E90 Wagon Build (Probably some MR2 content as well)

Hello GRM'ers. I've been lurking around here for a while and GRM has pretty much become the only forum I follow for entertainment and shear wackiness. I figured since I suffer from the same affliction that most of the rest of you do I'd share some of my story so we can all commiserate together. Also there doesn't seem to be a lot of BMW content on here so I figure I'd share.

I've had a few BMW's in the past, 4 now that I think about it, and for the past few years I have been telling my wife that its the one marque that I won't buy again.... well. That didn't last. 

My everday driver is a 2015 Chevy Volt. No car sits in traffic better. I have a 2000 Tundra for doing truck stuff. A motorcycle for sometimes use, and I've had an ongoing 91 MR2 project that is finally nearing "completion" This past winter I decided it was time to cover up the single stage white on the MR2 and finally make it look like it drove. I've painted cars before, not that I'm good at it, but I really wanted to redeem myself this go around. Long story short you all know how arduous body work is and how it can suck the fun out of a project.  During this process I lost out on my fun car, obviously. So like the rest of you I regularly find myself on Craigslist/FB marketplace/eBay etc. One day back in March I find myself looking at a slightly damaged 2007 328i wagon on Copart. I throw a bid at it because I've always thought these things were cool and modern BMW's are a bit like Legos. So lo and behold a week later I get an email saying that I've won the bid. I'm the proud new owner a wrecked grocery getter for $700. After fees it is $1,300, and after delivery from Richmond VA to Charlotte NC it is $1,600 all in. The fun part about this is that the car got delivered while I was on vacation in Portugal. The Wife really loved me taking an hour out of our time to yell at the transport company via skype. Anyways Car shows up like this. 

Pictures of the damage.

Then we take the sawz=all to the local pull-a-part and relieve some poor 325 of some sheet metal. (Yes I know that I cut the washer reservoir. No, I don't care)

Then some spot weld drilling, some hammering, and some welding we get. 

I purchased a repop hood, headlights, and bumper. Everything is from the newer model of 09-2011 3 series. A little bit of an updated look. 

And then everything gets painted to match with a new set of wheels and tires for good measure.

So now I'm into this thing for right at $4k. Car runs and drives fine and doesn't really need much other than some small maintenance things. I contemplate manual swapping it. or selling it because people tell me I have too many cars. Ultimately I find myself bored at work again. This time I consider finding myself a fun little donor car to give the wagon a bit more sportiness. That came in the form of a 2008 135i from Connecticut. 

For those of you that don't know where this is going already...

So why not make something that GRM'ers would like? I have an affliction for wagons. I've had several TDI VW's and my wife has one as well now. I've always liked the audi S4 wagons, but never enough to buy one. BMW never really offered their wagons in anything worth spending the considerable coin on to own. So I decided to build one. Lets take the twin turbo 3.0 six (N54) from a 135/335 and plop it into a black grocery getter. Seems like something I would like and BMW bros would hate. Perfect! Did I mention this will be using the 6 speed manual Getrag gearbox as well? These motors make gobs of torque. Think more big block, less Honda. Peak torque arrives well below 3k RPM with plenty of "area under the curve". Because they are overbuilt and turbo from the factory these engines are extremely easy to tune. Flash tune, intake, exhaust should put this wagon at 350-400 whp and 400-450 ft/lbs of torque. 

Most all of the 1 series and 3 series from this generation share the same basic structures. Same motor mounts, frame rails, etc etc. The way they engineer the cars these days too is in a very modular fashion. I also have access to all of the electronic tools to interface with the BMW electronics. No fog lights, no problem remove it from the cars computer. Don't like the warning disclaimer the car gives you every time you crank it up, lets make that "nicht_aktiv" Going from a auto to a manual, just remove it from the options list in the car's ECU.

The 135 arrives Friday. I'll keep everyone updated as things progress. 

Only the first picture in your first post is showing up, the others require logging in to Google to view?

edited to add:  Thanks, I can see them all now.  It's a handsome car, and I approve of your plans.  

Same here, big blank spaces where the photos would be. I load mine directly from my hard drive to the GRM server and everyone sees them.

Mergh. Fixed.

Same for me initially but after I refreshed the page, all the photos appeared. Watching with interest.  

I like where this is going!

Awesome! Tell us about these electronic tools. Are these available as clones on the gray market or are they expensive? Can you do VIN coding of modules, etc?

In reply to dculberson :

I’m guessing a cable similar to the one at bimmergeeks, a laptop, and NCS expert and NCS dummy. Maybe INPA? They should be pretty easily attainable (legally), and yes, they’ll let you code modules. 

Also, definitely watching this one. I like BMW’s (drive a 128) and i like wagons 

skylarhagler said:

In reply to dculberson :

I’m guessing a cable similar to the one at bimmergeeks, a laptop, and NCS expert and NCS dummy. Maybe INPA? They should be pretty easily attainable (legally), and yes, they’ll let you code modules. 

Correct. A $30 cable and some software basically gives you factory level support for these cars. Similar to the VAGCOM system for VW's. Only it's readily available off the internet.

You can code VIN's to an extent. You cannot simply change the VIN in the security system module. The CAS. That, the ecu, and the key are the security trifecta that will allow the system to work together. I'll basically be swapping those over to the wagon from the convertible then deleting all of the convertible junk out of the options list. 

In reply to Nofive_0 :

Thanks that’s very useful info. Can you vin code other can bus modules? In making a big assumption that’s bmw followed Mercedes lead and has vin coded instrument clusters and the like. Star Diagnostics can vin code Mercedes modules but is pricey. It would be good to know of a comparable setup for modern bmws. 

Sub'd. I picked up an 2007 e91 through IAAI last year. Clean title, Xi, and unfortunately a slush box. I will be watching this with keen interest.

I have been eyeing an e90 wagon as a nice daily in a couple of years when my lease is up, so I'll definitely be following along. Love the work you did to bring that thing back to form!

Did they make a 335i wagon from the factory? Seems like a missed opportunity if they didn't.

dculberson said:

In reply to Nofive_0 :

Thanks that’s very useful info. Can you vin code other can bus modules? In making a big assumption that’s bmw followed Mercedes lead and has vin coded instrument clusters and the like. Star Diagnostics can vin code Mercedes modules but is pricey. It would be good to know of a comparable setup for modern bmws. 

I assume you can vin code each and every module although I've never had to. There is an option in the program to "process car" which basically reads and writes from the main CAS and ECU. BMW NCSExpert and INPA are similar to STAR, but because they are both essentially bootleg factory software programs it isn't as simple as buying a scanner and checking some boxes. Some basic computer knowledge will be needed. However, there is a ton of information out there to use as a resource and as long as you can follow instructions you should be able to get the programs running pretty easily. 

Changing info in a cluster can be a little tricky as BMW is trying to prevent odometer fraud. Depending on what your trying to do you may have to "virginize" the cluster which involves resoldering an eprom chip. 

Light reading here. http://www.bmwcoding.com/

Eurotrash_Ranch said:

Sub'd. I picked up an 2007 e91 through IAAI last year. Clean title, Xi, and unfortunately a slush box. I will be watching this with keen interest.

Swapping them is pretty easy. The RWD trans is shared with the e46 6 speeds, I'm pretty sure the AWD version is too. Along with lots of things like master and slave cylinders etc.  

artur1808 said:

I have been eyeing an e90 wagon as a nice daily in a couple of years when my lease is up, so I'll definitely be following along. Love the work you did to bring that thing back to form!

Did they make a 335i wagon from the factory? Seems like a missed opportunity if they didn't.

They did, we just didn't get it here in N/A. They also made a 335d wagon which would be awesome in it's own right. e90 wagon with 600ft/lbs of clatteriness would be pretty sweet. 

There is an excellent parts website (realoem.com) for finding BMW parts fiche. They show all models EU/NA and all. This makes it easy to figure out what swaps between what models. 

Nice! I've had three E91s (and also an E90, for a total of 4 E9x cars), they're without a doubt my favorite vehicle made.  My current wagon is a 2009 Sport/RWD/Auto model in black, I like it a lot.  I'd post a pic, but it looks a lot like yours, just without the M-sport bumper and the cool wheels.  

I'm very interested to see how the N54 swap goes.  The N54 isn't exactly known to be the most reliable motor on the face of the planet, but it doesn't seem like you're too shy about working on a vehicle! 

rothwem said:

Nice! I've had three E91s (and also an E90, for a total of 4 E9x cars), they're without a doubt my favorite vehicle made.  My current wagon is a 2009 Sport/RWD/Auto model in black, I like it a lot.  I'd post a pic, but it looks a lot like yours, just without the M-sport bumper and the cool wheels.  

I'm very interested to see how the N54 swap goes.  The N54 isn't exactly known to be the most reliable motor on the face of the planet, but it doesn't seem like you're too shy about working on a vehicle! 

Fingers crossed the motor is OK in the donor car. If the turbos are shot I may just have to choke down a new set of turbos. I plan on doing all the maintenance pieces while the motor is out and it's easy. 

The E91 is truly beautiful. Shame the US never got the 335i version of it.

Or how they brought RWD and AWD E91s to the US, but opted to only being AWD E61s to the US...

As OK as the N52 engine is, that N54/55 is a much cooler beast and makes me wish I spent the extra money on a wagon with that instead.

Nofive_0 said:

rothwem said:

Nice! I've had three E91s (and also an E90, for a total of 4 E9x cars), they're without a doubt my favorite vehicle made.  My current wagon is a 2009 Sport/RWD/Auto model in black, I like it a lot.  I'd post a pic, but it looks a lot like yours, just without the M-sport bumper and the cool wheels.  

I'm very interested to see how the N54 swap goes.  The N54 isn't exactly known to be the most reliable motor on the face of the planet, but it doesn't seem like you're too shy about working on a vehicle! 

Fingers crossed the motor is OK in the donor car. If the turbos are shot I may just have to choke down a new set of turbos. I plan on doing all the maintenance pieces while the motor is out and it's easy. 

Yeah that makes sense.  I don't know much about the N54, so everything I know about it is second hand. Supposedly the N54 eats injectors and the water pump housing is plastic and right next to the turbos so it suffers some heat problems.  The WP/thermostat will be MUUCH easier to change with the engine out.  Probably worth doing the PCV system, valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket and oil filter housing gasket too while its out. 

One of the funny things about the N54 is that the turbos are SOO small, like softball sized, and the turbine wheel is not much bigger than a quarter in diameter.  I'd never seen a turbo that small before.  Itty bitty baby turbos...

dculberson said:

In reply to Nofive_0 :

Thanks that’s very useful info. Can you vin code other can bus modules? In making a big assumption that’s bmw followed Mercedes lead and has vin coded instrument clusters and the like. Star Diagnostics can vin code Mercedes modules but is pricey. It would be good to know of a comparable setup for modern bmws. 

Yes, you can code the other modules. I've seen guys do all sorts of stuff, from changing the oil pressure guage to a MPG guage (and vice versa) to enabling the bluetooth audio streaming by swapping in the needed module and coding the car to know it was there. You can change all the traction control and electronic nanny settings too. Seems like there really isn't much (if anything) that you can't code.

Brilliant!  

I've owned an N54 135i manual with a bunch of Dinan goodies thrown at it and that drivetrain is absolutely stellar.  

I now own an E90 335D with the fabulous M57 diesel freight train engine as my daily commuter (with a tune and some mods thrown at it as well).  

Either drivetrain into a wagon would be a great swap.  A guy named Bradley Tourt recently did a full M57 swap on the Facebook diesel pages I follow into a wagon.  An N54 car with a manual would be great fun as well.  The N54's have a bad rep for expensive high maintenance needs, but are actually incredibly stout structurally and can make huge power.  It's the dumb external stuff that can chew the wallet of the non DIY crowd.  

You likely already know this, but continuing on the Legos structure, you can similarly buy full M3 control arm kits and things like subframe bushings to dial the handling and camber and such up a bit and they bolt right up.  I did the M3 front control arm upgrade when it was time for maintenance and really liked the improvement.  Not sure the rear is of any real benefit, but I've heard subframe bushings are a worthwhile upgrade.  I never got around to that.  

I like wagons (lots of subarus and honda since 80s and 90s) and I love mr2s (original owner of 94 and 95). 

Current wagon is tsx. 

I will be following this with great interest.