[moorV]

Hello f3x enthusiasts, I've decided to make a build thread for my car as I continue to enjoy the modding process. This seems like a fun way of keeping track of things throughout my ownership and lets me share that process with everyone as well.

I bought this car in 10/23 off of Copart completely by chance. I was doing some random searching and happened upon this car and could not pass it up. Dealer maintained its whole life, no actual damage from what I could see, and a great spec. It had M-sport and THP which were very high on my list for an f30. After my 2012 135i I wanted something more modern with better practicality while retaining that BMW thrill. The red interior really sold me too as my 1er had the same.


This was the day of delivery the car was filthy and had trouble starting. After sitting on the auction lot for too long it was completely drained. I got it running and scanned for codes. Unfortunately the water pump and thermostat were going to need to be replaced, and the infotainment screen was blacked, but I had figured as much buying a car sight unseen.


I parked it and got it cleaned up until the replacement parts I ordered arrived. Already the itch to make it my own was getting to me and I was already getting filled with bad thoughts of dropping thousands on the car right away.


Decided to do something simple at first just to be busy. Painted the front grill and v-brace silver and installed floating center caps.

I was not able to get a decent first impression of the car just yet but from what I had experienced shortly I was on the fence about my purchase. I just figured that I needed to drive it with everything fixed and really give it some gas.

[moorV]

I installed the new battery and coded it using BimmerCode/Link (can't remember) and got the water pump and thermostat in as well. Wasn't a horrible job other than some poorly placed bolts that were a pain to get out, but everything else went smooth. Bled the system and the car was mint again. Could not figure out the infotainment so I took the car to Vt Motorworks to get that fixed. After that the car had everything sorted out for the most part. I got it registered (boring and long process since it came from Copart) and started to drive it regularly.

My first impressions were partially correct as the car was too tame and did not give me the excitement that I was desiring from it. Immediately I decided to get a muffler delete to liven up the sound. I've seen people delete their resonators but I did not want any drone in the cabin, and I heard mixed things about res deletes. I wanted to retain the stock exhaust flap as well.

I really enjoyed this, I had the flexibility to code the flap to auto, open, or closed and it was just the right amount of noise for me. I could comfortably cruise in eco-pro and not hear a thing and then go into Sport+ and completely switch it up. The car was really growing on me.

[moorV]

With the holidays, finals, and work I was not able to do much of anything to the car. Most I did was an oil change and saw no bad signs from the oil. I got in some sliding practice in empty lots while it was raining real bad. I've noticed the car is a lot easier to control mid skid than the 1er. It was fun even while being majorly down on power. The open diff was an annoyance as usual.


I got some tints on the car, because as much as I liked the fishbowl look, in the California sun it was not going to be very practical. I will say that I feel like I went a tad bit too dark but you live and you learn. That's 15% all round and nothing on the windshield for now.

There wasn't much to do, but I was scouring marketplace for some wheels to buy. I wanted to get a 3-piece style mesh wheel or TE37sl. Ideally I wanted to build a set of BBS style 42s or I would settle for LMs and similar looking wheels. Finding wheels with offsets to fit the f30 was hard, but the 1er offsets were even worse so I was used to it.

[moorV]

I finally found some wheels and later the same day found a deal on a set of OEM shocks and struts with fewer miles than my car and H&R super sport springs already installed. I also bought an intake off of the guy selling me the suspension. Both were located near Sac and I was able to pick them up together in one go. The f30 is the perfect sized car I was able to fit a full set of wheels with tires mounted, extra barrels, a box full of the suspension, and the intake no problem.


I bought a set of Work VS-XX that were built for an f22. The specs weren't the most aggressive on an f30, but it was impossible to find any wheels and this seemed like a great opportunity to buy some rare wheels for this chassis. The tires were squared so on the rear it was a little too stretched for my taste, I will be rectifying that soon. They also came with TPMS installed as well which is great.
Fronts 18x8.5 +42 225/40
Rears 18x9 +34 225/40


Car is super dirty in this, but after I installed the new suspension with the springs I absolutely fell in love with the car. It was really starting to look how I wanted it to. The contrast of the black with the brushed and polished silver is great. Surprisingly the wheels didn't need any spacers to look flush. The MPS 4S are great, though I couldn't really feel many differences between them and the MPSS that were on the car previously. Good tires in every aspect even during the pelting rain.

[Cpark14]

Car is sweet, love the progress. Any idea how you want to improve power?

[moorV]

Originally Posted by Cpark14

Car is sweet, love the progress. Any idea how you want to improve power?

Thank you! I think i’m going to go catless or get a high flow cat plus my intake and go stage 1 with mhd. I have a friend that’s stage 2 with no issues so that eased my mind in regards to adding some power. I was totally against the idea at first. I’ve also been toying with the idea of getting XHP since i’ve heard the transmission tuning can help free up some power, plus the shifts would be intense which is always a plus.