New Member with Xdrive35i

[NeilinMN]

Hi All

I picked up a Xdrive35i last night that I am very excited about. My other car is a 996 Carrera 4 Cabriolet that’s a bit of a work in progress(I got it with a blown engine). I have owned an old BMW before. I do most of my own car work.

I want to over time make my car a bit more fun to drive; transmission tune, ecu tune, a little exhaust work, and some suspension mods.

I originally was trying to track down an X28i with M Sport but never found one nearby. My car has the sport line package and paddle shifters but is not an M Sport and no idrive. Anyone know if somehow I could have dynamic performance control enabled on my car? I like the idea of more RWD bias but not sure how it would work.

I’m trying to figure out the Alpina B3 transmission tune as well; anyone have a preferred DIY?

[Turbod]

Originally Posted by NeilinMN

Hi All

I picked up a Xdrive35i last night that I am very excited about. My other car is a 996 Carrera 4 Cabriolet that’s a bit of a work in progress(I got it with a blown engine). I have owned an old BMW before. I do most of my own car work.

I want to over time make my car a bit more fun to drive; transmission tune, ecu tune, a little exhaust work, and some suspension mods.

I originally was trying to track down an X28i with M Sport but never found one nearby. My car has the sport line package and paddle shifters but is not an M Sport and no idrive. Anyone know if somehow I could have dynamic performance control enabled on my car? I like the idea of more RWD bias but not sure how it would work.

I’m trying to figure out the Alpina B3 transmission tune as well; anyone have a preferred DIY?

The alpina flash isn't that great. XHP is the transmission flash tool you'll want to use. They also created xDelete if you want to flash to RWD only. The 35i is a lot of fun but the stock turbo just runs out of steam up top. With the stock cat I am able to hold 15 psi till 6,000 but once you remove that restriction you'll be closer to 13 psi. The PS1 is an okay option but the PS2 is a great option.

If you want to flash the DME (ECU) then you will need to unlock it with a bench flash first. MHD is the company you will want to use for the flash. As for who unlocks it you can search around as there are a few options.

I have worked with Wedge Performance developing a custom tune and enjoyed what I got. He has since brought on Steven which has proven to be a great asset to the team. I will be working with them to flash tune my X1 this next season.

With the stock turbo, bolt-ons, and a pump gas tune, you should expect about 330 - 340awhp. Add some ethanol, methanol, or race fuel and you can expect 360 - 380whp. Throw on a PS2 and pump numbers are around 400awhp with higher octane being 450 - 500awhp depending on supporting mods.

[manhoso]

I have a 35I as well.
I didnt go with the MHD because removal of the DME was too much of a pain in the cold here and I couldnt be without my car for the time. There were local people that had their "versions" of what MHD has at triple and quadruple the price.

I went with a JB4 which enabled me to also use E85.
I also found the canadian version of the software which will let me set the O2 sensor to disregard my catless DP when I install it in the spring.

The XHP mod was amazing.. and the first mod I did.

Cheers-

[Turbod]

I understand that there is a little bit of work involved to remove the DME but in my opinion it is still worth it to run MHD over the JB4. I have had years of experience with both of them and the ONLY reason I personally will recommend the JB4 is if you're in your warranty period and you're concerned about the dealership knowing it has been modified after a power train warranty claim. Even BMS recommends running MHD in conjunction with the JB4 because they know how limited the JB4 is in it's control.

I pulled my DME in about an hour and installed it in the same amount of time. I am local to Wedge Performance so I took it over there.

[abbike18]

I'm 6 months in to owing a '15 X1 xDrive 35i. I've done some mods so far, and like you I do almost all of my car work. In the order I did the mods:

Transmission - I went with the Alpina B3 tune because it was free and I didn't know about the XHP tune. The how to I used and had good success with is here:
https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=873746
I bought the cable that is suggested and I can say that it works well.

The transmission is so much better with a tune. It makes drive shift smoother and manual shifts pretty fast and crisp.

Coding - I did a lot using the free tools on the internet. Don't remember the posts I used - I think I just read a lot about it. There are some cool easy mods you can do:
-Turn off the legal disclaimer
-Turn off the seatbelt alarm
-Raise the sideview mirrors closing speed max
-Auto close the sideviews on lock
-Auto raise/lower windows with long key or CA press
-Remove legal disclaimer on reverse
-Fog light behavior, alarm, etc as well
There is a steep learning curve but once you figure it out things go smoothly. Also, you will find yourself learning some German. You'll see.

Logging - I went with Bimmergeeks ProTool. It has a good logging interface and also allows for quick coding if you buy that module as well. Not all of the coding options are available here.

Charge pipe - Mine blew at 45k miles. Once you start driving it hard, especially with a tune, yours will probably blow. It is a pretty common failure item. It will sound like a pop then whoosh, and you'll go in to limp mode and possibly stall.

Engine tune - MHD and JB4 seem to be the most popular. I went with Dinan because they had just lowered their price and I didn't have to do a DME break. The Dinan tune makes the car a torque machine and really makes it pull hard at lower RPMs. The power does fall off on the high RPM side, but I think this is a mechanical limitation on the turbo. I valued something a bit more conservative and reliable so Dinan fit me as well. From reading around it seems like the other tunes make more power.

Suspension - Living in Colorado I value the stock ground clearance, but wanted to firm things up a bit. I just got done putting in Bilstein B6s in the front suspension (put in the rears a few weeks back). The suspension feel is a lot stiffer now. The stock suspension wallows a bit on large undulations at highway speed, and gives up way more suspension that it should on speed bump like hits. After the first drive I'm pretty pleased with the result. You feel a lot more of the road, but it will still give when you hit something.

I think the car would be served well with a stiffer rear sway bar. A popular option is the e90 m3 swaybar. On this forum you will find reports of acceptable fitment and fitment inability. If you figure this out let me know because I want to do something.

[NeilinMN]

Thanks all; I will probably figure what is highest priority for modding after a little more seat time. I appreciate the info.

Attached is a picture from a trip to a state park with my daughter.

[Gamb1t]

Beautiful colour, lovely wheels.

[blackx1x35]

As abbike18 mentioned above a good first step before tuning the engine is upgrading the charge pipe. If you can be without the car for a while, I paid a local shop $300 to remove the DME, install the chargepipe, ship off the DME to be bench flashed, and re-install the DME. Whole process took about a week since I was on the other side of the country from Twisted Tuning, who did the bench flash.

I went with this option since removing the DME was outside my comfort zone. Having the ability to use MHD is well worth it, incredibly well made product.

[Westies]

Originally Posted by Turbod

The alpina flash isn't that great. XHP is the transmission flash tool you'll want to use. They also created xDelete if you want to flash to RWD only.

XHP doesn't support the E84 for xDelete, and apparently never plans to.

[sayemthree]

welcome!

[Turbod]

Originally Posted by Westies

XHP doesn't support the E84 for xDelete, and apparently never plans to.

Interesting. I had no plans to use it as I got all of the RWD shenanigans out with the 335i.

[NeilinMN]

I thinks it’s too bad xdelet isn’t even considering it; less so because I’d want straight awd but I would be interested in something more RWD biased.

2 local car shops are Dinan dealers; and their tune looks like a good upgrade(albeit more for low end power than a top end hp number) although it seems people get a bit more out of it with an intake and a tune.

I put charge pipe on my list after water pump/thermostat.

[Turbod]

Originally Posted by NeilinMN

I thinks it’s too bad xdelet isn’t even considering it; less so because I’d want straight awd but I would be interested in something more RWD biased.

2 local car shops are Dinan dealers; and their tune looks like a good upgrade(albeit more for low end power than a top end hp number) although it seems people get a bit more out of it with an intake and a tune.

I put charge pipe on my list after water pump/thermostat.

Do you know what the bias is for the X1?

[blackx1x35]

Originally Posted by Westies

XHP doesn't support the E84 for xDelete, and apparently never plans to.

That is a bummer. I thought I had read on their website that they would, but I just checked again and no mention of it. Where did you see that they weren't going to support?

It would be fun to adjust the AWD system, like how in the newer M cars you can do RWD, AWD, or AWD sport. Pretty neat.

[bucketfoot]

Originally Posted by Westies

XHP doesn't support the E84 for xDelete, and apparently never plans to.

Certainly not anything I need, but would love to have the ability to do this. It would be really fun to try out on the track!

[NeilinMN]

Yeah, I think it could just be fun to play with RWD or 20:80.

Anyways; I’m thinking long term I’d like to do PURE stage 1 turbo upgrade so that it pulled to redline more strongly. But I’m going to start small by unlocking my ECU from twisted tuning; then flash Alpina B3 and *hopefully* get PPK(assuming I can with the ecu unlocked); then lower the car with upgraded Bilsteins; then save my pennies for the Turbo upgrade with a tune and think about supporting mods.

[Turbod]

Originally Posted by NeilinMN

Yeah, I think it could just be fun to play with RWD or 20:80.

Anyways; I’m thinking long term I’d like to do PURE stage 1 turbo upgrade so that it pulled to redline more strongly. But I’m going to start small by unlocking my ECU from twisted tuning; then flash Alpina B3 and *hopefully* get PPK(assuming I can with the ecu unlocked); then lower the car with upgraded Bilsteins; then save my pennies for the Turbo upgrade with a tune and think about supporting mods.

Something to consider before going Pure stage 1. You need higher octane to see the benefit of the turbo. The exception would be if you flashed very low timing advance and ran higher boost. On 93 octane the you wouldn't want to run more than 14 psi on stock timing targets or even slightly less than stock timing targets. That is where the Pure stage 2 is nice. You do get the pull to red line but you can run about 16 or 17 psi on 93. You get more power without needing ethanol, methanol, or race fuel.

[Westies]

Originally Posted by blackx1x35

That is a bummer. I thought I had read on their website that they would, but I just checked again and no mention of it. Where did you see that they weren't going to support?

It would be fun to adjust the AWD system, like how in the newer M cars you can do RWD, AWD, or AWD sport. Pretty neat.

I saw that they support literally every other e9x based vehicle except the X1 so I emailed them, and that was the response I got. I was so hopeful as this car is a hoot to get sideways as is, I can't even imagine it rwd!

On a better note, congrats OP! That's a great find.