Project: Space Wagon

[GTBrandon]

Yeah, send me the contact info. Did he come to you?

I went to his place as it was only an hour drive and his garage is all set up for the tinting. Didn’t even ask about him coming to me but he might be able to. Company name is M.C Tint, I just messaged him on Facebook to set everything up.

I'm pretty sure I remember reading about certain types of tint blocking the signal for the keyless entry system BMW uses back when I had my 135i. It might not be an issue anymore, but if you have that it might be worth it to look into what type of tint that was. I can't remember what people were having a problem with.

Never had an issue with that for my car, even with the ceramic tint on the windshield so I wouldn’t worry too much. Although the E90 might use a different frequency so don’t take my word for it.

[.RJ]

MC Tint is almost as funny as Mr Spoiler

[JPolen01]

There has a to be no less than 1400 tint shops in NoVa. You gotta be able to find something closer with quality work.

[.RJ]

Yeah I'm not worried. Its pretty far down the list of priorities right now though.

[Goodspeed]

I've had two cars done by Contour Tinting in Chantilly. Great work all around, I plan to take the new IS to them shortly after it lands and the 7 to get it redone eventually.

[.RJ]

The guy I bought my sport seats from is a dealer tech near Baltimore, I was able to have him install my 3-stage intake manifold & bmw 'performance exhaust' this week on the side at his dealership.  

The stock manifold on the 325/328's is a single set of runners, where the 330 and some other cars got a manifold with a set of flappy valves that change the runner lengths as the car moves through its powerband - swapping it into a 325/328 is a direct swap and the wiring is already in place, its clipped to the side of the stock manifold even.  The factory HP rating is +25hp on the 330 over the 325 and there's no other changes to the motor.



I'm glad I got those done, and along with the intake manifold I had him install a high flow air filter and a silicon intake tube to replace the section from airbox to throttle body, removing the stock resonator in the process which kills some noise.  I'm really happy with the changes so far and from what I've read the tune should be a pretty solid improvement.

I should be able to get the tune on the car in the next couple of days, my flash loader is here.





Not my car, but a good sound comparison between the two - its much throatier than the stock one with some pleasant volume to it.   It sounds like my old E36, so in short I spent a lot of money to make it sound like an old busted BMW with a 150k mile muffler.



I need to figure out what I'm doing with my suspension, probably a Bilstein shock/spring kit to start and see how I like it.  If I want more there's the option of doing swaybars, too - but to get to the rear the subframe has to be dropped and if you're getting in there might as well replace the subframe bushings with M3 parts.  The stock ones are really squishy and its a bit unsettling cornering over bumps.  Supposedly M3 bushings solves it with no increase in NVH.

[Sully]

Can't wait for you to get bored with this car in a few years so I can scoop it up with all the little odds and ends already buttoned up

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[Goodspeed]

That exhaust sounds lovely!

[Senor_Taylor]

That exhaust note is very nice. It does sound like an e36. Me like.

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[ScottyB]

that M-sport exhaust is an express ticket to bonertown. i can't get over how nice that sounds.

turning out pretty good, just a little bit more to make it perfect so you can sell it for some other weird thing

[.RJ]

This one is a keeper for a while. I cant believe I'm saying that, but the garage door revolver is on lockdown here.

[davej]

This one is a keeper for a while.  I cant believe I'm saying that, but the garage door revolver is on lockdown here.

[.RJ]

Tune loaded. Disaster averted. Muy buenos.

Car feels great now. It only took an interior swap, intake manifold swap, tune, wheels/tires, exhaust.... still needs some suspension work but will get there.

[.RJ]

I dont know yet whether I'm glad that I know that these existed or not

https://syncrodesignworks.com/collection...rms-for-m3 - 

tl;dr replacement control arms with massive sealed spherical bearings in them.  There's not a lot of options for the xDrive E90's for upgrading suspension as the front is different than the RWD cars.  If you have a RWD car you just toss in the M3 parts, but not an option here.  

Fucking a those are expensive.  And nice.  And expensive.

[Apoc]

You can't take it with you.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Sport seats, steering wheel, glacier trim, and weighted ZHP shift knob installed.  I'm happy.

Wow the aluminum interior brightens up the interior so much.  Looks good compared to the "carbon leather" with black leather interior with black black black black everything.

[.RJ]

Sport seats, steering wheel, glacier trim, and weighted ZHP shift knob installed.  I'm happy.

Wow the aluminum interior brightens up the interior so much.  Looks good compared to the "carbon leather" with black leather interior with black black black black everything.

My audi was black on black on black on black on black and at first I regretted not finding piano/diamond black trim but I really dig it. And I dont regret holding out for a non-nav/iDrive car.

I saved my old wood trim, so I can wrap that if I feel like I need to change it later.  No one wants this shit so its worthless on the used market, I'll likely end up just tossing it.

I didnt see any black friday/cyber monday deals on E90 xDrive suspensions, unfortunately.  I'm trying to figure out how far to go down the rabbit hole here.

[.RJ]

This morning's coffee fueled rabbit hole was "I wonder how much headache it is to swap the a/b/c pillars & headliner to black"

On the M & M-Sport cars, those pieces are all black. For the rest of us paupers, they're a light grey even if you got a black interior. Since there were about 37 m-sport wagons sold ever, good fucking luck finding one on ebay. I think most of the trim is shared with the sedan, so that's cheap but the headliner is $1300. And then I found this gem.

you may want to consider painting the light/switch assembly (the
one including the switches for sunroof etc) as it's coded to the car.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻



I am resigned to displaying my poverty status grey headliner with pride.

[ScottyB]

lol

are the floor mats coded to the freakin ECU as well?  what's wrong with these people?

[.RJ]

lol

are the floor mats coded to the freakin ECU as well?  what's wrong with these people?