Why did you NOT mod / tune your M3?

HELROTM3 wrote

Focus on weight savings mods!

Any suggestions here? I've done MPE. Heard you can save a bunch w a different battery. What else??

STooK wrote

People thought I was crazy but I didn't even tune my leased 335i when I had it. I like to enjoy cars the way they came out of the factory (for the most part) and give the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt that the cost of their R&D is superior to any third party that claim their mods are superior.

Over the years I've seen what happens to cars that are modded and tuned...they deteriorate faster and are less desirable. I would like to keep my car forever and the most I'm doing to my car besides OEM+ cosmetic looks is the exhaust. Drivetrain and suspension will remain OEM as this isn't a Corolla and I trust that the German engineers extracted the maximum performance out of this vehicle without sacrificing reliability.

The BMW Car Club of America, an affiliate organization of BMW NA, rather extensively modified their Grand Prize Raffle car this year.


Performance Highlights
Engine M TwinPower Turbo 6-cylinder in-line engine
Horsepower/Torque 493 bHP / 442 lb-ft
Acceleration 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds
Suspension Full three-way M coilover suspension

Additional Features
Innovative water injection system
Active M Differential
M Carbon Ceramic Brakes
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires
CFRP roof, trunk lid, diffuser, and rear spoiler
Forged low-weight BMW M star-spoke wheels
OLED rear lights
M sports steering wheel
High-strength steel roll bar
M exhaust system

https://vimeo.com/166361500

young dude wrote

Just picked up a '13 E92 (16k miles) last Saturday. I'm currently on the fence about an ECU / DCT stage 1 tune. I THINK my car is completely stock, although I don't SEEM to have that cold start boom sound that I've read about. I have great hearing, so maybe I'm overestimating how loud it would be? So there's a chance my car had a tune from the previous 1 owner, but I doubt it.

Anyway, for M3 owners who plan to keep their cars a while, say 5+ years, why have you not yet had a tune, or otherwise kept your car completely stock?

I'd imagine the 2 biggest reasons are that you're satisfied with stock performance, or that you're worried about long - term reliability / longevity from a tune / mod. I currently plan to keep the car for as long as I'm able (say forever lol), so I'm heavily weighing the pros / cons of tuning / modding.

Before I get bombarded with "search dude" comments, I'll say that I've read about just every tuning thread on the internet, but almost none of them are from the perspectives of owners who chose NOT to tune. Thus I'd like to hear from some of those owners.

Another thing for me to consider is that I have OEM warranty / maintenance till summer 2017, so I could wait till after that to tune / mod.

Thank you guys.

agreed with comment below. get a feel for your car as it is now. then you can start with basic mods. usually mods should be done one by one to help the ECU adjust better

Modding to me is half the fun of owning any car. It can be financially taxing, and to some, that can be a major deterrent. Some claim stock is good enough. Some don't want to spoil an already great car. To me these are all reasonable, and rational trains of thought. I feel your car is an extension of you and your personality. Tasteful or tacky. Regardless if you mod or not, it says something about the owner.

mermar wrote

Any suggestions here? I've done MPE. Heard you can save a bunch w a different battery. What else??

exhaust is one of the most expensive cost of $ spent per lb saved, if you're purely into weight savings.


Here's a list of free things you can do to save significant weight such as taking out your back seats and interior:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135122

Because you don't buy this car to heavily modify it unless you're turning it into a dedicated track car.

The M3 does everything well right out of the box. I wouldn't go beyond a basic axleback and keep the OEM in case the car gets sold.

Coming from a couple 135i's that I owned in the past, one with upgrade turbo at nearly 500 whp and everything else you could want on the car - I don't miss that at all now when I'm driving the M3 at stock power levels. The M3 does not leave me wanting to go back to having such obscene power levels in a street car.

You buy this car to breathe with the RPMs as it climbs. It's an experience. Car does not need gobs of performance mods.

Op guess it really comes down to with what you want to do/experience with the car. I keep my 2013 stock for my first 10 HPDE days (with the exception of pads/brake fluid). As I understood the car a little better I started to add on parts that were inline with my end goal for the car. Exhaust for weight savings, 18inch wheels for cheaper tire costs, ground control camber plates to adjust front camber etc.. I kept all the stock parts ZCP wheels, exhaust etc, because everything I did to the car can be easily reversed in half a day. Keep a goal in mind and go from there. Most importantly, enjoy the ride.

I did tune mine. But in hindsight I would've saved the $1k and just waited for a supercharger. A more reasonable mod

Great thread, interesting how people look at tunning when it comes to this particular car. I recently got mine and I'm very pleased how the car comes from the factory. I do think MPE would make the car almost perfect.

Most of what I don't do is dictated by California smog laws.

Personally, I think these cars are a little under powered in stock form. The basic, simple, inexpensive mods of intake, test pipes, underdrive pulley and tune cost about $2500 new and a little less used (no used tunes unfortunately) and add 15% horsepower. Its enough to make the car entertaining. Id rather have a supercharger but am not at all unhappy with the modded NA performance.

pbonsalb wrote

Personally, I think these cars are a little under powered in stock form. The basic, simple, inexpensive mods of intake, test pipes, underdrive pulley and tune cost about $2500 new and a little less used (no used tunes unfortunately) and add 15% horsepower. Its enough to make the car entertaining. Id rather have a supercharger but am not at all unhappy with the modded NA performance.

^^^ ditto

I came from an '07 335i where the power came on low and strong. M3 has been a bit of a dream car with 8300 RPM NA V8 that's so good Car and Driver stated a prancing horse deserves to adorn the hood. While the linear power delivery is intoxicating, it just didn't feel faster than my stock 335. Once I saw that stock E9x's can dyno nearly 25% less than the stated crank HP of 414, I set about researching bolt on performance parts on here. In my research and estimation, I believe the bolt on performance parts to be fairly riskless, meaning I don't think the car is at risk of decreased life. Pulleys being the exception, it sounds like the under driven components may require replacement sooner than otherwise.

With much patience, I've shopped the classifieds on here to source good quality used/new parts for a discount.

I started with Stage 2 AFE intake system plus scoops since they advertised the largest HP gains over Dinan and Macht Schnell. To be honest, I didn't have enough saddle time in stock form as my butt dyno didn't really detect an increase in power after the install. The increased induction sounds were welcome, though.

I'd say it's worth installing pulleys at the same time as the CAI since several of the intake parts have to be removed for the Pulley install. I have purchased Macht Schnell pulleys but am holding off on the installation until my factory warranty expires.

After many many hours on the forum and YouTube watching exhaust combination videos, I was sold on the HFC X-pipe and Corsa exhaust combination. It's a super car sound like no other combo I've heard, it sounds exquisitely exotic. I wanted high flow cats to mitigate throwing the Check Engine light, but it still happens all too frequently, and to not smell gas upon cold starts. Huge weight savings and power gains were made with this installation.

I regret not doing a stock dyno run for my car and haven't done one at all, however, there is no mistaking the power gains from the header back exhaust swap.

My car now feels much faster than my 335i and I look forward to the expiration of my warranty to install the pulleys and run a BPM stage 2 tune to maximize the power gains from all of my performance upgrades.

I'm sure somebody will rip my claim of the mods being riskless to shreds but my research on here bolstered my belief that the benefits outweighed the risks by a large margin. All of the bolt on mods are efficiency modifications. The engine isn't touched, the modifications help release power to the rear wheels that is already in place. Sure an intake affects the engine dynamics, however, when was the last time a free-er breathing engine blew up?

Obviously, I decided to mod my car and absolutely love every time I sit behind the wheel. As long as you feel that way about your ///M, everything else is just other people's opinions.

philmeister4 wrote

^^^ ditto

I came from an '07 335i where the power came on low and strong. M3 has been a bit of a dream car with 8300 RPM NA V8 that's so good Car and Driver stated a prancing horse deserves to adorn the hood. While the linear power delivery is intoxicating, it just didn't feel faster than my stock 335. Once I saw that stock E9x's can dyno nearly 25% less than the stated crank HP of 414, I set about researching bolt on performance parts on here. In my research and estimation, I believe the bolt on performance parts to be fairly riskless, meaning I don't think the car is at risk of decreased life. Pulleys being the exception, it sounds like the under driven components may require replacement sooner than otherwise.

With much patience, I've shopped the classifieds on here to source good quality used/new parts for a discount.

I started with Stage 2 AFE intake system plus scoops since they advertised the largest HP gains over Dinan and Macht Schnell. To be honest, I didn't have enough saddle time in stock form as my butt dyno didn't really detect an increase in power after the install. The increased induction sounds were welcome, though.

I'd say it's worth installing pulleys at the same time as the CAI since several of the intake parts have to be removed for the Pulley install. I have purchased Macht Schnell pulleys but am holding off on the installation until my factory warranty expires.

After many many hours on the forum and YouTube watching exhaust combination videos, I was sold on the HFC X-pipe and Corsa exhaust combination. It's a super car sound like no other combo I've heard, it sounds exquisitely exotic. I wanted high flow cats to mitigate throwing the Check Engine light, but it still happens all too frequently, and to not smell gas upon cold starts. Huge weight savings and power gains were made with this installation.

I regret not doing a stock dyno run for my car and haven't done one at all, however, there is no mistaking the power gains from the header back exhaust swap.

My car now feels much faster than my 335i and I look forward to the expiration of my warranty to install the pulleys and run a BPM stage 2 tune to maximize the power gains from all of my performance upgrades.

I'm sure somebody will rip my claim of the mods being riskless to shreds but my research on here bolstered my belief that the benefits outweighed the risks by a large margin. All of the bolt on mods are efficiency modifications. The engine isn't touched, the modifications help release power to the rear wheels that is already in place. Sure an intake affects the engine dynamics, however, when was the last time a free-er breathing engine blew up?

Obviously, I decided to mod my car and absolutely love every time I sit behind the wheel. As long as you feel that way about your ///M, everything else is just other people's opinions.

Having only been at this since October, this is one of the most helpful posts I have read on modding.

timothy2001 wrote

Having only been at this since October, this is one of the most helpful posts I have read on modding.

Thanks for the compliment. I've only been at it since January, however countless hours have been logged on here learning what I can about our amazing cars from those that have cleared the way ahead of me. Lots of knowledge found in these forums and the classified section is a good mine once you decide on the mods you want to install

Merry Christmas!

I would have BMW update the latest software for through warranty and maybe DCT tune from alpine which doesn't cost too much and enjoy the car. Dollar per HP doesn't make sense in this platform unless going FI.
But suspension, aero, and weight reduction mods are a different story

Thinking about tune i always lean to the type of car itself. If its a turbo which produces more gains it would be more worth it.
However for other cars and cars that already have enough horsepower i just feel the oem tune is more reliable and better designed to suit the car and other mechanical parts that works with it.

But to each of our own, in the end of the day its your car. So do whatever makes you happy

timothy2001 wrote

I too had a modded 335i and I guess that scratched the itch. Also I am so in love with this car the way it is I don't feel the need. My car is stock and may just stay that way. I would consider the Dinan tune but I really don't want to change anything until I get to know the car better. Hell, I am still learning how to drive it.

My thoughts exactly

My e90 is stock, and i have wanted to get a tune for a while. I just havent because of this question: If my e90 is completely stock, is there any point to getting a tune? I get the pay to play thing, but a $1000 for the meager hp and torque gain seems questionable to me. Anybody out there have a e9x m3 with no mods besides a tune and can comment before/after tune?

srmast1 wrote

My e90 is stock, and i have wanted to get a tune for a while. I just havent because of this question: If my e90 is completely stock, is there any point to getting a tune? I get the pay to play thing, but a $1000 for the meager hp and torque gain seems questionable to me. Anybody out there have a e9x m3 with no mods besides a tune and can comment before/after tune?

No experience, however, their peak hp posted gains for tunes seem to be greater for stock than those of people who have dyno'd after FBO and again after the tune.

At the very least throw a drop in air filter in too. A full on CAI is a simple install and really opens up the induction symphonies. Be warned, once your induction opens up and overpowers the exhaust note, you'll be looking to do the OEM mod or a set of cat back mufflers.

Once you're introduced to the cat back you love, you'll come across a video of it with an aftermarket high flow cat/catless x-pipe and be smitten. Next thing you know, you're FBO. Just saying, it's that easy.

Because it is the "ultimate driving machine". *jeremy clarkson voice*

philmeister4 wrote

No experience, however, their peak hp posted gains for tunes seem to be greater for stock than those of people who have dyno'd after FBO and again after the tune.

At the very least throw a drop in air filter in too. A full on CAI is a simple install and really opens up the induction symphonies. Be warned, once your induction opens up and overpowers the exhaust note, you'll be looking to do the OEM mod or a set of cat back mufflers.

Once you're introduced to the cat back you love, you'll come across a video of it with an aftermarket high flow cat/catless x-pipe and be smitten. Next thing you know, you're FBO. Just saying, it's that easy.

It's my after market warranty that keeps me from modding. It goes until 2021 or 110k miles. I'm at 46k miles and it's 2017(close enough). I would LOVE to do full exhaust, pulleys, CAI, and tune. It would just void the warranty and I don't want to have to try and trick the warranty company if something was to happen (bearings) by switching parts and re-flashing so they think the car had remained stock. I bought this 400+ hp car in the hopes that I would not be tempted to mod. I was wrong about that!!!

I can't find a reason not to do common bolt ons?
exhaust
tune
filter

Really brings the car alive in my opinion and there aren't any downsides.