As green as the mountains.
 

So since there is no area to post ongoing projects - - - I'll make one right here.

First; hello everyone, first post here and looking forward to learning new things meeting cool people and maybe passing on what I know to others.

It wasn't till after I bought the ti that I found out it was the black sheep of the BMW family, at first I was going for a e30 318i or 318is, but then stumbled on a good deal for a 1997 ti and decided to take the dive . . . .


. . . . Sit back, grab a beer and enjoy the story . . .


Now let me start by saying that this is my very first BMW and i come from the land of wannabe JDM imports :cool:, my first car was 1991 crx si - which I loved dearly and is actually what my ti will be a evolution of - then I went to 1g crx's with a 85 dx and 85 si (quick side note for those wanting to learn more about 1st generation crx 1984-1987, its a totally different animal then your typical 88+ civic and crx, go look at a awesome site called redpepperracing.com) had a 91 integra with a b16, then moved to RWD with a 89 s13 240sx hatch, and now finally to the ti.

I was looking for a good reliable, potentially fun, and economic car. I found in a San Diego Craigslist the listing of a 97 ti with 119xxx miles, clean title and one owner, for 2850. Heck ya! Most I have ever spent on a car was 2200 but I had never had a car that had all at the same time: airbags, radio, ABS, full interior, and A/C, cruise control, a cool thing to show me the temp and avg mph/mpg so this was going to be by far the most civilized and new car that I would have owned. I took the 2hr drive down checked it out and bought it, the ti was also the initially most sound mechanically car that I had bought. Of course I say initially because i tend to start playing with things and make it worse.

Some pics of the car at first:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...8ti/bmw3tq.jpg
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...8ti/bmw2ul.jpg

Now the pictures are a little deceiving I found that the right front had a some damage to the bumper and the pictures don't show the oxidation that was happening pretty badly to the hood and roof.

First order of business was suspension, the rear shocks were pretty much shot, and the car handled like a boat, it just felt heavy and fat.
Lucky I found some ground control coilovers + koni shocks from a e36 m3 for about 270, so even though I knew the rear was probably going to be too tall at least it would be better then what I had then.

Comparison of stock front shock/spring and GC coilover:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...downsize22.jpg
Some of the parts on the ground:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...ownsize2-1.jpg
Do it!
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...1026112014.jpg

(*All pics taken with a good old cell phone camera!!!)

**Disclaimer: (I am NOT cool enough or know enough to do it all by myself, I happen to be lucky enough to know a guy that is knowledgeable about cars and charges me very reasonably for work done.)

I drove it that way for a while and it was amazing in comparison to the stock setup, the front springs were 450lbs and rear 550 ?? (didn't have a number or way to figure out exact rate), we had to raise the front as high as possible and put the rear as low as possible to try to have it as horizontal as possible, but even then the front was a little lower then the back - but the rear still dropped around 1.5" and the front around 2"

Next was front brakes, which were starting to wear out.

I got some brembo blanks and Hawk HPS pads to do the job:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...ownsize1-1.jpg
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f.../downsize8.jpg

Afterwards the paint!! I have never for any of my previous cars done paint or anything for looks, it was all function, if the bumper was on solid I was happy, I just wanted it to drive well through streets and canyons. So this was a first.

I also wanted it to look a little more aggressive so I found a m3 replica bumper for 80.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...downsize13.jpg
Sanding!!!
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f.../downsize1.jpg

Then I brought it to a awesome place that did the paint for it for 200! (http://economy-paint.com)

Then it was time to straiten out the suspension, so I contacted ground control and came to the conclusion to put the 450lb springs in the rear and bought new 375lb eibach springs 130 (both). Got replacement front and rear shock/strut mounts - rear Meyle HD mounts with a supporting plate. And got a pair of bilstein sports from a e30 with 8k miles for 75

Comparison of the e30 rear shocks and e36 m3 koni rear shocks:
As you can see the koni's are a lot beefier but also way too tall.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f.../downsize6.jpg
On with the new suspension parts:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f.../downsize5.jpg

I LOVE the setup now, its a tiny bit bouncy (rear bilstiens), but for what I am using its a perfect balance, if I ever go with more power I will probably go with stiffer springs, but now it hold corners wonderfully! :biggrin:


"Fancy" pics of the car as it sits currently with new paint, m3 bumper, and more balanced suspension.

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f.../downsize3.jpg
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f.../downsize2.jpg

Well that was long winded. :tongue:

Hope you guys like it and there will definitely more to come, but this is my daily driver so it will be slow progress.

Feel free to ask any questions!

welcome to the org!
nice start...your car looks great

Very nice. Like the color. I also have the same michelins. Great tires.

One suggestion though. Put the jack stands UNDER the car while working on the car.

I was wondering when someone would notice - I actually have one under the cross member as the main support.

(Now I'm just waiting for someone to notice that the emblems have been sprayed over and mention that :wink: )

I gotta say though my biggest problem is finding a efficient and fast way to put up the car, its always a PITA.

Anyways thanks for the compliments. Color is jaguar green, I would have payed extra for boston green so I went with cheaper way, turned out great though, I actually like it better.

Welcome :cool:
So where in SoCal are you from?

Rancho Cucamonga, off Carnelian.

Really close to my house, let's try to meet up one of these days!!!

that looks great!!!

off to a good start already :)

Sounds good!

Also thanks tiFreak and BMW_Hatchback! The car has definitely grown on me!

Yesterday I explored a few new roads:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...downsize19.jpg
(notice the signs, lol, there were no other cars up the roads though, perfectly quite)
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f.../downsize9.jpg

It was wonderful! who would think Southern California would have such natural beauty!

I really wish I had a good camera because with it being the wet season and everything growing, the mountains look amazing. Best thing is that its just about 45min from my house! :biggrin:

looks great. I am partial to green, especially the darker ones.

You need better rims now.. maybe something off of the M3

LOL, well...Need at least 2 to support it safely. I jack one side and toss a stand under the frame, then go to the other and jack/toss a stand under. It's a PITA, especially with how low these cars are after a drop.

Hmm, thought they were just blacked out emblems... Looks better than my dead emblems... The cheapo replacements don't last long. :mad:

2 ??? Hmm I was told one would be enough :wink:

I havn't lowered my car too much yet - gotta replace some suspension components before I go real low, so I don't have too much problems yet with getting the jack under it.

Ya I'm pretty happy with how the paint job came out with painted emblems.


Now for a quick update,


I found THIS for my little sister:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...318ti/Msz3.jpg

First car for her, and best twenty five hundred spent IMO. Only two owners with maintenance records and has no problems, very clean!

Of course I'm going to be benefiting from this too ....
.
.
.
This is where I'm gunna get: xbrace, 3.46 LSD (clutch type), short ratio steering rack, sway bars (gotta confirm the size though to see if it is better), and a shorter shift. :biggrin: Its not like she needs it anyway.

Other then that I got some fluids still to replace - tranny, diff, coolant and some bushings to repair, and I think a few seals to replace too. I think that plus, z3 parts will make it pretty fun. I wonder how ASC+T and LSD will work out :confused: apparently only 95 m3 came with both ? Anyways, fun stuff!

Shoot me a pm or something if you got something going on!

Well actually, I have been thinking about that.

These wheels weigh 7,52kg or 16.5787621lbs (according to google). Thats pretty light and I can fit 225 on that which is enough rubber for the power I have now. I have been looking at the Kosei K1 17x8.5 wheels at 16.8lbs. Not bad IMO, just a little heavier and a lot more rubber. Kinda expensive though so we will see.

Hella good price for a sporty little Z3!

Ya I could hardly believe it, even now if I walk out and see it sitting in the driveway I have to look twice. Kinda jealous :rolleyes:

I'm starting to travel for work this week :frown: I will be back next weekend, are you around? Let me know.

I got a hard top for this car somewhere in the back yard :biggrin:

Actually next weekend I'll be busy but the weekend after that should be fine. As for the hard top :biggrin: I will be very interested in hearing more.:wink:

You certainly got your money's worth from the $200 paint job.

Im in San Dimas usually in Rancho area and fontana, cool to see another enthusiast locally! and where'd you get the bumper for $80?

Good old Craigslist - I'll have to dig to see if I can find a number or anything though. Still interested!!!

So a lot has happened in the last month. First, somehow I got a little bit to close to the curb decided to back up and somehow tore off my whole front bumper... I have no idea how. But so for a while I drove with no front bumper, decided

I cant really afford a new bumper so got some zip ties and the following pics show the results.

Damage (worse then in the pic, it almost tore the bumper in half): http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...209121053a.jpg

No bumper:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0209121054.jpg

Fixed:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0210121354.jpg

How it looks on the car (I put the license plate there to cover up most of the zip tie stitches):
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0211121317.jpg

On the last picture you can see that the car is on a tow truck, that is due to the part of the crap that happened after the bumper incident. So I'm taking a late night cruise in the canyon and noticed a lack of power, my temps seem fine and my lights arn't dimming or anything, so I pull over and just visually look in the engine bay and it all looks good. So I hop in and keep driving. After a while the car completely dies! Anyway so I'm stuck in the canyon for the night with no cell signal and temp is low 40's. Eventually the following day I get a ride to where there is reception, get it towed home. (By the time the tow truck came it was 12hrs after initial being stuck). Spark seems fine as I tested the battery and it was good, replaced spark plugs too, thought it might be fuel, replaced the fuel filter, went to autozone to rent a fuel pressure gauge, that seemed fine, took apart the intake manifold trying to find a leak or anything - took out the 02 pump and took the top off and put it back - it was whining so it needed fixing anyway, check my o2 sensors, MAF sensor, changed air filter, etc etc, Finally did a compression test with all cylinders at around 150 so the engine seemed very healthy, by this time i was frustrated as spark fuel was good and air seemed fine too. - Btw this is over the course of a few days, and I need my car as its my daily so I was getting desperate. I did hear a little coming from what seemed to be the cat so I took out the mid section. Once out it had grayish stuff that started to fall out... apparently a little dent in the cat done by a rock had caused enough of the sponge stuff to break loose in the cat that it was clogging the exhaust. I can't afford a new cat currently so I gutted it and now it runs great!

Now to end on a good note:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0225121608.jpg

Picked this up today :biggrin: I was going to stick with the M44 but if you find a m52 for 100 you won't complain either! Everything seems to be in working condition! Just gotta freshen it up a little with new gaskets and what not and it will be good to go!

But this won't be going in till summer or something when I can have the car down for a while.

thats a shame or ripping the bumper off and it must of sucked being stuck!! but glad you got it all working again now

Ya it does suck, it hasn't even been long after getting it done too. But thanks for the support!



Well the bad just got worse. I start hearing a clanking sound from my rear passenger side. But I have to get where I need to go, so I drive the 210,15,60,215 freeways - and back on this:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...304122121a.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0304122121.jpg

:eek::eek::eek:

The shock isn't even attached anymore!!! And the first pic shows a bit of the damage on the shock.

Time to work on it again, my ti seems really to want a lot of attention. :tongue:

damn all your problems are the same stuff i went through!

did you put a washer on the end of the bolt when you put the shocks on?

there was just a thread on bimmerforums where a guy had the same thing happen to his shock... i better check mine and see if i have a washer on them!

Oh no... whats next then? Maybe I can stop it before it happens :wink:


Yup!

Here it is:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0305121330.jpg

I decided also to do it on the other side to be safe.



Better be safe then sorry. I do drive in the canyon once in a while - comparable to autox I guess, so it does endure more stress then just being a daily.

When I replaced my PS hose, nobody told me that BMW's don't use normal PS fluid but instead use ATF fluid. BLah, nub mistake for me.

Also tried a little trick my friend told me about which is using ATF instead of normal oil for the motor (NOT TO DRIVE!), let it idle till warm - don't rev! - and once warm drain it out and replace with normal oil again. Apparently ATF has some kind of detergent that helps clean up gunk. When i just did it today the engine did feel smoother... but that also may be due to just having new oil afterwards :confused:

shoot me a text, I am local in san dimas and can lend a hand anyway I can.
909-561-4852
- Bryan M.

Sweet

Update
 

Well time for a update.

Got some redline tranny and diff fluid so got that done.

Lost my front bumper again! So I'm rocking the stock one. - full story will come with pics.

Got the X-Brace installed - tightened up the front nicely and doesn't over-steer as fast.

Got my half broke bracket on the front driver shock rewelded, camber is still a bit off but better then before.

Found some style 30's on craigslist, but even though it fills the wheel well better, I can definitely feel the difference in weight and I'm not sure if I like it or not. - I will do a more detailed write up later.

Lastly bought from IE rear subframe bushings and SS lines - gotta love tax returns! But still need to install that and it will take a while to get done.

Of course I will spam the thread with pics when I get some more time :biggrin:. So don't worry pics will be coming of everything.

Oh and lastly I finally convinced my sister that she doesn't need the z3 LSD diff :tongue:. Again I got enough to keep my weekends busy!

Fluids are good:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...324121326a.jpg

So I was driving up the mountain and it seems like the snow plows were plowing during the storm helping a nice thin sheet of ice to build up, so I hit a large patch this was the result:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0326120722.jpg
:mad:
I think I got all the parts of the bumper back so when i get some time its time to go crazy with some zip ties and see if I can get it together again.

So here is a pic of the bumperless Ti with some style 30's: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0410121730.jpg

Next I got the original bumper back on:
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...ownsize2-2.jpg

Its pretty amazing how it changes the feel of the car, now I don't have to drive cool anymore :biggrin: It makes it just feel more relaxed, I like it.

I'm not sure if you guys remember but my konis that I have on the car were used and one bracket seemed to be welded on wierd, and the camber was completely off, so it was re-welded and to more normal camber and strengthened. Thanks to Jared for that hard work on that! :wave: The picture really doesn't do it justice.

Honestly I am kinda skimming over all the things that have been done, but we did have to take into consideration a few things to get the angle and strength that would be safe.

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...1026111820.jpg http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0407121528.jpg
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0407121600.jpg

And lastly the goodies:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0406121555.jpg

I can't wait to see how the rear subframe mounts and SS lines will help the response of the car!

There you go. Another small step in the right direction!

I found a used set of tires with good thread for my stock style 27's, so for the fun of it I think I'm going to sand them down and Home Depot spray them black and see how it turns out.

Good idea? Or spray the style 30's? Or don't spray at all?

Its just I can feel the weight of the style 30s and its killing me! The car is fine, and it feels the wheel well more, but my acceleration and braking have taken a hit in return. If I had my m52 swapped in and vented front discs with good pads.. then I think the wheels will work well but for my setup right now the stock style 27s will work better I think.

I say paint the rims dark grey or bronze, not black

I was just searching but there was a very sweet picture online of a ti also with boston green and some nice bronze wheels and it looked sick.

For some reason I'm more hesitant to go bronze then a more neutral color.

choices choices!

Out of curiosity from your first post, did your koni front struts have any markings of brand name/model # on them? I ask because they look just like the setup I got used off a Z3, but mine had no markings of any kind. I know they aren't Racelands, but haven't figured out who makes em yet. The springs themselves had the spring rate on them, but I couldn't make out anything else.

thanks

just dont have a bumper on ur car anymore :D

I think I'm going to go with a color that is going to be hated or turn out kinda cool. When I do it I'll make a separate thread just for responses... Its going to be neon green. :cool: Hopefully I will have it done this weekend.



I'll take a look probably this weekend to see if I can find any type of identification info on them. Not sure though because I don't recall seeing any specific markings. :confused:


Ya thought about that, but where would I put my license plate securely and it would attract too much attention - actually I'm not sure I can use that as a excuse if my spraying of my wheels go through. :rolleyes:

when you down to meet up? i live like 15mins away from you hahah

update
 

Okay time to update again.

Its been a while..

I can't believe I have gone from 119xxx to 138xxx miles already!

Installed in the mean time:
-Ireland Engineering Urethane Subframe mounts
-Ireland Engineering Urethane Trailing Arm bushings
-Ireland Engineering SS lines Front and rear

Got my gutted cat replaced with a good working one, also my Alternator completely died - so I posted in the WTB section and both wodcutr and jiggerjosh helped out nicely - highly recommend.

-The serpentine belts also were replaced when the replacement alt went in.

A few pics of the SS lines on:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0711121416.jpg
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...711121232a.jpg

While replacing the brake lines (yes all 6 of them - oh and replaced Brake fluid with Super Blue - good stuff!)

I noticed that my random ebay replacement front shock tower mount was well..... bent!!

This was only after a few thousand miles! I guess in their defence I was running a higher then stock front spring rate = 375lbs and had a few hrs of spirited canyon driving.

Left is the OEM one (which i put back in) Right is the "new" aftermarket one.

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0711121234.jpg

Oh and I got a sticker for the car too (first time I put one on any of my cars... and its a BMW lol)... I know, I know, maybe I gotta work on placement but I like the message. :biggrin:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...519121708c.jpg

Love the canyon!! :bong: (sig pic is actually exactly same road)

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...0425121708.jpg

And lastly how she sits now:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/f...712120928a.jpg

As for the Style 30 wheels - got those sold.. too heavy!

School is starting again.. well I went back to school and its time I finish up, so not much will be happening with the car, NO canyon driving at all, cleaning up the interior, some more maintenance, etc.

Thanks!

Oh and :
Did I ever find those numbers for you?? I know when I was putting the SS lines in I did see that there were numbers on the front koni's.

What road is this? please tell me so I can go test it ha