[NotBobby]

Hello and welcome to my 540i xdrive build, before i begin i'd like to give thanks to junebug/project540ix - I referenced his build quite a bit and did message him a fair bit with slightly inane questions haha



I picked up the car stock end of april at 44k miles from bmw heathrow
The original colour was Bluestone metallic but essentially grey


The options it came with

electric boot lid
Fine-wood trim dark burled walnut wit
Folding Side Mirrors with Auto-dimming
Electric Glass Sunroof
Driving Assistant
Parking Assistant Plus
M sport pro pack
Tech pack

[NotBobby]

Driving the car I loved how it felt (previously drove a mercedes glb 220d so a tiny bit less power…) and the way the body looked but knew I wanted to make some changes, before I could get to that a few weeks I started getting some really odd sunroof rattling when fully closed

The mpg- whilst I didn't expect it to be great it was rubbish. Averaging 20 with very sensible driving and 22-25 on the motorway with cruise control

Early May the car went back into bmw heathrow for the sunroof. A few days before I also started getting some random tyre pressure warnings. I picked it up that evening and was told the pressure sensors were replaced and it was a simple case of some sunroof screws needing to be tightened- I had hoped this would be the end of that…

The end of may I got ceramic limo tints on my rear windows just a bit of privacy- my front windows were already 70% so he advised to not go any further

[NotBobby]

In the beginning of June i went to swift performance in Aylesbury for my first round of mods- they've been my go to garage since

I hated the old tail light style and loved the lci so naturally I got these retrofitted, I opted for oem, this plus my car being a earlier model meant fairly extensive rewiring

For performance I went with bootmod3 stage 1 multimap as I was worried about mpg- being so poor already I didn't want risk stage 2 (little did i know)
Paired with xhp stage 2 to take advantage of the remap
And for the downpipe I went with autoid 200cel sports cat
And a geo/ 4 wheel alignment

The bad-
Post the remap I've gotten a permanent engine oil light with a message saying oil quality cannot be assessed- I've seen other users have this issue and simply need to message protuning freaks for an update - swift emailed but still haven't gotten a reply. I've been meaning to myself but its not really that big of an issue and keeps slipping my mind

With the sports cat- there was an issue with fitment- my car only had one sensor whereas it needed two for the cat- I can't quite remember the full details but it was a case of needing to order another one meaning I was away from my car for a whole week

[NotBobby]

Now for the fun bit, I had done a few pulls here and there but early June i decided to test the car- I knew of an empty road, set my dragy up and off I went- after 2 runs I got a 0-60 of 3.71 - I was elated but the road is not long enough for a quarter mile and still open to the public, despite great visibility I decided not to push my luck and left it at that.

Mpg- driving sensibly id now average around 25 on normal roads and about 27 on the motorway

Near the end of June I wanted to enhance the body a bit- I went for a ct carbon spoiler and side skirt. I also had a mst air intake kit, i very much doubt this enhanced performance but the woooosh is one of my favourite sounds.

By this point the sunroof was rattling again so early July back it went to Bmw, I had alloy insurance and after a few nicks I claimed on this at the same time, 2 birds 1 stone, the original plan was to get them powder coated bronze elsewhere but bmw said they could actually do it black for free- whilst not my favourite and a tad overdone- i'm not gonna say no to free haha


A few days later bmw replaced the sunroof cassette and hopefully that should be the end of that…

I had ordered dechromed floating wheel centre caps from carbon culture uk, but when I tried putting it on it was the wrong size didn't even realise g and f series would be different so sent it back but royal mail took nearly a month to send it back so the replacements came much later.

[NotBobby]

Now time for the next round of mods, end of August back to swift performance. As a precautionary measure before stage 2 I got uprated ngk 924501 spark plugs, vrsf aluminium charge pipe and i had a crack in my rear prop coupling so had that sorted as well

Now, I wanted to induce a deeper sound so I chose to go with Remus Cat back mid pipe and box- I opted for carbon/ titanium tips purely for looks, due to this I had to get the 550i diffuser as the msport one didn't have large enough cutouts.

I also got my steering wheel re trimmed at the same time by royal steering wheels, I opted for leather as after feeling alcantara it didn't really feel any better and i couldn't really understand the allure, I got a white strip and m stitching-I was very much pro white stitching but royal said white would go off very quick and not look great.

[NotBobby]

Initial thoughts on the exhaust- it was brilliant for all of five minutes while i was trying to be loud in sports, then I popped it into comfort but it was not only much louder than stock but there was a really horrible vibration at all rpms, at this point I was still in the honeymoon period but the next day it was beyond tolerable- I sent an email to swift outlining this

[NotBobby]

Now something id been looking forward to for a while - 2 days later I went to r28 in the beginning of September for coloured ppf.

I chose midnight green, always loved green and wanted something similar to irish green but a bit different, r28 hadn't done this colour before and only had one picture from his supplier.

I had seen a purple m4 at a west london classics show with a yellow pinstripe which looked brilliant- so i thought yellow would also match with my green.

Underglow, unpopular and not really matching with my german but it looked cool and the cost was low enough that even if i only put it in for the occasional show it was worth it to me, r28 also included a killswitch for me at the driver footwell.

He installed the diffuser for me free and magna plates at cost, I opted for black ppf for the middle pillar and cannards and a green ppf for the headlights. Ceramic coating for exterior.

He cut the active aero for free and wrapped the crash bars in yellow too,he did a free interior detail and ceramic coat too, he also ordered me the m wing mirrors for free

Im saying free, his other fees were high but in line with what anyone of his skill would charge, genuinely the guy was such a pleasure to speak with and so passionate about his work, I can't recommend him enough

The car was with him for around 2 and a half weeks and then finally I was reunited with my car.

[NotBobby]

How I missed her, one slight annoyance- in certain lighting the car looked exactly like the reference but in lots of lighting conditions it does have a blue hue, maybe not a bother to anyone else but i really wanted green. I can't blame bogdan at all for that

Additionally, the yellow side skirts looked good but the rear was overdone- thought i'd get a few pics first and remove the pinstripes.

[NotBobby]

Now I had the car I flashed stage 2 bm3 myself using the bm3 obd2 adapter- a much simpler and quicker process than i had imagined

Mpg- if i'm driving sensibly and paying attention i get about 30 mpg, typically about 25/27 with mixed and low 20s with spirited driving.

Now the grille had been cut I needed a rock guard so mid September back to swift, they also swapped over vibration guard which was meant to decrease the vibration, one thing seen by r28 the 550i diffuser did not include the reflectors- also ordered this in

Something noted by swift is my car had space for another exhaust hangar but curiously didn't have it- this was ordered in for this visit and eibach spacers 15mm rear and 10mm front

Visually looks so much better stanced out

I had hoped this would be the end of the vibration/ drone but after a 700 mile round trip to cornwall i found this- the vibration has reduced but is still noticeable at all rpms if your looking for it but from 1200-2100 rpm its horrendous and not suitable for a daily driver, my short term fix is to put the shifter into sports until my speeds high enough but this makes the car so much louder- great when i want to be extra but most of the time i'm just trying to cruise around in comfort and quiet.

At this point I'm not sure what to do - just go back to oem?

This visit was also meant to have the splitter installed, actually it was meant to be the last visit but ct carbon had some supply issue, these supply issues happened again and still didn't arrive in time. The spoiler arrived at swift 15 minutes after I had left.

[NotBobby]

On the 23rd September i had the car dynoed at onyx performance slough and my horspower is dum dum dummmm 440hp- which to be honest is slightly higher than I was expecting.


They told me at the time it hit 450 on one run but I cant see that on the graph unless im reading it wrong

[NotBobby]

The 24th September- back to r28 for the first wash and checkover of the ppf, he installed the splitter for me for free- also ct carbon. Bogdan added the m style wing mirrors which he ordered for me and installed a lighting module I supplied.

[NotBobby]

On the 25th september the car was meant to go back to bmw for the sunroof rattling but turns out they have a sudden shortage of loaner cars so that's been delayed to mid october

[NotBobby]

A small sidenote, as of recently my mpg has shot up drastically and I'm now achieving 31 mpg when driving normally and not paying attention to mpg - i think this comes down to stage 2 being more efficient? Combined with the exhaust maybe? but not sure of the exact link, additionally after a few months with the car I'm slightly less flat footed.

[NotBobby]

What's left- so my builds still not complete, my main priority is currently fixing the exhaust vibration- to that end I’ve contacted overkill performance in milton keynes and am awaiting a response

Post the exhaust fix I've got a few quality of life upgrades- a larger 12 inch lci oem screen, folding rear back seats, mud flaps. I'm on the bench regarding adaptive leds and adaptive cruise control retrofit. I've also considered upgrading the leather seats but that seems unnecessary.

I want new front and rear badges- found 2 really nice places, nick the buffer who will paint match my car or Toronto carbon who also does paint matched coloured carbon badges.

I'd like to upgrade the audio as the harmon kardon lacks the ability to really fill the space- got a quote from car audio security for a full audison setup but after spending that much will it really be a significant increase in quality?

I do want new forged wheels, seen a few I like but the problem is I don't have anywhere to store my current ones, I would want to try selling but not had much luck punting the rest of my other parts have sold on marketplace or eba.

Tyres too- currently rocking run flats as those came with the car- I have tyre insurance so just want to run these ragged a bit more so I can get them off and get non run flats

In regards to performance a high pressure fuel pump -considering between the tu and dorch stage 2 but not sure if that's needed. Some suspension parts- f90 front end links, rear cross brace, bushings etc. Upgrading to a pure 850 turbo- not sure about this- sure it'd be cool but how much value would I actually getting beyond just having a bigger turbo?

[NotBobby]

One thing that slipped my mind- when I got the car the passenger headrest had some scuffing? Saw it, didnt bother me too much, a while ago it started to -not sure of the exact term here- but deteriorate, last time it went into bmw heathrow I mentioned it. Bmw said sod off essentially ,in a nice way, you havent mentioned that before.

Which to be fair I didnt care about the scuffing but I did care when it got worse, one of the sales team at bmw gave me the number for 'jim the trim' honestly great guy too, was a hassle getting ahold of him but thats simply due to how busy he is- he checked it out on a friday but I was going to show on Saturday so he drove back down monday and had it back to me by Thursday

[NotBobby]

My new steering wheel trim has arrived today


Addditonally I am getting tints on my windscreen and front windows this week, they're already at 70% a tiny bit darker would be great but really its the ceramic part I want, whilst england doesnt get super hot year round- this summer when I would get in my car the front seats were baking but the whole back area was rather cool

[ezaircon4jc]

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

I hope you got a huge discount... The steering wheel is on the wrong side!

[NotBobby]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

I hope you got a huge discount... The steering wheel is on the wrong side!

Thank you!!

I posted once in the bwm subreddit and 90% of the replies were this haha

[lanlilan]

Originally Posted by NotBobby

One thing that slipped my mind- when I got the car the passenger headrest had some scuffing? ...

...

Might be worthwhile to look for just a matching headrest from e bay, unless someone you know can really tidy up that scuff.

[lanlilan]

Originally Posted by NotBobby

On the 23rd September i had the car dynoed at onyx performance slough and my horspower is dum dum dummmm 440hp- which to be honest is slightly higher than I was expecting.


They told me at the time it hit 450 on one run but I cant see that on the graph unless im reading it wrong

420 average on stage 1 is really good - basically +80HP. What octane are you running?

[NotBobby]

Originally Posted by lanlilan

Might be worthwhile to look for just a matching headrest from e bay, unless someone you know can really tidy up that scuff.

Hey so i did get someone in ‘jim the trim’ forgot to add pictures of the after

[NotBobby]

Originally Posted by lanlilan

420 average on stage 1 is really good - basically +80HP. What octane are you running?

So stage 2 - didnt get it dynoed at stage 1, thought to but never had time. Additionally already had downpipe and full exhaust when it was tested.

Using esso premium 99 ron

tried shell 99 and that didnt really make much of a difference plus essos just the closest to me