hey guys, figured I would start a build thread to document the progress on my car since I took delivery of it. Some of you might know me from the E46Fanatics forum where I had a 2000 BMW 328i. I spent a great deal of time on that car and I documented all of the work I did on it that can be found here: https://www.e46fanatics.com/threads/...#post-16615519

I eventually sold the car after 7 years of ownership. After being in a 2006 Crown Vic and 2008 Accord Coupe 5MT, I started searching for an F32 with as many options as I could find. I decided that I wanted to be back in a German car as it was what I was used to and saw that American/Japanese cars are just not as overall refined as European/German cars. With the experience that I had with my 2000 328i, given that it was a base model with hardly any options except the Premium Package, I wanted to find a car with as many options as I could find since I didn’t want to spend much (if any) time retrofitting parts to the car. I went looking for a RWD car since I did not want xDrive due to reliability and a better driving experience. After searching, I found my 2014 435i at a dealer in Texas that I purchased and had shipped. I got lucky finding this car since it has the following packages and options:

1. M Sport Package
2. Cold Weather Package
3. Driver Assistance Package
4. Dynamic Handling Package
5. Premium Package
6. Technology Package
7. M Sport Brakes
8. Harman Kardon Surround Sound
9. M Performance Power Kit

Photos of the car how it looked like shortly after I got it can be found here:

When I took possession of the car, I noticed two issues: there was a 12” long dent in the right rear quarter panel right behind the passenger door and the passenger door lock actuator wasn’t working. I had to fight with the dealer that sold me the car for over a month to have everything sorted since it was not disclosed when I bought the car. At a price of $750 for a new OEM door lock actuator and $350 for a PDR guy to fix the dent, the car was all good. I gave the car a really good detailing inside, outside, and even cleaned the wheels/wheel wells real well.










One of the first things I did with the car was get a dash cam. Knowing how integral they are, I wanted to get one of the best ones on the market. I ended up getting the Thinkware U1000 4K front facing, 2K rear facing dash cam. I hardwired it into the car to take advantage of all of the features, and have a clean install.

The first maintenance that I did on the car was an oil change, coolant drain & fill, new belts, pulleys, and fix the oil cooler gasket. I noticed early on that there was oil dripping on the belt tensioner and saw that it was coming from the OFHG. It ended up being the oil cooler but I replaced all of the gaskets when I did this job.





The first two aesthetic mods I did were black M Performance kidney grilles and nm M Performance rear diffuser.

Shortly after that, I noticed that my dead pedal was stainless steel and the other pedals were not. This prompted me to get the OEM M Performance stainless steel pedals.

I then took the car to a dealer to get a paint correction.




It wasn’t two weeks later until a baby deer decided to jump in front of me while I was driving home. Luckily for the deer it ran into my side when I was down to less than 10 MPH but still enough to put dents in my driver’s side fender, door, rear quarter panel, and break my mirror.

I took the car to a Caliber Collision to have it repaired. The entire process took two weeks. After that, I had a duplicate key made for methe BMW dealer since the car did not come with a second key.

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After that, I looked for a clean solution to mount my phone in the car and saw that the Rennline magnetic phone mount was the best option.





One of the biggest annoyances I experienced with the car was a rattle coming from the sunroof area. I spent a lot of time trying to diagnose what it was. I thought it was the sunroof sunshade and tried a number of ways to add felt tape/padding to the shade but that did nothing to address the rattle. After further investigation and dropping the headliner several times, I discovered that it is the sunroof cassette frame that was rattling. One of the frame bars was rattling against the right side of the frame. These pieces are riveted together and I guess that they came loose over time. Felt tape sandwiched in the gaps fixed the issue.




I was driving home after hanging out with a friend and I drove into a pothole. I heard a loud bang and the tire pressure light came on. I got out and heard a hissing sound coming from the front left wheel. I knew that the tire had a puncture. I drove a little more before coming to the conclusion that the car had to be towed. I had the car taken to the tire shop 1/2 mile from my apartment and got it replaced. I filed a claim with the city and was reimbursed for the tire, tow, and Uber to their negligence at maintaining their manholes.





I ordered a set of Euro spec side mirrors that include a section for blind spots but they don’t fit since the shape of the mirrors are different. I got my money back and now have a set of mirror that don’t fit



I got the headlights buffed and had Stek PPF installed to preserve them and prevent fading



My car came with the factory phone cradle which I removed since I don’t use it and it was robbing storage space in the car




Detailed the engine bay







Big maintenance day: spark plugs, coils, differential fluid, and transmission fluid & filter. This took several hours to complete but was satisfying in the end





Since I’m an OEM+ kind of guy, knowing that the car has rear fog lights preinstalled, I had to enable them and get the proper light control switch panel without any questions





After dealing with the aftermarket Android head unit in my car long enough, I pulled the trigger on an OEM NBT EVO ID6 head unit with new screen from CodeMyBimmer.com. I wanted OEM Apple CarPlay and finally did the retrofit that this car needed. I also ordered the 8.8” screen since the aftermarket screen was starting to delaminate

Front brake job because the steering wheel was shimmying under braking ever since I got the car. Akebono pads, Zimmerman rotors





As part of the retrofit, I had to flash the KOMBI in the gauge cluster to newer software so that the previous/next arrows would show up in the center screen of the gauge cluster as well as on my HUD






One of the features I wish my car had from the factory were the optional full LED headlights. I was debating doing this retrofit for a year due to the cost of doing it but finally was able to land on a set I found for super cheap. I scored the set of headlights and purchased a wiring kit on eBay which was needed for the retrofit. Took several hours to do but I am pleased with the outcome to say the least. The retrofit required splicing wires from each headlight harness to create two new pins that the bixenon cars do not have. Additionally, I had to run a wire from the fuse box in the trunk to the FEM, and then a second wire from the FEM to the fuse box under the hood

Rear brake job. Akebono pads and Zimmerman rotors. This time, I also did a brake fluid flush with new Ate fluid Pentosin DOT 4 brake fluid





More aesthetic mods including a rear M Performance carbon fiber spoiler and matte black front lip. I went with a matte black front lip because if I scrape it, it’s not as expensive to replace as carbon fiber. Also, it complements the matte black M Performance rear diffuser. The front lip also has an anti-scrape guard underneath it which has saved the lip many times over. Over six months later and the lip is still perfect

After realizing that Rennline has a MagSafe wireless phone charger, I just had to have it

Post-wash/rain pics













Since my car had the M Performance Power Kit installedthe previous owner shortly after he took delivery of it, I added the missing piece to the kit, which in my opinion, is a must-have when you have a car with the MPPK. I guess that’s why later cars got the MPPSK

Night shot with the city in the background



Fixed a little bit of wear on the side bolsters of both front seats. You would never know that the leather was worn







The fading ///M logos on the brakes were bothering me, so I got replacement decals on eBay




Sticking to the theme of OEM+, I got the factory warning triangle to fill in the blank space in the trunk liner



I have more mods/upgrades coming soon, so subscribe for more!