yet another noob

[1and1]

Hi, my name is Eric and I'm a car junky....
(in the grouped voices of an AA meeting: "Hi Eric"...)

Just sold my FBO+ Mazdaspeed6 over the 4th of July holiday weekend. I actually had it to a point where it was well behaved, polite and disturbingly fast, a minor miracle for those cars. Sadly a bad back and screwed up hips mean daily driving a clutch just wasn't gonna work any more. I'm not gonna go on about the 6, but for those interested here are the cliff notes- clickyclicky.

This past winter we put The Wife in an X1 and I got re-hooked on the German vibe again after almost a decade away- Owned a really fun GTI and a great A4 3.0 prior to the Speed. Even better (?...) the kid is off to college now so I don't need all those doors anymore

SO, as of this past Saturday I'm now sportin' around in an '09 135i with the steptronic tranny. I've found it has a PPK installed along with the euro headlight switch so people can get a well lit view of me leaving them behind (rear fogs work). According to the service records the oil o-ring, LPF sensor, coil packs and injectors have all been done within the last 15-20K miles or so. The airbag recall was completed by the BMW dealer I purchased from as well, which is nice.

Gotta say, the reviews I've read on the PPK are right- this thing is a killer on the highway- anything in the 60-100 mph window is really just effortlessly fast.

It's got ~58K miles on it, so I've ordered some maintenance stuff-
- water pump kit from OEMBimmerparts
- trans fluid kit from ECS
- OEM BMW plugs, and the plug socket, also from ECS
- K & Dcan cable (& the OTG cable that I surprisingly didn't already have)
- MHD Flasher (logging module once the cables arrive)
- Already had Carly and one of their BT adapters.

I've been living with a DI engine, so know all the joys of valve cleaning. OCC's and even EGR deletes are common in the Mazdaspeed world too. I'm sort of hoping to wait till the cooler Fall temps arrive before doing most of the maintenance, but will probably do the plugs pretty soon to get a sense of engine health and to be sure I'm not stressing the coils.

Not too worried about tune flashing yet- I do like being able to log though, to be aware of engine health & such. As for tuning, I'm honestly still happy with the current performance. I need to learn it's current behavior and be able to define what, exactly, I don't like and/or want to change, and what defines an improvement to those things. Not going to change anything until I can quantify success. Honestly after years of chasing performance on the Speed I may not tune the 135.... (all at once now- "Suuuuurrreeeee Eric, we hear ya... not gonna tune it.... yeah right.... )

Really, for commuting my old ass back & forth to work, this might just hit the sweet spot power wise, and the PPK really seems to handle the most common performance things. We'll see tho.

The auto transmission tho- wow are my hips are loving this not having a clutch business, and the gear changes are much better than I was expecting. Been reading up on that Alpina flash tho- yeah, that's probably gonna happen once I get my head wrapped around the odd-ball process- love a good rev match.

Oh- and it goes in for window tint this Thursday. Hate the fishbowl feeling of no tint!


TL-DR version- crap ton of noob rambling- just say hi and laugh cause he thinks he's not gonna tune this one...

[Matticus91]

Looks great! Welcome (back) the the crew! The tint will look great with that black paint. Good luck on resisting the mod-bug.

[Esteban]

Congrats and welcome to 1ADDICTS!

[TGNY 335]

Welcome to the N54 side of the pond bro. I still kept my 6 and just add to the collection

[davis449]

That 6 is damn impressive. I always loved that car. Welcome to 1er family.

[1and1]

Thanks ya'll
Yeah, the 6 was fast & fun, hated to sell it, but happy it's gone... If that makes any sense

Justin! Glad to see ya around mah new york brother! I'll be hunting you up when I get past this "not gonna tune it" delusion of mine! I've got a lot of new ecosystem to absorb first.

[coltdogg7]

lol i came from a mazdaspeed 6 fbo as well!! the 135i is just better haha. Have fun with the car!

[ShocknAwe]

Welcome. Sure you'll love the car! Feel free to PM if you have any questions about the N54.

[Dat Aus]

I love that interior. What trim is that?

[1and1]

Thanks- it's a great looking combo in person. I wanted the wood trim originally, but the black fits it just right and I'm glad to have it.

4AT Int.tr.fini. Black High-gloss
Leder Boston 2/beige - LWB4

Black Sapphire Metallic - 475
321 Exterior Parts In Body Color


I can't decide about the grills. Sometimes I like the all chrome, then I want all black, then I want chrome w/ black bars.... I've looked at a bazillion pics of each and am no closer to deciding... yeah, first world problems


Got the water pump kit in yesterday. Made sure everything was in good shape then put it away in the closet, ready to go when finally needed.

Goes in for window tint tomorrow morning- Formula One Pinnacle Series. I'm a huge fan of the F1 tints, and the lifetime warranties. Had this stuff on my Speed since day one, and had to replace the front pass window after 8ish years- work was free under the warranty and the result was a perfect match to the original windows even after all that time.

[1and1]

Today the UPS man brought me the trans fluid kit, the Schwaben fluid pump kit and the K+Dcan cable.

I already had a Motive pressure bleeder with Mazda parts. It really wasn't too much more for the Schwaben kit than it would have been to get the BMW adapters for the motive, and I got the bits needed to do the trans also. After looking it over, frankly the Schwaben is just a better overall unit too. Glad to have it.

Pawed my way through the water pump kit I got from OEMBimmerParts- turns out that kit doesn't come with the hose. Crap. Deciding if I should order the hose or just hope the original is in good enough shape to last. It probably is, but hate to be that deep in and not do the hose too.... ((sigh...))

Used the cable and fired up MHD. Worked like a champ, and went ahead & purchase the monitoring module along with the flashing and stage one maps. I don't plan on flashing anytime soon, but now I have everything ready to go when I get there. Also grabbed a really short (<60 seconds) of idle log to review.... And so it begins...


Goes in for tint in the morning- so totally can't wait for that to be done.

Plugs will be here tomorrow, and go in this weekend I think. That'll give me a chance to see the rev number on the injectors too I hope- Can you even see that info without pulling the injectors out?

Need to pop the air filter cover off and see what's in there- I'm thinking afe dry filter if I need a replacement. Just not a fan of k&n, or any oiled filters for that matter- dry flow is the good stuff!

Updated the map software from 2009 to 2016-2. Actually liking the CIC business. Probably hate it in a year, but as a noob it's pretty nifty.

Oh, and having a hdd to store music on is suh-weeeet! Just got done dropping about 3 gig of music on there to play with

[ayoustin]

Hey Eric, looks like you got a real solid car. Hope to still see you around MSF every now and then. I've got the grey poplar wood trim in my car, if you ever get tired of the piano black let me know!

[delta-9-ginseng]

I say go black front grill

[Matticus91]

Sounds like you're diving right in, good for you man. I am having the exact same mental debate on the grilles...... I have a set of gloss black in m garage mocking me for not installing it yet. Just... can't....DECIIIDDEEEEEE

[1and1]

Oh, hey-
while you're here I just wanted to say that Carbon Black is teh sexy.

I was gonna ask if it was black or dark blue, but after a quick google image search I learned the answer to that question is, simply, "Yes!" lolz

Oh, and even more while you're here- how's that Berk Street sound?

[Matticus91]

Originally Posted by 1and1

Oh, hey-
while you're here I just wanted to say that Carbon Black is teh sexy.

I was gonna ask if it was black or dark blue, but after a quick google image search I learned the answer to that question is, simply, "Yes!" lolz

Oh, and even more while you're here- how's that Berk Street sound?

Haha thanks, when I got the car I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not but it really is an amazing color. I had to make my own thread because so few people have the same paint, but feel free to check out the "official carbon black" thread, I'm literally the only one O.o

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1224809

The Berk street sounds pretty good, I'd love to do something more obnoxious but worried about voiding my warranty. The below vid is pretty much what it sounds like, just minus the BOV sound since I'm N55. The DP paired with the Berk street seems to just increase the volume and add some more turbo whistle to the exhaust note, the overall character is the same as with stock DP.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by Matticus91

Sounds like you're diving right in, good for you man. I am having the exact same mental debate on the grilles...... I have a set of gloss black in m garage mocking me for not installing it yet. Just... can't....DECIIIDDEEEEEE

Sorry OP to go off topic here for a quick sec, but just wanted to share with Matticus91 how easy it is to switch the grilles, and if you decide you like your stock grilles better, just switch them back. There are many YouTube DIY videos if you need a little help.

[Matticus91]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Sorry OP to go off topic here for a quick sec, but just wanted to share with Matticus91 how easy it is to switch the grilles, and if you decide you like your stock grilles better, just switch them back. There are many YouTube DIY videos if you need a little help.

Oh I know, I put one in a while ago. It's actually kind of a b*tch to get those tabs off without one of those hook tools though, which I don't have.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by Matticus91

Oh I know, I put one in a while ago. It's actually kind of a b*tch to get those tabs off without one of those hook tools though, which I don't have.

It's like the one thing I could do on my car. Just trying to help.

[Matticus91]

Originally Posted by Esteban

It's like the one thing I could do on my car. Just trying to help.

Hahaha yeah. I'm actually thinking I have a different type of grille because it was really tight and looked a little different from the stockers. I got it from a forum member so who knows what it came off of, maybe there are different shapes for non M-sport cars? Anyway, sorry for threadjacking 1and1

[1and1]

No worries- I suspect this thread will ramble across a variety of paths before it's through...


Back from the tint shop!
Not actually as dark as it looks in this pic, just parked in a shady spot

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by 1and1

No worries- I suspect this thread will ramble across a variety of paths before it's through...


Back from the tint shop!
Not actually as dark as it looks in this pic, just parked in a shady spot

Looks good!