New guy from seattle.

[Kirkzor]

whats up guys.

My name is Kirk, I got my 1995 BMW 318ti for christmas this year (5 speed manual cloth seats) and i saw your website just the other day and decided to sign up .


anyone on here in the seattle/washington area? i've only seen about one or two other ti's around the area, but you never know.

I'm 16 and i got a job last month, so now that i have a nice solid flow of money coming in i'm going to start modding my car. First thing up is intake, which my friend and i are probably just going to custom fabricate and put a K&N filter on =) (i have a K&N filtercharger on it now, its just in a stupid box and i need a cold air intake)

i considered spending a lot more and getting one from bavarian auto...but i'd rather spend like 90 bucks and a couple hours of time to fab one than 250 + shipping to buy one.

so anyway, any suggested mods that i could do on a 7.45 an hour budget?

thanks guys.

[cali-ti]

welcome kirk! nice christmas gift!

fairly cheap: solid metal ball joints (meyle, available at bavauto.com), rear shock mounts (aka RSMs, can get bmw e46 cabrio RSMs + reinforcements), e30 or e36 m3 offset lower control arm bushings (LCABs), x-brace, e36 325 or 328 front calipers/rotors ... that should get you started

[97Hellrot318ti]

Originally Posted by Kirkzor

i considered spending a lot more and getting one from bavarian auto...but i'd rather spend like 90 bucks and a couple hours of time to fab one than 250 + shipping to buy one.

Hey, welcome aboard! About the fab... you may want to consider "Fogging" your airbox if you are a Do It Yourself kind of person. Also it's much cheaper. It's supposed to be pretty simple, and the addition of CAIs has long been a matter of contention on this site. Many say you can actually lose power from putting on a CAI. If you are dead set on a cheap CAI though, you can get a COSMO Racing CAI on E-Bay for less than a hundred, most likely. Search for "Fogging" the airbox on this forum, you should get plenty of info.

[Kirkzor]

nice start guys, thanks for the quick replies.

fogging my airbox will definately be one of the first things i do then. i was thinking more along the lines of performance upgrades before suspension and brakes and such, but all these are great ideas.

i'm probably going to work on my exhaust and get a chip after this.

keep 'em comin guys.

[Tyler]

Hey there Welcome to the site.....

[cali-ti]

what do you mean by "performance upgrades"? fogging your box and new exhaust won't gain you much (not with our 4s), but they're certainly a place to start. the suspension mods i listed are upgrades to weak points (ball joints, RSMs) and performance upgrades to other areas (LCABs, 325/8 front brakes, x-brace) for not a whole lot of money. a new exhaust will be like $600. x-brace is $110 and will significantly improve your handling. my used 325/8 calipers were $55 (rebuild kits weren't too bad, some caliper paint, etc won't cost you too much). i can understand if you want to start with easier things though (get the feet wet and all). unfortunately, unless you do engine internals or forced induction, not much will get your more HP from the 4. make sure you keep up with maintenance items so you don't get bitten later.

[Turo]

Yeah, definitely one of the better x-mas gifts..... Welcome to the site, I am sure you will have a lot of fun with your ti. I am from Seattle (well, actually Bellevue) and you're right, you don't see too many of these ti-s aroud here. Mine is 98 ascot green, 5-speed and I got it new back then; one of the last non-sport ti's that got to the U.S. I had made up my mind that one day I will own a BMW and when I heard that the ti is going to be discontinued, I made my move. I found this non-sunroof car in California, where the dealer had difficulties selling it. Well, you don't need a sunroof in Seattle and I got the car, never regretted the buy and never will sell this cutie.

[m44ic]

hey good luck on the intake, I fabbed a custom one myself, I guess great minds think a like . If you want to take a look to get some ideas you can take a peek at my cardomain link below, BTW I dont care if you copy me a little, I dont have a copyright, yet j/k

[Kirkzor]

yeh i realize that the 4 will never really put out that much power, i'm never going to go above 200 on this car, its just too expensive for such little gain.

thanks again for hte list cali, i'll definately be doing those mods first, are all of them DIY? or should i be using shops to do this stuff?

keep in mind i'm 16 and have nil car modding/working experience beyond basic maintenance.

[cali-ti]

hey, you're getting started on "car stuff" waaaaaaaayyyyy before i ever did! good for you

what tools do you have now? jack, jack stands, torque wrench? decent work space? do you have bentley and/or haynes manual yet? i would consider these as basic requirements (above the even more basic tools like sockets, ratchets, breaker bar, etc) and if you don't have those yet, get those first. if you read the section of the manual covering removal/reinstallation of any particular thing and don't feel comfortable doing it, i would say have a shop do it. here are my OPINIONS of the things i've mentioned:

1) ball joints/LCABs - i had a shop do them (my ti is my daily driver and i can't be without it, nor do i have some of the tools most likely needed for these)
2) RSMs - i would think you should be able to do this. basically jack up the back, put it on jack stands (under subframe), disconnect sway bar end links from trailing arms, disconnect top of the shocks, let the trailing arm swing down and then replace the RSMs)
3) x-brace: there are detailed instructions, check in the suspension forums. requires installation of nutserts, but otherwise is unbolt old straight bar, bolt in x-brace (front will be on jack stands or ramps this time).
4) 325/8 brake upgrade: brakes require some specialized tools for bleeding (which you would HAVE to do after this job) - either a pressure bleeder, vacuum bleeder or (what i'm going to try) speed bleeders (as a backup, i'm having my friend bring his pressure bleeder too ). also need access to an air compressor and some other things for rebuilding the brakes (have to pop out the pistons from the calipers IF you rebuild them). i'll let you know more about this job after i've done it, hehe. should be within a month (calipers aren't back from the powdercoater yet).

if you have ANY questions about how to do something, just looking for tips-n-tricks or gotchas doing any maintenance item, post 'em here and there are a number of good resources to help you out (i'm learning, but i'm no expert - we have some seriously experienced people on here).

a good resource for part information and possibly how something goes together: www.realoem.com/bmw (you'll need the last 7 digits of your VIN)

[97Hellrot318ti]

Oh... and BTW, in case no one has mentioned it yet, if you DO want to go close to/above 100hp, the most cost-effective route is probably saving your money for a Downing-Atlanta Supercharger (DASC). Don't waste 100 bucks here, 200 there for a couple of years. Keep putting money away for the DASC. If memory serves, retail is about $3500, but if you manage to get in on a group by it could go down to 3000, possibly lower.

OH! And as far as parts... by May 6th I should have the 2004 EPC (Electronic Parts Catalogue), I noticed someone mentioned part listings and stuff. I should be a big help with that once I get the software.

[Kirkzor]

-sigh- owning a 318ti really isn't fair :\


for like half the price of the supercharger for my car, my jagoff friend with some civic can be pushing 300 hp to the wheels


but he doesn't drive a bmw , people give you props for that at least.

[cali-ti]

and? it's still a civic. it's not about what symbol is on your car anyway, it's about WHY you drive it. i don't care that a roundel is on my car, i drive it because of what it DOES. i could mod a mustang to the point where it was more powerful than a ferrari too, but which one would i rather own and drive? drive what you like and who cares about anyone else? i don't drive my car as a status symbol ... actually, i've found people get funny sometimes when they even find out you drive a bmw (even when it is only a damn little 4-cylinder hatch!) so i do my best not to even tell people until thet get to know me. people are wonky ...

[robcarync]

its true...i hear all the time "bmw? you must be rich or influenced by prestonites (people from the local country club 'preston')'

as for the roundel...i love the logo...not sure why...i first saw a bmw car in like 7th grade...and have been in love with the logo ever since! and the cars too!

[gadgetphreak]

Welcome Kirkzor, where in Seattle are you from?

I am located in the Redmond area, that makes about 5 seattle-ites I can think of now on this board. We may have to do a get together one weekend and hang out a bit.

Welcome to the board.

Cheers,
Gadget