Ok Guys time for a ton of updates, maintenance and some cosmetic upgrades that I have been busy with over the last couple of months:
First off some general maintenance.
My car has always been a bit klangy and loose feeling, metalic knocking sounds and stuff when turning slowly into driveways and over speed bumps etc.
Well it turns out my control arms and engine mounts (Engine mounts in my turbo DIY thread) were loooooooong overdue to be replaced. so I decided to change upper and lower control arms, the entire control arms with the bushes.
New
one of the old ones:
and fitted:
So I had some issue with my rear brakes that kept wearing on the left side prematurely and then this happened:
So I organised new rear discs and pads:
Didn't take pics of the discs fitted unfortunately but they in and nice and shiney new and feel great!
Then this happened the one day. got back to my car in the parking lot and saw a nice puddle of oil:
These photos were taken after I moved my car to get the car ready for the flatbed to come collect:
Dropping my baby off at my house. Such a sad sight this was!
Jacked the car up to take a look at wtf was going on here:
Turns out the clowns that fitted my front msport bumper broke the oil cooler bracket and cable tied it back thinking id never notice :rage: So basically the broken bracket rubbed a hole into the oil cooler as you can see in the following pic to this:
Needless to say this caused a serious mess in my garage and engine bay.
Anyways: R7200 later for the new oem oil cooler and oil:
and here I installed it with the new bracket nicely:
Right now for some cosmetic upgrades and fixes:
My rear left rim kept cracking, I had it fixed once and it lasted a few months and then cracks came back, So I paid Shaheen at the wheel shop a visit and he repaired them and I had him change the colour to a colour he calls hyper black.
Rim being cut and a stronger half welded on:
The finished product:
On the car being fitted:
I like the colour mostly, but some days I don't as I think they perhaps make the rims look a little smaller but ill see how I feel after a few more months.
Love how this pic came out :smilebounce:
Time to sort out O2 sensor issues.
So the o2 sensors on this car have been a hassle for ages so I finally decided to tackle this on my own and so I came up with a plan.
First off here are some of the parts I bought first:
Let me just say that if you are in the market to buy o2 sensors DON'T buy this FAE KAK brand shit! it lasted a whole hour and then just started rising into the red making my car run lean and almost die, luckily I monitor my car like a hawk with either JB4 or MHD and saw this and ripped that #scrap out my nice car and replaced with the old black o2 sensor that wasn't giving me too much hassle in the first place.
Right now that that's cleared up onto the more interesting stuff. Apparently those lucky americans are able to change o2 sensors from the top due to not having a steering rack in the way, so I decided that I will show them up and do the south african make a plan way and do it with a steering rack in the way from the top, so I got my dremel out and cut this mofo in half! :smilebounce:
Low and behold I got this sucker out! :tiptoe:
Amazing what you can do when determination sets in and you already got it loose and can't stop now :biglol:
old vs new:
Getting them in, well that was another story, I struggled for hours as I should have put the opposite one in first then the other, oh well we live and we learn, now im pro at this shit and I get these things in and out in around 10 mins :smilebounce:
Right onto my door, this drivers door always had this terrible rattle when closing it and opening it and I never really looked into why till the one day I was adamant on getting my doors to open and close nicely like I felt on another E89, so I started fiddling and I found out very quickly that the door wasn't really clipped on correctly. So I ordered these from bmw:
and then proceeded to strip my door panel off!
This what I found! far too few and all different colour's so my door panel was very loose!
Anyways now my door opens and closes beautifully, however I also adjusted the latch and greased it up, so my door feels very solid now.
And now for one of my favorite upgrades to my car ever!
I FINALLY managed to find a msport steering wheel for my car!

raise:
it was a little dirty and shiney so I will show how I fixed that and the result
These little miracle sponges
after cleaning but still wet
my old steering wheel state! :thumbdo:
old vs new!
and Fitted, gawd this made a HUGE difference to the feel of the car. for me personally the steering wheel is one of the most important parts as its how you engage with the car!