Kentucky Crew - 2011 Chat

Just wanted to pop in and say Hi from Lexington. Just bought my 04 330ci back in December from Joseph Porsche up in Cincy. Bought a Boxster from Swope BMW in Louisville several years back, kinda a bit of irony there.

Originally Posted by RT_E46inKY

Just wanted to pop in and say Hi from Lexington. Just bought my 04 330ci back in December from Joseph Porsche up in Cincy. Bought a Boxster from Swope BMW in Louisville several years back, kinda a bit of irony there.

I like your sense of irony sir.

PICS of both please

Originally Posted by RT_E46inKY

Just wanted to pop in and say Hi from Lexington. Just bought my 04 330ci back in December from Joseph Porsche up in Cincy. Bought a Boxster from Swope BMW in Louisville several years back, kinda a bit of irony there.

I work in Lexington. You might see me cruising New Circle Road around lunch time.

I just uploaded some pics to Picasa, so lets see how this works out..


I went from this:


to this one :

to this one:


and finally to this one:


I've omitted a few boring cars, just posted a few of the "interesting" ones.

That's a sexy boxster you have there. I almost got one myself.

The Boxster was a lot of fun, the lack of a backseat was the only "issue" I had with it.

How was the reliability of the motor? I've heard Porsches are surprisingly reliable, but expensive if they actually do have an issue.

Originally Posted by 330CiJohn

How was the reliability of the motor? I've heard Porsches are surprisingly reliable, but expensive if they actually do have an issue.

I heard the exact opposite of their reliability...

The main thing I heard was that the early Boxster motors could just flat out fail due to some internal issue. The only fix was a replacement. Later ones supposedly don't have this issue.

RMS failures doomed a lot of the early cars. Usually would hit before 30k miles. I bought mine with around 60k and sold under 65k after a year and a half. Only issue I had was an $800 water pump job. My 911 had over 227k when I sold it, and never had any major work done.

Anyone know where to get a good wheel balance done. Having some high speed vibration issues

Speaking of suspension issues... I just took my car into the shop (yes, I know I have failed ) to figure out why my car clunks and what needs to be done to bring it up to speed. It seems:

LCA bushings are going out.
Shocks / Struts are pretty much worn
Tires are f'ed (already knew this)

They wanted $2,478 to replace these three items. I said "I'll think about it," which was a nice way of saying: "No thanks, I'm gonna get on the forum and DIY it."

So after some research...





I already ordered the Meyle bushings today. To me, that is the highest priority. My pets are getting sick so the rest may stay on hold. What is great about the Cup kit is that it will lower my car a little bit but not too much where I will have to watch everywhere I drive.

If you're getting clunking you may also want to check the sway bar links. I replaced all the front end parts you mentioned and then some and it wound up being the sway bar end links. The front end pieces that I replaced needed replacing but I thought that would take care of the clunk

The guy suggested those too, but when he showed me the play in the control arm bushings I went so I definitely know that is a huge culprit!

Yay for multi-thousand dollar repairs lol.

On a brighter note, I'm really eyeing the E9x M3 wheels. I would love to have those.

Yeah if I took it to the shop I'd be done for. I feel like while this car can be a PITA to maintain, it has taught me a lot I can carry on to future car purchases

I don't see the tires as a big deal, because I've already put a ton of miles on my current setup. I'm ready for some real rubber versus these Fuzions though. After doing some research my shocks/struts really are screwed though.

The H&R Cupkit should lower my car by .75 F / .25 R. I'm not into Stance Nation, so this is more than enough for me. I think it is cool BMWs come with such little wheel gap already from the factory.

Originally Posted by 330CiJohn

Yeah if I took it to the shop I'd be done for. I feel like while this car can be a PITA to maintain, it has taught me a lot I can carry on to future car purchases

I don't see the tires as a big deal, because I've already put a ton of miles on my current setup. I'm ready for some real rubber versus these Fuzions though. After doing some research my shocks/struts really are screwed though.

The H&R Cupkit should lower my car by .75 F / .25 R. I'm not into Stance Nation, so this is more than enough for me. I think it is cool BMWs come with such little wheel gap already from the factory.

Before and afters of the drop! I'm thinking about going with the Bilstein Sports and then either the HR race springs or HR sport springs. Your pics will help me decide lol.

Originally Posted by ice2003

Before and afters of the drop! I'm thinking about going with the Bilstein Sports and then either the HR race springs or HR sport springs. Your pics will help me decide lol.

I'll definitely grab a few pics. It may be a month before I get the kit, due to my pet

Hi, checking in from Crescent Hill. A couple of questions for the group:
1) Who do you like for maintenance and why? My 06 330CiC hit 50k recently and I know it's time to start thinking about preventative stuff. Stein?, Mike Johns? Who does the best work at reasonable prices? My previous car was a Passat and I really like the Volksdoktor, but think I probably want to find a BMW specialist.
2) Who do you like for alignments and what do they charge? I put a set of snows on the car in December, but didn't do an alignment, which I need to do. What I appreciated was that the Goodyear store on Bardstown Rd. where I had them installed (purchased at Tire Rack) said they couldn't do an alignment because they didn't have the weights. They'll be seeing other business from me because they weren't afraid to admit what they couldn't do.
3) Now that Spring is on the horizon (I hope!) I need to get a set of wheels/tires to swap for the snows. I asked back on page 1 or so, but if anyone has wheels for sale let me know. Looking for 17s or 18s. Preference would be CSL reps or Style 71s, but would consider other stuff.

Thanks, Jim

I live in the southern part of KY so my shops are all too far away for you but people are selling wheels and tire combos in the Classifieds section. I would look there first.