My First BMW - A Build Thread (N55 DCT 135i Build)

[slow3oh]

Hello all,

I'll start by saying that I've browsed these forums to look at DIY's and learn about these cars in depth before I start playing with it and have posted to a couple threads here. This is my first thread here, and the first thread likes this for me on any forum, so please bear with me..

I have been an enthusiast since a kid and have lived in forums for years of changing cars, modifying them, going out to meets, races, both track and street, and just kind of living in a car word. For work and pleasure. My most change was in the form of a 2013 135i M Sport. Carbon Black with Oyster leather interior and silver trim. Well optioned for the year. NAV, iDrive, Power/Heated Sears. No Harmon Kardon, No heated steering wheel because of the M sport package, and I learned that a back up camera wasn't available.

Being a 2013 it's an N55 car, and it's a DCT. I specifically wanted it as such. I'm over driving manuals for a bit as 5 of the 10 cars I've owned were sticks.

I bought it at the end of January this year with 69k miles on it. One owner, clean CarFax, full service history, adult owned. The lady factory ordered the car. Included the accessory cup holder... win, the standard one is useless. Being that I've been in the car business for the last 5 years, I'm picky. But will overlook small things for a deal. The car had a dent on the driver side quarter that pulled out easily and now that weather has gotten nice I'm getting ready to have it full paint corrected and ceramic coated. I love the Carbon Black.... but may wrap it later. The driver side seat also had an odd yellow stain that won't come out. But I intend on replacing the interior later on so I didn't mind it.

First thing I did was take it to a BMW dealer for a full service. Was ready to spend whatever I needed to get it up to date and running 100%. Since the previous owner took such good care of it, all it needed was an oil change. Sparks plugs due next service.

Inevitably, one day as I was doing a 1st gear pull with DSC off, the car was spinning the tires as the rpm's rose and all of a sudden my car lost all power and gave me the Maintenance Now warning along with the beloved image of the car on a lift on my dash.. I pulled over to a 7/11 parking lot and what I had assumed happened, did in fact happen. My charge pipe had blown. It failed at the connection to the intake manifold. I limped the car home and got online. Found a deal for a VRSF upper and lower charge pipe. Installed the upper as it was a 5 minute job and left the stock lower pipe. I then ended up getting a great deal on a used JB4 and BMS intake. So I installed both and ran the car on map 5 for a few days. Trying both straight 93 and an e30 mix. It was fun for a week or so. It then just failed as I was on an hour drive home. I did a light pull, the car bucked violently, service engine light came on, and I got that car on the lift again. My steering wheel controls were gone. The car barely ran I'm guessing since the DME couldn't read the sensors with the JB4 in between and presumably dead. I limped it home and uninstalled the JB4. Car ran fine afterward and has since been in that form. BMS Intake, VRSF upper charge pipe. No tune. No problems.. so I thought.

Today, I put my 10,000th mile on the car since owning it. Knowing this was coming up, I decided to celebrate. I've also had a great first 3 months at my new job, so I'm rewarding myself as well. Needless to say by now... I ended up ordering a ton of stuff for the car.

This is a full build thread.. I've got goals for the car and a loose plan on what direction I'm taking to get there. I'll be posting every purchase and where I buy it. Updates with new installs. Updates with tuning. I'll even be posting dyno sessions and track days which will be coming soon. I may even include some content on my other car..

I'll be sure update any experiences I may have while working on the car myself or as the gentleman doing a good amount of the work has... I like not having to get under my car anymore.

In every post I'll be including what my next post is planned to be. Next one will be a few photos I've snapped since owning the car. Maybe a few videos. After that a full parts list with part numbers of what I've ordered and received thus far.

'Till next time

[slow3oh]

Here's a photo from the online listing, one from the day I brought it home, a couple at work, and one of my Tiguan.

[mike@x-ph.com]

[dtla1]

Welcome, and nice write up!

BTW, I don't want to say anything bad about the BMS intake, but it might be a good idea to get some input from other owners/previous owners of the intake as some threads around here seemed to indicate a bad experience with it. Some bad idles and such.

[slow3oh]

Originally Posted by dtla1

Welcome, and nice write up!

BTW, I don't want to say anything bad about the BMS intake, but it might be a good idea to get some input from other owners/previous owners of the intake as some threads around here seemed to indicate a bad experience with it. Some bad idles and such.

Oh it's getting taken off.

My car is flashed MHD Stage 1 and of course data logged the first few pulls, and my IAT's were so high I wanted to throw up. Lol. BMS Intake + Stock intercooler is not a good mix.

I heard the stock N55 intake is best, anyone care to chime in?


P.S. That parts list should be up tonight. Been swamped at work and go home to sleep the last few days!

[ghost135i]

Originally Posted by slow3oh

Oh it's getting taken off.

My car is flashed MHD Stage 1 and of course data logged the first few pulls, and my IAT's were so high I wanted to throw up. Lol. BMS Intake + Stock intercooler is not a good mix.

I heard the stock N55 intake is best, anyone care to chime in?


P.S. That parts list should be up tonight. Been swamped at work and go home to sleep the last few days!

I have the same setup as you, but it's a 2012. I've driven it about 20k miles, including several long journeys with the BMS intake without a tune or any other mods and never had a single issue. This was mainly because It was installed when I purchased the car.

I went straight to FBO and a MHD stage 2+ off the shelf tune about 10k miles ago. In total I have put 30k miles on the car now. Again no major issues, and with the upgraded intercooler my IATs never went more than 10-12°F above ambient temperature. The only issue I had was blowing through a set of new factory spark plugs in about 2 months. I would highly recommend buying new 2 step colder NGK plugs that are used in the F80/82s rather than buying new factory plugs. Have fun with the build!

[ghost135i]

By the way, I would also highly recommend staying away from a JB4 only tune. I would at least go with a JB4 + MHD backend flash, or MHD flash only. Reason being, the JB4 is just a piggyback, and the ECU has no clue that you're running more boost, and will NOT adjust the clamping pressure for the DCT to make up for the extra power leading the clutch packs to wear out at a very accelerated rate... and costing you lots of money...

[houtan]

+1 on going flash only.


My intake of choice is injen using a slightly modified stick snorkel.

[slow3oh]

Originally Posted by ghost135i

By the way, I would also highly recommend staying away from a JB4 only tune. I would at least go with a JB4 + MHD backend flash, or MHD flash only. Reason being, the JB4 is just a piggyback, and the ECU has no clue that you're running more boost, and will NOT adjust the clamping pressure for the DCT to make up for the extra power leading the clutch packs to wear out at a very accelerated rate... and costing you lots of money...

I took the JB4 off the day it failed as soon as I got home, don't think I'll be putting it back at any point either lol

[slow3oh]

Originally Posted by houtan

+1 on going flash only.


My intake of choice is injen using a slightly modified stick snorkel.

I looked at the Injen. But I heard it isn't the best because of it being metal the whole way and retaining the heat.

Having seen videos of your car.. I'm more comfortable with the idea of ordering the Injen. Would you recommend?

[JPuehl]

Welcome! I've been using the BMS intake for a while now without issue and recently added the aFe cover that fits on the OEM airbox. My IATs are reasonable, although I did add a bunch of insulation to the intake piping since I had the time and most of the parts off when I did the PS2 upgrade earlier this year. I also still have the JB4 with a modified BMS BEF.

[houtan]

Originally Posted by slow3oh

I looked at the Injen. But I heard it isn't the best because of it being metal the whole way and retaining the heat.

Having seen videos of your car.. I'm more comfortable with the idea of ordering the Injen. Would you recommend?

Yes I personally am a fan of the intake. I, like most, do a lot of research before buying something. Intakes is one area where the opinions are all over the place so decided my own experience would be the only way to figure out what would work for me. I have run this intake on the dyno, half mile events, and hpde’s and it did not cause me any issues.

For additional heat management, you could do what @jpuehl has done and wrap the intake. Here is an example of the injen wrapped: https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show...1669429&page=2

I personally have not wrapped mine. Hope this helps.

[slow3oh]

Originally Posted by houtan

Yes I personally am a fan of the intake. I, like most, do a lot of research before buying something. Intakes is one area where the opinions are all over the place so decided my own experience would be the only way to figure out what would work for me. I have run this intake on the dyno, half mile events, and hpde’s and it did not cause me any issues.

For additional heat management, you could do what @jpuehl has done and wrap the intake. Here is an example of the injen wrapped: https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show...1669429&page=2

I personally have not wrapped mine. Hope this helps.

In that case, I may add this to the list of things to order after all.

For the thread -

I'm sorry for the delay in finally getting to this. I've been at work 6 days a week and spend my Sundays with the girlfriend so she doesn't get on me for spending money and time on the car.

Here's the list of everything I've gotten for the car to this point. I've included part numbers as best I can as well as where I purchased each item. I have a ton of plans for the car and this is just the tip of the iceberg for now. I guess this is my real starting point

From Burger Tuning:

- MHD Orange Adapter (No part number)

From ECS Tuning:

- LiquiMolly MolyGen Oil Change Kit (ECS# 3470581)
- Perfmorance Ignition Kit (ECS# 3646942)

From VRSF:

- Turbo Inlet Pipe (SKU# 10901055)
- Turbo Outlet Pipe (SKU# 10901020E)
- 5" Stepped Intercooler (SKU #10903070)
- 3.5" Cearmic Coated Catless Downpipe (SKU# 10902015)

From BimmerWorld:

- Textar Front OEM Replacement Pads (#34116797860.TEX)
- "Genuine" Front OEM Replacement Rotors (34116778647)

From Amazon:

- Godspeed Lowering Springs (LSTSBW0001)

I ordered OEM replacement brakes for now. I drive the car to and from work at the moment and the occasional roll race in Mexico so it's all I really need at the moment. The lowering springs, I'm undecided if I'll even use them. I saw not many folks went with these so there wasn't much to read about - so considering how cheap they were, I said screw it and ordered them.

This weekend the car was supposed to get an oil change, the plugs and coils replaced, the VRSF parts installed as well as the brakes done and maybe the springs installed. However, my buddy that was going to take care of the plugs, coils, and VRSF goodies had his baby a bit early and isn't going to be able to.

I promised myself that I'm going to get some work done on the car this weekend, but I'm unsure of what that'll be just yet. Hopefully my next post is an update on how I like the car after the bolt ons....

[shawnyeeah]

If your shocks ever go out or if you want improved performance, then look into Koni Yellows. Been running it for a few years and it really improved handling while not being too stiff. Should pair well with lowering springs in the future. I'm sure a nice set of coilovers would be even better though.

[henswheels]

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[slow3oh]

Originally Posted by shawnyeeah

If your shocks ever go out or if you want improved performance, then look into Koni Yellows. Been running it for a few years and it really improved handling while not being too stiff. Should pair well with lowering springs in the future. I'm sure a nice set of coilovers would be even better though.

I'll likely end up getting coilovers for it at some point.

I'm going to want the ability to stiffen things up for back roads/tracking the car or to soften the rear at the drag strip. Being in MD, a lot of what we do with our cars is going in a straight line. Lol.

[slow3oh]

Back from my month+ long hiatus. Lots of family stuff I had to tend to during that time.

I dropped my car off Friday to get some of the parts put on and picked it up last night. It is a night and day difference.

I had my buddy install all the VRSF parts.

Catless Downpipe, 5" Stepped Intercooler, Lower Charge Pipe, Turbo outlet pipe, Turbo Inlet Pipe.

According to him that inlet pipe was a tight fit, he found that once he took off the drip pan there is oil coming from somewhere, but he couldn't make
out from where. He said it's likely the valve cover, oil filter housing, or oil pan. I'll do some digging in there and figure out what to replace.

He loaded MHD's OTS Stage 2+ 93 tune, but it was pulling some timing down low. He suspected bad gas (which may be the case as I stopped at some hole in the wall station when I was on a time crunch the morning of) so he reflashed with the 91 tune and that seemed to fix the problem.

Something else we're seeing is it isn't hitting boost target. It's asking for about 16psi and the car is stopping at 13. No boost leaks anywhere. So we'll need to find out why.

Over all, I'm really happy with the outcome of the bolt ons and the tune. The car pulls like a freight train. When he asked me what I wanted to do with the pops/bangs feature I said "I want to piss off my girlfriend" to which his response was "Say no
more" and I was ecstatic to see her face when she heard it 😂

Below is a sound clip from last night. My settings for the pops and bangs is nothing in the base setting and aggressive for 1.5s in sport. It's so great being able to drive like a normal person, and quietly and then hit the Sport button and make people jump thinking it's gun shots. The girlfriend swears she saw it spit a few flames.

Stock exhaust with exhaust flap open in Sport.

Edit: He also installed the NGK 1 Step Colder plugs and the brand new Bosch coils.

[slow3oh]

Update for those still reading. I know, not the most exciting build thread.. yet.

I've been Full Bolt on, MHD Stage 2+ OTS Map for some time now. Every penny spent thus far has been well worth it. So much fun for such little money.

I switch between the 93 and E30 tunes for daily driving or going out with the car and the MHD is so easy now that they've replaced the defective adapter I had. My map writes on average are 35 seconds or so and the flexibility with the burble settings and such is nice. You can even limit power per gear for traction... pretty great.

I felt the need to update today because this happened.

I found a deal on a set of NT05's about 3 hours from home and had to snag them. 245/40/18 which is the size I wanted. Same width as what was on there but a little more sidewall. I drove them in the dry and rain today. They are the best tires I've driven on. Even in my testing the limits of the tires, in the rain at WOT it would stay straight as an arrow. On dry asphalt on the e30 tune with about what was actually an e40-e50 mix, I would spin if I went WOT at 40. Now as slow as 15 I can give it all it's got and it dead hooks. Night and day.

Also will say, two nights ago I managed to get about half a car out on a MK5 Supra from a 40 roll. Although my little brothers Mk7 7Spd DSG GTI that's FBO, HPFP, Full e85 on a radial managed to get a car out on me while I was on the all season Michelin's. But that's a car going for the stock turbo world record so I didn't feel too bad about it. I've seen it sit with hellcats.

Also installed 10mm spacers all around. I love the fitment. I want to lower it but I'm worried how the springs will affect launching it. I'll give them a shot after next weekend.

I wanna see how it launches on stock suspension at the drag slip.

Time slips coming soon ☺️