New ride

[Iceddragon]

Yeah I'm glad I got these, I almost bought Style 162's for my last car because I like them so much.

The power honestly surprised me. Its only 45hp more than my last one, but it comes out of nowhere. The car just wants to go above 2500 rpm

[patsbimmer1]

Great buy!  220 - 230 is normal oil temp.  It won't ever sit in the middle unless it's well below zero.  Were the injectors ever done?  Original turbos or warranty replacements?  As far as mods, buy a zhp knob ASAP.  It's one of the best things you can do in terms of driving feel.

[Iceddragon]

Cool, that's good to know.

I'm not 100% sure on any of the work, the guy I bought it from claims he hasn't had to do anything to the car except oil changes, but the carfax is full of work done to the car by BMW and Merc dealerships. My best guess is that the usual stuff was addressed by previous owner under warranty, but is there a way to tell if those things have been done? 

And yeah I want to get a ZHP knob, I always hear high praise for them.

[patsbimmer1]

You can look at the writing on the injectors to see what index # they are but nothing for the turbos except a repair order.

[Daggerty]

Welcome!!!

[Daggerty]

Oh... sorry wrong thread.

[Iceddragon]

Got it all cleaned up today, paint shined up well. The engine bay was a complete mess, dirt caked everywhere, but even that cleaned up really well. Next thing is cleaning these wheels up if I can, but its caked on pretty good. Also the tires are super cheap general tires, so maybe I'll just run these through the fall and shop for new wheels over winter and next spring, we'll see. 

Also gaining confidence in the third pedal and let myself do a decent pull down an on-ramp, and damn the power is fun. 

[Iceddragon]

Oh I also found the manual in the glovebox, and that contained the best sight known to any BMW buyer, a treasure of maintenance records!

Nothing exciting, just HPFP and some work on the front brake rotors around 40k miles.

[suspenceful]

Looking good! Those are my favorite OEM 335i wheels.

Nice to see that the HPFP was done. Plugs are never a bad idea. Coils are probably fine if you're not having any misfires or stumbles. If you are, replace them and take a look at the injectors. Turbos or injectors could be the cause of your startup smoke. Keep an eye on your oil filter housing, if you notice leaking or seeping, those gaskets should be replaced. Do you hear any wastegate rattle on decel?

[YoungCR]

Congrats on the purchase! Agreed that these are the coolest e90 wheels.

[Jdesign]

Nice! congrats on your buy!

[Iceddragon]

suspenceful said:

Looking good! Those are my favorite OEM 335i wheels.

Nice to see that the HPFP was done. Plugs are never a bad idea. Coils are probably fine if you're not having any misfires or stumbles. If you are, replace them and take a look at the injectors. Turbos or injectors could be the cause of your startup smoke. Keep an eye on your oil filter housing, if you notice leaking or seeping, those gaskets should be replaced. Do you hear any wastegate rattle on decel? 

No misfires, only one bad thing that happened bad so far; I was leaving a toll booth on the way home and bounced it off the rev limiter (accidentally, forgot to move foot off the go pedal), car immediately went into reduced power mode. Stopped 2 miles later and turned it off, sat for 5 minutes and turned it back on again and everything was back to normal. I guess that could have been from a misfire but idk.

I'll keep an eye on the smoking, and I did make an appointment with my local shop to have him do an oil change and check for leaks or anything else that needs attention. I won't be surprised if the gaskets are due. 

I don't hear any rattle, but would I know it if I hear it? Is it an obvious noise? Keep in mind I've never owned a turbo or a manual car before, so it makes loads of new sounds to me.

[patsbimmer1]

It sounds like someone is spinning a ratchet under your hood and yes, it's loud.  For limp home mode all you have to do is turn it off then back on and the car will be fine unless something is seriously wrong, in which case you'll turn it off then wait an hour or so for the tow truck to show up.

Is your mechanic familiar with n54's at all?

[suspenceful]

Iceddragon said:

No misfires, only one bad thing that happened bad so far; I was leaving a toll booth on the way home and bounced it off the rev limiter (accidentally, forgot to move foot off the go pedal), car immediately went into reduced power mode. Stopped 2 miles later and turned it off, sat for 5 minutes and turned it back on again and everything was back to normal. I guess that could have been from a misfire but idk.

I'll keep an eye on the smoking, and I did make an appointment with my local shop to have him do an oil change and check for leaks or anything else that needs attention. I won't be surprised if the gaskets are due. 

I don't hear any rattle, but would I know it if I hear it? Is it an obvious noise? Keep in mind I've never owned a turbo or a manual car before, so it makes loads of new sounds to me. 

patsbimmer1 said:

It sounds like someone is spinning a ratchet under your hood and yes, it's loud.  For limp home mode all you have to do is turn it off then back on and the car will be fine unless something is seriously wrong, in which case you'll turn it off then wait an hour or so for the tow truck to show up.

Is your mechanic familiar with n54's at all?

Pat did a pretty good job of describing it. You can hear it while driving with just the passenger window down while decelerating next to a curb or wall on that side of the car. Keep the music off. Otherwise you can free-rev it in the driveway and listen for a fast metallic clicking noise on the way down. When I bought my car I thought it was a rattling heat shield.

I've put my car into limp mode many times. It always fixes itself if you turn it off and back on again. The one time it was still missing after restarting it was when my motor was shot.

[Iceddragon]

patsbimmer1 said:

It sounds like someone is spinning a ratchet under your hood and yes, it's loud.  For limp home mode all you have to do is turn it off then back on and the car will be fine unless something is seriously wrong, in which case you'll turn it off then wait an hour or so for the tow truck to show up.

Is your mechanic familiar with n54's at all?

Okay yeah, definitely haven't heard anything like that in the car. I thought I heard something like it the second time I fired it up but it must have been something else.

And yeah, I spoke to him about working on these cars specifically before I picked one up, knowing I won't be able to do a lot of this work myself. He's an old BMW guy and actually worked with my last mechanic who worked on german cars almost exclusively, specifically Audi and BMW, for over 30 years. I trust him and he seems like generally a nice guy, they've treated me well on everything else I've done through them including the wheels and water pump on the last car. He likes 335s and thinks they aren't that bad to work on.

suspenceful said:

Pat did a pretty good job of describing it. You can hear it while driving with just the passenger window down while decelerating next to a curb or wall on that side of the car. Keep the music off. Otherwise you can free-rev it in the driveway and listen for a fast metallic clicking noise on the way down. When I bought my car I thought it was a rattling heat shield.

I've put my car into limp mode many times. It always fixes itself if you turn it off and back on again. The one time it was still missing after restarting it was when my motor was shot.

That's good to know, I'm glad the car is smart enough to protect itself from my screw-ups. I'll definitely keep an ear out for that noise, but is that something to worry about if the rattle does start? I've heard mixed things about it, from needing new turbos to some people saying its completely normal. And apparently MHD can keep them quiet, is that legit? I don't want to tune it until I get more comfortable with what I have now.

I'll also be bringing it to the car show in Eau Claire this weekend if anyone is out that way and wants to come see it, should be hanging out with some friends up there all weekend.

[patsbimmer1]

MHD only hides a problem by holding the wastegate open to prevent rattle. The only fix is replacing the turbos. You can also run this band aid on a 0 map I believe so it's a stock tune but really, who the fuck wants a stock tune?  The problem only becomes exacerbated when you start modding.  I was lucky enough to get my turbos under warranty immediately after buying the car. Welcome to n54 ownership!

[Iceddragon]

That sounds expensive...

I guess we'll find out soon enough, fingers crossed. I'd rather not worry about it too much for now, cold air is coming and I want to enjoy it a little first.

[suspenceful]

In my opinion, it's only annoying. If your turbos struggle to hit target boost and start throwing 30FF codes, then it becomes a problem.

For what it's worth, my 135i had no problem peaking at 22psi and making 450whp with turbos that rattled like a son of a bitch. They didn't smoke or anything, but had horrible wastegate rattle. You can tune it out with settings in JB4 and/or MHD. I used JB4 to mask the rattle and still made gobs of power.

Enjoy the car!

[Iceddragon]

suspenceful said:

In my opinion, it's only annoying. If your turbos struggle to hit target boost and start throwing 30FF codes, then it becomes a problem.

For what it's worth, my 135i had no problem peaking at 22psi and making 450whp with turbos that rattled like a son of a bitch. They didn't smoke or anything, but had horrible wastegate rattle. You can tune it out with settings in JB4 and/or MHD. I used JB4 to mask the rattle and still made gobs of power.

Enjoy the car!

Thanks man, I needed that haha

[Jdesign]

Just turn up the volume, problem solved.