[tim_s]

Hi guys,
Thought I'd say hello on here and post about my e91 lci 325 sport that I bought a month or so ago. I bought it to accompany my 4dr e36 m3 evo and have been busy doing odds and sods to it since I bought it.
I actually wanted a 330 with a pano roof, but this one came up pretty cheaply with a few issues but it had a nice spec with pro cic nav, heated seats, folding mirrors etc in le mans blue with oyster leather, and in the interest of time and appreciating that there aren't loads of high spec'd ones out there I decided it was worth a go.

Stuff I've done so far.
Dent in roof taken out by dentman:
Before

After (they're all reflections, no dent at all now)


New ABS sensor and clean up/ ACF50 of underside:
Before


After


Fix bodged downpipe
Before - actually worse than it looks here:


After


Nav map update, coded the auto folding mirrors on the key


Cleaning






New performance BM gearknob and gaitor,


Also replaced a few bits of trim, some rusty bolts, front undertray, dealer plates etc.




Combox fitted:


Driver's seat redyed:








330 3 stage inlet fitted




Gave the inlet ports a good clean with first seafoam in the inlet, then carb cleaner and toothbrush


Not really got any great ones of the finished job but they look good now.

Then coded on a new tuned map that I bought, supposedly 265bhp, certainly with 9000 odd bytes different in the parameter space it appears to have quite a few differences to the original!


This made part load feel much better esp at low rpm, I'm not sure but still think there's some more performance to be found however.
So... with a lot of research, I managed to work out how I could flash an original 330i map on to the car without tripping any errors/DTCs/limp mode etc.

WinKFP flashing:


What happens when you try to flash a 330 map on to a 325




And 2FA3 and 2FA4 DTCs logged. To get it working required modifying the binary, checksum correction and reflashing.

Flashing rig


No idea how well it works as I've not yet driven it on this map, but pretty confident I should have the full 330 power now!

Lastly, got my DA polisher on it:




Thanks for reading!

[Len_Beach]

Sours like a great project but none of the pictures are visible?!

[beambeam1]

Lovely, you certainly know your way around the system with all the tinkering and wires!

Would love to hear more about the process involved with dyeing the seat, turned out really well!

[Phil325i]

Good work Tim! Two questions:

1. How much was the undertray?
2. How bad were the valves before you cleaned them? I'm thinking they were nowhere near as bad as the pics I've seen of the turbo engines? Any 'before' pics?

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by Len_Beach

Sours like a great project but none of the pictures are visible?!

Not sure, seem to work ok for me on my mobe and on desktop?

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by beambeam1

Lovely, you certainly know your way around the system with all the tinkering and wires!

Would love to hear more about the process involved with dyeing the seat, turned out really well!

Thanks

Seat dyeing is something I've done a few times now. This one I haven't been as thorough as with other cars, mainly as it really didn't need it. On this one I just used alcohol, two dye coats then a couple of semi-matt finishing coats. I'll probably go back and stick some gloss coats on and then some more semi-matt as that gives a more durable finish.

In terms of the process, here are some more instructive pictures of a recolour job I did on some e63 m6 seats to go into my e36.

first off acetone and rubbing alcohol:




Sponged on first coats into crevices:


Then spray coat, can still see some ghosting here:


Then final dye coats:




Then final pics after sealing and semit-matt finishing coats

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by Phil325i

Good work Tim! Two questions:

1. How much was the undertray?
2. How bad were the valves before you cleaned them? I'm thinking they were nowhere near as bad as the pics I've seen of the turbo engines? Any 'before' pics?

1. £30 or so for a chinese copy part. Harry Fairbairn wanted £105 for a gen part, then it's another £10 for the sump plug flap (it's included with the chinese one). It's a perfect fit and probably more or less indistinguishable from a factory one, so quite chuffed with myself for that.
2. Valves were pretty good before (but only got to see them after I'd done the seafoam inlet clean). I'll have a goose later for some proper before pics. There was some buildup on the backs of the valves and on the bottom of the stems, but nothing major. Carb cleaner and one of those cheap disposal electric toothbrushes worked really well. Wouldn't mind going in there again to give it another clean as it was pissing down when I did the job and so wasn't too keen to mess about for too long!

Your 325 n53 has been remapped hasn't it? What flash has it got on it and what are your experiences? Quite keen to see how the proper 330i flash I have on there now compares to the generic flash.

[Phil325i]

Thanks Tim. No mine isn't mapped. Just not worth the money for the very small gains, in my opinion. Do have K&N, silicone induction pipe and Performance exhaust though...

Do you mind posting the link to the Chinese supplier of the undertray please?

[Thermobaric]

How come the tach only goes up to 7K? And has an MPG gauge instead of oil temp. Are these LCI changes to the 325i?

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by Phil325i

Thanks Tim. No mine isn't mapped. Just not worth the money for the very small gains, in my opinion. Do have K&N, silicone induction pipe and Performance exhaust though...

Do you mind posting the link to the Chinese supplier of the undertray please?

The undertray was just off ebay, there are loads on there.

Do you have an n52 then and not an n53? The gains on an n53 of over 50bhp are obviously quite significant.
I was actually really impressed at the factory air filter on the n53, would be surprised if there are any gains at all to be found there.
How do you find the BMW performance exhaust?

[Si335d]

Great job on the seat dye they look ace

[tim.buckley]

Originally Posted by tim_s

The undertray was just off ebay, there are loads on there.

Do you have an n52 then and not an n53? The gains on an n53 of over 50bhp are obviously quite significant.
I was actually really impressed at the factory air filter on the n53, would be surprised if there are any gains at all to be found there.
How do you find the BMW performance exhaust?

I'm down the road from Promap in Chester, if I keep my N53 325i I'm going to get them to look at remapping it as they have proven gains, 265+ is common. I currently have problems where the engine management light comes on most morning on cold start, error codes from my mechanic are something to do with mixture, and something to do with catalysts, have you had anything similar?

[thesanchez]

Great work. The inlet and remap is something I've been considering on my car. How much was the inlet?

[Phil325i]

Originally Posted by tim_s

The undertray was just off ebay, there are loads on there.

Do you have an n52 then and not an n53? The gains on an n53 of over 50bhp are obviously quite significant.
I was actually really impressed at the factory air filter on the n53, would be surprised if there are any gains at all to be found there.
How do you find the BMW performance exhaust?

Thanks. Without fitting a 330i inlet manifold, I frankly don't believe the claims made for 325i (N53) remaps. Mappers I trust suggest between 12-15 bhp. Not worth it in my view, but each to his own.

Perf exhaust is the best mod I've done to my car (well maybe second to my Ohlins coilovers). Fantastic sound. Hardly ever use the ICE as I'm always listing to that PE roar!

[Phil325i]

Originally Posted by tim_s

1. £30 or so for a chinese copy part.

Hmmm. If you see a repeat of that, let me know. Cheapest I can see on eBAy is from Poland at about £60...

[Dormermike]

Nice car OP.

Is there a way to tell if the inlet ports are gummed up? I thought I saw a test in rhein gold but not checked it out.

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by Phil325i

Thanks. Without fitting a 330i inlet manifold, I frankly don't believe the claims made for 325i (N53) remaps. Mappers I trust suggest between 12-15 bhp. Not worth it in my view, but each to his own.

Given the hardware is more or less the same (the disa manifold clearly has a negligible impact on peak hp), that presumably means you think the flashes themselves aren't very good? In which case, you want an original bmw 330 map on it like mine (one of the main reasons I did it)

For what it's worth, I expect more or less all the companies out there are all using the same generic flash that I bought and ran on my car until I managed to get a 330 map to work (it also was a claimed 265bhp one). That map made quite a difference, but it was mainly felt on part load low rpm - the stuff you actually use all the time. Even if it 'only' gave 12-15bhp at the top (I don't use it enough up there to quantify and the car's not been anywhere near any rollers), that's still a great result given the transformation to driveability.
Like you say, each to their own, but to choose other bolt-on performance modifications over a flash on a torque-limited ecu seems a bit misguided.
The flash I put on had some 9000 bytes altered in the parameter space. Basically pretty much all the maps I've identified in the binary were modified. That's more parameters altered than between a factory 325 and 330 map.

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by thesanchez

Great work. The inlet and remap is something I've been considering on my car. How much was the inlet?

I got one very cheaply off a breaker but they're normally about £150. Doesn't feel much different with it, a bit punchier low down.
The difference is all in the flash. Again, not sure how the generic flashes compare vs a proper 330i flash until I've used mine some more.

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by tim.buckley

I'm down the road from Promap in Chester, if I keep my N53 325i I'm going to get them to look at remapping it as they have proven gains, 265+ is common. I currently have problems where the engine management light comes on most morning on cold start, error codes from my mechanic are something to do with mixture, and something to do with catalysts, have you had anything similar?

Just googled them and with no rolling road it's almost 100% just the same generic flash I stuck on mine. And a Ktag slave shown on their site (for flashing default files). Not sure whether that's such a bad thing though!
You definitely need to sort out the engine mgmt light and look at all your DTCs before going any further. You ideally want to diag it on a proper BM tool - INPA would do. You could then also read off your ZB etc and see whether it changes with a flash!

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by Dormermike

Nice car OP.

Is there a way to tell if the inlet ports are gummed up? I thought I saw a test in rhein gold but not checked it out.

Not that I'm aware of! I guess the problem is that such a problem would be one of many possible root causes of a running issue.

[tim.buckley]

Originally Posted by tim_s

Just googled them and with no rolling road it's almost 100% just the same generic flash I stuck on mine. And a Ktag slave shown on their site (for flashing default files). Not sure whether that's such a bad thing though!
You definitely need to sort out the engine mgmt light and look at all your DTCs before going any further. You ideally want to diag it on a proper BM tool - INPA would do. You could then also read off your ZB etc and see whether it changes with a flash!

Thanks for your response. I really want to buy a code reader but I don't know about them. Is there any that you would recommend? I have access to a laptop with Bluetooth (no CD/DVD drive) or Android smartphone.

What about this one for example?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-FAULT-...4AAOSwZKBZIMlt

Whereabouts are you based? Just wondered if you were local, I'm in Cheshire, North West

[tim_s]

Yup, that K+DCAN lead there is fine, am sure the software is too - but you can just download it from the web and save some money! Probably the simplest of all is to get an ELM327 bluetooth usb adapter and use Carly or Carista, but it will give you less info and is less powerful. All depends on how good a tool you want and how much effort you're prepared to invest. If you google around e90 diagnostics and INPA/ISTA it will throw up loads of info.
I'm in London I'm afraid! I come to west country quite a bit but rarely up north!