Hey everyone, I've been on this forum for about three years and I figured it was time to start showcasing my car's progress. It is a 2000 328i with a build date of October 15, 1999 that was purchased on December 23, 1999 by the first owner. I purchased the car on June 25, 2011 after falling in love with it during the test drive. I bought it with 71,450 original miles and became the second owner. Immediately the next day I gave her a bath. Cosmetically, inside and out, the car is an 8/10. There were a few scratches that I have taken care of and there are only two or three dings overall. Very good shape for a car that was 11 years old at the time. I will sand it down and repaint it orientblau metallic one day to completely take care of the blemishes if buffing doesn't work. Below is a picture of me and my mom cheesily posing for a picture:
I have more stock pictures in an album on my profile.
She remained stock for about two years until I actually began with the modding. I wanted to do Angel Eyes and LED tails right from the start but my first mod was actually a DICE iPod integration kit. I got tired of shuffling between CDs and burning new ones with new songs I wanted to hear. It's a great unit that runs from the CD changer cable in the trunk of the car to the gear shifter. I have the cable coming through the small hole where the ash tray used to be so it can stay tucked in that cubby hole. I have bought a CoolStream Duo bluetooth adapter to play music in my car after I upgraded my phone because the DICE cable was for a 30-pin Apple device. The adapter works like a charm and now anybody can play music in the car and not just Apple users. Here's a link to the adapter:
http://www.amazon.com/CoolStream-Bluetooth-Receiver-accessories-Motorcycles/dp/B00GHUHMUS
In May 2013, I purchased Predator Orion V2 Opaque Angel Eyes from Umnitza. I got them installed and was very satisfied with the light output. The only complaint I have about them is that they have to be clipped onto the top part of the headlight bowl and therefore do not sit centered with the bowl. Because of this, I had them in for a little over a year before I decided to take them out. Here is a picture of what they looked like:
Shortly after, I did research on doing a xenon headlight retrofit. I have always been attracted to xenon lights and wanted to put them on my car especially. After looking around on forums and sites, I decided to get:
Here are some pictures taken during the process:
Afterwards, I went to a shop and got 15% window tint on the sides and back. I am pretty happy with the result and after almost two years and have no complaints with them. I also bought some gloss black door pillar covers to go along with the tint. These have scratched pretty bad and will be removing them and polishing up the door pillar trim.
A couple months later I bought a trunk deck lip spoiler and a Euro license plate.
I have also purchased a homelink and retrofitted that to get rid of the garage door opener I had in the car. My car is completely empty inside except for the manuals, registration, and insurance cards in the glove compartment, iPod integration wire in the ash tray, and only the spare tire equipment in the trunk. The next thing on the list are clear corners, side indicators, and Euro-spec clear halogen tail lights. They're a (delayed) birthday present from a friend and will take pictures of them as soon as they go on. As far as mods, this is probably as far as I will go. The car isn't anything special like an M3 so throwing on different wheels or bumpers just would not seem right to me. I considered changing my bumpers to MTech 1 but then I would feel obligated to convert the car to 330i Sport spec. So, maybe I won't bother with that and just buy a 2001 330i Sport later. Eventually, I feel as if I will return everything back to stock (window tint, trunk spoiler) but we will see.
Between when I first got the car and now, I've played my fair share of whack-a-mole in terms of maintenance and repairs. This includes but is not limited to:
Having the car for almost 30,000 miles has slowly urged me to seriously consider taking care of the long delayed and underestimated preventative maintenance measures. The car has been decently reliable so far but if I want it to last or even drive it normally I understand that I am going to have to take better care of it. The car has been good to me overall and I have not been good to it the way it deserves in return. As I am not really interested in modifying it any more at this point I will be focusing on taking the necessary measures of replacing what needs to be done by using the "shotgun" approach as jfoj has coined. The car is a pleasure to drive, which does not even begin to describe the feeling and I could not imagine how it will feel with the proper maintenance to refresh the car. I want to keep this car forever and have it as the first entry in my collection one day. With that said, I look forward to doing more work on the car and taking more pictures to document the progress. It is going to be a fun journey as the first four years of ownership have been very exciting. I would also like to share it with you guys here on the forums and thank you for creating such a great community with this much knowledge that is readily accessible.
I have more stock pictures in an album on my profile.
She remained stock for about two years until I actually began with the modding. I wanted to do Angel Eyes and LED tails right from the start but my first mod was actually a DICE iPod integration kit. I got tired of shuffling between CDs and burning new ones with new songs I wanted to hear. It's a great unit that runs from the CD changer cable in the trunk of the car to the gear shifter. I have the cable coming through the small hole where the ash tray used to be so it can stay tucked in that cubby hole. I have bought a CoolStream Duo bluetooth adapter to play music in my car after I upgraded my phone because the DICE cable was for a 30-pin Apple device. The adapter works like a charm and now anybody can play music in the car and not just Apple users. Here's a link to the adapter:
http://www.amazon.com/CoolStream-Bluetooth-Receiver-accessories-Motorcycles/dp/B00GHUHMUS
In May 2013, I purchased Predator Orion V2 Opaque Angel Eyes from Umnitza. I got them installed and was very satisfied with the light output. The only complaint I have about them is that they have to be clipped onto the top part of the headlight bowl and therefore do not sit centered with the bowl. Because of this, I had them in for a little over a year before I decided to take them out. Here is a picture of what they looked like:
Shortly after, I did research on doing a xenon headlight retrofit. I have always been attracted to xenon lights and wanted to put them on my car especially. After looking around on forums and sites, I decided to get:
- Bixenon FX-R 3.0 2.5" Projectors
- E-46R Extended Shrouds
- Matsushita Gen V Ballasts
- Morimoto Standalone Can Bus
- D2S Osram Xenarc 66240 CBI Bixenon Bulbs
Here are some pictures taken during the process:
Afterwards, I went to a shop and got 15% window tint on the sides and back. I am pretty happy with the result and after almost two years and have no complaints with them. I also bought some gloss black door pillar covers to go along with the tint. These have scratched pretty bad and will be removing them and polishing up the door pillar trim.
A couple months later I bought a trunk deck lip spoiler and a Euro license plate.
I have also purchased a homelink and retrofitted that to get rid of the garage door opener I had in the car. My car is completely empty inside except for the manuals, registration, and insurance cards in the glove compartment, iPod integration wire in the ash tray, and only the spare tire equipment in the trunk. The next thing on the list are clear corners, side indicators, and Euro-spec clear halogen tail lights. They're a (delayed) birthday present from a friend and will take pictures of them as soon as they go on. As far as mods, this is probably as far as I will go. The car isn't anything special like an M3 so throwing on different wheels or bumpers just would not seem right to me. I considered changing my bumpers to MTech 1 but then I would feel obligated to convert the car to 330i Sport spec. So, maybe I won't bother with that and just buy a 2001 330i Sport later. Eventually, I feel as if I will return everything back to stock (window tint, trunk spoiler) but we will see.
Between when I first got the car and now, I've played my fair share of whack-a-mole in terms of maintenance and repairs. This includes but is not limited to:
- Changing the brake pads
- VANOS seals replacement
- Washer fluid pump replacement
- Replacing one of the window regulators
- Odds and ends of the cooling system as they appeared
- Both rear springs
- Passenger airbag recall
- Temperature gauge reprogramming with P.A. Soft 1.4
Having the car for almost 30,000 miles has slowly urged me to seriously consider taking care of the long delayed and underestimated preventative maintenance measures. The car has been decently reliable so far but if I want it to last or even drive it normally I understand that I am going to have to take better care of it. The car has been good to me overall and I have not been good to it the way it deserves in return. As I am not really interested in modifying it any more at this point I will be focusing on taking the necessary measures of replacing what needs to be done by using the "shotgun" approach as jfoj has coined. The car is a pleasure to drive, which does not even begin to describe the feeling and I could not imagine how it will feel with the proper maintenance to refresh the car. I want to keep this car forever and have it as the first entry in my collection one day. With that said, I look forward to doing more work on the car and taking more pictures to document the progress. It is going to be a fun journey as the first four years of ownership have been very exciting. I would also like to share it with you guys here on the forums and thank you for creating such a great community with this much knowledge that is readily accessible.