E91 Straight Six Bearding

[ferrisbueller]

tomic said:

Never actually seen an e91 with MV4’s before (or an e92 with style 194’s for that matter). I think I like it (not dead sure though). How does it affect the ride?

Edited by tomic on Sunday 19th November 00:13

Negatively and I'm told they're prone to cracking.

[Phugoid]

My old E91 2007 330xd:



Dont think they sold the 4 wheel drive models in the UK. Was extremely nippy with that big torquey engine! I was very disappointed with the interior though, lots of rattles (diesel engine didnt help), some of the plastics / coatings just literally disintegrated away before my eyes. Other than that I really liked it.

Now in a E39 530i touring. Lovely car but worried about rust, which didnt seem to effect the E9x so much...

[BoabyBooster]

ferrisbueller said:

tomic said:

Never actually seen an e91 with MV4’s before (or an e92 with style 194’s for that matter). I think I like it (not dead sure though). How does it affect the ride?

Edited by tomic on Sunday 19th November 00:13

Negatively and I'm told they're prone to cracking.

It drives fine thank you. Have you driven a e91 335i manual with mv4s on? They crack due to the runflats, I had one crack with the runflats on, well the wife did on the rare occasion she uses it, think she though she was in her Rx400h when hitting speed bumps, they are now no longer on. Hateful people things.

Edited by BoabyBooster on Sunday 19th November 09:59

Edited by BoabyBooster on Sunday 19th November 10:01

[ATM]

BoabyBooster said:

ferrisbueller said:

tomic said:

Never actually seen an e91 with MV4’s before (or an e92 with style 194’s for that matter). I think I like it (not dead sure though). How does it affect the ride?

Edited by tomic on Sunday 19th November 00:13

Negatively and I'm told they're prone to cracking.

It drives fine thank you. Have you driven a e91 335i manual with mv4s on? They crack due to the runflats, I had one crack with the runflats on, well the wife did on the rare occasion she uses it, think she though she was in her Rx400h when hitting speed bumps, they are now no longer on. Hateful people things.

Edited by BoabyBooster on Sunday 19th November 09:59

Edited by BoabyBooster on Sunday 19th November 10:01

Cracking due to run flats only. I suspect 19 inch go flats will ride better than 18 run flats. It depends on the actual tyre though. Some are softer than others and weight also affects ride as a heavier combo will have more inertia as it crashes up or down and the damper will have more work to do. Run flats are very heavy and very hard. Single best thing you can do if you want a better ride - remove run flats and switch to go flats.

[ferrisbueller]

BoabyBooster said:

ferrisbueller said:

tomic said:

Never actually seen an e91 with MV4’s before (or an e92 with style 194’s for that matter). I think I like it (not dead sure though). How does it affect the ride?

Edited by tomic on Sunday 19th November 00:13

Negatively and I'm told they're prone to cracking.

It drives fine thank you. Have you driven a e91 335i manual with mv4s on? They crack due to the runflats, I had one crack with the runflats on, well the wife did on the rare occasion she uses it, think she though she was in her Rx400h when hitting speed bumps, they are now no longer on. Hateful people things.

I have done many thousands of miles in many E9X variants. The larger wheel will have a negative impact on ride quality vs the smaller wheel, that's just physics. And you've confirmed the wheel cracking.

[Swervin_Mervin]

The 3 went in today for new rear pads. It was still on the same discs and pads all round as when I bought it exactly 5years and 50k mi ago!

The honest chaps at Darren Wood confirmed that the discs were still healthy enough to not need doing until likely the next set of pads going in. So total bill was £120 inc VAT. Included in that they gave it all a once over and gave me a long list of tems to "consider"

It's confirmed that I really ought to get on with what I'd planned for the new year, and have a full suspension refresh. There's a leaky shock, 2 tired control arm balljoints, a very tired front wishbone balljoint, and cream crackered rear shock bumpstops. My original plan was all new dampers, and new bushings, but might as well throw in new control arms and will price up some Billies. Thoughts appreciated as to what I should consider having done whilst I'm at it

And I'm still toying with the idea of the M Performance 4-pot calipers. I got too used to 4pots with the Brembos on the 197, and getting the 125i has highlighted just how much less confidence inspiring the standard calipers are on the 330. It's just a case of finding some at a decent price.

[Mr Tidy]

Swervin_Mervin said:

The 3 went in today for new rear pads. It was still on the same discs and pads all round as when I bought it exactly 5years and 50k mi ago!

That's pretty impressive! (Mind you I got past 81K miles on original brakes all round on my 123d that I bought as a pre-reg)!

[ATM]

Swervin_Mervin said:

And I'm still toying with the idea of the M Performance 4-pot calipers. I got too used to 4pots with the Brembos on the 197, and getting the 125i has highlighted just how much less confidence inspiring the standard calipers are on the 330. It's just a case of finding some at a decent price.

I've just switched to EBC yellows and they feel good. Easily enough braking in this weather and very good feel to them. If you switch to the 4 pots do you need to replace the discs - how much does all that cost?

[helix402]

LCi 330s get the 335 brakes, sure they’d fit on a pre lci.

[zippyonline]

Swervin_Mervin said:

It's confirmed that I really ought to get on with what I'd planned for the new year, and have a full suspension refresh. There's a leaky shock, 2 tired control arm balljoints, a very tired front wishbone balljoint, and cream crackered rear shock bumpstops. My original plan was all new dampers, and new bushings, but might as well throw in new control arms and will price up some Billies. Thoughts appreciated as to what I should consider having done whilst I'm at it

TBH, as someone who has over the course of the past year replaced every single bushing in their rear suspension, I suggest you bite the bullet and do the whole lot at once - anything less and you won't be seeing the full benefit, and they'll need doing eventually (as in not too soon afterwards) anyway. It would seem mine had the birds b3 kit fitted - but the rest of the suspension wasn't touched - which explains the "it feels well controlled but with a few worn out bits" when I test drove it initially! It will be pricey, but worth it imho. Control arms wise - if you're paying labour, it's cheaper just to swap them all out (a few bolts) rather than get the bushings in them changed.

ATM said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

And I'm still toying with the idea of the M Performance 4-pot calipers. I got too used to 4pots with the Brembos on the 197, and getting the 125i has highlighted just how much less confidence inspiring the standard calipers are on the 330. It's just a case of finding some at a decent price.

I've just switched to EBC yellows and they feel good. Easily enough braking in this weather and very good feel to them. If you switch to the 4 pots do you need to replace the discs - how much does all that cost?

4 pot brembo's from the f3x come in either 340mm dia or 370mm dia depending on what your'e after. 340mm should fit under 17s just, and 370mm you'll need the 18s. E91 335is come with 348mm and boggo 330i come with 330mm (which is smaller than the rears @ 336mm!)
I'll be fitting mine sometime over spring (gonna get my current set of discs/pads through this winter - the fact they're just boggo ECP items new when I bought it is starting to show!).

My next big thing I'd like to sort on mine is the subframe bushings - but whilst I'm there it would seem silly not to change the rear ARB as you have to lower the subframe to do that...then you need the front ARB to match the rear...and really I should get an LSD to go with them... oh it all gets out of control so quickly!

[ATM]

Do these cars do that deceleration energy capture for battery charging?

[Swervin_Mervin]

zippyonline said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

It's confirmed that I really ought to get on with what I'd planned for the new year, and have a full suspension refresh. There's a leaky shock, 2 tired control arm balljoints, a very tired front wishbone balljoint, and cream crackered rear shock bumpstops. My original plan was all new dampers, and new bushings, but might as well throw in new control arms and will price up some Billies. Thoughts appreciated as to what I should consider having done whilst I'm at it

TBH, as someone who has over the course of the past year replaced every single bushing in their rear suspension, I suggest you bite the bullet and do the whole lot at once - anything less and you won't be seeing the full benefit, and they'll need doing eventually (as in not too soon afterwards) anyway. It would seem mine had the birds b3 kit fitted - but the rest of the suspension wasn't touched - which explains the "it feels well controlled but with a few worn out bits" when I test drove it initially! It will be pricey, but worth it imho. Control arms wise - if you're paying labour, it's cheaper just to swap them all out (a few bolts) rather than get the bushings in them changed.

ATM said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

And I'm still toying with the idea of the M Performance 4-pot calipers. I got too used to 4pots with the Brembos on the 197, and getting the 125i has highlighted just how much less confidence inspiring the standard calipers are on the 330. It's just a case of finding some at a decent price.

I've just switched to EBC yellows and they feel good. Easily enough braking in this weather and very good feel to them. If you switch to the 4 pots do you need to replace the discs - how much does all that cost?

4 pot brembo's from the f3x come in either 340mm dia or 370mm dia depending on what your'e after. 340mm should fit under 17s just, and 370mm you'll need the 18s. E91 335is come with 348mm and boggo 330i come with 330mm (which is smaller than the rears @ 336mm!)
I'll be fitting mine sometime over spring (gonna get my current set of discs/pads through this winter - the fact they're just boggo ECP items new when I bought it is starting to show!).

My next big thing I'd like to sort on mine is the subframe bushings - but whilst I'm there it would seem silly not to change the rear ARB as you have to lower the subframe to do that...then you need the front ARB to match the rear...and really I should get an LSD to go with them... oh it all gets out of control so quickly!

I assume the calipers are all the same size Zippy? If I can squeeze 370mm in there I'll go for that.

Totally with you on the bushings etc. All the control arms are likely original apart from the n/s front ones which wree changed about 4yrs ago. I'll probably still do the lot though. It's going to cost a few £££!! But then, I can't see me changing it anytime soon - not until I can afford to get into a 650i GC or something!

QUestion is, do I go OEM from BMW (Cotswold) or are there cheaper OEM spec available? I seem to recal Lemforder being mentioned as the same stuff but not BMW stamped. Not sure how true that is.

[zippyonline]

Swervin_Mervin said:

I assume the calipers are all the same size Zippy? If I can squeeze 370mm in there I'll go for that.

Totally with you on the bushings etc. All the control arms are likely original apart from the n/s front ones which wree changed about 4yrs ago. I'll probably still do the lot though. It's going to cost a few £££!! But then, I can't see me changing it anytime soon - not until I can afford to get into a 650i GC or something!

QUestion is, do I go OEM from BMW (Cotswold) or are there cheaper OEM spec available? I seem to recal Lemforder being mentioned as the same stuff but not BMW stamped. Not sure how true that is.

As far as I can tell, the actual callipers are pretty much the same (same body and pistons), but integrated different mounting bits for the different diameter discs. There’s a good page on ecs tuning somewhere explaining the different callipers that come on the f3x.

For the rear suspension (not fiddled with the front yet) Lemforder is OEM – I bought mine from ECP and when they turned up – you can see on some of them where the BMW part no. has been scribbled out. I’m pretty confident they’re the same. I think the front stuff is TRW OE, but don’t quote me on that! The OE BMW bushings from BMW aren’t stupid money either – although I did go Powerflex simply due to struggling to install the OE ones with the tools I had to hand – I suspect when I come round to it again, my tool collection would have increased and I’d fit OE parts.

[helix402]

Have a look on eBay for susp arms. German sellers do kits with all the arms. Don’t forget the bolts are stretch bolts on the front. Also should be tightened under load.

[cerb4.5lee]

Mr Tidy said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

The 3 went in today for new rear pads. It was still on the same discs and pads all round as when I bought it exactly 5years and 50k mi ago!

That's pretty impressive! (Mind you I got past 81K miles on original brakes all round on my 123d that I bought as a pre-reg)!

I was shocked that when I sold the 640d it was still on it's original front discs/pads at 85k miles, impressive considering it's size/weight I thought, and it only had the rear pads replaced.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I've always been fairly light on brakes to be honest. This is donig well even for me though!

[cerb4.5lee]

zippyonline said:

E91 335is come with 348mm and boggo 330i come with 330mm (which is smaller than the rears @ 336mm!)

I always preferred the look of the rear discs to the fronts on my 330i, and it's surprising the difference 6mm can make!

The brakes on my current Mini are laughably small and they look like they're not up to the job...and I can confirm they're not!!

The only car I've ever had with good brakes was my Cerbera, and the AP racing set up actually worked well...whereas BMW never seem to fit brakes that instill confidence, even the M cars I've had the brakes were garbage!

[cerb4.5lee]

Swervin_Mervin said:

I've always been fairly light on brakes to be honest. This is donig well even for me though!

I'm similar to you and overall I'm fairly light on them, it's only when I push on that I use them hard and that's when they usually let me down!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Cheers for the tips gents. While I'm babysitting on Saturday night I might as well start building a spreadsheet of part no.s for what I need.

Rock and roll

[Swervin_Mervin]

Hand forced to start early on this. Not surprisingly the NSF arm needs doing in order to pass its MOT. Lemforder part ordered from CP4L, which will hopefully turn up tomorrow to be fitted Thurs.

If all's good with the part I'll probably order all the other items from there are they specifically stock Lemforder and there's a small amount of cashback available via Quidco.