Project: Space Wagon

[Apoc]

Can't do that in a Prius.

[JustinG]

Truth, it's real home is the mud...

[.RJ]

Quattro > xDrive. On the B7 Audi, It was a simpler, all mechanical system so that is appealing to me and it drove more seamless in managing its traction.

The TC on the BMW is garbage, which doesnt help things. When the wheels slip under power, the power cut is far too intrusive so its best to just turn it off. Small slip angles the TC isnt too bad but its annoying. I think one of the things thats working against me on winter traction is the tires. The wheels I bought came with a set of Pilot Sport A/S 3, which had fair reviews on snow/winter traction on tire rack. After I curbed a tire in a parking lot (long story) I replaced both front tires with the A/S 3+ (because AWD) which has better snow/winter traction. Long story short, its not as smooth as the Audi in distributing power at slower speeds.

Now that I'm done geeking out about it, the car drives just fine in shit weather and I'm far more limited by the all-season tires than the drive system, and I think I dont like it as much because its typical BMW over-engineering. The few times the car got out of line it was easy to correct and pull through using the throttle and once you're moving, TC off, it does just fine and you're not going to get stuck unless you get stupid. This weekend was probably the worst case scenario for winter driving - it was 50* and raining when we got to Thomas at 6:30pm and by morning it was 10*F with 1-2" of fresh snow and still coming down hard - anything that was wet the night before had frozen under it. Route 32 & the park road was sanded (salt doesnt work when its that cold), but yeah, a little nervous going out. The car eats up highway miles though, drove really, really nice getting out there.

tl;dr you should buy one.

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tl;dr you should buy one.

But if $400 battery replacements scare you, buy a CPO F31 instead.

[Jake]

I found the traction control on my E82 to be intrusive in snow unless I turned it "down" by pressing the DTC button once. It will fully disable if you press and hold, but just cranking it back a bit worked to get me moving from stoplights (one tire fire diff) but would let you have some fun without getting too stupid.

[.RJ]

Scored a BMW performance intake for $200.... en route.  Most of the aftermarket intakes either dont fit properly or somehow manage to throw CEL's - the only sensor in it is the MAF and it's not even really used.  

I had been hunting for a euro airbox (cone filter instead of panel filter) and the euro PI but, this will do just fine, especially for the price.  They're $800 new, plus another $200-300 for a euro airbox from across the pond.  Its mostly underhood bling anyways.



I've got suspension parts on order - Bilstein B12 kit - there's some kind of huge backorder from Bilstein across the point, rumor is February... but that has changed from Dec to Jan to... so who knows.  It arrives when it arrives.  The kit is shortened (B8) shock bodies & Eibach springs - should lower the car around an inch and the shortened bodies will be nice, there's not much travel available front & rear with the AWD cars.

Turner released a set of monoball control arm bushings for the AWD E90's so I'll pick up a pair of those when the shocks and springs arrive, along with new shock mounts/strut mounts/etc. 



I'll probably get some +10mm wheel spacers to go in with the lowered springs, and Dinan sells a rear upper shock mount that gives you a little bit of travel back - the rear of the car is prone to bottoming out, just not much travel available.  We'll see how the car feels after this, I think it will be more than enough improvement for a street car.  If not, there's options for swaybars, upgrading the rear suspension bits to M3 control arms and subframe bushings.

Car is plugging along otherwise, doing what I bought it for - hauling bikes and dingos.  The exhaust has gotten a hair louder since installing it, and its perfect.  Really love it.

[ScottyB]

any carbon fiber engine bits are good engine bits. looks like a huge panel but i guess that's just to cover the unsightly wiring and stuff?

what's the power boost from the intake? i was surprised how much that manifold combo could get these things so i'm curious if this will free up a big choke point.

[.RJ]

what's the power boost from the intake?

Marginal, either euro box or PI gets you 3-5 hp, mostly towards top end.

[Jake]

I had some sort of CAI on my 128 and yeah, it fit poorly until I kind of hackjobbed it to, uh, not. Was super annoying the first week or two though. Glad you found the official BMW intake - looks pimp!

[.RJ]

I'm really surprised that for the $600 companies like AFE charge for their intakes they cant fuckin' make it fit right or lose more low end power than they gain up top.

[JustinG]

But it makes a cool woosh noise

[.RJ]

the tips go wooo-wooooo

[Goodspeed]

Suspension plans sound pimpy! Ever since the old BMW films, I've always thought the best route to go with these Euro builds is stealthy OEM+ with enough guff to withstand a bank heist getaway, so you are doing this so properly in my eyes

[.RJ]

So, this intake arrived and it wasnt quite complete. I knew it going in, and thought I could make it work, but I've decided its not worthwhile for me - I've put it on ebay, maybe I can get my money back out of it. Tischer BMW sells the BMW performance line of parts, and sells them new 20% off list so I may pick up one of those, but I'll need to do it soon - they told me there was only a handful left and BMW wont be making any more of them.

[Steve85]

Scored a BMW performance intake for $200....

I've got suspension parts on order - Bilstein B12 kit - there's some kind of huge backorder from Bilstein across the point, rumor is February... but that has changed from Dec to Jan to... so who knows.  It arrives when it arrives.  The kit is shortened (B8) shock bodies & Eibach springs - should lower the car around an inch and the shortened bodies will be nice, there's not much travel available front & rear with the AWD cars.

That stinks the intake didn't work out...

I've been looking around and I think that's about perfect. A lot of the kits are 1.5 to 1.75 drop and that just starts to look a little slammed. I think Dinan springs are like .75 - 1" too.

[.RJ]

Well, the suspension backorder went from February to March/April - I emailed Bilstein to ask them. So I hope it doesnt go further, but people that ordered in October are still waiting.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Hey you can convince someone to be your friend https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/...48855.html

Sent from my FRD-L04 using Tapatalk

[ScottyB]

Hey you can convince someone to be your friend https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/...48855.html

Sent from my FRD-L04 using Tapatalk

damn that's beautiful.

a bit too late and a bit too much but if that had come along while i was in the market i might have had to do something stupid.

[Senor_Taylor]

I forget, which seats are not good in these? The comfort seats or the sport seats? It's the comfort seats right? I'm not imagining it's backwards somehow.

[.RJ]

you want the sport seats. magic.

[.RJ]

Bilstein kit still on backorder.

January turned into March/April turned into April/May.... other people have been waiting longer. Frustrating. The stock shocks arent broken, at least. I am not confident in the April/May delivery, either.

Unfortunately not many options for the AWD BMW's, and I dont want threaded coil-overs.