BMW 135i – Rieger Rear Diffuser Install
I finally got around to installing these two cosmetic parts that have been sitting in my garage. I bought the Rieger diffuser used and the carbon fiber hydrodip was fading. Time to get to work!
Sanded it down with some high-grit sandpaper and setup a ghetto booth in the shop’s bathroom.
Put down a few coats of primer and then started spraying Plastidip.
I put a bunch of coats of Plastidip on and it looks great! The finish is a real nice matte black and it seems very durable. The diffuser didn’t come with any mesh, so I went to Home Depot and bought a roll of black gutter guard. It was really cheap, only like $2 or $3. Cut it to size and hot glued it to the back.
Once I installed the diffuser, the exhaust tips were sunk in behind the bumper. Since this is an aggressive diffuser, I had to get them extended. The tips were always a bit crooked, so this was a great excuse to get everything straightened out.
Here is a picture I took shortly after buying the car. You can see that the exhaust tips were melting the factory diffuser because they were pushed up against it.
And here are some photos I took after installing the Rieger diffuser:
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My rear Rieger rear diffuser melted :/. After getting the Ark cat back exhaust installed along with the Rieger rear diffuser a weld on the exhaust broke causing the muffler tips to push up on my diffuser. It melted very quickley along with part of my rear bumper. Ark has since given me a whole new cat back exhaust that I haven’t opened yet due to the idea of purchasing a 1m rear bumper and rear diffuser. If I do that I’ll need to get a custom exhaust done. Have any places you recommend in the area for custom exhaust?
Damon, I’m not sure where you live. I can’t recommend anyone because I haven’t needed any custom exhaust work. Eventually I’d like to cut out a section of my Rieger and run a quad exhaust…
I live in Green Bay, we had a mutual acquaintance
Ah, that’s right. When I’ve needed small exhaust work, I just had my buddies take care of it. You could ask Beyond Redline if they do custom exhaust work. If not, ask them who they recommend in the area.
Awesome! Thanks, I’ll check them out for sure!
Looks awesome! Thank you for this website! I am currently waiting to go from my NA6 Miata to an 08 135i! Waiting on the air-bag recall to be performed, then shes mine!!
Nice, I came from a 1996 Miata that was boosted. Fun little cars, but the BMW is awesome.
I like all the work you’ve done, I was curious what suspension setup you were running?
Josh,
Thank you! I’m running Eibach Pro-Kit springs on the stock M-Sport dampers.
Love those apex wheels that you have, what offset are they? Thinking about getting some for my 135
They are ET45 in the front and ET62 in the back. I’ve added a 10mm spacer in the back though. You can buy the same wheels here: https://bit.ly/2LJxkrx
Love those apex wheels you have. What offset are you running? Thinking about getting some for my 135i
They are ET45 in the front and ET62 in the back. I’ve added a 10mm spacer in the back though. You can buy the same wheels here: https://bit.ly/2LJxkrx