[DR-JEKL]

So I recently bought a new CSF radiator and some fresh hoses, discussing with VTL he mentioned I should change the cylinder head hose fitting. These are plastic and the heat from the engine makes them brittle so that if doing maintenance on the car you need to remove the hose upon removal it crumbles leaving you requiring a new hose.

The solution is to get a billet fitting (Search ebay they're $50) but to fit it you need to crush the oem plastic fitting on the new hose.

I cut 4 slits in the fitting (ensuring I didn't nick the hose!) then just crushed the fitting in my vice by hand. It took a few goes to get it to completely crush and using care to not exert too much force and pinch/damage the hose. The new billet fitting slips on and use the worm clamp provided.

When I had the new CSF rad fitted sure enough the old hose fitting crumbled...

[DR-JEKL]

Whilst the car was in the shop (I used a local to me in Newcastle BMW indy 3eleven motorsport and he's great!) and the rad was being fitted my mechanic Shane (great name btw!) noticed a nick in my serp belt. He knew what was up as he'd seen this on a few other 335I's recently..

Basically the engine drops and contacts the subframe (I'm guessing under hard acceleration hitting a big bump) which then nicks the serp belt and chips the plastic (yes plastic!) PS pulley. If this continues to go unnoticed the serp belt can eventually shred and can work up inside the crank seal, then engine leaks oil then yeh terminal engine damage...

Some guys with late 08 build cars have had serp belt failures, so I'm guessing the subframe on later model 335i's with added clearance isnt the solution entirely, so since I was headed on a 4500km round trip to Tas I wasnt just happy to band aid and hope for the best with a new pulley and serp belt. I've been going to do engine and trans mounts for ages (I had the tranny mounts in my stash of parts to be installed) so I bought some 034 motorsport engine mounts, and used UUC black street rubber transmission mounts.

Engine Mounts:

https://store.034motorsport.com/moto...2-n54-n55.html

Guys buy two hotside drivers mounts, these come with protective caps (radiating heat from turbos kills the mounts) they're the same price and can be used on both sides

These are oem style with rubber isolators so no engine vibrations harshness. Solid mounts are notorious for causing excess vibrations and making guys not want to drive their cars...

When you think about it, these tuned N54's are putting out significantly more power/torque then stock and most mounts on the 335i are way too soft and floaty (setup for ride comfort not performance like an M3)

Great shipping service from 034, these arrived within a week by fedex!

http://store.uucmotorwerks.com/trans...air-p1307.aspx

(UUC shipping is too expensive I found some on ebay.com)

Once again these mounts are one up from OEM. (no extra NVH I noticed)

These fresh mounts would minimise engine/transmission flex/movement under load thus hopefully no more serp belt PS pulley failures.

Upon removal you can clearly see the hotside engine mount pin the rubber has flexed around it thus there is some slop in the mount. There was massive splits or cracks leaking fluid, and the pin couldnt be budged (my car is a 2006 335i with 90000k kays) so luckily I caught this one before it done too much damage!

The new mounts are fkn fantastic. So much nicer to drive with no harshness whatsoever and the shifts have improved immensely (I'm MT) Under heavy braking there is no see saw effect of the driveline and under acceleration or clutch drops no more bunnyhopping (wasnt bad before but just noticeable with fresh stiffer mounts) by changing all my suspension to M3 items (removing all the worn floppy bushed 335i suspension bushings etc) the engine and transmission mounts are the icing on the cake for me

So guys I all recommend you changing these two items, and keeping an eye on your serp belts!!

[DR-JEKL]

So a while back I had a new bosch battery installed in my car. The guy fitting it powered my OBD port (big no no!) so I didnt lose clock settings, and when I went to leave upon starting the car up I had no tacho no speedo no nothing on the cluster.

He had no idea, so got onto yoda motorsport roadside assist hotline # and the polite gentleman who took my call suggested I take a look at a fuse. Now mechanical stuff I can kinda fumble my way through but electrical hmm im hopeless! But I made myself proud I located the fuse for the cluster (had no idea where the fusebox was before this day!) and sure enough it was blown. I felt as if I'd conquered mt everest, plenty of fist bumps and fark yeahs later I was happy.

Then upon starting the car the next day I had a horrible cold start (Ive been running E50 for years and she always starts fine) it was winter on a cold morning but these issues still persisted... Now whilst im not much good with electrical im not much good with PC's also but titium and YMS helped me out with ISTA (or is it INPA hmm) and to read the codes as I couldnt find my cobb AP.. (dont lose your AP guys if you have one) and teh chap from YMS spent plenty of time yabbering on about ditching the cobb and going for MHD (he was tsking quite a lot about my beloved cobb)

Turns out I was getting LPFP sensor errors... huh? I changed this as PM a few thousand kays ago as I had read they often crap out and whilst the intake manifold was off for a inlet blast I had it fitted...

Well hopped onto FCP euro and uno as you do bought way to much stuff.

I normally browse FCP euro by clicking on my car (2008 bmw 335i - as there wasnt a 2006 335i in the USA apparently... I feel kinda guilty at times for this deceit) then type in the part I want..

Scroll down the bosch part is the cheapest (fck you bmw I know your dirty marketing ploys relabeling a bosch part in your bmw box then charging twice as much) clicked on fitment yes it'll fit my vehicle. Score a cheap $45 usd fix!

I then spent many of night with my finger hovering over the mousepad ready to click the order now button, but a voice in my head kept saying yeah remember last time d1ckhead you made an order then forgot to order that missing screw from the engine bay you really should wait a few more days and mull this over to ensure you have everything) eventually I placed my order (but of course forgot a few things damn!) and decided to get the LPFPS fitted with the CSF radiator by my bmw indy.

When everything was fitted he said the LPFPS wouldnt fit its for the new style fuel line... Apparently in 2011 BMW revised this part, allegedly the original lpfps part # used to fail as the vibrations of the line would cause it to crap out, so bmw designed a more rigid line with a new style sensor...

I'd failed to check the FCP item description where this disclaimer was mentioned (FCP politely told me to get rooted when I mentioned their fitment page said it would fit an 2008 335i no disclaimer on the fitment page)



So that was a good 60 mins of labour wasted for my indy, then I decided to put in my used working LPFPS and yeah the car is a lot nicer to drive! It was starting to become really laggy below 2500 rpm and I hadnt though the LPFPS would make that much difference, titium even mentioned that the Z4 N54 doesnt even have a LPFPS...

I begrudgingly bought the MHD app, decided to go with a custom motiv 98 and E50 tune (I needed a decent 98 map for tassie and OTS tunes in my experience on the cobb arent the greatest) but so far so good the M?HD is easy to use, has some great features I'm on rev 3 map from motiv now 7 days left to finish with the tune before tassie!

[DR-JEKL]

I've been busy attempting to get the car ready for the big trip to tassie with the lads.

When car is loaded with people on high speed mid corner bumps I get tyre scrub on the rear wheels. Guards have been extensively rolled (rolled flat now) guard liner modded rear bumper tabs shaved..

So decided to remove the rear rims and tyres and shave 3mm off the inside hub. This was outsourced to a local engineering co who specialises in drivelines, wheel repairs machining drilling etc.

Decided to give the insides and out a good clean, washed them with dishwashing soap, then used iron x, still had crud on them so sprayed them with WD40 buffed using an old 6" LC CCS heavy compound pad then washed again and coated with nanolex wheel sealant.

Havent managed to do a lot of testing yet... But so far so good true test will be tassie next week (yeeks!)

[vtl]

Awesome updates! Finally

[DR-JEKL]

Decided to bite the bullet and replace my injectors... The car seems to drive fine, apart from my recent rough starts due to low pressure fuel pump sensor - seems to be resolved) AFAIK the car is on index 1 injectors. (to date the only part that wasn't original from 2006 has been the waterpump and spark plugs!)

Purchased them from FCP euro for a piece of mind that if in future they fail (providing FCP are still in business or dont change their policy ala photobucket style) I can get them replaced under the FCP replacement warranty.

With a few other minor parts and 10% off for VIP membership the subtotal was $912 AUD (cool will scrape in under the $1000 AUD threshold for customs duty) but had recently had a voicemail from a bot like UPS staff member informing me I needed to pay $206 AUD to clear my gods until they'll despatch them... WTF!?!



Tried calling UPS was on hold for 35 mins, gave up tried them again the next day, and explained to the operator FCP must have made an error on their invoicing as with the discount it was $912 AUD, without $1009 AUD... She agreed that was the issue and aked me to email a copy of the invoice and she would submit it to their invoicing dept for review and they may clear the goods.

I received a reply the next morning that they're unable to provide an updated invoice as its system generated... So they took off the duty and GST (Would have been illegal for them to charge this) but they sill wanted their 'cut' and charged me $93.95....

FCP euro have indicated they'll reimburse this due to an error on their behalf, but damn UPS are a bunch of pricks...

Having said that I ordered these last Thursday and they were in Sydney on Sunday sitting in customs awaiting payment, and I only paid the duty yesterday so UPS is efficient with their shipping at least...

Hopefully I'll wack em in this weekend before departing for tas next week

[Digitalism]

Awesome build mate.

Wish I had the time and money to maintain my car to your level.

[Socket]

Cars looking Tassie ready mate

[DR-JEKL]

I’d had my M3 driveline installed for a few years now (brakes LSD subframe all toe control arms sways yadda yadda) and wasn’t 100% happy with the handling. It felt nice but the steering was still a tad vague and not responsive enough (I’m comparing it against my last RWD car which was setup very nice) and decided to get a more aggressive alignment as typically on my previous set of tyres the outside shoulders of my tyres wore more than the inside shoulders (crap oem 335i suspension deflecting under load) and my car is purely a weekender and driven purely for enjoyment not for commuting.

I’d used Road & Race @ Rydalmere in Sydney on my last car with great success, Peter is a passionate petrolhead who races a M3 and he’s been around for a long time (I use to use heasmans before they became in vogue and as popular and pricey as they are these days) and knows his stuff. He’s always got interesting customer cars to perve on whilst you wait an hour or so for your alignment to be done!



Since I have M3 front arms and BC adjustable mounts I was able to get neg 3 deg camber up front with zero toe, and 2.0 neg camber rear with 0.5mm toe on each side as per reccomendations from the chief suspension mechanic from yoda motorsports.

The setup advan had aligned to was essentially a oem 335i setup so this made a massive difference to how the car felt in the twisties with the new alignment! So much more responsive, and a lot more feel and feedback through the wheel in high speed twisties. Definitely $ well spent on a decent alignment to make the most of the suspension work I’ve done and the grip of the 245 & 275 nitto NT05 tyre combo!

I’d also noticed that under high speed type driving in the Twisties I would get a wooden brake pedal feel. The brakes didn’t inspire confidence at all, and this was due to the fact I had upgraded to larger piston M3 calipers. I should have also done the M3 brake master cylinder when doing the M3 driveline, but TBH the brakes felt great at suburban speeds. I found a used brake master cylinder from a 2011 M3 on ebay.co.uk (you cant use a LHD master cylinder which are plentiful from USA) which is nice as my M3 driveline is from a 2011 M3 also and titium kindly offered to give me a hand to install it.

I purchased ATE TYP 200 brake fluid (same as superblue without blue dye) from FCPeuro for $11 usd per 1L (a lot cheaper than motul RBF!) fresh master cylinder seal and two new brake res seals. Changing of the master cylinder all in all is pretty easy once you work out what you’re doing, like any job you spend a lot longer on the 1st time the 2nd time around it would be done in an hour vs 4 hrs

After changing of the master cylinder titium used the INPA software to conduct a DSC brake bleed. Very cool method for bleeding of brakes as you use a pressure bleeder and the INPA software which cycles the brake system to flush the brakes and bleed any air from the system. It had been a few years since advan had installed the M3 driveline so it was due for a brake fluid change anyway, but the brakes felt a lot better with a proper bleed and the M3 master cylinder!

I managed to go on a putty rd run with a few guys recently to confirm that the brakes now bite at high speeds and there is a lot more feedback through the pedal and its much easier to modulate with the M3 brake master cylinder! Big thanks to titium for giving up his sat arvo to assist with this one!

[DR-JEKL]

Installed some fresh index 12 injectors today as PM, i had assumed they were index 1's but they were actually index 9's

So they probably have 40k kays on them, but nice to have fresh injectors for a piece of mind I guess! At least some used working index 9's may be of some use to someone else if I sell them!!

All in all a pretty easy DIY task just take your time and it'll be ok.

I used these sources of info:

https://www.messenger.com/t/1008894239229976?q=ista

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=651538

Hardest part was removing electrical connectors frm injectors (basically you pull them at an angle towards you to d/c tab (easy once you work it out) and the injector brace is a bit tricky you have to slide it in vertically then try and rotate it to a horizontal position once lowered down in place...

I was cursing had everything buttoned up and torqued, coding was done for the new injectors, switched ignition on left on for a good few minutes then went to crank the car but it just cranked for a good 5 seconds without firing.. removed key tried again same deal.. tried a 3rd time still no good let it crank for like 15-20 seconds.. At this stage I figured something was wrong rechecked all connectors fuel lines, all good tried again. This time it fired but stalled straight away.. removed key tried again same deal, done this once again and finally it started revs dropped cough n farted then revs raised to normal and idle finally smoothed out!

Apparently you're supposed to put key in and out 3-4 times with ignition left on before starting...

Car drives much the same if anything maybe slightly smoother.

All up just over $1k and a few hours of your time vs $3500-4000 at a bmw dealer is a good saving!

[Socket]

Great work mate index 12 rule !!!

[DR-JEKL]

So I recently joined the guys on the Tasmania Trip clocking up just under 4500 kays in 7 days. There were a few long days driven (most notable the last day I left Melbourne at 7am stopped for fuel a quick snake and a meatpie for brunch. Armed with a few cans of V I manage to drive straight through to Newcastle getting home about 5:40pm (google is pretty much on the money with 10 hrs 40mins but I stopped for 20 mins for fuel and a snack!)

Our cars all performed well (thankfully!) with my car being the lemon amongst the group with blowing the CP off twice. Still unsure why all of a sudden this had occurred, I’d recently had a CSF radiator fitted which would have required the CP to be removed… On 98 my car got down to 8.0L/100 on the return trip coming home and was sitting in the low to mid 10's during the tassie trip

There were plenty of great roads in Tassie and we only spotted a few cops (most were in the touristy areas along the east coast) just driving along no mobile speed cameras. In fact the whole of Tasmania only had something like 6 fixed speed camera’s (all in the major cities Hobart Launceston etc)

We had a good mix of guys, with different cars and all of us with the desire to drive and enjoy the roads led by our faithful skipper Vince. Vince done a great job organising the trip and with the use of our CB’s gave instructions on upcoming turns/directions hazards ahead etc

I’m normally kinda wary of driving someone else’s car, but Vince said to take his car for a run to get a gauge for how other cars with different setups perform.

It certainly drove a lot different to my car, it had a much superior shift feel, boost response and damper setup and got the tail out a lot easier than my E92 with the shorter wheel base and more aggressive boost/tuning down low.

Shift feel: I had assumed my heavy shift feel was the norm (it’s always been difficult to engage reverse you need to muscle it in, it’s been like that ever since I bought the car with oem trans fluid and pre SSK) so I’ll be changing my trans fluid to see if that improves things (I currently run redline D4 which was installed about 12k kays ago) Sparesbox currently has 20% so the motul 75W80 and liquid moly 75W80 LT2-LT3 MT fluids are only $16 per 1L.

https://www.sparesbox.com.au/motul-7...l-momg75w80001

I might also try adding the liquid moly Mos2 antifriction additive to see if this improve the shift feel also:

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/mos...ui-moly-lm2019

I will be changing my gear knob from the BMW performance item to the ZCP knob (it feels chunkier better to hold with possibly more leverage)

Turbo response: My turbos have the dreaded wastegate rattle, and hadn’t realised how much nicer a fresh set of turbos spool up. My car is lazy down low in comparison that’s for sure… I want to go with a ST kit but there are a few things holding me back.. The eye watering cost is one major one.. Realistically you’d want to spend 15-20k with my car being insured for $24.5k it seems kinda nuts to drop $20k on it.. Also Ive recently bought a block of land and will commence the build mid 2018 and completing some renovations on my existing property to get it ready for sale. So in the grand scheme of things I shouldn't be dropping big $ into my car when I could be utilising my funds for a better use (potentially I’ll get a much better return when I eventually sell my old house) Also with the ST kit there is the added complexity involved. They simply aren’t just a install and drive off type of affair. They will require a lot of fine tuning and diagnosing. So that leaves me with twins.. Upgraded twins generally are problematic I know of too many horror stories to risk $4-5k, so it seems the safer bet would be if I potentially just settle for some fresh oem turbos (might wack my stage 3 LPFP and stage 3 spec clutch and SMF up for sale soon!)

Dampers: The KW V2’s certainly made driving Vince’s car more enjoyable compared to my BC BR dampers. I wanted ohlins R&T’s but at the time couldn’t quite swallow the cost as I had spent $10-15k on the M3 driveline. The BC’s which include adjustable pillowball mounts were $1200 whereas the ohlins were $3800 plus $500-700 odd for some GC adjustable mounts.. The BC BR’s are only rebound adjustable, so they feel kinda soft on compression and then obviously if you set the adjusters firmer the rebound is only firmer. BFYB the BC’s are great but once you start doing track days or some fairly high speed driving on some corrugated roads the BC’s certainly become unstuck and this is where the more expensive dampers shine. Ohlins R&T are still on my wish list or potentially I could settle for KW V3’s or some used JRZ pro’s..

After 10-14k kays my Nitto NT05’s are done. In the dry they felt fine but on one cold rainy morning in tas the car felt bloody horrible.. it was understeering up front and the rear was skipping out on me with minimal throttle. Before I had left for tas my tyres were 50% but the spirited driving and the sheer amount of kays I had driven had them down to 25% (just above the wear markers) By the time I had completed the trip my fronts had excessive camber wear and the rears were wheel spinning on a 98 map in the lower gears (they held up to the torque of my E50 map in 1st gear with next to no wheelspin before wearing down) I’m running M3 competition pack rims, and these have a reasonably low offset and squeezing a 275 NT05 was always going to be a challenge on the rough roads of Tassie. I had the guards rolled completely flat/flush the rim hubface skimmed 3mm to bring the wheels inside the guard an extra 3mm each side yet on the rough roads still had scrubbing issues (the boot was loaded up with fuel spare tyre clothes etc etc) On relatively normal roads the car doesn’t scrub but on some rough roads with high speed and a fully loaded boot I experienced some heavy scrubbing on the passenger side rear. In the pic you can see the sidewall is kinda shaved smooth…

So my next tyre choice will be a difficult one.. Do I go for a more modest 265 tyre or do I stick with a 275? (bearing in mind I never run a bootload of stuff normally)

Then there’s the option of going for a big boy M3 sidewall profile tyre (upsize from 275/30 to a 275/35 for more sidewall and a better ride/handling characteristics) a 275/35 is normally 20-25mm larger in rolling diameter (depending on the manufacturer) so I could potentially raise my car 12-15mm and recalibrate the speedo for larger tyres via coding but this could also lead to further scrubbing.

The other issue is various tyre manufacturers have slightly different widths and sidewall profiles (some sidewalls are square thus less guard clearance)

It's a bit of a headache trying to nut out what tyre to run as many manufacturers don’t have F&R sizes I want and then there’s the huge price differences.. I’d like to try something else this time as the NT05’s only have 6mm tread from new (AD08’s have 9mm) and can be very noisy on coarse roads (smooth concrete they’re quite smooth) they grip great when new and since my car is a weekender if its raining I simply don’t drive the car and the NVH isn’t a huge issue. Steering response feedback and grip is my priority so I’ll probably try and go for another 200 treadwear style tyre

My list so far of 19” tyres:

Advan AD08R these were $500 for 245/40 and $525 for 275/35 ($2050) Obviously quite expensive! Perhaps I could wait for a buy 4 pay for 3 deal… found demon tweeks in the uk will deliver a set for $1603 AUD (they have a special on)

Bridgestone Potenza RE71R (very popular dual purpose street/track tyre in the USA with M3 owners and JDM guys) Local dealer priced them at $499 for 245/40 and $589 for 275/35 ($2050) once again very expensive but Bridgestone currently have a get 1 free deal but alas these tyres are not currently released in Australia yet my local dealer reckons they’ll land early next year..

Hankook RS4 I haven’t priced these yet but the sizing is somewhat difficult.. 235/40 fronts 275/35 rear.

Hankook RS3 Since RS4 recent release there has been runout deals on existing stock. A set of 245/40 and 275/35’s can be had for < $1000

Michelin Cup 2’s Sizing of these tyres is difficult I’d have to go for a either a 265/35 rear (easier fitment) with a 245/35 front (Approx price $1700-1800 from what Ive seen so far)

Michelin PS4S A lot of guys state that these tyres offer 90% of the performance of a cup sport 2 albeit for a whole lot less $. Through taleb tyres on a recent ebay special these were $1280 a set for 245/40 & 275/35’s. One thing that worries me is michelin’s have a very square sidewall and are known to be ‘XL’ in terms of fitment.. (this was one of the reasons why I went for nitto’s as they were known for being narrow) but the goo dthing with these tyres is that they would grip in the wet and wouldn’t be as noisy as the other aforementioned tyres…

[DR-JEKL]

The car after the trip had accumulated a heap of crap on the paint. We struck various dirt roads, and the rims had a heap of brake dust after 4500 kays..

















Quite a few hours was spent washing the car and removing the wheels to clean inside the guard liners and inside the wheel barrels to get her presentable again!

[T1M]

Love the detailed mods/maintenance posts and really like what you've done to the the car. I will go back and read through the whole thread when I get a moment. Funny you really liked Kiama when you drove through, I grew up there. It's a nice place for sure.

[DR-JEKL]

Originally Posted by T1M

Love the detailed mods/maintenance posts and really like what you've done to the the car. I will go back and read through the whole thread when I get a moment. Funny you really liked Kiama when you drove through, I grew up there. It's a nice place for sure.

Cheers Tim, you should create a build thread so the guys can assist you with how you should mod your 1M

I had initially created this thread back in 2012 to help others as back then there wasnt as much info on these cars as there is now! I'll continue to update it though to catalogue the mods and keep a track of the costs

Ahh really I bet growing up in Kiama you probably hated it? I grew up in a smallish place on lake macquarie. Back then I hated that it wasnt close to town, and never appreciated the natural beauty of the place. These days whenever I travel from the 'city' to go back and visit my folks I think jeez its nice out here

[donR]

Great review, sounds like an epic trip. Will have to go one day!

[Socket]

Come to Melb and wash my car DrJ lel

[DR-JEKL]

Originally Posted by donR

Great review, sounds like an epic trip. Will have to go one day!

Yeah definately highly recommend going especially if Vince organises another one next year!

Originally Posted by Socket

Come to Melb and wash my car DrJ lel

Lol I'd gladly help you wash your car if melbs wasnt so bloody far (I didnt enjoy that drive to melbs too much!)

[DR-JEKL]

I bit the bullet today and got a set of michelin cup 2's fitted up by my local jax tyres.

I went with 265/35 rear and 245/35 front. I went to a larger profile on the rear tyre & is 20mm bigger in diameter and it looks great.

Ride comfort and nvh is a massive improvement over my nitto NT05, albeit new vs old tyres is never a good comparison! I'll need to get out on the open road to get a good feel for them!

[Montye90]

Fantastic updates and a great read, thanks Dr-J.

In conclusion, what is the correct LPFPS to get please mate? Mine still has a rough idle on start up (ordered new 02 sensors after changing coils, upgrade to index 12 injectors and spark plugs, walnut blast)

[sorry for the slight thread hijack]

[DR-JEKL]

Originally Posted by Montye90

Fantastic updates and a great read, thanks Dr-J.

In conclusion, what is the correct LPFPS to get please mate? Mine still has a rough idle on start up (ordered new 02 sensors after changing coils, upgrade to index 12 injectors and spark plugs, walnut blast)

[sorry for the slight thread hijack]

That's cool the purpose if my thread was to document some of my mods etc and help other enthusiasts out where possible!

As mentioned bmw revised the part number for the lpfps which includes a new line with a clamp. I had read vibrations on the line caused tge original lpfps issue so bmw changed the line with a clamp.

Ill dig out the part numbers later and post them up

[Aus335iguy]

13537622751 LPFPS and new hose with clamp. I think.
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...or-13537622751