[Hoody007]

Visited a medical school, about 450 miles round trip. Car was rock solid in the pouring rain (heavy rain both ways). Got 30 mpg highway, about 27 round trip.

Detailed the engine bay for the valve cover replacement tomorrow.







Oh, and to those who DM’d me about stuff. Have had a crazy last month, death in the immediate family. So will be getting to everyone over the next week!

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Hoody007

Visited a medical school, about 450 miles round trip. Car was rock solid in the pouring rain (heavy rain both ways). Got 30 mph highway, about 27 round trip.

Detailed the engine bay for the valve cover replacement tomorrow.

Oh, and to those who DM’d me about stuff. Have had a crazy last month, death in the immediate family. So will be getting to everyone over the next week!

These cars are so solid on the open road!

Condolences for the loss.

[colorado.e9x]

Condolences Hoody.

[Hoody007]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

These cars are so solid on the open road!

Condolences for the loss.

Originally Posted by colorado.e9x

Condolences Hoody.

Thank you; Cancer is... (word not safe for this forum)

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by Hoody007

Visited a medical school, about 450 miles round trip. Car was rock solid in the pouring rain (heavy rain both ways). Got 30 mpg highway, about 27 round trip.

Detailed the engine bay for the valve cover replacement tomorrow.

Attachment 3607065

Attachment 3607066

Attachment 3607067

Oh, and to those who DM’d me about stuff. Have had a crazy last month, death in the immediate family. So will be getting to everyone over the next week!

That's a 2011 335i right? Because when I went on a 150-mile road trip last I was only getting 22MPG Highway. What are you putting in your gas tank to get 30MPG? I'm running shell or chevron. I was going around 80 to 90 the entire time so maybe that is why my MPG are so much lower.

[BMW Guy]

It turns out this bend in my intake pipe wasn't going to bend back and stay back like I hoped it would. I had to order a warranty replacement from FCP along with a cabin air filter since mine was not looking the best. Thank god for their warranty.

[Onizukachan]

Originally Posted by lowrydr310

I tried many methods and the easiest method to strip the soft touch coating is put toilet paper over the trim (removed from the car of course) and moisten the toilet paper with non-acetone nail polish remover, then let it sit for 5 minutes. I found this method on several YouTube videos. I got 90% of the coating off with one treatment, then just did another spot treatment on the parts that remained.

lowrydr310 thanks for the tip. When I stripped the rear of the console I used near boiling water/electric kettle method. Yours sounds much easier.

[Seattlesquash]

Originally Posted by Hoody007

Visited a medical school, about 450 miles round trip. Car was rock solid in the pouring rain (heavy rain both ways). Got 30 mpg highway, about 27 round trip.

Detailed the engine bay for the valve cover replacement tomorrow.

Attachment 3607065

Attachment 3607066

Attachment 3607067

Oh, and to those who DM’d me about stuff. Have had a crazy last month, death in the immediate family. So will be getting to everyone over the next week!

Really sorry to hear of your loss.

[Onizukachan]

Mobridge Is in. Need to put in the SWS still as the L7 underseats are more biased towards midrange than bass.


No EQ or TA tuning done at all yet, only manual channel assignments using the PnP wiring and some basic xovers and initial level setting.

I can tell it has the potential to be better than my match up7bmw in the f31, but it’s going to be a lot more work to get there too.

Pic of how shiny the Dinan came out for funsies…

[Onizukachan]

Picture of Mobridge 8.1.1 speaker channel assignment when using the new mobridge supplied PnP harness. No more need to buy a $90 technic harness. Unlike the match amps, You do still need to provide 6-8ga power and ground as this thing puts out a lot more wattage than the L7 amp did. I had an old leftover amp install kit on the shelf which I used.

This pic is mostly So the next person doesn’t have to spend an hour figuring out what channels are what speakers when installing it with the bmw harness.


Unlike what the pic here shows for clarity of viewer,
I actually run my underseats as “front woofers” (big front speaker) and doors as “tweeter”.
I like a Chebyshev band pass configuration on underseats 25-125 hz better than what mobridge allows on the “sub” which is a low pass only. I can still run high pass down to 110hz on “tweeter” to effectively run the doors component set.

[Hoody007]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

That's a 2011 335i right? Because when I went on a 150-mile road trip last I was only getting 22MPG Highway. What are you putting in your gas tank to get 30MPG? I'm running shell or chevron. I was going around 80 to 90 the entire time so maybe that is why my MPG are so much lower.

It is! I usually fill up at Costco, but Shell and Chevron too. My speed on long trips is about your range too, 80+. City I get about 19-20, freeway is 30. Car currently shows an average MPG of 24.

Any stored fault codes?

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by Hoody007

It is! I usually fill up at Costco, but Shell and Chevron too. My speed on long trips is about your range too, 80+. City I get about 19-20, freeway is 30. Car currently shows an average MPG of 24.

Any stored fault codes?

There are no codes. The gas in my area is trash. I was getting really bad timing corrections with 93 from Shell, Mobil, and Chevron. I started adding 1-3 gallons of E85 during each fill up which has sadly dropped my MPG, but has significantly helped with timing. I got a few mods so some of those like my tune, might be what is making me get lower MPG.

[RealJ22]

Originally Posted by Onizukachan

Mobridge Is in. Need to put in the SWS still as the L7 underseats are more biased towards midrange than bass.


No EQ or TA tuning done at all yet, only manual channel assignments using the PnP wiring and some basic xovers and initial level setting.

I can tell it has the potential to be better than my match up7bmw in the f31, but it’s going to be a lot more work to get there too.

Pic of how shiny the Dinan came out for funsies…

I would coat the exhaust if you havent already!

Misfire in 6 again. Pretty sure the plugs are original in this car. I had delphi factory and had a few bosche laying around. I heard they don't play well together.

[colorado.e9x]

Long post! Necessary things done to the 328 today Did some experimenting for funsies while I was at it.

BG EPR Engine Flush, ran from 1000-2000rpm for 30 minutes. Oil came out looking like black coffee. Not tar black, though. Good for the car, bad for my satisfaction.

Threw in a new oil filter cap/basket I had laying around while I was at it, with 0w-40 for the more consistent winter mornings coming ahead.

Also added NMF Friction Reducer. Snake oil or not, it doesn't hurt it. It's a 235k motor, it'll be fine...

So far no adverse effects. Could be placebo but the car seems more peppy now. My MPG stayed fairly consistent to what I seen yesterday. Oh, to update on the MPG thing. With the winter wheels and no roof rack setup, got 28mpg round trip. Compared to the 23 I seen with racks and summer wheels. Not bad for CO highways

Also picked up a transmission splash guard off an E92 335 for $25 yesterday, guy had the brakes too so I grabbed the calipers & carriers for $100. Not too bad. Considering buying the rotors off him later since the pads still got some life left.

Threw on the splash guard while the oil was draining, it didn't fit too bad. Four of the bolt holes lined up. The other three I secured with heavy duty zipties. The small piece that broke off last week broke off pretty cleanly, and doesn't really seem to be protecting much so I won't be worrying about replacing that anytime soon.

[Molina336]

Cussed at it, slammed the hood and walked away. It’s a love hate thing.

[BMW Guy]

My day went from good, to bad, to UGLY! Let's start with the good. I got my new serpentine belt kit installed. Attachment 3608198 Anyone who is afraid of doing this DIY, don't be. Super easy and just takes basic tools. My car has 102k so I did this out of precaution of all the horror stories about belts destroying engines. Will, my belts and pulleys came out looking great. Like really great. They were the genuine BMW brand but there is no way they were original. I'm going to keep them in case I ever have to use them in an emergency. Now, let's talk about the bad. I found out my radiator is leaking on the driver's side. Attachment 3608198Attachment 3608198 It is not a huge leak but definitely present. Should I go with OEM, or aftermarket like CFS when replacing this? Now the UGLY! When installing my fan back into place, I was getting a little frustrated with it not fitting properly. I'm sure you know what happened after that. My expansion tank hose cracked like a toothpick. Coolant went splashing all over my new belts and pulleys. The hose was very apparently on its last leg since it snapped sooooo easily and there was a lot of junk in it. At least it left me stranded in my driveway vs on the road. I'm going to BMW tomorrow to try and pick this part up since this is my daily driver. If they don't have it in stock, then time for some FCP Euro ASAP shipping which will arrive on Wednesday or Tuesday.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

My day went from good, to bad, to UGLY! Let's start with the good. I got my new serpentine belt kit installed. Attachment 3608198 Anyone who is afraid of doing this DIY, don't be. Super easy and just takes basic tools. My car has 102k so I did this out of precaution of all the horror stories about belts destroying engines. Will, my belts and pulleys came out looking great. Like really great. They were the genuine BMW brand but there is no way they were original. I'm going to keep them in case I ever have to use them in an emergency. Now, let's talk about the bad. I found out my radiator is leaking on the driver's side. Attachment 3608198Attachment 3608198 It is not a huge leak but definitely present. Should I go with OEM, or aftermarket like CFS when replacing this? Now the UGLY! When installing my fan back into place, I was getting a little frustrated with it not fitting properly. I'm sure you know what happened after that. My expansion tank hose cracked like a toothpick. Coolant went splashing all over my new belts and pulleys. The hose was very apparently on its last leg since it snapped sooooo easily and there was a lot of junk in it. At least it left me stranded in my driveway vs on the road. I'm going to BMW tomorrow to try and pick this part up since this is my daily driver. If they don't have it in stock, then time for some FCP Euro ASAP shipping which will arrive on Wednesday or Tuesday.

Well, like you mentioned, at least it was in the driveway :-/

CFS make a traditional plastic composite one, as well as the all aluminum. The aluminum one is spendy but heirloom quality! I've had great luck with Nissens on three different cars now. Really well priced and so far so good!

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Well, like you mentioned, at least it was in the driveway :-/

CFS make a traditional plastic composite one, as well as the all aluminum. The aluminum one is spendy but heirloom quality! I've had great luck with Nissens on three different cars now. Really well priced and so far so good!

The Nissen is really aggressively priced but the reviews aren't the best for that one or the plastic CFS one. Don't think I'm going to be going with CFS aluminum since I never really struggled with coolant temps and from what I read it does nothing to oil temps so I think I'll just get another plastic one. It lasted me 103k so it ain't that bad. The dealership has the hose in stock so I'm going to grab that now.

[Hoody007]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

The Nissen is really aggressively priced but the reviews aren't the best for that one or the plastic CFS one. Don't think I'm going to be going with CFS aluminum since I never really struggled with coolant temps and from what I read it does nothing to oil temps so I think I'll just get another plastic one. It lasted me 103k so it ain't that bad. The dealership has the hose in stock so I'm going to grab that now.

Just whatever you do, don’t go for a BEHR one. The one on my car lasted a year before leaking though the end tanks. Ended up buying Genuine BMW as it’s the only way to get a Modine radiator. And the OE BMW hoses last a very long time!!

[Hoody007]

Valve cover is done! The Uro parts one lasted all of 3 years before leaking. The PO put it on, not me. Took about 10 hours, going slowly and cleaning the whole way. Did not change the Valvetronic squirter as the motor is very clean thankfully.

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by Hoody007

Just whatever you do, don’t go for a BEHR one. The one on my car lasted a year before leaking though the end tanks. Ended up buying Genuine BMW as it’s the only way to get a Modine radiator. And the OE BMW hoses last a very long time!!

It looks like I'll be buying Genuine then. Going to wait a little longer to get some more opinions before ordering though. What else needs to be replaced along with the radiator? The upper radiator hose was replaced at 63k and some other radiator hose was replaced at 91k according to the Carfax report. Neither is leaking from what I know.

[Hoody007]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

It looks like I'll be buying Genuine then. Going to wait a little longer to get some more opinions before ordering though. What else needs to be replaced along with the radiator? The upper radiator hose was replaced at 63k and some other radiator hose was replaced at 91k according to the Carfax report. Neither is leaking from what I know.

There’s a little hose from the expansion tank that goes to the upper radiator hose - 17127599452. I’d change that too. And if you have an original-revision expansion tank (without the yellow arrow), not a bad idea to swap that out.