130i........doesn't feel as fast as it should?

[selym]

paul n said:

many thanks for the advice guys

I might just bite the bullet and try out for abit,

I can always sell it on if I don't get on with it

Cheers Paul

I got my first points in 18 years in my 130i, beware!

[Mr Tidy]

I had a 123d for over 6 years before the N47 cam-chain issues helped persuade me it was time for a change!

So I bought an E86 Coupe, which has the same N52 engine as the 130i and I love how it makes a rush for the red line once you get it revving a bit!

I don't care how much a 123d can be mapped for - I will definitely never have another 4 cylinder diesel!

[Crackie]

paul n said:

hi all

I was thinking about a 130i as my next "fun car"

stats look spot on 265 bhp, RWD, small car etc but I test drove a couple and they just don't feel very fast!?

I am comparing to my old Subaru wrx which was similar weight and had about similar power but felt a huge amount faster. I also drove my friends 135i which is meant to have 310 bhp but feels like it has Wayyyyy more than an extra 45bhp! (the 135i is amazing just out of my budget!)

sounded good just didnt' feel like a fast car!

Am I going mad or do these come in a little under 265 on power?

I might look at a 123d with a remap now as I dont' know if the 130i will be worth it in terms of excitement to cost ratio!

Cheers Paul

I used to run an N54 335i. BMW were careful not to quote the stock engine's max torque because it made about 40lb/ft more than the M3 did. N54 engines make about 335-340 lb/ft peak but BM quoted 295lb/ft from 1500rpm to 5500 rpm instead of the max.

135i has over 100lb/ft more torque and another 50 horsepower more so the 130i will not 'feel' very quick.

130i has a great engine though; much more satisfying engine to use on your favourite road.

Here's a link to the power curve of a stock ( and mapped 335i ) http://www.evolveautomotive.com/evolve-ecu-remap-p... Graph is my old E92 335i

Edited by Crackie on Tuesday 13th June 23:41

[paul n]

Maybe I am addicted to boost! Ha ha ! Also drove my friends 335i a while back and that was good just sold my supercharged mx5 and have a forester XT as the current car. I have had powerful NA engined cars before but in very light weight cars (westfield/caterham) so very hard to compare!

Never had a bmw thou so maybe time to try!

Wonder if I will be let out of side turnings !

[Mike335i]

As said above, you need to use the revs much more on these ad opposed to the turbocharged cars we are now used to. My brother in law had a Z4C 3.0si with the n52 and it is a sensational engine, really responsive in a way that my n54 could only dream of, beautifully smooth and sounded great. Very quick, but ultimately not as quick as a n54 by some margin.

I'm not sure that being slower is a bad thing though, I often wonder if I would have more fun in a slower, but naturally aspirated engine. I think a 130i / 330i / Z4 n52 is going to be an itch I need to scratch at some point!

[Crackie]

Mike335i said:

As said above, you need to use the revs much more on these ad opposed to the turbocharged cars we are now used to. My brother in law had a Z4C 3.0si with the n52 and it is a sensational engine, really responsive in a way that my n54 could only dream of, beautifully smooth and sounded great. Very quick, but ultimately not as quick as a n54 by some margin.

I'm not sure that being slower is a bad thing though, I often wonder if I would have more fun in a slower, but naturally aspirated engine. I think a 130i / 330i / Z4 n52 is going to be an itch I need to scratch at some point!

I sold the 335i just over a year ago and have just bought a manual 3.2 A5 because I wanted a reasonably quick normally aspirated manual 4 seater that wasn't too heavy. Power and weight are almost identical to a 130i and its nowhere near as quick as the old 335i but its still quick enough. 130i and mapped 125i were on the shortlist.

Audi's 3.2 fsi is a belter...... basically an S4 engine without the supercharger. http://www.superchips.co.uk/curves/Audi32Fsi261bhp...

[rm163603]

LocoBlade said:

rm163603 said:

As i say I had mine remapped by evolve, it definitely made a difference although I did have to run it on super after that.

I always ran it on regular and it was fine, didn't know the map was for SUL!

Ah well can't have done much harm!!

[sagarich]

Mine comes alive after 5k and then it flies!

Fantastic for a/b road blasts, but you can get caught out at lower speeds at lower revs.

Highly recommended though, I engine is a peach.

[ACB85]

Two reasons it might not feel 'right'.

VANOS Solenoids could be gunk'd so it'll be a bit lack lustre to kick in the right timing. Also the DISA valves, which I just had replaced, on my 58k, 10 year old 325i N52. Mine were out of spec (67% efficient), it made it WAY smoother and responsive.

Word of warning, seems some people enjoy fault free experiences with this engine. I however have not. Mine wants to stall when it's hot when it's returning to idle. I've changed;

6 new coil packs
6 new spark plugs
Solenoid clean out
Oil change
2 new DISA valves

Taking off from lights is now not hit and miss anymore (old DISA valves seemed to cause it to drop revs, it'd normally hold around 1k as I let the clutch out). However it still drops below the usual idle rpm when its hot. Turns out someone else had this issue and replaced nearly the whole engine. He later found out the MAF plug on the wiring loom side was causing the issue.

Brand new connector finally got rid of the code, and the issue!

Code btw (which may or may not through the engine management light) - 2D06 HFM to high + P1424 Mass or Volume air flow too high.


I love the car, just a shame such a low mileage perfectly looked after example has such an annoying niggle :-(

[GusWilliams]

rm163603 said:

LocoBlade said:

rm163603 said:

As i say I had mine remapped by evolve, it definitely made a difference although I did have to run it on super after that.

I always ran it on regular and it was fine, didn't know the map was for SUL!

Ah well can't have done much harm!!

I "think" I own your 130i now (or rather the wife does).

Have been super impressed with this little car since we got it - great fun.

I nick it from her whenever I can get away with it .......... ;-)

Mark

[cerb4.5lee]

Mike335i said:

I'm not sure that being slower is a bad thing though, I often wonder if I would have more fun in a slower, but naturally aspirated engine. I think a 130i / 330i / Z4 n52 is going to be an itch I need to scratch at some point!

The N52 is a lovely engine but in my 330i it's the car that's the problem in that it's just too heavy, and even if you redline the engine it just never feels that fast because of the weight it has to drag around with it.

I felt the same with the S65 in the M3 and the engine was lovely but you could always tell you were dragging a heavy car around with it, it's one of the reasons I've gone off N/A engines in heavier cars now, and a Turbo engine with the extra torque helps to hide the kerb weight much better.

[LocoBlade]

GusWilliams said:

I "think" I own your 130i now (or rather the wife does).

Have been super impressed with this little car since we got it - great fun.

I nick it from her whenever I can get away with it .......... ;-)

Mark

Hi Mark

If you kindly posted my rucksack back to me that I left in the boot in the rush to get away when it was hammering it down, indeed you do!

Great to hear it's still going well, if you ever decide to sell it let me know please as a couple of friends have said they'd have had it off me if the timing had been different so I might even be able to find you a buyer! I wouldn't be surprised if Rhodri didn't want it back as well to be honest as he seems to enjoy collecting BMWs and had a soft spot for that car

Edited by LocoBlade on Wednesday 14th June 19:09

[Mike335i]

cerb4.5lee said:

The N52 is a lovely engine but in my 330i it's the car that's the problem in that it's just too heavy, and even if you redline the engine it just never feels that fast because of the weight it has to drag around with it.

I felt the same with the S65 in the M3 and the engine was lovely but you could always tell you were dragging a heavy car around with it, it's one of the reasons I've gone off N/A engines in heavier cars now, and a Turbo engine with the extra torque helps to hide the kerb weight much better.

I think you are probably right as the e90 is really heavy for a smallish saloon. It felt great in an e86 Z4C which I think is about almost 220kg lighter than mine I guess a 130i sits nicely in between at only 50kg more than the Z4C.

[cerb4.5lee]

Mike335i said:

I guess a 130i sits nicely in between at only 50kg more than the Z4C.

[rm163603]

GusWilliams said:

rm163603 said:

LocoBlade said:

rm163603 said:

As i say I had mine remapped by evolve, it definitely made a difference although I did have to run it on super after that.

I always ran it on regular and it was fine, didn't know the map was for SUL!

Ah well can't have done much harm!!

I "think" I own your 130i now (or rather the wife does).

Have been super impressed with this little car since we got it - great fun.

I nick it from her whenever I can get away with it .......... ;-)

Mark

Brilliant!

It's a lot of fun especially with all the nice bits that are on it.

How many miles has it done now?

[Shaoxter]

Crackie said:

Here's a link to the power curve of a stock ( and mapped 335i ) http://www.evolveautomotive.com/evolve-ecu-remap-p... Graph is my old E92 335i

Dammit why do I read these threads, I just bought an unmodified E91 335i as a sensible family car and now I'm browsing their site for remap, downpipe and exhaust

[GusWilliams]

LocoBlade said:

Hi Mark

If you kindly posted my rucksack back to me that I left in the boot in the rush to get away when it was hammering it down, indeed you do!

Great to hear it's still going well, if you ever decide to sell it let me know please as a couple of friends have said they'd have had it off me if the timing had been different so I might even be able to find you a buyer! I wouldn't be surprised if Rhodri didn't want it back as well to be honest as he seems to enjoy collecting BMWs and had a soft spot for that car

Edited by LocoBlade on Wednesday 14th June 19:09

Hi Chris - yes that's me indeed.

It's going great mate - we got a peach there. Through its service and tyres we have a couple of guys up here keeping tabs on it with regards to us selling it. But no plans to sell it right now - we love it.

On the downside - it's got me back into small quick cars (I used to have quite a few back in the day), so now looking to move my "family/band" Audi to a T5 and then get myself an M140i (which I would fancy mod'ing as well). See what you did !!!!!! ;-)

[GusWilliams]

rm163603 said:

Brilliant!

It's a lot of fun especially with all the nice bits that are on it.

How many miles has it done now?

Hi Rhodri

She's just coming up to 99K now (we're only putting about 4K per year on it).

With that in mind however, and the fact we had some keen offers here to buy it (see my reply to Chris) - I got a full run-down done on the car, including compression test, etc ......and she's in fine fettle. Hence we are keeping it.

Great mods you guys did to it also - really nice all-round package !

Mark

[gizlaroc]

Hi Paul,

gizze from babybmw here.


The 130i is all about a linear, free revving engine, it is fine below 4000rpm, but you really need to keep it between 4-7000rpm when 'pushing on', especially if you are used to a turbo engine.

I have owned a few mapped turbo'd cars including the 335i, and yeah they feel much quicker, but the NA straight six is a far more rewarding engine. You can't just push the pedal down in any gear and it will just go, you have to get the gearing right and work at it more, but this is what makes it so rewarding.

The longer you own a NA car like the 130i the better it gets, where as once the new car novelty wears off on a turbo turbo car I am back on Autotrader looking for the next toy.

The other thing with these is make sure they are not on run flats, even on proper tyres it is a bit bouncy, when you have run flats that don't bite the road means they can get very skippy on anything other than a billiard table smooth road. It is not a good combo.

130i on B12's with proper tyres is actually a really nice combo, why BMW couldn't get this right from the factory I don't know?
Loads of low mileage sets of B12s come up for sale for around £250-350.

If I do keep my 130i this is what I will add to it.

Is that not someone on the Babybmw forum near you who has non runflats who can let you have a drive in one? Someone who really gets where the power is on them.

Cheers

G

[rm163603]

GusWilliams said:

rm163603 said:

Brilliant!

It's a lot of fun especially with all the nice bits that are on it.

How many miles has it done now?

Hi Rhodri

She's just coming up to 99K now (we're only putting about 4K per year on it).

With that in mind however, and the fact we had some keen offers here to buy it (see my reply to Chris) - I got a full run-down done on the car, including compression test, etc ......and she's in fine fettle. Hence we are keeping it.

Great mods you guys did to it also - really nice all-round package !

Mark

That's nice to hear. good to hear it's still being enjoyed!