[lightning]

oh ya, and not to mention, his "on-the-spot" investigation included taking out his pipe to smoke. and all it took was 1-2 mins. was that a proper investigation? Did they take the parts and traced the root of the problem? NO. They just came to push away their responsibility. How can you determine whether the supercharger broke because of FOD in just 1-2 mins? He must be working for NASA crash investigation if he was THAT good. NASA will probably pay him much better.

[lightning]

btw just to add on, i did not even speak to them about the amount to be compensated. And they dare say that it was a large amount? FYI, i paid for all the repair cost. and have not even sent them a bill.. I think i've been to generous to them.

So i think it's not very nice for me when people come here and say that i demanded a LARGE AMOUNT REFUND. which they can't even put a figure to. All i am asking is a refund for the product that i paid. Not fair? no?

[matrix76]

Originally Posted by DimSum

Another update, Arma mentioned that they have a plug and play ECU system with the right mappings for our cars. It is easy to install. Will find out the pricing and how is the installation.

Now that the Super Charger issue is over is the ECU mapping availabale. If so is it a duplication of the BMS PowerBox?

[scedbimmertoy]

Time to try out their ECU remapping system and burn your expensive ECU up. I have contacted some of my friends who live in Taiwan to investigate how ARMA manufacturers its superchargers.

[lightning]

Originally Posted by scedbimmertoy

Time to try out their ECU remapping system and burn your expensive ECU up. I have contacted some of my friends who live in Taiwan to investigate how ARMA manufacturers its superchargers.

Any luck?

[davidykhor]

They are using a dastek dyno, most likely this is a unichip piggyback.

[Daniel_E92]

Performance upgrade

Hi. My name is Daniel. From Malaysia, kuala Lumpur.
I'm driving a BMW 325i (E92) year 2007.
I Want my car to go faster. I've upgraded full exhaust down pipe and extractor. Performance chips by sprint booster for throttle control. Power chip for remapping to map 3. BMC air filters. In my country most of the technicians are dumb. They say that's all can be done, no more.

But I certainly believe you guys have a way to introduce me something that can overcome my thoughts. I hope you do shipping to my country. So is there anything that can be done?
When my car was stock engine it's running at 190HP.
Now after spending so much money it only went up to 210HP.

I believe it's a waste of money spend only upgrading additional 20HP.

I'm looking forward to at least 350 - 400HP. Is it possible?

Thanks for reading my mail.

Daniel,

[flinchy]

Originally Posted by Daniel_E92

Performance upgrade

Hi. My name is Daniel. From Malaysia, kuala Lumpur.
I'm driving a BMW 325i (E92) year 2007.
I Want my car to go faster. I've upgraded full exhaust down pipe and extractor. Performance chips by sprint booster for throttle control. Power chip for remapping to map 3. BMC air filters. In my country most of the technicians are dumb. They say that's all can be done, no more.

But I certainly believe you guys have a way to introduce me something that can overcome my thoughts. I hope you do shipping to my country. So is there anything that can be done?
When my car was stock engine it's running at 190HP.
Now after spending so much money it only went up to 210HP.

I believe it's a waste of money spend only upgrading additional 20HP.

I'm looking forward to at least 350 - 400HP. Is it possible?

Thanks for reading my mail.

Daniel,

this is not the official thread, ARMA has been found to be unreliable however, there is no other supercharger option, there are 2 in development however

the only other real option would be an N54 swap which would cost in the range of $10,000 (engine and gearbox and ECU, the whole lot) if you can find a wrecking 335/135

20 horsepower at the wheels is not bad simply for exhaust - so you have done CATLESS headers and cat delete cat back? i'd expect slightly more than 20 all told as the headers alone have been shown to gain up to 15whp - have you done the 3-stage manifold swap and a tune? it would get you easily another 20 horsepower.

there are some other (expensive) modifications such as 3.2 Litre stroker kit replacing pistons, this would gain another 30~ horsepower.. most other modifications would be completely custom though, without a supercharger it would cost around the $15,000 USD mark to get to the 350-400hp goal.. and even with, it's still cheaper to swap in an N54.

[DimSum]

they posted a video of a F10 535i vs the E60530 ARMA.

damn not bad.... but still can't really trust their workmanship..

[mapleridge]

I wish they were more transparent with their design and issues. It really is the only option.

[Kaiser Tseng]

Originally Posted by I3aby

+11111111111

+1

[tIANCi]

Originally Posted by Daniel_E92

Performance upgrade

Hi. My name is Daniel. From Malaysia, kuala Lumpur.
I'm driving a BMW 325i (E92) year 2007.
I Want my car to go faster. I've upgraded full exhaust down pipe and extractor. Performance chips by sprint booster for throttle control. Power chip for remapping to map 3. BMC air filters. In my country most of the technicians are dumb. They say that's all can be done, no more.

But I certainly believe you guys have a way to introduce me something that can overcome my thoughts. I hope you do shipping to my country. So is there anything that can be done?
When my car was stock engine it's running at 190HP.
Now after spending so much money it only went up to 210HP.

I believe it's a waste of money spend only upgrading additional 20HP.

I'm looking forward to at least 350 - 400HP. Is it possible?

Thanks for reading my mail.

Daniel,

Daniel ... me would like to get another 50 WHP ... I would be happy with that. Hehehehe ...

[Alpinweiss130]

Hi there from Spain,

I own an e87 130i and decided to go SC 2 years ago. I wish I had found this thread then, before wasting more than 9K $ in this 'wonderful' chinese SC... And trust me I don't earn much money (was saving for over 1 year)

In my case, I was upset since the moment I unpacked by noticing the poor materials i just have purchased; an 80's design huge supercharger, parallel injectors in air intake instead of proper direct replacement injectors, etc. But you know when you are at that point your eyes blinking you just don t give it the matter it really has, so I went on and installed it.

First run: no power. Two leaks in FMIC, so went fixing it and reported it to ARMA. They easily replied with cheap talk and humbly apologies... I didn't want to be a pain in their ass so I simply went on.

Second run: oh finally! car was amazing it seemed that finally I had achieved my SC N52... Everything was going smoothly till 2weeks later, when coils started to fail (replaced them all just in case), engine leaking oil, etc.

So after 9K $ spent, 2 weeks using it for not even 600 miles, I did not hesitate to remove everything inmediately, holding just manifold and middle exhaust, and that was one year ago. At that moment I was so frustated I just didn't feel like go fighting with anyone by email from Spain to Taiwan, I was not going to lose my energies as I was pretty sure what the result was going to be; cheap talk.

Now I thought I could maybe get some money back by saling it by ebay or sthg, so I was looking around internet to have an idea of what a fair price could be... And found this thread. I consider I am a honest person, so I could never sale this SC kit to anyone knowing what I now know, it wouldn't be fair for the buyer.

I just found necessary to join in because, even though I have noticed this is an old thread, I wish that at least my experience may be useful for any guy planning to go SC his N52. My suggestion is going for suspension, brakes, etc plus exhaust, air intake, cluth, and ECU worked on dyno, as I did. That will make you fall in love again with this 6 inline which is an extraordinary engine.

Best Regards,

[Jay_Bimmer]

very brave of you to try this, good work !

[Mavus]

Originally Posted by Alpinweiss130

Hi there from Spain,

I own an e87 130i and decided to go SC 2 years ago. I wish I had found this thread then, before wasting more than 9K $ in this 'wonderful' chinese SC... And trust me I don't earn much money (was saving for over 1 year)

In my case, I was upset since the moment I unpacked by noticing the poor materials i just have purchased; an 80's design huge supercharger, parallel injectors in air intake instead of proper direct replacement injectors, etc. But you know when you are at that point your eyes blinking you just don t give it the matter it really has, so I went on and installed it.

First run: no power. Two leaks in FMIC, so went fixing it and reported it to ARMA. They easily replied with cheap talk and humbly apologies... I didn't want to be a pain in their ass so I simply went on.

Second run: oh finally! car was amazing it seemed that finally I had achieved my SC N52... Everything was going smoothly till 2weeks later, when coils started to fail (replaced them all just in case), engine leaking oil, etc.

So after 9K $ spent, 2 weeks using it for not even 600 miles, I did not hesitate to remove everything inmediately, holding just manifold and middle exhaust, and that was one year ago. At that moment I was so frustated I just didn't feel like go fighting with anyone by email from Spain to Taiwan, I was not going to lose my energies as I was pretty sure what the result was going to be; cheap talk.

Now I thought I could maybe get some money back by saling it by ebay or sthg, so I was looking around internet to have an idea of what a fair price could be... And found this thread. I consider I am a honest person, so I could never sale this SC kit to anyone knowing what I now know, it wouldn't be fair for the buyer.

I just found necessary to join in because, even though I have noticed this is an old thread, I wish that at least my experience may be useful for any guy planning to go SC his N52. My suggestion is going for suspension, brakes, etc plus exhaust, air intake, cluth, and ECU worked on dyno, as I did. That will make you fall in love again with this 6 inline which is an extraordinary engine.

Best Regards,

Thank you for sharing your experience!! The most importnat thing is you removed it and did not have permanent engine damage.

Active Autowerke tried to develop SC for N52 and they had issues. After that I knew nobody else will be able to do it except maybe BMW of course. AA also has an excellent tune that many NA folks have installed. I can tell you form my personal experience that Dinan parts, AA tune, light weight wheels (like Apex) and M3 bits transform this car. These parts work so well and are very reliable. I don't mind paying for quality parts and a piece of mind.

You can go even further by installing carbon fiber body parts including roof and race seats to decrease weight even further but it is expensive. This would be an awesome set-up.

GL with your mods and keep u updated. This forum has a ton of good info. Also, LSD is one of the best mods ... it's a slippery slope :-)

[cuco]

Originally Posted by Alpinweiss130

Hi there from Spain,

I own an e87 130i and decided to go SC 2 years ago. I wish I had found this thread then, before wasting more than 9K $ in this 'wonderful' chinese SC... And trust me I don't earn much money (was saving for over 1 year)

In my case, I was upset since the moment I unpacked by noticing the poor materials i just have purchased; an 80's design huge supercharger, parallel injectors in air intake instead of proper direct replacement injectors, etc. But you know when you are at that point your eyes blinking you just don t give it the matter it really has, so I went on and installed it.

First run: no power. Two leaks in FMIC, so went fixing it and reported it to ARMA. They easily replied with cheap talk and humbly apologies... I didn't want to be a pain in their ass so I simply went on.

Second run: oh finally! car was amazing it seemed that finally I had achieved my SC N52... Everything was going smoothly till 2weeks later, when coils started to fail (replaced them all just in case), engine leaking oil, etc.

So after 9K $ spent, 2 weeks using it for not even 600 miles, I did not hesitate to remove everything inmediately, holding just manifold and middle exhaust, and that was one year ago. At that moment I was so frustated I just didn't feel like go fighting with anyone by email from Spain to Taiwan, I was not going to lose my energies as I was pretty sure what the result was going to be; cheap talk.

Now I thought I could maybe get some money back by saling it by ebay or sthg, so I was looking around internet to have an idea of what a fair price could be... And found this thread. I consider I am a honest person, so I could never sale this SC kit to anyone knowing what I now know, it wouldn't be fair for the buyer.

I just found necessary to join in because, even though I have noticed this is an old thread, I wish that at least my experience may be useful for any guy planning to go SC his N52. My suggestion is going for suspension, brakes, etc plus exhaust, air intake, cluth, and ECU worked on dyno, as I did. That will make you fall in love again with this 6 inline which is an extraordinary engine.

Best Regards,

I can't think of any reason why the S/C would cause the coils to fail, or the engine to leak oil. The problem with superchargers is that you have to make a lot of adjusting after installing. Did you make sure the blow off valve was working properly? Maybe over boosting may have caused the oil leak. Did your car have the stock exhaust when you installed the s/c? Their page may say that you don't need to make any mods to install their s/c but I don't trust that statement. You need to have enough exhaust capacity so the engine can breathe out all of that additional boost and increased combustion.

Since you are already 9k poorer, I wouldn't give up so easily. I would install the s/c and take the car to a tuning shop to make all the necessary adjustments needed. I would definetly install a high flow catback exhaust system before re-i stalling the s/c.

Rotor failure (not FOD damage!) seemed to be Arma's weakness from what I've read so far, but if you bought the s/c kit recently, you should have their new Rotrex designed supercharger, which should be a lot better than their 1980's previous design.

Hope this helps. Just trying to help you get your 9k's worth.

[El Cheapo Loco]

I would NOT trust anything steel made in China, Taiwan, India, Korea. Steel coming from those countries is notoriously weaker/softer than steel from Japan, Germany, USA. This type of failure on a Taiwan made SC does not surprise me at all.

Before anyone starts flaming on me, I AM Chinese.

[6MT_Addict]

Forgive my ignorance as I've never owned/installed a turbo or SC, but would it be possible to buy the Arma SC and just upgrade the known weak points with European or North American made parts? Although for 9 grand that's almost as much as an N54 swap lol

Also I've read the magnesium block in the N52 can't handle the boost pressure, obviously haven't tested this myself but food for thought

[StealYourFace]

A shorter ratio LSD, M3 front end bits/neg camber, bmw perf susp like those above said make this a very satisfying platform.... even if it doesn't have 335i or M3 power....then why can't I stop looking at M3 and 135i ads

[cuco]

Originally Posted by Spinz

Forgive my ignorance as I've never owned/installed a turbo or SC, but would it be possible to buy the Arma SC and just upgrade the known weak points with European or North American made parts? Although for 9 grand that's almost as much as an N54 swap lol

Also I've read the magnesium block in the N52 can't handle the boost pressure, obviously haven't tested this myself but food for thought

The only weak point in a supercharger system is the s/c itself. The new arma supercharger is designed by Rotrex which is a reputable brand based in Denmark. Only time will tell if the new design is better though, as this change was made very recently.

You are right, BMW classified the N52 as unsuitable for boost, but 5-7psi of boost shouldn't cause engine failure since the N52 engine design is very robust. The weak points that should be taken care of are the engine oil temp, air intake temp and transmission oil temp. An oil cooler, transmission cooler and cold air intake should be installed to increase reliability.

[6MT_Addict]

Originally Posted by cuco

The only weak point in a supercharger system is the s/c itself. The new arma supercharger is designed by Rotrex which is a reputable brand based in Denmark. Only time will tell if the new design is better though, as this change was made very recently.

You are right, BMW classified the N52 as unsuitable for boost, but 5-7psi of boost shouldn't cause engine failure since the N52 engine design is very robust. The weak points that should be taken care of are the engine oil temp, air intake temp and transmission oil temp. An oil cooler, transmission cooler and cold air intake should be installed to increase reliability.

Good to know, thanks for the info.

[lightning]

Originally Posted by cuco

The only weak point in a supercharger system is the s/c itself. The new arma supercharger is designed by Rotrex which is a reputable brand based in Denmark. Only time will tell if the new design is better though, as this change was made very recently.

You are right, BMW classified the N52 as unsuitable for boost, but 5-7psi of boost shouldn't cause engine failure since the N52 engine design is very robust. The weak points that should be taken care of are the engine oil temp, air intake temp and transmission oil temp. An oil cooler, transmission cooler and cold air intake should be installed to increase reliability.

Well, Hello guys! So if their pervious supercharger was so good in quality and durable (the one that i put in my car), why would they want to improve the design and change vendor?

if they spent so much money on R&D, why change now? something is wrong. they know deep in their hearts that the part they sold me was faulty and of low quality and does not warrant the price they have charged..

Btw, i learnt my lesson, sold the Z4 and bought a 1M instead, which IMO is a lot more than what the supercharger produced. (i know it's not a fair statement)