Time for my next round of updates.
It's Alpina flash time!
There were two reasons why I ended up settling for a Steptronic over a manual transmission car. The first was the ability to rewire the paddle shifters to work properly (left=up, right=down). The second was the Alpina B3 transmission flash. I'm sure many of you have read about this fabbled flash. Well I finally got it installed yesterday and can say that it lives up to the hype.
Preliminary thoughts after maybe 40km of driving:
- Being able to see gears 1-6 via D, S and M modes is very handy.
- D mode is more refined and very smooth shifting, almost to the point where you can't feel the shifts at all. It's into 5th gear by 50kph and a great cruising/fuel economy/quiet mode.
- S mode is also a substantial improvement over the factory settings. Gear shifts are noticeably quicker and it holds gears depending on how much throttle you feed in. I haven't driven a great deal in this mode however, as it tends to sit in 3rd gear at 60kph (i.e. on main roads) just below 3 000 rpm which I find is a little noisy for cruising with my AR downpipes and Berk exhaust.
- M mode is where it's at for me. Upshifts are a noticeable improvement over the factory settings, however they haven't completely eliminated the lurching as the car changes gears. It is a lot better than before though. Downshifts are extremely quick and responsive. The paddles are that much more fun now and I find myself dropping down a few gears regularly just for the bark it produces.
Being able to control what gear I'm cruising in at 60kph (5th gear) also gives me the response of S mode but the quietness of D mode. M mode may become my default driving mode.
For those interested in performing this flash, I ended up buying this cable which worked flawlessly. Be aware you can buy cheaper cables on Ebay but I wasn't willing to risk it and went with a tried and tested quality cable.
http://www.one-stop-electronics.com/...&product_id=16
The tutorial to carry out the flash is available here:
http://www.n54tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20991
I had a very kind member from N54tech remotely carry out the flash for me. The hardest part for me was carting my big heavy PC down to the carport for the flash as I didn't have a laptop available. I got a few funny looks from my neighbours but was worth the inconvenience in the end!
Next up was a set of Blackline LCI taillights (thanks Stuart from BMR). I already had regular LCI taillights from a 1M but I really wanted the tinted Blacklines as I felt they would better complement my dark Monaco blue paint. Having now installed them I'm happy I went down this path. They look fantastic and really give the car a more aggressive look. Super happy with the result and it was a very easy install. The tutorial I followed is available here (thanks Dack!):
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=716583
Below are a few pics showing the install and the difference between the two LCI versions. I feel the side view really captures the most noticeable difference. Previously you could really see a cherry red with the 1M tails, but with the Blacklines it's a much darker and sleeker maroon/burgundy.
Finally, were a replacement set of H8 angel eyes.
The driver's side LED bulb seemed to die only two weeks after I got the car which was a shame. I was told that it had LUX V3 bulbs installed but upon removing them it turns out that was not the case. They're some form of cheaper Cree bulb that I haven't seen before. Either way I wouldn't recommend them given their short lifespan.
I ended up purchasing a set of BMR's own angel eyes as replacements. I test fit them yesterday and they are slightly brighter and whiter than my previous Cree set which is a good surprise. Similar to many of you however, I had huge problems getting the plastic covers back on. After 1 hour of trying I gave up and pulled out the bulbs to let me mechanic finish the install another day. Let me be clear that this is not a problem with the BMR bulbs or ballasts, this is just the finicky nature of the BMW light cover. Such a pain! Really looking forward to getting the new bulbs installed and having both angel eyes working again.
Here's a few pics of BMR's version in case you haven't seen them before. They seem to be a good cheaper alternative to LUX and DTEC.
The old Cree bulb:
The new BMR H8's:
I also had a chance to finally clean and condition my terracotta leather seats with the Leather Master LM250 kit. They are much cleaner, softer and smell nicer now. Ran out of time to take pics but will hopefully get some good ones of the complete interior (seats and trim) once I get the last centre console part of the trim finished in the 3M carbon fiber.