[Grant_McGrath]

I have recently joined the e92 335 n54 club. I have now just received my vrsf 7.5 competition front mount and over the past month eagerly waited on my downpipes, charge pipe, air intake and corsa exhaust. I'm heading towards mhd tune to Finnish the whole package up. The car is completely stock at the moment and going to put it all in after January break. Next week lowering her on kw v2 coilovers. I'm so excited to be honest as i have only just got my license back after 4 years and this is what I look forward to every morning! Is there any informed ideas of power i should be looking to make when all done? Also input if I should be thinking of doing anything with this little bolt on build?

Love to hear everyones input good and lets be honest the bad I'll probably hear

[kookie]

Best to start off with preventative maintenance before going bolt on. You'll find a lot of stuff breaking / leaking

[Grant_McGrath]

Originally Posted by kookie

Best to start off with preventative maintenance before going bolt on. You'll find a lot of stuff breaking / leaking

With what I bought and im doing won't I be replacing alot of old gaskets and joins ?

[Hoper]

Originally Posted by Grant_McGrath

With what I bought and im doing won't I be replacing alot of old gaskets and joins ?

Have a look here

The Ultimate N54 Maintenance List https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1167171

It's a good source of info for the things you should think about as maintenance, definitely should think about Vanos as they'll probably throw codes as soon as you start tuning unless they've been replaced

Also good to work out if the water pump has been done, it'll leave you stranded if it fails

Sounds like a good list of mods

[vtl]

This is something I wrote for the Australian FB page:

Maintenance guide for new/existing owners:

Forget looking at mods after your new purchase! Do the preventative maintenance first. For some reason, the most common thing people do here is whack on a tune and complain about check engine lights. With these cars you have to be proactive about the maintenance. Its also worth noting, that service history means nothing for these cars. Most of the things that go wrong with these cars are not covered by normal servicing.

The mentality of fixing things when they break will just result in more pain down the track, and it is easy for things to snowball. You only need a few key issues on your car until it feels like a real turd, and the repair costs to get it back to normal can quickly become staggering.

I know a lot of the younger crowd has bought into these cars since they're as cheap as $15k, but what you might not realise is that they can be crazy expensive to maintain. Personally, to get my car up to 200k kms and maintaining it to a high level has cost $10-15k so far, this is DIY, with labour not taken into account.

The best thing you can do is to arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible, so you can be self sufficient.

Important links:

https://www.fcpeuro.com - Based in the USA, shipping usually takes around 5-7 days maybe longer if you have obscure items in your cart. This place has almost every part you'll ever need to maintain your BMW and at good prices

http://newtis.info - This is a web based rip of ISTA (factory service instructions), very useful for repair information

http://www.realoem.com/ - This is a web rip version of BMW ETK (parts catalog) this is very handy for tracking down part numbers to buy from places like FCP. You can also use this powerful tool to see if parts from other models will fit your car, as it will tell you if the same part is used on other models.

Maintenance guide:

TIMEFRAME: AS SOON AS YOU BUY THE CAR

Oil change - These cars run hot and prevous owners have just been sticking to the ridiculous 25-30k km service intervals. Change the oil out with something decent and at regular intervals (10,000km). Use genuine oil filters only, the aftermarket ones are usually more expensive, don't fit properly and dont work as well as the originals.

Plugs and coils - The plugs and coils are weak items on this platform, buy them immediately after you purchase your car. I would suggest buying NGK 95770 (ILZKBR7B) gapped at 0.022", the 3 pronged Bosch ones I have seen the gaps be very inconsistent. ON a tuned car the NGKs are highly recommended.

Water pump 11517632426 - The water pump is prone to crapping out very suddenly and can leave you stranded. If you are on the original pump then you should change it straight away. The old style pump is bolted onto the block and isolated with rubber grommets (rubber will usually be swelling from the oil leaks over the years), the new one is directly bolted to the block. The car will overheat on a dead pump quite quickly and can take out weak components like the radiator with plastic end tanks. You need to buy the pump and 3 STEEL (11517602123) screws, do not buy the aluminium screws or reuse the old ones.

Fix any oil leaks immediately
The oil filter housing is a common thing to leak, along with the valve cover and lately I have seen a lot of slow oil pan leaks as these cars cross the 10 year mark. If you've leaked oil on any of the hoses and let it sat for a while, this degrades the rubber so make sure you replace any hoses that look swelled. Oil leaking on the drive belt should be rectified immediately, this can cause the belt to slip and cause a shredded belt. It is also possible for the belt to get sucked into the crank seal, resulting in belt fragments being caught in the oil pickup, causing oil starvation and dead engine.

Charge pipe - For model years 2009+ including N55 you should replace it immediately, as it is prone to cracking and exploding. The 2006-2008 2 piece rubber charge pipes are very strong and do not require replacements. Theres many aftermarket charge pipes out there, most of them fit like crap. Personally if it was me i'd source a pre 09 charge pipe, but if you had to get a metal one (if you're N55) I'd go for the Evolution Racewerks one.

TIME FRAME: SHORT TERM

Walnut blast - These cars are direct injected and have no fuel passing over the intake valves to clean them. This results in the intake valves getting clogged up over time. After 60-100k they'll be pretty gummed up, reducing performance and idle quality.

Thermostat to cylinder head hose 11537541992 - This hose has a plastic flange that bolts onto the cylinder head and you need to remove it to access the oil filter housing. After several years it gets brittle and cracks, I would highly recommending getting a metal replacement off eBay. This is probably the worse hose for failure, it can break off chunks and allow plastic debris in your cooling system and can jam up your water pump.

Radiator hoses - The top thin overflow hose for the expansion tank (17127565094) is prone to bursting, replace it and buy a new clamp (34321156893). Upper radiator hose (17127540127) that clips into the oil filter housing is plastic and also prone to deteriorating.

Vacuum hoses - These should be replaced with silicone rubber, the rubber ones perish after a number of years and can split and be the cause of vacuum leaks. Locally you can buy the SAAS branded 3mm hose (its actually 1/8" 3.2mm) from Autobarn, or buy the CRP hose from FCP euro. Do not use 4mm hose as commonly recommended off the forums, it does not fit well.

Boost solenoids - These are sometimes the cause of boost related issues, these also get less effective over time and you can feel a difference in boost response when replacing old ones.

High pressure fuel pump - This part will probably have already been replaced on your car, the latest revisions appear to be reliable. If its never been done then keep an eye out for long cranks in the morning and dipping fuel pressures at full load

Coolant flush - These cars are quite old now and may have changed through the hands of many mechanics. The coolant should be blue, if it is not, flush it out and put the genuine stuff in (83192211191), its not expensive.

Engine mounts - The engine mounts are hydraulic and are prone to blowing out on the hot side (right hand side). They fail as early as 100k kms.

Automatic transmission service - You'll want to service the Auto to keep it shifting nice. If you leave it until 150k no amount of servicing will make the ZF auto shift better short of a rebuild. Youll need to get the pan and the ZF lifegaurd fluid. Do not use anything other than the ZF fluid!

Manual Transmission Fluid - I would only recommend using BMW fluids, in general they last for ages and give you very slick shifts. MTF LT3 for the N54 gearbox, and MTF LT5 for the N55 gearbox (includes BMW 1M)

Oil filter housing gasket - This is an extremely common leak point and is worsened by the fact that these cars have changed hands many times over the years, resulting in poor repairs. This is a critical gasket and even if the procedures are followed exactly, it can still result in leaks in rare cases. A lot of times the bolts have been over tightened by the previous mechanic, or copious amounts of RTV silicone has been used to seal it. To do it properly you will require both the oil filter housing seal (11428637821), thermostat seal (11428637820) and 2 oring seals for the oil cooler (17222245358). You will also want to buy an aluminium cylinder head fitting, as the original one is plastic and prone to cracking.

TIMEFRAME: LONG TERM MAINTENANCE GOALS

Turbochargers - Eventually the turbos will fail, a lot of the 2006-2007 cars and some of the later cars are prone to wastegate rattle. The only proper way to fix these are to remove the turbos and replace the wastegates or the turbos themselves. The installation costs are quite high so not worth throwing the old turbos back in imo. Brand new turbos would be the best option, instead of stuffing around with reconditioning. Aftermarket turbos have a very poor reliability record, so don't buy them unless you can afford to replace a set of smoking turbos.

Injectors - These injectors are expensive and not very reliable, if you plan on keeping your car for a long time then budget in a set of Index 12 injectors at some point. Faulty injectors can be the cause of rough cold starts and misfires. Unfortunately these are very expensive, so just bearin mind this is something that will have to be done eventually.

Oil pan (11137548031)- These are now starting to go after these cars are close to 10 years old. Make sure you buy a new set of aluminium bolts (11132210959). The gasket and bolts are cheap but its quite labour intensive. A lot of cars will be leaking from the oil pan, near the transmission, it starts off as a very slow leak then gets progressively worse over time.

Valve cover - These will leak eventually. You can get the gasket on its own but it is not recommended unless you have a relatively new cover. They are prone to cracking and the removal sometimes requires a bit of force to unstick the gasket, resulting in the valve cover being stressed. Might not crack immediately but would probably end up replacing the valve cover later. Just do it once and do it right. Normally you'll get plenty of warning that the gasket is leaking

Suspension - Shocks will have lost a lot of performance by 90k kms, front upper control arm bushings will tend to leak as well, these are hydraulic filled bushings which will fail eventually. best to start looking at aftermarket suspension options

VANOS Solenoids (11367585425) - These will be the cause of various VANOS check engine lights, some that may be very hard to reproduce. You can clean the solenoids but most of the time only a replacement will fix it.
Drive belt (11287628652) - Worth doing to avoid a shredded belt.

Fluids - You will want to keep on top of the fluids as they hardly ever get changed by owners. Power steering (CHF11S), brake fluid (DOT4), trans fluid, diff fluid and coolant should all be done eventually

Turbo oil drain seals - These are common to weep oil, the flat oval shaped seal (11422246091) is a common leak source.

Gear selector shaft seal (23128677736) - This seal is a common failure point on the manual gearbox. It weeps oil and leaks onto the shifter (has a foam bushing in it), which is the cause of a sloppy shifter. Worth replacing this and the shifter bushes at the same time. This requires a special tool to remove, removing it with tiny screwdrivers is possible with enough fortitude and swearing but not worth it.

Automatic/DCT - These leak at the oil pan and mechatronics seals on high km examples. Highly recommend servicing the ZF 6AT early on to prolong its life. The ZF AT generally starts to deteriorate in feel past around 120-140k or so, if it hasn't been serviced in the past, usually a service will not make it much better. DCT boxes have a side seal on it that tends to leak on high km examples. This unfortunately needs the transmission removed to fix the leak, as there is no space in the transmission tunnel to get it out

[Socket]

+1 Vince

[Socket]

Read some threads all the information you need is on this forum 😀

[Socket]

Welcome to the forum
Sounds like you are going to have a great January installing all these awesome parts 😀
So much fun ahead. Good luck

[Grant_McGrath]

😍

[markv123]

Originally Posted by vtl

This is something I wrote for the Australian FB page:

May I ask what page this is?
Would love to follow it if this sort of information is on there too.
Thanks

[vtl]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1Mand135iAust/