My BMW 335i

[PranK]

So, I got the oil pressure sensor. I can now monitor oil pressure and the car will alert me to any loss in pressure hopefully before it kills my engine.

 

[PranK]

Had a track day at Pheasant Wood on Tuesday which was awesome. There were 4 of us in total, 1 car broke halfway through the day and 1 wasn't running until half way through the day so my mate and I almost had the track to ourselves.

2 issues popped up for me tho;

1. I would lose all boost for a few corners every now and then. No errors, just no power. It would come back eventually. This is apparently a common occurance where the wastegate actuator arms get stuck open. Hopefully easy fix with some high temp grease.

2. If I pushed hard when the day was at its hottest (~33 degrees) the car would throw a boost leak code and go into a semi-limp mode (still driveable, similar to other issue, like I'm driving with no boost.) So I have a boost leak somewhere.

Was a bit frustrating but even with 80% throttle I managed a 1:08. My mate did a 1:04.4 in his 130i. 

I have ordered some billet diverter valves as it makes sense that the OEM plastic ones might fail in high temp conditions. I'll also double check all intercooler piping as I have replaced both the cooler and the charge pipe. Its a bugger that I can't troubleshoot this easily on the road. Just need to try to fix some stuff and hope that the next track day is better.

Duncan, I was wondering how far from here you were?

[PranK]

Oh, I also used some new Redstuff pads. Very impressive though I didn't really give them much of a hard time. The DBA T2's I ordered for the front didn't arrive in time so I'm keen to see how well they pair up when I put them on next week.

[joshuaho96]

I helped a coworker with his 335i recently, bit of a threadjack but I was absolutely shocked at how much carbon buildup those engines get in the intake valves looking at it firsthand. Then I was shocked again at how his no-start issue was caused by "Bav Auto"/AIC Germany fuel pressure sensors. Fixing both those issues got his car running well again.

[PranK]

On 15/01/2024 at 12:14 PM, joshuaho96 said:

I helped a coworker with his 335i recently, bit of a threadjack but I was absolutely shocked at how much carbon buildup those engines get in the intake valves looking at it firsthand. Then I was shocked again at how his no-start issue was caused by "Bav Auto"/AIC Germany fuel pressure sensors. Fixing both those issues got his car running well again.

Yeah, direct injection downsides I guess. There are many port injection kits available but my car does such few k's that a clean on its own will go a long way.

Did you replace the sensors?

[joshuaho96]

20 hours ago, PranK said:

Yeah, direct injection downsides I guess. There are many port injection kits available but my car does such few k's that a clean on its own will go a long way.

Did you replace the sensors?

Yep, new OEM sensors on both high pressure side and low pressure side fixed the no-start. By the time I swapped the sensors the low pressure sensor had gone from reading incorrectly to permanently stuck at open circuit. High pressure sensor was still reading a value but pulled from the rail instead of reading 0-2 bar it was still reading 13 bar of pressure. I've never had a firsthand story of how aftermarket questionable alibaba parts could cause very real issues until now, and it really reiterates the importance of not getting tempted to save 50-60 USD when the risk is potentially having to do the whole job again and have your daily driver non-functional for weeks waiting on parts and tools and free time/expertise to diagnose the issue.

[PranK]

100%!! Majority of my parts are now OE quality from FCP Euro in the states. I've had a few instances myself of cheap Chinese knock-off parts just causing more pain over the long term. Throw in that I plan to keep my cars for a long time and it just makes sense. 

 

[joshuaho96]

On 1/16/2024 at 9:03 PM, PranK said:

100%!! Majority of my parts are now OE quality from FCP Euro in the states. I've had a few instances myself of cheap Chinese knock-off parts just causing more pain over the long term. Throw in that I plan to keep my cars for a long time and it just makes sense. 

 

Worst part is Turner Motorsport includes those in their HPFP kit. The HPFP is OEM but the sensors are AIC Germany, which is some brand I've never heard of but almost certainly means made in China on the cheap. It's possible to get quality out of China but anybody that wants to go cheap and nasty isn't going to bother with the work that it takes to make it happen.

[niZmO_Man]

I remember there was some chatter about knock-offs ending up in OE parts bins, mainly in Middle Eastern area (so maybe partsouq got affected?) Hopefully that was only a rumour...

[PranK]

1 hour ago, joshuaho96 said:

Worst part is Turner Motorsport includes those in their HPFP kit. The HPFP is OEM but the sensors are AIC Germany, which is some brand I've never heard of but almost certainly means made in China on the cheap. It's possible to get quality out of China but anybody that wants to go cheap and nasty isn't going to bother with the work that it takes to make it happen.

Yeah I've had no need to touch the HPFP yet thankfully. I'm surprised Turner supply them! I get everything from FCP, not only do they only sell quality, they have a lifetime warranty on all parts they sell.

 

1 minute ago, niZmO_Man said:

I remember there was some chatter about knock-offs ending up in OE parts bins, mainly in Middle Eastern area (so maybe partsouq got affected?) Hopefully that was only a rumour...

😬

[PranK]

I have a few updates. 

The first is my wheels. I bought a set of BMW MSport style 403M last year. Because they were from an F30 the offset was low but even with chunky tyres and 20mm spacers, I couldn't get them looking right. I did plastidip them to see if it'd be worth respraying them and it looked ok for a bit, but one thing NOBODY mentioned in their Youtube videos of plastidipping is that brake dust quite literally STICKS to the plastidip, It becomes embedded in the rubber and its super hard to clean. So, I took the plastidip off and now the wheels are the OEM diamond cut face appearance and given the offset issues I'm just not loving them at all. So I bought a second set of BMW 351M wheels (same as my track wheels) to use on the road. The 403' are now for sale.

This is with the plastidip. Looks great until you get close. I think respraying them properly in this colour would be pretty nice.

This is the car today after a big clean yesteday.

 

I got some Sailun 255's for the rear hoping it would fill it out a bit but its still quite tucked. A bigger sidewall would help.

But, incase you missed the poll, dont buy Chinese tyres.

 

 

[PranK]

The next update is my brakes. When I test drove the car it had a major shake when braking. The dealer fixed this with brand new discs and pads all round which I was impressed with, but I'm fairly certain they got the brakes from the drawer below the bottom shelf. I mean, the car stopped, so its good for rego.

Late last year I swapped the front pads out for EBC Red Stuff and it was like I was in a different car. A few months ago I swapped the discs out for DBA T2 and it got better again. The brakes are awesome, despite being single piston. They're the same calipers as the M3 I believe.

 

[PranK]

When my car started leaking boost the first thing I did was to order some cheap diverter valves. I didn't know if this was the cause of the leak so I wasn't prepared to spend $400 on some nice aftermarket ones.

Well ... You know . .... Cheap and Chinese ... .

 

Thankfully right after this I found a guy in Perth selling some used Forge DV's for about the same as I got back on the ones above.

Havent had another leak yet but also haven't been back to the track. The leak was only present when the car was super hot (which is why I thought the plastic OEM valves).

[PranK]

And now for the big one.

Tomorrow the car goes in to Bimmertech to get the replacement turbo's put on. This is, hands down, the most money I think I've ever spent on a car in one go and I'm only fixing and future proofing 😭

This is what $2450 in BMW parts looks like (including the dang $350 in taxes I had to pay as I got them from the US).

Its not much. Main things are;

• New oil pan gasket and replacement bolts
• All new exhaust manifold studs and nuts
• New exhaust gaskets and brackets
• 4 x new oil lines
• 4 x new coolant lines
• All new O Rings and seals

Would have been double going through AU BMW I reckon.

Then we have the turbos which were $750 and I'm hoping labour is under $1500.

But, then I'll have a car that doesn't rattle, whose wastegate closes cleanly and who can hold boost (this could very well be the cause of my boost leak as the rattle gets worse it can change the shape of the flapper.)

I'll finally be able to run my MHD tune! 

I'm so excited but so nervous they'll find some other disaster in there.

If all goes well, I've bought myself another 100k's free of turbo-related problems.

[PranK]

Ok, so we've had some (expensive) problems but nothing critical, thankfully.

I get parts from FCP Euro in the states and in this instance I got 4 x genuine BMW cooling lines and 4 x OE quality oil lines (because they had no genuine stock). Well, turns out the OE quality didn't fit and the guys wasted a lot of time with them. Thankfully FCP has lifetime returns but the genuine BMW lines locally were $250 each! They also discovered my drivers side engine mount was totally dead and the replacement mount was $350. This sucks as I almost bought new mounts when I did my FCP order and I would have had both the engine mounts for less than this local one.

So, I'm assuming at least another $1500 on top of the existing number.

They did reassure me that the new (used) turbos looked good which was my main worry.

Car will be ready for Monday pickup. 

[Kinkstaah]

@Dose Pipe Sutututu get a slice of the BMW life going on here.

This is what, $6k for... fixing some leaks with some OEM quality gaskets/lines, to fix up OEM gasket/lines which were failing/failed?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Going to get 4x Toyota Rav 4 diesel injectors changed at a non dealer mechanic will set you back a bit over $4k.

So not too far off.

[PranK]

35 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

This is what, $6k for... fixing some leaks with some OEM quality gaskets/lines, to fix up OEM gasket/lines which were failing/failed?

The base problem was the turbo actuator arms. I could have just done the turbos but opted to do all supporting hardware at the same time to really future proof the car for me. But yeah, wont be much change from $6k.

[PranK]

33 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Going to get 4x Toyota Rav 4 diesel injectors changed at a non dealer mechanic will set you back a bit over $4k.

So not too far off.

Dont get me started on the N54 injectors

[PranK]

Picked the car up on Saturday and its beautiful! I do feel that even just knowing its fixed makes everything feel better.

Did a cold start on Sunday and got the tiniest bit of rattle which upset me a bit but it was really hard to hear and made me think it could be something else that has previously gone unnoticed due to the volume of the rattly turbos. 

I went for a drive and then loaded my tune which caused a LOT of rattle previously and it was silent. The car drove so nicely and now I have a 400HP tune with the front mount which is nice. In terms of engine mods I think I'm done but I also know myself.

Then I fit the $500 rims I got. These are the same as my track wheels because I love them and I dont need to swap spacers when changing them. They're absolutely mint and have 275/35 rear and 245/40 front. The fronts do rub the splash guard and I had to lift the front 5mm to fit them (the track fronts are 245/35).

 

I really need to work out whats wrong with my drivers headlight. It just keeps filling with water and it killed a 6 month old $150 OSRAM xenon bulb  - hopefully I dont need a new light, they're fricken expo.