My BMW 335i

[PranK]

Had a productive weekend. Replaced both front hub assemblies. The noise in the cabin is so much quieter now. I have only one corner left to replace now. Its another press in but on the non exhaust side so will be a bit easier than the other rear.

Also fit my M Performance alcantara steering wheel trim. It was an impulse buy (and pretty cheap ~$140 delivered) but man I love it.

Going to get to Pheasant Wood before the end of the month. 

[PranK]

Another productive weekend.

Installed the Nolathane subframe bushes and a Whiteline 16mm rear sway bar (replaced the OE 13mm).

Man, the car feels tight. Its hard to put a finger on anything specific and I've only done maybe 5 k's in it but everything feels precise. I did some soft rolling squirts and I could feel there was less squirm in the back.

Theres a *tiny* bit of increased NVH but you have to turn radio down and really focus to hear it. Well within my acceptable range. 

 

 

 

Off to Pheasant Wood on the 29th. First day in over a year. I can't want.

[PranK]

Ever since I got the 330i I've hated not having a front *mount* for the number plate. I don't like just sticking the plate to the bumper and the mounts I got from eBay always sucked so I bought a proper OEM front plate mount from the UK because its almost impossible to get euro sized front BMW mounts here (note that I have a euro sized front plate rather than the more common slimline front plate size which is why it was hard to find the mount).

My plate was hiding some holes and also a big crack where something has reversed into it before I bought it. I removed the double sided tape and put the new mount on. It has tabs underneath that didn't line up with anything so I cut them off and then I just drilled and used plastic rivets to mount it. It covers the crack and some of the existing plate holes but not all. I'll fix up the remaining ones soon but once the plate was ("EXTREME MOUNT") double sided taped down it looks so much nicer. I'm stoked. 

Honestly, I've been putting this off for so many years because I was nervous of getting the wrong mount (there are literally dozens of different OEM BMW front plate mounts). 

Sometimes it's the little things.

Gotta get to those headlights!

[Kinkstaah]

Good job man! One of the things I was most excited about was when the JDM and USA plates came out in Vic for the Skylines, as the actual cutout of the bumpers actually matched the dimensions of the plate, f**king finally.

[PranK]

Yep. It makes such a difference to have the right sized plate on the right sized mount. 

[niZmO_Man]

hey prank, i've been low key fiddling with HID headlights, so could improve yours (barring whether your one is Evo-R or minid2s 4.o onwards or improved)

yes yes i have a lot to answer for regarding headlights, i'll get around to it.

for reference, my F45 has factory LED bi-LED projectors and it shits all over anything we've seen so far.

[PranK]

8 hours ago, niZmO_Man said:

hey prank, i've been low key fiddling with HID headlights, so could improve yours (barring whether your one is Evo-R or minid2s 4.o onwards or improved)

yes yes i have a lot to answer for regarding headlights, i'll get around to it.

for reference, my F45 has factory LED bi-LED projectors and it shits all over anything we've seen so far.

Oh I just meant the cloudly lens covers but if I can improve them in other ways I'm super keen! I know they're hard to separate though. 

On a second note, I have a small and sharp clunk in the front drivers suspension. Everything in there is new (M3 control arms, new sway bar, sway bar end links & coilovers) except the tie rod ends. I'm wondering if a bad tie rod end ball joint will clunk? 

[niZmO_Man]

Ah yeah the Euros have weird seals to join the headlight housings. Definitely clear up those lenses, any hazing dramatically reduces light output (as I found on my Liberty with factory HIDs).

[PranK]

So some more small changes on the weekend.

Brother-in-law's 130i got new BC's, rear trailing arms and rear camber arms. He's my track partner in crime and his E87 shares the same suspension and subframe so we regularly just get 2 of everything. OEM trailing arms may as well be made of cardboard. Seller only had 1 pair, I'll get some for my car soon.

Mine only got new camber arms. I seem to have given myself -400 degrees of negative camber during the install and I now have a healthy "Commodore tuck" in the rear. Thankfully I'm getting a fresh alignment today, hoping for -3 deg's on the front and -1.5 on the rear.

Also changed my diff "Lifetime fluid" and for 150k's it didn't seem too bad, I reckon it's probably been done at some stage. It was still dark and stinky but nothing like some of the other BMW diff's we've done fluid changes on.

[PranK]

Commodore Tuck 👊

 

Tyre shop said it had around -3.5 at the rear! 🤣

[Kinkstaah]

Well, when it's time to get really serious at the track, you now know you have enough adjustability!

[PranK]

37 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

Well, when it's time to get really serious at the track, you now know you have enough adjustability!

😬

Not sure it will ever get "serious" for me. I absolutely love track days, but I'm far from aggressive enough to be really pushing.

These arms were overkill, but I really enjoy tinkering with the suspension (more so than the engine) and they were cheep cheep so in they go.

Brother in law is different, he's fast and fearless. He'll get more out of these than me.

[PranK]

Ok, so, track day shakedown done. 

The drive down was noisy! I forgot how noisy the semi's are at freeway speeds! 

The car was super floaty at the start but an additional 6psi all 'round and stiffening up the dampers made a big difference. Both of which I'd forgotten to do for the first few sessions.

Generally speaking, the car did well - I had none of the boost problems that plagued the last day, down to the repaired turbos that I put in earlier in the year. 

I had two issues with the car though, firstly after a few laps the higher speed braking became rough and shuddery. The brakes worked fine, I had no fade, but it was shudder a lot. Apparently several potential causes here, from not getting brakes up to temp properly and buildup on the rotors. Not sure either of these were the cause. 

The second issue I had was my after market oil pressure sensor warning me of lower pressure around long lefts. The warning is very quick, gone after a second and none of my logging showed pressure below 45 psi. The sensor I have will alert you before a danger zone and each time I got it I immediately eased off. I'll speak with MHD about when this alert occurs and what I should do when it happens. At least it works. I wish I'd put a baffle in now when the sump was down. That said, the oil level was a tough low, so I'll try again with maybe a slightly overfilled level next time.

I was trying to step the back out a touch on one of the corners but I found it really inconsistent. I'm assuming this is because of the open diff. Sometimes it came out quickly and aggressively, other times more subtle. I was only doing this to get a grasp of where it would let go but it was hard to get a good feel of it.

Pheasant Wood is good fun but its just so tight. My car feels quite big and heavy around there. 

As a side note, I took my 17 y/o daughter with me and as the track was fairly empty she had a few sessions. She's an absolute natural and it didn't take her long to appreciate the apex and where to put the car. She'll be faster than me in no time. She particularly liked the straight! 🤣

 

[niZmO_Man]

wait... you have a 17yo daughter? WTF

feelold.jpg

[GTSBoy]

It can get worse. Mine are both 20+.

[The Bogan]

3 in their mid 20's, just need the last one to leave home.........his mum on the other hand never wants her "little boy" to move out so she can still play mum

I understand that she enjoys being a mum, but.....I did offer to replace him with a puppy if he moves out....that didn't go as well as I expected 🙄, and I haven't brought it up again, she is at least talking to me again 🤣

[GTSBoy]

3 hours ago, The Bogan said:

I did offer to replace him with a puppy if he moves out

Hope that gets forgotten. Dogs are worse than kids.

I used to have a gardening encyclopaedia that listed both children and dogs under the section on garden pests. I include inside the house as part of the garden now.

[joshuaho96]

On 8/29/2024 at 6:56 PM, PranK said:

Ok, so, track day shakedown done. 

The drive down was noisy! I forgot how noisy the semi's are at freeway speeds! 

The car was super floaty at the start but an additional 6psi all 'round and stiffening up the dampers made a big difference. Both of which I'd forgotten to do for the first few sessions.

Generally speaking, the car did well - I had none of the boost problems that plagued the last day, down to the repaired turbos that I put in earlier in the year. 

I had two issues with the car though, firstly after a few laps the higher speed braking became rough and shuddery. The brakes worked fine, I had no fade, but it was shudder a lot. Apparently several potential causes here, from not getting brakes up to temp properly and buildup on the rotors. Not sure either of these were the cause. 

The second issue I had was my after market oil pressure sensor warning me of lower pressure around long lefts. The warning is very quick, gone after a second and none of my logging showed pressure below 45 psi. The sensor I have will alert you before a danger zone and each time I got it I immediately eased off. I'll speak with MHD about when this alert occurs and what I should do when it happens. At least it works. I wish I'd put a baffle in now when the sump was down. That said, the oil level was a tough low, so I'll try again with maybe a slightly overfilled level next time.

I was trying to step the back out a touch on one of the corners but I found it really inconsistent. I'm assuming this is because of the open diff. Sometimes it came out quickly and aggressively, other times more subtle. I was only doing this to get a grasp of where it would let go but it was hard to get a good feel of it.

Pheasant Wood is good fun but its just so tight. My car feels quite big and heavy around there. 

As a side note, I took my 17 y/o daughter with me and as the track was fairly empty she had a few sessions. She's an absolute natural and it didn't take her long to appreciate the apex and where to put the car. She'll be faster than me in no time. She particularly liked the straight! 🤣

 

1 quart overfill is an easy place to start for track use, otherwise you probably need to do a baffled pan.

[niZmO_Man]

Thread derailed.
but yeah my dog (now 10 years old) became the defacto "grandson" for my parents. I get phone calls asking me to bring my dog over for them, they don't care about their adult kids any more haha.

[PranK]

13 hours ago, joshuaho96 said:

1 quart overfill is an easy place to start for track use, otherwise you probably need to do a baffled pan.

Yep, kicking myself a little bit as I had oil there but didn't top it up. Would have been a good test/fix.