BMW E90 330D M Sport

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95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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Falsey said:
Hi mate, which model seats are they?

Look amazing.
They are Cobra Misano Anniversary Reclining seats


Falsey

449 posts

138 months

Wednesday 9th July 2014
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Cheers. Prices are eye watering, but wouldnt mind some for my Scirocco.

How do you find them for comfort etc? Any long journeys?

Very jealous!

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Falsey said:
Cheers. Prices are eye watering, but wouldnt mind some for my Scirocco.

How do you find them for comfort etc? Any long journeys?

Very jealous!
Well Iam 6ft 3 and just under 14 stone, and I find the thigh bolsters tight and the seats abit hard, but I have been told that I need to allow upto 8 weeks for the leather and stitching to stretch and take the shape of your body. The other issue I have is the subframes for these seats only slide backwards and forwards and I could do with subframes that have a tilt function like the originals. I've done a 4 hour journey. 2-3 hours there ok, 3 or more and I started to get lower back ache even with lumbar support. Having said that I've only had the seats in for a few weeks. They are very nice looking and well built lightweight seats (10kg each compared to the originals of 25kg), and I opted for the extra heated and lumbar support option. Iam still yet to find the ultimate setup for these seats for my body.

Edited by 95 fiesta si on Thursday 10th July 00:13

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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plans for the next month while iam on holiday

• 2 new rear 255/30/19 Falken tyres - DONE
• Wheels re-balanced and 4 wheel laser alignment - DONE
• Code LCI LED rear lights and airbag\seat warning issues - DONE
• 6 x New glow plugs - DONE
• Replace headlight washer modules (due to screenwash leak) - DONE
• MOT - DONE
• Dent removal (couple of small car park dings)
• Retrofit 12v power socket in the boot - DONE
• Fit power folding mirrors and coding - DONE
• Respray LCI rear tailgate in Sapphire Black
• BMW Performance 6-Pot Big Brake System front & back (by Brembo)
• Genuine BMW Performance 335i\335D Rear Diffuser - DONE
• Custom 335i\335D Style Twin Exit Stainless Exhaust - DONE
• Genuine BMW LCI Xeon Angel Eye Headlights
• Carbon air intake cover
• Carbon fuse relay box covers
• Carbon wiper motor cover
• Carbon oil cap
• Carbon brake servo cap

Edited by 95 fiesta si on Tuesday 12th August 15:32

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
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Ok, so i retrofitted a genuine BMW 12v outlet in the boot, so i can run appliances in the boot particularly a mini fridge. I collect a small 15L 12V fridge from maplin for £40 and it fits the boot just nice. There are 2 anchor points in the boot so i will use a bungee cord to keep the fridge in place.

Cars also booked in tomorrow morning for a custom 335D style exhaust.












lewis328

496 posts

197 months

Friday 1st August 2014
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Hi mate,

Nice car, I have just got a 55 plate saloon, I am new to the e90, can the LCI rear lights only be fitted with a replacement tailgate?

Cheers

DanielJames

7,543 posts

167 months

Friday 1st August 2014
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Love the fridge hehe

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 1st August 2014
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i would suggest mounts for the fridge with 21 bhp...

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Sunday 3rd August 2014
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lewis328 said:
Hi mate,

Nice car, I have just got a 55 plate saloon, I am new to the e90, can the LCI rear lights only be fitted with a replacement tailgate?

Cheers
Hi, yes for lci rear lights you need the lci tailgate. About £300 for tailgate and lights, and about 1 hour to swap over. The lci lights are LED so need abit of coding aswell.

DanielJames said:
Love the fridge hehe
Cheers

The Spruce goose said:
i would suggest mounts for the fridge with 21 bhp...
Iam using a bungee cord with the 2 rear mounting points in the boot. Doesn't move an inch.

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Monday 4th August 2014
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Ok, so the Genuine BMW performance diffuser wasn't exactly a straight fit. It wouldn't sit flush, like in the picture of this blue one.



A bit of digging around on the internet and i found info that suggested you have to trim your rear bumper to make it fit. So thats what i did.









A few pics with the new BMW Performance rear dffuser, Style Dynamics custom 335 exhaust and some interior shots
















95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Monday 4th August 2014
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also a video of the power folding mirrors off the remote.


95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Tuesday 5th August 2014
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And the car passed its MOT today smile

dancole90

44 posts

124 months

Tuesday 5th August 2014
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Looks like a decent job with the carbon wrap. I really miss my 320d I had as a company car for a few months.

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Saturday 9th August 2014
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added a few decals today.

My AC Schnitzer rep top spolier has an indent in it for a badge. would of been better if it wasn't there, but it is, so i filled it with a AC Schnitzer decal, like the original would of had. not a perfect fit, but you wouldn't know unless you went in right close.





Also added a ODK detailing splat sticker to the bottom o/s of the rear window



Edited by 95 fiesta si on Saturday 9th August 12:54

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Tuesday 12th August 2014
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Had my 4 wheel laser alignment done by a company that use the Hunter Alignment machine (same as BMW).

Steering wheel wasn't centered and handling was all over the place. The alignment print out showed why with 10 adjustments needed to the camber, caster and toe.

Feeling much much better to drive now



Also fitted a genuine BMW Natural Air starter kit vent mounted air freshener






95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
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Well after a year’s ownership id thought i write a little review

PERFORMANCE
For a Diesel it’s great. The 6 cylinders make it sound nothing like a 4 cylinder diesel, sound from the cabin while driving, sounds pretty beefy if I’m honest. Performance from the stock 231 BHP and 500NM torque will see 0-62 in 6.7 seconds and tops out at 155 MPH, having mine mapped to around 275BHP and 600NM torque I’m seeing around 0-60 in about 6 seconds, the pull from the stupid amount of torque is insane. Revs max out at 4500rpm, which if you hit it, actually sound and fell like 6000rpm in petrol, gear changes from the 6 speed manual box are nice and tight.

ECONOMY & RUNNING COSTS
Considering the performance the economy is great. I often see 42-47 MPG on a 150 mile journey (120 miles motorway & 30 miles urban traffic). Costs me around £80 to fill the tank with Shell V-Power (£1.40 a litre) and I should see about 550 miles for that. Tax is about £200 a year and cost me around £400 a year to insure. As far as servicing goes it uses Long life Castrol Edge oil so can go 19,000 miles before an oil change, but it takes 7.5 litres of oil which is about twice the amount of oil for a normal car so sort of cancels out the long life bit lol, just means you don't have to change it so often. Cost of oil and pollen filters about the same as on any car, about £5-£10 each. Changing the air filter is a joke and takes around 1-2 hours to complete by removing most of the engine plastic trims, covers and strut brace to get to it. Bimmers tend to run wider rear rims, and being RWD the more expensive back tyres wears out quicker than the fronts. I’m paying about £320 for a set of 19" Falken rears. Also be aware that most electrical things you upgrade or change in a modern bimmer need coding to work which makes retro fitting anything pretty tricky, but there are lots of people\companies out there offering coding services. Having a pair of folding mirrors coded can cost you in the region of £100-£200, that’s just for the coding :shock:. General BMW spares and fitting at the dealers or specialist also come in quite pricey to anything else I’ve owned (Ford, Fiat, Seat and VW)

[b]IINTERIOR
[/b]I was quite disappointed with the standard interior, the black Dakota looks grey and I hated the brushed aluminium trim that was splattered all over the dash and door cards so carbon wrapped them. Standard seats look boring but quite comfy, changed the fronts for a set of reclining Cobra Misano seats . Good leg room in the front and back, even if you’re tall like me and have your seat far back, there’s still a good amount of leg room for the rear passenger behind you. The iDrive is pretty damn good except for the sat-nav which looks graphically dull and is running 2007 maps. I Dash mount my iPad mini 2 and run the tomtom app with traffic and camera subscriptions which is far better than any built in sat nav you’ll find in any car so it’s not really a problem for me. The black cloth roof lining an pillars are a nice touch and everything seems very solid and well built, no rattling. The M sport springs are quite stiff so give a bumpy ride for stock springs but is easy to live with. One thing I found quite annoying is its rare to find a E90 Saloon with folding rear seats, which means your limited to just the boot space, gone are the days of packing a Ikea kitchen in the boot like I could on a hatchback, lack of rear wiper is sometimes annoying too. Cup holders are very good and don’t hang over your head unit which means no spilt coke over your stereo. Overall the interior is roomy and well laid out. The car is packed with some useful stuff though like auto lights and rain sensors, electric windows front and back, heated front and rear windscreens, dual climate control, cruise control, auto dimming mirror, hands free Bluetooth with voice control.

EXTERIOR
I found the M sport look quite pleasing to the eye, only thing i found quite dated on the Pre-LCI was the red halogen rear lights with the silly white bits in, I changed the rear lights and tailgate for the LCI LED rear lights and tailgate and it gives it a much fresher, aggressive but modern look. Exterior led welcome lights are a nice touch, as are the gloss black mirror base plates and window edging. M Sport models give you a sportier looking front and rear bumper as well as side skirts and lower sports springs.

HANDLING & BRAKING
I found the handling of the car quite poor when i picked it up, but then realised it was running budget non-run flats. Changing the tyres to a decent brand improved the handling in the dry and wet no end, and standard factory fit m sport springs and front strut brace help provide decent grip when approaching such things as roundabouts at speed. I’ve found the standard brakes to be pretty good, rear discs are quite large too, maybe because it’s RWD.

ICE
I found the iDrive very useful giving all sorts of information about the car. It monitors everything, your tyre pressures, brake pads, DPF and tells you how much life is left in the serviceable components. Also acts like a computer letting you change most of the settings for the car like speed limits, lights, indicator timings, daytime running lights, detailed trip computer, sat-nav etc. DVD drive lets you play DVD mp3's but not DVD movies, well at least not on the Pre-LCI version. Has Bluetooth for hands free calling which paired well with my iPhone 5S giving me all my contacts on the iDrive. Also has voice control so you can call up menus on the iDrive. Visual parking sensors with distance control on the iDrive is also useful, not only can you hear when your close to something the iDrive displays how far away a particular item is and where about it is. Sound in general is pretty poor. The BMW professional 4 speakers and 2 small subs under each seat isn’t really enough to create a decent surround sound and is severally lacking tweeters and better bass, which again is an option called Logic 7 which I’ve been told sounds amazing and tempted to retro fit this.

OVERALL
Has the perfect blend of performance, economy and space and I would say probably the best for its age in this field. It has a nice solid feel to drive and feels quality. They look good but doesn’t necessarily have the wow factor as there ae so many of them on the roads, can look better if you make them a little unique. My only disappointment with this car was the lack of extras that i would expect to be standard on a car of this calibre and with retrofitting being costly due to extra coding required I would recommend anyone buying one of these to get one with the extras such as Xeon lights, iDrive, folding mirrors, heated seats, sunroof, folding rear seats etc. I would defiantly get another one, possible the 335D Xdrive in auto next time around.

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Sunday 19th October 2014
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just a few pics. Was testing out my new Gopro Hero 4 :thumbsup:


































cerb4.5lee

30,179 posts

179 months

Monday 20th October 2014
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Lovely write up and great piccies too, pleased you are enjoying it and you have made the car really unique thumbup

95 fiesta si

Original Poster:

1,600 posts

151 months

Tuesday 21st October 2014
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cerb4.5lee said:
Lovely write up and great piccies too, pleased you are enjoying it and you have made the car really unique thumbup
Cheers mate smile

itcaptainslow

3,694 posts

135 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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Cracking car, really like the exterior changes. Subtle but purposeful.