[Matt_N55_E90]

Hello Everyone,

I did not want to be here having to make this but here I am. Today I decided to install my NGK 1-step colder N55 plugs for my car as I was looking to go stage 1 on MHD and wanted to ensure I didn't run into any unwanted issues. After installing the plugs and flashing with MHD I fired the car right up and went to take it for a ride to check boost levels and to see if the plugs were holding up well.

For starters, I immediately noticed the soft burble I requested in the flash was not working, it only was randomly gurgling when under 1000 RMPs (which was under the threshold I put in the map write). Continuing the drive with the windows down, I noticed a rattling noise coming from in the engine bay when off the gas, especially at lower RPMs. Is it possible there's just something loose in there?)

When continuing the drive It was clear I was not reaching boost targets, giving about 80% throttle would lead to roughly 6PSI with a singular spike to 8.5 so this is leading me to believe I may have a misfire. But how? they are new plugs. Is it because 5 were gapped to .020 and one was misgapped to .018? I feel that would only be shown if the car had trouble starting but it starts almost instantly. Also would a misfire impact the tune in a burble sense as well?

Also when slowing down and at low speeds the car makes a loud continuous chirping noise from under the hood like the belt is being caught or something. Please let me know what I should do. I am considering taking apart everything again and listing more for the rattle or just buying OEM plugs and testing my luck with the upgraded boost on OEM plugs.

Thank You For Your Time.

[njang92]

If you're on OEM DP's you probably won't hear soft settings. If you go more aggressive, be prepared to cut the life of your cats down if you have them.

I'd venture to say the engine isn't necessarily happy running 1 plug on a tighter gap than the rest.
From NGK: "when you raise compression or add forced induction you must reduce the gap (about .004″ for every 50 hp you add). However, when you add a high power ignition system you can open the gap from .002-.005″. I believe recommended gap is .020-.022.

Upload logs on datazap and post them here with whatever mods you have and you'll get some better answers.

[Matt_N55_E90]

Originally Posted by njang92

If you're on OEM DP's you probably won't hear soft settings. If you go more aggressive, be prepared to cut the life of your cats down if you have them.

I'd venture to say the engine isn't necessarily happy running 1 plug on a tighter gap than the rest.
From NGK: "when you raise compression or add forced induction you must reduce the gap (about .004″ for every 50 hp you add). However, when you add a high power ignition system you can open the gap from .002-.005″. I believe recommended gap is .020-.022.

Upload logs on datazap and post them here with whatever mods you have and you'll get some better answers.

Thank you for responding. In terms of burbles, I ran medium for a short period a few months back when I was completely stock and boy did I hear them. Obnoxious imo.

Prior to installing the colder plugs and with no tune; I installed a BMS intake, VRSF Chargepipe, Turbo Inlet, and 5'' Intercooler so the car was running pretty well in my opinion. I graphed a log before the addition of any of these mods and then a crapier log after everything was on the car (didn't go full throttle until about 5k) I can try and provide them here if I can figure it out.

[Matt_N55_E90]

Originally Posted by njang92

If you're on OEM DP's you probably won't hear soft settings. If you go more aggressive, be prepared to cut the life of your cats down if you have them.

I'd venture to say the engine isn't necessarily happy running 1 plug on a tighter gap than the rest.
From NGK: "when you raise compression or add forced induction you must reduce the gap (about .004″ for every 50 hp you add). However, when you add a high power ignition system you can open the gap from .002-.005″. I believe recommended gap is .020-.022.

Upload logs on datazap and post them here with whatever mods you have and you'll get some better answers.

Here are the Logs:

https://datazap.me/u/mattweaver/runs...og=1&data=3-12

https://datazap.me/u/mattweaver/runs...og=0&data=4-14

[njang92]

Thanks for posting those. Can you find a "track" to do a 3rd gear WOT log from 3k RPM to redline and shift into 4th and go through that gear too? Hard to trouble shoot partial throttle logs. DTC off.

For a stage 0 flash though, it doesn't look tooo bad. Have some timing corrections on 3 cylinders and slightly underboosting by 1.5psi average. Your STFTs are nearly maxing out in the negatives too. I think that might be an area to look at. Put the stock intake back in and see if that does anything. I couldn't run MHD with a CAI as my trims would go massively lean. I put stock box back on and trims evened right out, plus you're just sucking in hotter air from the engine bay for some turbo whoosh's.

[Matt_N55_E90]

Originally Posted by njang92

Thanks for posting those. Can you find a "track" to do a 3rd gear WOT log from 3k RPM to redline and shift into 4th and go through that gear too? Hard to trouble shoot partial throttle logs. DTC off.

For a stage 0 flash though, it doesn't look tooo bad. Have some timing corrections on 3 cylinders and slightly underboosting by 1.5psi average. Your STFTs are nearly maxing out in the negatives too. I think that might be an area to look at. Put the stock intake back in and see if that does anything. I couldn't run MHD with a CAI as my trims would go massively lean. I put stock box back on and trims evened right out, plus you're just sucking in hotter air from the engine bay for some turbo whoosh's.

I haven't driven the car since I first posted about it and I am going to change to OE Bosch plugs that are good to go right out of the box to rule out that the plugs may be misfiring. I would just re gap and try again but gapping the iridium plugs was a task on its on and maybe I F'd something up trying to gap them. I also have a gift card that pays for the $65 of plugs.

I agree that the car is running lean. The plugs (Which Had never been changed apparently in 104,000 Miles) had very white corroded tips which indicates the car is running lean. I am going to order a new MAF sensor to hopefully help with that as I don't believe the intake itself would cause that much of a discrepancy and maybe the sensor is old (104k miles) just reading wrong.

Just a question to add on to this reply.. What do you mean when you're saying " Your STFTs are nearly maxing out in the negatives too"

Thank you for helping me out, I really appreciate it.

[njang92]

That would be a good place to start. Also, if you aren't buying from FCPeuro, start. Lifetime replacements on parts.

You'd be surprised what a change in air volume can do to our cars, but if you think a MAF error would be more plausible, go for it. I'm just not a fan of throwing parts at a problem without maxing out the free troubleshooting. Also hard to tell if that's needed cause I can't see your AFR's in those logs for some reason.

"STFT maxing negative" would indicate you are running very lean, but hard to tell without AFR's. Your car is probably pulling fuel to keep your AFR's in a safe range. Short tern fuel trims (STFT) get saved and converted into long term fuel trims. Your car changes the way it performs based on these adaptations. MHD allows for a -25 to +25 scale for reading trims. If you're -25 you are max lean and you will throw a lean code +25 you are max rich. Have you tried resetting adaptations yet?

[Matt_N55_E90]

Originally Posted by njang92

That would be a good place to start. Also, if you aren't buying from FCPeuro, start. Lifetime replacements on parts.

You'd be surprised what a change in air volume can do to our cars, but if you think a MAF error would be more plausible, go for it. I'm just not a fan of throwing parts at a problem without maxing out the free troubleshooting. Also hard to tell if that's needed cause I can't see your AFR's in those logs for some reason.

"STFT maxing negative" would indicate you are running very lean, but hard to tell without AFR's. Your car is probably pulling fuel to keep your AFR's in a safe range. Short tern fuel trims (STFT) get saved and converted into long term fuel trims. Your car changes the way it performs based on these adaptations. MHD allows for a -25 to +25 scale for reading trims. If you're -25 you are max lean and you will throw a lean code +25 you are max rich. Have you tried resetting adaptations yet?

Thank you for getting back to me. I use FCPEuro all the time, big BMW family haha. When looking for monitoring AFR, I cannot find that point to check off when monitoring the car. Would you know if AFR goes under a different name on MHD? Also I a unaware of how to reset adaptations.

[njang92]

I believe it might go by "Lambda bank 1". Been a while since i logged in MHD though.

For adaptation resets: Foot off the brake, ignition on. With car in auxiliary power mode, you connect to MHD, go to "Codes" tab and select "Reset Adaptations". You probably only would need to reset "lamba sensors" "intake mass flow" "lambda regulation" for this. Just follow the on-screen prompts. Probably won't be a fix, but just to rule it out and only takes a few mins.

Car might act a bit funky after your first start, but it just needs a little bit to relearn.

[Matt_N55_E90]

Originally Posted by njang92

I believe it might go by "Lambda bank 1". Been a while since i logged in MHD though.

For adaptation resets: Foot off the brake, ignition on. With car in auxiliary power mode, you connect to MHD, go to "Codes" tab and select "Reset Adaptations". You probably only would need to reset "lamba sensors" "intake mass flow" "lambda regulation" for this. Just follow the on-screen prompts. Probably won't be a fix, but just to rule it out and only takes a few mins.

Car might act a bit funky after your first start, but it just needs a little bit to relearn.

ok, will do. I am putting in the OE plugs in a few hours and ill hopefully do a log and post it today with the AFR visible. Hopefully these plugs will fix most of the issues if it were misfire related.

[Matt_N55_E90]

Originally Posted by njang92

I believe it might go by "Lambda bank 1". Been a while since i logged in MHD though.

For adaptation resets: Foot off the brake, ignition on. With car in auxiliary power mode, you connect to MHD, go to "Codes" tab and select "Reset Adaptations". You probably only would need to reset "lamba sensors" "intake mass flow" "lambda regulation" for this. Just follow the on-screen prompts. Probably won't be a fix, but just to rule it out and only takes a few mins.

Car might act a bit funky after your first start, but it just needs a little bit to relearn.

yeah that went terribly. Plugs went in fine, but I decided to use some MAF cleaner that was in my garage to try to set a benchmark for the future lean issue and rule out a few areas before then. It seems that doesn't even matter for the near future as when I buttoned everything back up and went to start the car it almost stalled trying to keep the engine turning, RPMs bouncing up and down and that's when I noticed the red car on the lift light.

That's a separate issue but for the MAF, when I unplugged it and turned that car back on, it idled perfectly fine, so clearly the I must've soaked the wrong area with the MAF cleaner or didn't let it dry enough (30 min I waited).

On top of that when I first walked over to front of the car, I noticed the DTR were off and the lights in the car weren't working. After taking a quarter mile drive to see if the plugs were okay, which thankfully it seems like no more rattling or misfires so that good, I concluded the FRM was bricked from the two spark plug changes over the last 7 days. Needless to say, I am developing a hatred for the BMW 335i.

Someone let me know what the next move is. Do I spend the $230 for a brand new sensor and $200 for a reprogram, which I literally got done not even 10 months ago, or is there any better financial route?