As the title says, i'm new here, and i gotta say i'm really impressed with the number of people here and all the posts - i'll be reading through this lot for hours and hours!
A bit about me... 30 years old, from Wiltshire, bought my first beemer 2 years ago, a 318iS and i am totally hooked on em
I haven't really done anything to the car in that time except drive it and get it through it's MOTs. Now however, i'm saving up to spend some wedge on my baby and thought i would check to see if i'm on the right tracks...Pic first though
This was just after i bought it, and the front valance and lip are now covered in stone chips
i've fitted fog lamps, and the front of the bonnet is rusting quite badly where it's rolled under. I've also fitted the OBC from a 320e but the backlight is still dead and i haven't sorted that out yet. It had a bit of front end bending before i got it - the valance behind the front left wheel is bent inwards, and the bumper mount on the right is kinked up slightly meaning the bumper is uneven left to right and slopes down slightly towards the RHS wheel arch. Engine-wise she seems ok apart from a really nasty noise between 2700 and 3500rpm or so...So, first off, the engine noise - i'm hoping that an M44 timing chain tensioner will stop that but wanted to check that's the right part for my car.
Once i have around £1000 spare to spend i'm planning on buying Bilstein Sports shocks and H&R 30mm lowering springs (the front shocks are completely gone already) - is the iS lower than normal already? ie. will it really be 30mm lower, or less than that? And will i need to adjust the camber at all? Also going to have the bends sorted out, the rust spots repaired (bonnet replaced probably as it's pretty bad), wheels (the original ones afaik) stripped and powder coated as they're in poor condition atm, and lastly paintwork touched up and machine polished. I'm hoping i can get all this done for not much over a grand - though all the work will be done by a place near Bristol, not by myself.
So what do you think? Worthwhile to upgrade the suspension and a decent choice of parts for this car? (bearing in mind i need new shocks anyway). And any info you'd care to offer
Hopefully be getting all this done in the next couple of months so plenty of time to change my mind...
