Discussion
rockford22 said:
In line with the quotes I had too. Main dealer was £450, good local indy was £295 and the cheapest I could find UK wide was £220 (but too far for me).
I'll check our E90 post for some more feedback.
We've also managed a whole 335i thread without someone mentioning HPFP failure (although injectors and wastegate rattle have cropped up lol).
That's good.I'll check our E90 post for some more feedback.
We've also managed a whole 335i thread without someone mentioning HPFP failure (although injectors and wastegate rattle have cropped up lol).
My local indy wanted £700 all in to do my walnut blasting and my dealer don't even know what it is.
I'm lucky that my mate bought the kit, so is doing it for me (he did his 335i and 135i when he had them)
All I have to do is provide the new gaskets and a bit of cash
stef1808 said:
f1nn said:
I have a late, full BMW historied 2006 N54 engined 335i and I really rate it.
Fast, discreet, useable.
I honestly don't know what comes close for the money.
390-400 probably another £500.
Another 2k will see you over 500bhp, if that's your thing.
dream onFast, discreet, useable.
I honestly don't know what comes close for the money.
390-400 probably another £500.
Another 2k will see you over 500bhp, if that's your thing.
400BHP is achievable with Downpipes, Intercooler and Remap but probably closer to £2000 (NRSF do a downpipe for £300, Intercooler for £515 plus a remap of your choice for £500 plus £500 labour).
To get much more than 400bhp takes a lot more work and I'd say you'd right about £2k being optimistic. I'd be lying if I said I even knew what was required - you see a few single turbo conversions on the US forums running silly figures.
Hmm, I don't think I am dreaming.
Remap will take you to around 370-380 for £350. Add a set of down pipes which start at £280 and there is nothing stopping you fitting yourself and most N54's running correctly will be looking at 385-390.
You'll probably want to add a DCI, But they are cheap for the N54's.
Turbo dynamics will refurb the standard turbos and upgrade them to stage 1 for £750 +VAT each, and you'll probably want an intercooler at this point to keep the intake temps down. Again nothing stopping you fitting all this yourself. In reality this should get you to around 450-460. With Meth injection I'd say you would be not far away from 500bhp.
If you wanted more, you wouldn't have to look too far for hybrid turbos that are capable of providing 500bhp for less than £2k, hell I was offered a pair of Rob Beck turbos for 2.2k a little while ago.
I'm not saying you should, or even that they would be great to drive at these power levels, but reasonably large numbers are attainable on the N54 if such a thing floats your boat.
Remap will take you to around 370-380 for £350. Add a set of down pipes which start at £280 and there is nothing stopping you fitting yourself and most N54's running correctly will be looking at 385-390.
You'll probably want to add a DCI, But they are cheap for the N54's.
Turbo dynamics will refurb the standard turbos and upgrade them to stage 1 for £750 +VAT each, and you'll probably want an intercooler at this point to keep the intake temps down. Again nothing stopping you fitting all this yourself. In reality this should get you to around 450-460. With Meth injection I'd say you would be not far away from 500bhp.
If you wanted more, you wouldn't have to look too far for hybrid turbos that are capable of providing 500bhp for less than £2k, hell I was offered a pair of Rob Beck turbos for 2.2k a little while ago.
I'm not saying you should, or even that they would be great to drive at these power levels, but reasonably large numbers are attainable on the N54 if such a thing floats your boat.
Edited by f1nn on Monday 31st October 20:30
pidsy said:
in terms of the e92, id be looking at a facelift and maybe stage 1 mods but im not too worried about maps etc in the grand scheme of things.
...
the manuals seem rare as do the ones with the widescreen nav. other than that, im pretty open to what else it comes with - what sort of kit should i look for?
what differences other than maybe reliability, are there from pre to post facelift?
Just in case it hasn't been made clear upthread, and at risk of teaching you to suck eggs, the 335i can be had with the N54 engine (pre-facelift) or the N55 engine (facelift)....
the manuals seem rare as do the ones with the widescreen nav. other than that, im pretty open to what else it comes with - what sort of kit should i look for?
what differences other than maybe reliability, are there from pre to post facelift?
The N54 is the legendary one with two turbos whose wastegates rattle, injectors that leak and fuel pumps that die. But it does have forged pistons and rods and 700+ bhp is possible with work and E85. More realistically, there is the MHD app for Android for loading maps and 350ish bhp can easily be had with no mods, 380 with an intercooler. The app and stage 1 maps cost about £100, as said above intercooler is about £500. No point doing cold air intake, the ECU model of how the engine works gets confused by increased airflow and so they can cause issues.
The N55 is single turbo and is less unreliable than the N54 - if you believe the internet. The mapping options are piggyback or proprietary and expensive, however, MHD are bringing an app out for that engine too which should open up the tuning options further. I imagine the cost of the app will be same as for the N54, something to bear in mind though is that later model N55s have encrypted ECUs that need cracking. I would probably go for the N55 if you wish to stay with "stage 1" mods as it is a more modern engine (cool stuff like Valvetronic) and there's half the number of turbos to go wrong!
Inside, the facelifts will have the CIC rather than CCC iDrive, basically a much nicer interface and hard disk rather than DVD sat nav. CIC is retro-fittable to the pre-LCI but budget £800 or so for that job. (My preference would have been to get one without iDrive at all, as the regular head unit is easy to swap out for the latest, which has USB in and Bluetooth for calls, and then just have my phone on the dash for navigation.) In terms of other spec, see if you can get the Hifi or the Logic 7 sound system, and bluetooth on the iDrive as they're a pain to retrofit.
It's also worth mentioning that with the 335i, you get M Sport suspension and seats whether you go for M Sport or SE spec. Really just depends which look you prefer.
You can find the installed options on a car by getting the VIN and putting it in a decoder like www.bimmer.work. You can get the VIN by putting the reg in to the quote tool on www.bmw-warranty.co.uk.
lostmotel said:
pidsy said:
in terms of the e92, id be looking at a facelift and maybe stage 1 mods but im not too worried about maps etc in the grand scheme of things.
...
the manuals seem rare as do the ones with the widescreen nav. other than that, im pretty open to what else it comes with - what sort of kit should i look for?
what differences other than maybe reliability, are there from pre to post facelift?
Just in case it hasn't been made clear upthread, and at risk of teaching you to suck eggs, the 335i can be had with the N54 engine (pre-facelift) or the N55 engine (facelift)....
the manuals seem rare as do the ones with the widescreen nav. other than that, im pretty open to what else it comes with - what sort of kit should i look for?
what differences other than maybe reliability, are there from pre to post facelift?
The N54 is the legendary one with two turbos whose wastegates rattle, injectors that leak and fuel pumps that die. But it does have forged pistons and rods and 700+ bhp is possible with work and E85. More realistically, there is the MHD app for Android for loading maps and 350ish bhp can easily be had with no mods, 380 with an intercooler. The app and stage 1 maps cost about £100, as said above intercooler is about £500. No point doing cold air intake, the ECU model of how the engine works gets confused by increased airflow and so they can cause issues.
The N55 is single turbo and is less unreliable than the N54 - if you believe the internet. The mapping options are piggyback or proprietary and expensive, however, MHD are bringing an app out for that engine too which should open up the tuning options further. I imagine the cost of the app will be same as for the N54, something to bear in mind though is that later model N55s have encrypted ECUs that need cracking. I would probably go for the N55 if you wish to stay with "stage 1" mods as it is a more modern engine (cool stuff like Valvetronic) and there's half the number of turbos to go wrong!
Inside, the facelifts will have the CIC rather than CCC iDrive, basically a much nicer interface and hard disk rather than DVD sat nav. CIC is retro-fittable to the pre-LCI but budget £800 or so for that job. (My preference would have been to get one without iDrive at all, as the regular head unit is easy to swap out for the latest, which has USB in and Bluetooth for calls, and then just have my phone on the dash for navigation.) In terms of other spec, see if you can get the Hifi or the Logic 7 sound system, and bluetooth on the iDrive as they're a pain to retrofit.
It's also worth mentioning that with the 335i, you get M Sport suspension and seats whether you go for M Sport or SE spec. Really just depends which look you prefer.
You can find the installed options on a car by getting the VIN and putting it in a decoder like www.bimmer.work. You can get the VIN by putting the reg in to the quote tool on www.bmw-warranty.co.uk.
thank you for that post. helps out a lot. still doing my research but it is appreciated.
@Pidsy, not sure if I did read the other chap's helpful post correct, but I had a pre Facelift (LCI) with the newer I drive and also the DCT.
As i prefer the look, 2009 (mine was August build) seemed the sweet spot, as the car's were reliable, still had the N54 and better looking, I think I said that already.
My exact iteration was the M Sport Highline, but I can't recall what that had over the M Sport as mine was loaded with features, some of which I never used in 25k miles of ownership
As i prefer the look, 2009 (mine was August build) seemed the sweet spot, as the car's were reliable, still had the N54 and better looking, I think I said that already.
My exact iteration was the M Sport Highline, but I can't recall what that had over the M Sport as mine was loaded with features, some of which I never used in 25k miles of ownership
pidsy said:
my M3 is manual, i couldn't stand the SMG box and im wary of auto's in general but the paddles to look like fun.
is the paddle box really that good?
You need to be careful.....the earlier Steptronic auto 335i have paddles as well (but a different shape/configuration) so you need to make sure it's DCT car not a Steptronic car.is the paddle box really that good?
7-speed DCT gearbox is on another level entirely to the 6-speed Step auto, and with the option of 'Sport' button and manual control can be (despite what some say) great fun, and personally, I think the DCT 'box suits the torquey N54/N55 engine characteristics better than the manual.
Personally (although biased) if your budget allows, I'd go for the N55/DCT combo, especially if you are not to interested in seriously modifying it.
I've got the BMW Performance exhaust and a Forge intercooler on my N55/DCT 135i and that's more than fast enough/fun enough for UK roads.....IMHO, along with the already stated improved reliability factor of the N55 over the N54.
aeropilot said:
You need to be careful.....the earlier Steptronic auto 335i have paddles as well (but a different shape/configuration) so you need to make sure it's DCT car not a Steptronic car.
7-speed DCT gearbox is on another level entirely to the 6-speed Step auto, and with the option of 'Sport' button and manual control can be (despite what some say) great fun, and personally, I think the DCT 'box suits the torquey N54/N55 engine characteristics better than the manual.
Personally (although biased) if your budget allows, I'd go for the N55/DCT combo, especially if you are not to interested in seriously modifying it.
I've got the BMW Performance exhaust and a Forge intercooler on my N55/DCT 135i and that's more than fast enough/fun enough for UK roads.....IMHO, along with the already stated improved reliability factor of the N55 over the N54.
Will seem like a real geek now, but each paddle on the pre LCI DCT allows you to change up and down , but on the LCI one is for up and one is for down. I think it's right for up and left for down but I'm not certain 7-speed DCT gearbox is on another level entirely to the 6-speed Step auto, and with the option of 'Sport' button and manual control can be (despite what some say) great fun, and personally, I think the DCT 'box suits the torquey N54/N55 engine characteristics better than the manual.
Personally (although biased) if your budget allows, I'd go for the N55/DCT combo, especially if you are not to interested in seriously modifying it.
I've got the BMW Performance exhaust and a Forge intercooler on my N55/DCT 135i and that's more than fast enough/fun enough for UK roads.....IMHO, along with the already stated improved reliability factor of the N55 over the N54.
Smuler said:
Will seem like a real geek now, but each paddle on the pre LCI DCT allows you to change up and down , but on the LCI one is for up and one is for down. I think it's right for up and left for down but I'm not certain
You're correct, the pre-LCI DCT paddle arrangement was the same as for the old steptronic auto which preceded it (so either paddle able to move both forward and back and hence able to change up or down). However, LCI cars adopted the same set-up as the M3 (so pull back on the left paddle to change down, pull back on the right paddle to change up); personally I think the latter arrangement is much more intuitive, didn't like the paddle arrangement at all in pre-LCI cars - assume feedback from others to BMW was similar and that's why they changed it!Smuler said:
@Pidsy, not sure if I did read the other chap's helpful post correct, but I had a pre Facelift (LCI) with the newer I drive and also the DCT.
As i prefer the look, 2009 (mine was August build) seemed the sweet spot, as the car's were reliable, still had the N54 and better looking, I think I said that already.
Yeah there was a little blurring of the spec around the change to the facelift. All facelifts have CIC, but pre-facelifts can have either CCC or CIC in those last off the line. I completely agree that the pre-facelift is better looking in general (I prefer the headlights), and the M Sport bumpers in particular look great, especially in Le Mans blue.As i prefer the look, 2009 (mine was August build) seemed the sweet spot, as the car's were reliable, still had the N54 and better looking, I think I said that already.
I'm afraid I disagree, I think the LCI is much nicer (at least in E90 saloon shape). Here is mine
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/ypeWTngX.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/x9jZDkIR" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/x9jZDkIR.jpg)
The E90 LCI was introduced before the E92 (coupe) and E93 (convertible), so I guess the updated iDrive went in all at the same time which explains mismatch in 2009.
The E90 LCI was introduced before the E92 (coupe) and E93 (convertible), so I guess the updated iDrive went in all at the same time which explains mismatch in 2009.Edited by Mike335i on Tuesday 1st November 20:23
Mike335i said:
XMT said:
Have checked into the walnut blasting too. I am little luckier than you in that the 3 main dealers I called local to me quoted 300 for the job and indies were only 30 quid cheaper
Interesting, if you could quote the dealers I'm sure I could get the most excellent and wonderfully accommodating Soper of Lincoln to price match! Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff