BMW 123d E87 - 'Light' tuning options - Opinions please

[Winston4692]

Hey all,

I've just bought a BMW 123d to replace my ever thirsty and unused Mazda 6 MPS for a bit of practical performance! Mazda was a little too big and a little too thirsty for me and, having had 2 already, I love BMWs.

The one thing the 123d does lack compared to the Mazda is the outright power and addictive power delivery so I'm looking to improve in a few areas. I've had some thoughts and looked online at options to increase performance so I am just after some opinions. If you have/had one do let me know! This won't be used on a track (unless very rarely) so mainly B-road driving so I'd like to retain some comfort.

Engine
Drop in panel filter - Pipercross seems good value (or should I be going for an open intake?)
Exhaust - Milltek cat-back system (or is a cheap s/s one on eBay just as good?)
EGR delete
Intercooler - Wagner unit (this is low on priority!)
Remap

Chassis
Brakes - EBC turbo grooved discs w/ yellow stuff pads
Springs - Eibach Pro-Kit
Dampers - Stock or Bilstein units (essentially a B12 kit)
ARBs - Been toying with the idea of upgrading here, is it worth it on a road car?
Wheels - Cades Tora 18/8J Fronts and 18/9J Rears
Tyres - Uniroyal Rainsport 3
Spacers - I've never fitted them before so this is an area I need most help I think!

I won't go into the cosmetic changes I'm looking to make, I may save that for a separate thread. I will however set-up a thread for the journey with lots of pics for people to see!

Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

p.s. my N47 has had a timing chain recall!

[helix402]

A standard BMW, Mahle or Mann air filter will work best.

[d_a_n1979]

Winston4692 said:

Hey all,

I've just bought a BMW 123d to replace my ever thirsty and unused Mazda 6 MPS for a bit of practical performance! Mazda was a little too big and a little too thirsty for me and, having had 2 already, I love BMWs.

The one thing the 123d does lack compared to the Mazda is the outright power and addictive power delivery so I'm looking to improve in a few areas. I've had some thoughts and looked online at options to increase performance so I am just after some opinions. If you have/had one do let me know! This won't be used on a track (unless very rarely) so mainly B-road driving so I'd like to retain some comfort.

Engine
Drop in panel filter - Pipercross seems good value (or should I be going for an open intake?)
Exhaust - Milltek cat-back system (or is a cheap s/s one on eBay just as good?)
EGR delete
Intercooler - Wagner unit (this is low on priority!)
Remap

Chassis
Brakes - EBC turbo grooved discs w/ yellow stuff pads
Springs - Eibach Pro-Kit
Dampers - Stock or Bilstein units (essentially a B12 kit)
ARBs - Been toying with the idea of upgrading here, is it worth it on a road car?
Wheels - Cades Tora 18/8J Fronts and 18/9J Rears
Tyres - Uniroyal Rainsport 3
Spacers - I've never fitted them before so this is an area I need most help I think!

I won't go into the cosmetic changes I'm looking to make, I may save that for a separate thread. I will however set-up a thread for the journey with lots of pics for people to see!

Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

p.s. my N47 has had a timing chain recall!

Personally I'd go K&N or ITG panel filter (if ITG do one); known too many folk with Pipercross filters that have broken up into pieces with them being foam!

Then I'd get the braking system overhauled (Mtec C Hook or grooved discs, much better and cheaper than EBC discs IMO) along with Yellowstuff pads and HEL braided lines, all with a Motul DOT 5.1 fluid flush and re-fill/bleed etc

Mtec brakes: https://www.mtecbrakes.com/

Then I'd look into tyres, if they're needed and good choice with the RS3s, but Id also highly recommend the Vredestein Ultrac Vorti tyres too! Found them to be absolutely superb and with a firmer sidewall than the RS3s, much better handling

I'd then go re-map; so you can learn about the cars power, how it puts it down and what it could be capable of after a Stage 1 remap and then, look into suspension and exhaust mods thereafter

However; this is how I'd go about it; everyone's different

[Mr Tidy]

Why compare a 123d with a petrol Mazda?

Surely you need to look at 130i - and then why would you want a light-bulb?

[Winston4692]

Mr Tidy said:

Why compare a 123d with a petrol Mazda?

Surely you need to look at 130i - and then why would you want a light-bulb?

This thread wasn't started to weigh up the pros and cons of petrol vs diesel. Or Mazda vs BMW or a 123d vs a 130i.

What I'm looking to achieve is performance comparable to that in the Mazda - The chassis is already better in the BMW than that of the Mazda so the real goal is the outright performance with small upgrades to the chassis for even better handling.

I've had a 3.0 N/A petrol BMW, the N53 in my E92. Which was revvy and smooth but lacked any real excitement IMO.

I've already got the 123d so this thread is about weighing up my options with regards to performance modifications, not weigh up my options of changing car.

[pvogue]

any HPFP issues?

jason@bwchiptune is the man to see

https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&a...

[Mr Tidy]

Winston4692 said:

This thread wasn't started to weigh up the pros and cons of petrol vs diesel. Or Mazda vs BMW or a 123d vs a 130i.

What I'm looking to achieve is performance comparable to that in the Mazda - The chassis is already better in the BMW than that of the Mazda so the real goal is the outright performance with small upgrades to the chassis for even better handling.

I've had a 3.0 N/A petrol BMW, the N53 in my E92. Which was revvy and smooth but lacked any real excitement IMO.

I've already got the 123d so this thread is about weighing up my options with regards to performance modifications, not weigh up my options of changing car.

OK, fair enough.

But comparing an MP3 with a 123d is a bit like comparing an apple with a banana - why not compare a 130i with a Mazda diesel?

I had a 123d for over 6 years then I got a Z4 Coupe with the N52 3 litre engine - and just wished I had got a 130i instead of a 123d.

With the added bonus of the N52 engine not needing attention to the injectors, HPFP or coking up that requires walnut blasting like the N53 tended to suffer from.

Put "BMW N47 cam-chain" into Google - that's one of the reasons I moved my 123d on!

[Winston4692]

Mr Tidy said:

OK, fair enough.

But comparing an MP3 with a 123d is a bit like comparing an apple with a banana - why not compare a 130i with a Mazda diesel?

I had a 123d for over 6 years then I got a Z4 Coupe with the N52 3 litre engine - and just wished I had got a 130i instead of a 123d.

With the added bonus of the N52 engine not needing attention to the injectors, HPFP or coking up that requires walnut blasting like the N53 tended to suffer from.

Put "BMW N47 cam-chain" into Google - that's one of the reasons I moved my 123d on!

It's all I can compare because I've come from a MPS 6 and I've gone to a 123d. I appreciate they're very different cars.

I think because I had the underpowered N53 (3.0 325i) it never felt exciting. N52 supposedly sounds much better. Maybe that's next or an F20 M135i.

Anyway, at the moment I'm sticking with the 123d, I love the economy and the un-diesel-like power delivery. Also, 130i is going to set me back a lot my pennies than the 123d to buy in the first place.

Luckily, my 123d had the timing chain recall by BMW

[bodhi]

Winston4692 said:

Hey all,

I've just bought a BMW 123d to replace my ever thirsty and unused Mazda 6 MPS for a bit of practical performance! Mazda was a little too big and a little too thirsty for me and, having had 2 already, I love BMWs.

The one thing the 123d does lack compared to the Mazda is the outright power and addictive power delivery so I'm looking to improve in a few areas. I've had some thoughts and looked online at options to increase performance so I am just after some opinions. If you have/had one do let me know! This won't be used on a track (unless very rarely) so mainly B-road driving so I'd like to retain some comfort.

Engine
Drop in panel filter - Pipercross seems good value (or should I be going for an open intake?)
Exhaust - Milltek cat-back system (or is a cheap s/s one on eBay just as good?)
EGR delete
Intercooler - Wagner unit (this is low on priority!)
Remap

Chassis
Brakes - EBC turbo grooved discs w/ yellow stuff pads
Springs - Eibach Pro-Kit
Dampers - Stock or Bilstein units (essentially a B12 kit)
ARBs - Been toying with the idea of upgrading here, is it worth it on a road car?
Wheels - Cades Tora 18/8J Fronts and 18/9J Rears
Tyres - Uniroyal Rainsport 3
Spacers - I've never fitted them before so this is an area I need most help I think!

I won't go into the cosmetic changes I'm looking to make, I may save that for a separate thread. I will however set-up a thread for the journey with lots of pics for people to see!

Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

p.s. my N47 has had a timing chain recall!

I've got a lightly modded 125i Coupé, so can't really assist with the engine side of things (it's easy on the 125i, get it remapped then leave it alone ), but on the chassis side the recommendations tend to be:

Suspension - lots of options here, and there is an in review here: https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&a... The chap in question has tried just about all of them, and his recommendations to me was B4 Shocks + Eibach Springs + M Performance Bump Stops if I wanted an improved but compliant road set up, or the full B12 Kit if I wanted something further. Bear in mind the B12 Kit comes with Eibach Springs, so you don't need to purchase them if you go down that route. I went for the first option with the normal M Sport springs and it's great, much flatter in the corners, still comfortable enough when combined with normal tyres. Having said that, my old dampers had done 126k miles and were completely shot, so anything would have been an upgrade

Other suspension work you can do is the "camber pin mod" which updates the camber on the front and makes the car more direct, and reduces shoulder wear on the tyres, combined with the Lower Control Arms from an E92 M3. BabyBMW is an awesome resource for this kind of stuff.

Tyres - I wouldn't bother with the Rainsports as they are a little soft in the sidewall and wear out fairly quickly - I would strongly suggest spending the extra on a set of Michelin PS4's. Fantastic in all conditions, they were even semi useful in the snow we had last year, allowing me to at least get around, albeit slowly. My last set of rear last 25,000 miles, and I don't tend to drive slowly Fronts still have plenty of meat left after 40,000 as well.

Brakes - I haven't touched these as I find the standard brakes adequate for the driving I do, but there are a number of options here as well. I know for the 125i the general recommendation is to fit the front calipers from a 130i which has bigger brakes, then pads and discs to suit. I'm pretty sure the front brakes from an M135i fit as well, but would need to check on that.

ARB's - not entirely useful on a road car as far as I can tell, however haven't really looked into these. Same with wheels and spacers, I am running the standard M Sport wheels. All I would do in this area is refurbish the ones I have in Shadow Chrome (a la E39 M5).

Other than that, the previous owner made a couple of mods with varying degrees of success.

Logic 7 Retrofit - this is awesome, lovely sound from the tweeters in the dash and underseat subs. Add in a decent Bluetooth Receiver (I have a Sony one), and you have a pretty good audio solution that will work with any phone or streaming service.

HID Retrofit - this has been less successful. The previous owner replaced the headlights with those from a company called Sonar, then fitted an HID Kit to that (they are projector headlights so still legal) - the light is an improvement but it hasn't been that reliable - I've spent quite a lot on Ballast Resistors and bulbs, and have just noticed I have a headlight out, so off we go again. If you are going to go that route I would suggest looking at the Depo offerings as they are supposed to be higher quality (not entirely difficult...).

CDV Delete - he took out the additional valve BMW add to the clutch to prevent damage, and it is far more direct than other BMW's I have tried.

All that, together with the 280 bhp from the remap makes it an absolute giggle to drive, yet is just as happy munching miles on the motorway as it is on a B-Road. I've had it for 4 and a half years and 70k miles, and have no plans to sell it. Ever.