2009 BMW E93 335i M-Sport Convertible
Discussion
The RX-7 leaving cemented the idea that my next car was going to make up for a lot of the shortfalls that that car had. When I decided to sell the RX-7 back in July/August last year and pretty much then I kinda knew what I was going to buy next.
RX-7 ownership thread for those that missed it:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
The RX-7 was not a car that could be used as a daily. I would use it for longer trips up and down the A303 but it wasn't a warm, relaxing place, it was always raw even after getting the softer suspension and quieter exhaust, so this next car had to rectify that. Also having a weekend car with only 2 seats pretty much exluded me sharing the experience with the rest of my family.
So for a while now we've had a 2012 E91 330D as a daily for child and dog hauling purposes. I *really* like it, it's smooth, quick, handles well, looks nice etc. I knew I was getting on well with the E9X platform so why not go for the one with the twin turbo N54 and the convertible so that my kids would love it too? Easy choice.
I had my sights set on an auto after loving the auto in the 330D and went down to Plymouth to test one that was a rare manual version. The car was in ok condition but when I found a short open section of road, putting my foot down the car didn't really have much to give. It wasn't misfiring or obviously broken it just felt like the turbo was adding little to no boost. The owner seemed pretty oblivious but I was disappointed. I didn't actually like the manual much anyway, it had that annoying BMW thing of the clutch delay valve limiting the fun of shifting manually. After talking to friend who is an N54 owner he assured me that it should feel quite a bit slower than my RX-7 but it should still feel like a car with a turbo. I didn't buy that car but I did have to start looking further afield. I actually also started looking at 650i's and 635d's but my wife thought they looked hideous so that didn't go anywhere.
I did what I wouldn't normally do, I started looking at dealers across the whole country rather than local private sales. I narrowed down a shortlist of E93 335i's that met the following criteria:
Pre-LCI N54 engine
Sport/M-Sport spec
Dark exterior, dark interior colour
Full service history
Under 100K miles
Under £8500
I think across all of pistonheads, autotrader, ebay and gumtree there were only two and this was the best one (pictures from autotrader ad):
So I got on the phone to the dealer, had them take some videos of the car starting, running etc, share pictures of the service history and receipts and then I took a gamble and bought it over the phone and had it delivered on the back of a trailer to my door a day later.
It arrived on Friday as described so I was very happy! I drove it 50 mixed miles over the weekend and it's just as described.
I put the VIN through a decoder online and got the following:
Prod. Date 2008-08-22
Type 335i
Series E93 (3 Series)
Body Type Convertible
Steering Right Hand Drive
Engine N54
Displacement 3
Power 225kw / 306hp
Drive HECK
Transmission Automatic
Colour Sparkling-graphit metallic (A22)
Upholstery Leather "Dakota"/schwarz (LCSW)
Editions And Packages
S337 M Sports Package
S704 M Sports Suspension
S7XA M Leather St.Wheel+Shiftpaddle+Multif.
S715 M Aerodynamics Package
Comfort And Interior Equipment
S4AS High-Grade Wood Trim,Varieg.Poplar, Grey
S459 Seat Adjustment, Electric, With Memory
S481 Sports Seat
S423 Floor Mats Velours
S428 Warning Triangle And First Aid Kit
S441 Smoker Package
S494 Seat Heating Driver/Passenger
S470 Isofix-System
S431 Interior Mirror With Automatic-Dip
Multimedia
S620 Voice Control
S694 Provisions For BMW 6 CD Changer
S677 HiFi System Professional DSP
S616 BMW Online
S633 Preparation, Mobile Phone, Business
S609 Navigation System Professional
S6FL USB/Audio Interface
S612 BMW Assist
Driver Assistance And Lightning
S507 Park Distance Control (PDC), Rear
S502 Headlight Cleaning System
S520 Fog Lights
S534 Automatic Air Conditioning
S544 Cruise Control With Brake Function
S522 Xenon Light
S521 Rain Sensor
S563 Light Package
Wheels And Drive
S205 Automatic Transmission
S2PA Locking Wheel Bolt
S2MP BMW Alloy Wheel, M Double Spoke 225
S249 Multifunction F Steering Wheel
Environment And Safety
S302 Alarm System
S8S2 Coding, Alarm Signal
S8SP Control Unit COP
S877 Omission Of Non-Combined Operation
S850 Dummy-SALAPA
S812 National Version England / Ireland
S863 Dealer List Europe
S8S3 Automatic Locking During Starting
S880 On-Board Literature, English
S8SM Car Ident. Number Visible From Outside
S853 Language Version, English
Individual Equipment
S760 High Gloss Shadow Line
Other Equipment
S1CD Brake Energy Regeneration
S1CA Selection Of COP-Relevant Vehicles
S1CB CO2 Equipment
The only change from the original spec appears to the 19" M3 M359 Competition wheels on frankly ridiculous 275/30 Continentals at the back, 245/35 at the front.
I've read all the N54 horror stories - but I'm a seasoned rotary man so we'll see how this goes!
RX-7 ownership thread for those that missed it:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
The RX-7 was not a car that could be used as a daily. I would use it for longer trips up and down the A303 but it wasn't a warm, relaxing place, it was always raw even after getting the softer suspension and quieter exhaust, so this next car had to rectify that. Also having a weekend car with only 2 seats pretty much exluded me sharing the experience with the rest of my family.
So for a while now we've had a 2012 E91 330D as a daily for child and dog hauling purposes. I *really* like it, it's smooth, quick, handles well, looks nice etc. I knew I was getting on well with the E9X platform so why not go for the one with the twin turbo N54 and the convertible so that my kids would love it too? Easy choice.
I had my sights set on an auto after loving the auto in the 330D and went down to Plymouth to test one that was a rare manual version. The car was in ok condition but when I found a short open section of road, putting my foot down the car didn't really have much to give. It wasn't misfiring or obviously broken it just felt like the turbo was adding little to no boost. The owner seemed pretty oblivious but I was disappointed. I didn't actually like the manual much anyway, it had that annoying BMW thing of the clutch delay valve limiting the fun of shifting manually. After talking to friend who is an N54 owner he assured me that it should feel quite a bit slower than my RX-7 but it should still feel like a car with a turbo. I didn't buy that car but I did have to start looking further afield. I actually also started looking at 650i's and 635d's but my wife thought they looked hideous so that didn't go anywhere.
I did what I wouldn't normally do, I started looking at dealers across the whole country rather than local private sales. I narrowed down a shortlist of E93 335i's that met the following criteria:
Pre-LCI N54 engine
Sport/M-Sport spec
Dark exterior, dark interior colour
Full service history
Under 100K miles
Under £8500
I think across all of pistonheads, autotrader, ebay and gumtree there were only two and this was the best one (pictures from autotrader ad):
So I got on the phone to the dealer, had them take some videos of the car starting, running etc, share pictures of the service history and receipts and then I took a gamble and bought it over the phone and had it delivered on the back of a trailer to my door a day later.
It arrived on Friday as described so I was very happy! I drove it 50 mixed miles over the weekend and it's just as described.
I put the VIN through a decoder online and got the following:
Prod. Date 2008-08-22
Type 335i
Series E93 (3 Series)
Body Type Convertible
Steering Right Hand Drive
Engine N54
Displacement 3
Power 225kw / 306hp
Drive HECK
Transmission Automatic
Colour Sparkling-graphit metallic (A22)
Upholstery Leather "Dakota"/schwarz (LCSW)
Editions And Packages
S337 M Sports Package
S704 M Sports Suspension
S7XA M Leather St.Wheel+Shiftpaddle+Multif.
S715 M Aerodynamics Package
Comfort And Interior Equipment
S4AS High-Grade Wood Trim,Varieg.Poplar, Grey
S459 Seat Adjustment, Electric, With Memory
S481 Sports Seat
S423 Floor Mats Velours
S428 Warning Triangle And First Aid Kit
S441 Smoker Package
S494 Seat Heating Driver/Passenger
S470 Isofix-System
S431 Interior Mirror With Automatic-Dip
Multimedia
S620 Voice Control
S694 Provisions For BMW 6 CD Changer
S677 HiFi System Professional DSP
S616 BMW Online
S633 Preparation, Mobile Phone, Business
S609 Navigation System Professional
S6FL USB/Audio Interface
S612 BMW Assist
Driver Assistance And Lightning
S507 Park Distance Control (PDC), Rear
S502 Headlight Cleaning System
S520 Fog Lights
S534 Automatic Air Conditioning
S544 Cruise Control With Brake Function
S522 Xenon Light
S521 Rain Sensor
S563 Light Package
Wheels And Drive
S205 Automatic Transmission
S2PA Locking Wheel Bolt
S2MP BMW Alloy Wheel, M Double Spoke 225
S249 Multifunction F Steering Wheel
Environment And Safety
S302 Alarm System
S8S2 Coding, Alarm Signal
S8SP Control Unit COP
S877 Omission Of Non-Combined Operation
S850 Dummy-SALAPA
S812 National Version England / Ireland
S863 Dealer List Europe
S8S3 Automatic Locking During Starting
S880 On-Board Literature, English
S8SM Car Ident. Number Visible From Outside
S853 Language Version, English
Individual Equipment
S760 High Gloss Shadow Line
Other Equipment
S1CD Brake Energy Regeneration
S1CA Selection Of COP-Relevant Vehicles
S1CB CO2 Equipment
The only change from the original spec appears to the 19" M3 M359 Competition wheels on frankly ridiculous 275/30 Continentals at the back, 245/35 at the front.
I've read all the N54 horror stories - but I'm a seasoned rotary man so we'll see how this goes!
f1nn said:
I still think the E9X series is the best proportioned 3 series.
I loved my time with my 335i. They are not without their issues as you already know, but fantastic cars.
There is a thread on here detailing my time with mine if you are interested.
I read your thread all the way through - good read, thanks!I loved my time with my 335i. They are not without their issues as you already know, but fantastic cars.
There is a thread on here detailing my time with mine if you are interested.
Quick update, parked the E93 next to my E91 LCI 330D for a pic in the rain (my son batman hat in the middle)
I think I still haven't done more than 100 miles in the E93 although I have a trip to Farnborough coming up tomorrow for most of the week but I thoughtI'd do the first obligatory mod:
First - connect the car to battery charger
Connect up MHD app on a tablet using a K+DCAN cable
Admire car while waiting to flash
Give it 36 minutes
Enjoy 370bhp
Stage 1 flash feel amazing compared to stock, really wakes the engine up, I think this is what it should have been like from the factory - stock in comparison seems detuned rather than untuned. Now I know why PH was flooded with the '335i mapped' meme when these cars were fresh.
I'm not desperate to do bolt-ons (yet) I'm put off downpipe and exhaust mods since I really don't want another anti-social car after the RX-7, maybe charge pipe and intercooler. What the remap highlights though is that what's really missing is a LSD - especially in the current wet and cold conditions. I think I've had too many cars with good diffs, especially the RX-7 so straight away there's something missing when putting the power down and you get that alternating one wheel drive feeling with the open diff.
I think I still haven't done more than 100 miles in the E93 although I have a trip to Farnborough coming up tomorrow for most of the week but I thoughtI'd do the first obligatory mod:
First - connect the car to battery charger
Connect up MHD app on a tablet using a K+DCAN cable
Admire car while waiting to flash
Give it 36 minutes
Enjoy 370bhp
Stage 1 flash feel amazing compared to stock, really wakes the engine up, I think this is what it should have been like from the factory - stock in comparison seems detuned rather than untuned. Now I know why PH was flooded with the '335i mapped' meme when these cars were fresh.
I'm not desperate to do bolt-ons (yet) I'm put off downpipe and exhaust mods since I really don't want another anti-social car after the RX-7, maybe charge pipe and intercooler. What the remap highlights though is that what's really missing is a LSD - especially in the current wet and cold conditions. I think I've had too many cars with good diffs, especially the RX-7 so straight away there's something missing when putting the power down and you get that alternating one wheel drive feeling with the open diff.
So first proper trip in the 335i, up to Farnborough for a 3 day conference, covered about 350 miles up and back from Devon. Really happy with my choice, it seems to be the ideal car for my use - relaxing and comfortable when it needs to be and making short work of eating up the A303 too. Needs a wash now.
If you're interested I do have some OEM LCI rear tail lights (just the outers) with harnesses for the pre-LCI up for sale at the minute. They came off my now departed e93 325i.
IMHO they really bring the rear end into the 21st century and can be difficult to source because they are a different shape to the E92 lights (slightly).
Lovely car otherwise OP; always wanted the N54 myself.
IMHO they really bring the rear end into the 21st century and can be difficult to source because they are a different shape to the E92 lights (slightly).
Lovely car otherwise OP; always wanted the N54 myself.
Been a few months, not much driving over lockdown part one. Car ran fine on a few longer trips up the A303 to Surrey.
I did get one annoying problem though - one of my rear window motors packed up leaving the window up, I sourced a new regulator and motor on ebay easy enough but when I came to fit it what should have been a 45 min job turned into a 3 hour epic fight with a recessed steel allen head bolt that I rounded holding it in at the bottom. Eventually I won and got it drilled out but it took so long!
Then I could finally lower all of my windows again
I found an opportunity to do a few datalogs on third gear pulls on a level straight road and translated them into a virtual dyno graph:
Numbers were bang on for a stage 1 remap giving 379bhp and 404lbft and this is a great baseline for comparison for the stage 2 mods that I decided to go for next.
I ordered some MTC catless downpipes, a Toyosport 5 inch intercooler and an MTC chargepipe.
These are the downpipes - they look nice!
This is the chunky intercooler
The chargepipe wasn't too exciting and was pretty easy to fit - maybe 30-45 mins?
The downpipes on the other hand were an epic mission to fit. There are loads of videos on youtube of sometimes inept DIY mechanics getting them fitted in 3-4 hours. So stupidly I assumed that would be the same for me. What I didn't realise was that all of these videos were on LHD and unfortunately
RHD is a different story since the steering rack gets completely in the way of any type of access to the v-band clamps at the top of the pipes. The process eventually involved disconnecting the steering column at the top, dropping the rack, dropping the front subframe, lifting and tilting the engine until there was enough space to reach and fit the clamps. I had no idea it would have been so involved and I wouldn't have started the job and tried to fit it in a single weekend on ramps and jackstands if I'd known. I had two mates do it with me and one of them was a seasoned N54 guy (he knew to drop the subframe etc.) It was maybe a 10-11 hour job - way too long!
I had hair before starting this job!
Once the car was back on the ground and buttoned up it started first turn of the key and didn't throw and o2 sensor codes or anything, no obvious(big) exhaust leaks either. I drove it around a few miles and it actually sounds lovely - very purposeful and nice, I can hear my turbos spool up now where I couldn't before and also the straight six sound much more sports car-like, I can feel the turbos spool earlier with more torque low down. There's a tiny bit more vibration at idle but obviously compared to my RX-7 it's still a super civilised car.
Next step is to flash the stage 2 MHD map which should hopefully be around 410-420bhp then eventually I'll get the intercooler on (it's not a big job we just ran out of time) and flash stage 2+. I'll log the stage 2 pulls and put up another virtual dyno graph for comparison.
I did discover one extra positive thing when the engine cover was off too, all of my injectors are the newest revision BMW index 12 injectors meaning that at some point they were replaced so that's one thing I hopefully won't have to change.
I did get one annoying problem though - one of my rear window motors packed up leaving the window up, I sourced a new regulator and motor on ebay easy enough but when I came to fit it what should have been a 45 min job turned into a 3 hour epic fight with a recessed steel allen head bolt that I rounded holding it in at the bottom. Eventually I won and got it drilled out but it took so long!
Then I could finally lower all of my windows again
I found an opportunity to do a few datalogs on third gear pulls on a level straight road and translated them into a virtual dyno graph:
Numbers were bang on for a stage 1 remap giving 379bhp and 404lbft and this is a great baseline for comparison for the stage 2 mods that I decided to go for next.
I ordered some MTC catless downpipes, a Toyosport 5 inch intercooler and an MTC chargepipe.
These are the downpipes - they look nice!
This is the chunky intercooler
The chargepipe wasn't too exciting and was pretty easy to fit - maybe 30-45 mins?
The downpipes on the other hand were an epic mission to fit. There are loads of videos on youtube of sometimes inept DIY mechanics getting them fitted in 3-4 hours. So stupidly I assumed that would be the same for me. What I didn't realise was that all of these videos were on LHD and unfortunately
RHD is a different story since the steering rack gets completely in the way of any type of access to the v-band clamps at the top of the pipes. The process eventually involved disconnecting the steering column at the top, dropping the rack, dropping the front subframe, lifting and tilting the engine until there was enough space to reach and fit the clamps. I had no idea it would have been so involved and I wouldn't have started the job and tried to fit it in a single weekend on ramps and jackstands if I'd known. I had two mates do it with me and one of them was a seasoned N54 guy (he knew to drop the subframe etc.) It was maybe a 10-11 hour job - way too long!
I had hair before starting this job!
Once the car was back on the ground and buttoned up it started first turn of the key and didn't throw and o2 sensor codes or anything, no obvious(big) exhaust leaks either. I drove it around a few miles and it actually sounds lovely - very purposeful and nice, I can hear my turbos spool up now where I couldn't before and also the straight six sound much more sports car-like, I can feel the turbos spool earlier with more torque low down. There's a tiny bit more vibration at idle but obviously compared to my RX-7 it's still a super civilised car.
Next step is to flash the stage 2 MHD map which should hopefully be around 410-420bhp then eventually I'll get the intercooler on (it's not a big job we just ran out of time) and flash stage 2+. I'll log the stage 2 pulls and put up another virtual dyno graph for comparison.
I did discover one extra positive thing when the engine cover was off too, all of my injectors are the newest revision BMW index 12 injectors meaning that at some point they were replaced so that's one thing I hopefully won't have to change.
Edited by declasm on Monday 12th October 10:06
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