[FLO_Grown_BMW]

Hey Guys --

Just bought a 2013 e93 328i LCI cabrio and just wanted to see if any of the cabrio owners had some advice as far as performance mods/maintenance to watch closely to prevent large bills haha.

What do y'all think bout 87 gas vs 93 for the bmw? obviously 93 is better, but does 87 hurt anything?


have a good one.

[desertman123]

Congrats on the Bimmer and welcome!! One of us....

As for your questions:

Put 91+ octane in it.

Problem areas: oil filter housing gasket, valve cover gasket, water pump. 2013 shouldn't have to worry about these for a bit, unless you really racking up the miles.

Water pumps seem to fail around the 60-90k mark. No real easy signs to look for. Sometimes they leak before they fail, sometimes they throw trouble codes (need a BMW scanner to read these - like Carly). But not always.



Green is for the oil filter housing gasket, red is for the valve cover gasket. Check these out every once in a while to see if there's oil coming out.



There's one of the common areas it'll leak (it's about at the top/middle red arrow in the first picture - you don't need to remove anything to see it, just get a flashlight and shine around.




As for performance mods, people like buying the 3 stage intake/DISA intake manifold off a Z4 3.0si, X3, X5 or 330i (~about $200-300 used) and putting it onto the 328i. Then you get a tune, from Active Autowerke or Bimmer Performance Center (AA's is $450ish), and relish in your additional ~30ish HP. I don't have experience with it (yet ) but I hear it really wakes the car up.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37444

There's some info on it - pretty technical though.

[tdavis42]

Only sign you will have that your waterpump/thermostat is about to fail is the fan will run like its trying to blast you off to the moon when its cool out and you have no form of A/C on.

I had this problem and only had to replace the thermostat since I caught it early. Some people will tell you to replace both while you are down there but if you really think about it the only reason the water pump will go out is from excessive use and the only thing that triggers its use is the thermostat. So if you catch the symptoms early you can save a few hundred and only do the thermostat. If you let it go either the pump or thermostat will fail and you might as well replace both since you placed so much excessive use on the pump by not taking care of the thermostat ASAP.

Again others will tell you I'm wrong but if you use logical thinking skills it makes sense. I have put 10k on my pump since my thermostat was going out.

It will also only throw shadow codes so you will need to take it to someone that can read BMW specific codes not a general code reader.

I suggest looking into BMW Tools 2.12 in our coding section, you can diagnose alot of the problems right in your driveway with a Windows laptop and a $50 cable.

Also you should already have the 3 stage intake manifold on your SULEV engine and there are not many performance upgrades for you MY. You can put on headers and get a tune but the 328i is not able to see any significant gains from mods. Checkout the N/A engine thread on this forum. The good part about having a SULEV engine is you have more parts under warranty from BMW that control emissions.

Last advice::: keep your seals well maintained on the vert! Google E93 hardtop maintenance.

[tlow98]

You are making the assumption that the pump only fails bc of the thermostat. Not true as they fail on their own often. I applaud your part maximization, but I'd still look after the pump with a Carly. There is more than one failure mechanism for the water pump.

To the OP, I'd also recommend taking a quick look at the serpentine belt tensioner. They tend to start failing and letting the belt slip off around ~60k.

With the N52 motors in the 328i most people are finding a longer service life of the cooling components than the 335i. Replace it when it breaks is my opinion

[tdavis42]

Originally Posted by tlow98

You are making the assumption that the pump only fails bc of the thermostat. Not true as they fail on their own often. I applaud your part maximization, but I'd still look after the pump with a Carly. There is more than one failure mechanism for the water pump.

To the OP, I'd also recommend taking a quick look at the serpentine belt tensioner. They tend to start failing and letting the belt slip off around ~60k.

With the N52 motors in the 328i most people are finding a longer service life of the cooling components than the 335i. Replace it when it breaks is my opinion

I'm curious.....what else controls the pump?

[FLO_Grown_BMW]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the information.. Going to take a look into the info and see about the headers and tuning. Hope to have some progress in the next few months.

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by tdavis42

I'm curious.....what else controls the pump?

That's a moot point, but the ECU controls the water pump in these cars. The pump can still fail no matter what the thermostat tells it to do. I do think your logic is correct, but there are other variables involved.

Pumps are often diagnosed as bad due to electronic failure or cracked housings while the thermostat is still good.

[tdavis42]

Originally Posted by FLO_Grown_BMW

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the information.. Going to take a look into the info and see about the headers and tuning. Hope to have some progress in the next few months.

I would suggest upgrading the handling of the car. You can get M3 upper/lower control arms OEM made by TRW that will help with road feel and cornering, then you can also get the M3 swaybar for up front.

For the rear you should look at Whiteline rear subframe inserts. $50 in parts will transform your handling of your car. We really don't need to go full solid rear subframe bushings because we really aren't pushing out high HP's. You can DIY all of these upgrades but just beware if you do the upper/lower control arms yourself you will need an alignment right afterwards. The front sway or rear subframe bushing inserts don't need an alignment.

These upgrades will give your car a more stable connected feel compared to the stock feeling. I have the MSport suspension and these upgrades made a huge difference.

[FLO_Grown_BMW]

Originally Posted by tdavis42

I would suggest upgrading the handling of the car. You can get M3 upper/lower control arms OEM made by TRW that will help with road feel and cornering, then you can also get the M3 swaybar for up front.

For the rear you should look at Whiteline rear subframe inserts. $50 in parts will transform your handling of your car. We really don't need to go full solid rear subframe bushings because we really aren't pushing out high HP's. You can DIY all of these upgrades but just beware if you do the upper/lower control arms yourself you will need an alignment right afterwards. The front sway or rear subframe bushing inserts don't need an alignment.

These upgrades will give your car a more stable connected feel compared to the stock feeling. I have the MSport suspension and these upgrades made a huge difference.

Awesome, so what do you think it would cost me in total for all of the parts? 5/600 bucks?

Thanks for the info

[blackhawkk22]

Originally Posted by FLO_Grown_BMW

Hey Guys --

Just bought a 2013 e93 328i LCI cabrio and just wanted to see if any of the cabrio owners had some advice as far as performance mods/maintenance to watch closely to prevent large bills haha.

What do y'all think bout 87 gas vs 93 for the bmw? obviously 93 is better, but does 87 hurt anything?


have a good one.

When I bought the car, first thing I did is get it walnut blasted, changed spark plus and had the gaskets done - the ones that are common to fail like the Oil filter housing gasket and the valve cover gasket. Its been bullet proof since then. Granted that a decent chunk of change but I drive long distance and its worth it for the peace of mind.

ALWAYS put in Premium 91+ and get good gas. Makes a difference, trust me. Mine always gets 93. Not too long ago I was out of state and put 91 without even realizing it was 91. Noticed my car wasn't running as smooth as it usually does. When I went back to fill up at the same station to get on the road to return home, I noticed it was 91. Ended up not filling up and waited to eat up the fuel on the road so I can put in 93 from a shell or a BP. Putting 93 made the car and me happier again.

Tires are the one best best investment you can make starting off. Get some good tires, whatever your needs are. Completely changes the characteristic of your car.

I'd focus on those fundamentals first. Remember, if you mod, always go from bottom up. Tires, wheels, brakes, THEN power mods.

[Rsoxs19]

Sell it and get a real car. A 335i to be exact.

[tdavis42]

In all it will cost you about $500-$600 if you can find the front sway bar for a good price. White line subframe inserts are like I said $50, TRW M3 front upper and lower control arms are $380 for the set both sides, and the M3 original sway is expensive. Look on eBay for the M3 sway......I got one from there for $100 shipped(really cheap) with bushings.

You don't need to worry about walnut blasting as we don't get carbon buildup like the n54/n55 engine does. Our n52's are much cheaper to maintain. For a high milage car that will mean serious savings on maintenance. Don't listen to most of these idiots with 335's, go into the n54/n55 sub category and read how expensive their problems are now they are hitting 80k+ miles.

The only downside to the n52 is we don't have much in the way of mods to add HP. You can drop a few grand if you want a supercharger and some guys are developing a turbo for it but the price will be almost the cost of the car. So enjoy the car you bought and figure out ways to make it more enjoyable for yourself.

[GoRomeo]

Originally Posted by Rsoxs19

Sell it and get a real car. A 335i to be exact.

A real car?? a 2007 335i you call that a real car?

Brace yourself my friend... brace yourself

[STR8-6IX]

your car will have tiny little misfires with 87, along with less torque. the ecu has to retard timing to compensate for your silly decision, not good. and dont modify a convertible, if you wanted to mod your BMW in the first place a coupe should have been your choice.