Biz77’s 2010 535i XDrive Upgrade Journey
08-12-2014, 10:38 AM
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Biz77’s 2010 535i XDrive Upgrade Journey
I picked up my 2010 Alpine White 535i XDrive from Kuni BMW in Portland, OR in June as an upgrade from my 2008 335i. We have a baby due next month and I wanted to get something a bit larger, newer and with fewer miles. Having owned the turbo inline six and enjoying the performance of the motor both stock and tuned, I knew I wanted another one. My first search lead me to used F10 535is. I knew what the reviews said about performance and handling relative to the E60, but it wasn’t until I drove one that I knew I wouldn’t be happy.
The search for a “perfect” E60 turned out to be more difficult than I thought. I was looking for white, silver, or gray cars with sport, cold weather and premium packages and with fewer than 45,000 miles. XDrive was certainly not a necessity, but I didn’t rule them out as we occasionally get more than 6” of snow on the ground here. My search went on for weeks and I eventually settled on the car I have now. I picked it up with just under 44,000 miles on the odometer for $27,600.00. While the price is low for a CPO 2010 Xi with 44,000miles, the price represents some of the issues the car has. I will be addressing these issues in the coming weeks:
The paint is in awful condition. The previous owner must have used a scotch-brite pad to wash it. For the spots where the scotch-brite wasn't doing enough paint damage, I suspect steel wool was used. I will be addressing this weekly as I have time to break out my rotary polisher and detailing supplies, attacking a couple of panels after each wash. Progress before/after pics coming.
The front right midrange and tweeter are non-functioning. I suspect a bad IC output in the CIC unit, which will be confirmed by the dealer on 8/21. Unlikely that this will be covered by CPO. I will decide the best plan of attack for this after the diagnosis from the dealer.
The passenger seat motorized thigh bolster is non-functioning. The motor runs, but the bolster doesn’t move. This should be covered by CPO and will also be diagnosed on 8/21.
As of today, the car is in full “Grandpa” mode. Except for the window tint (installed by the previous owner), this car is as plain Jane as it gets, sitting on the factory 17” wheels and 225/50/17 tires. The XDrive models got the short end of the stick, as even when equipped with the sport package the suspension remains standard issue on these models. Follow me as I attempt to make my new project a little less homely and improve the performance.
Besides some minor cosmetic updates performed so far, including GP Thunder 8,500K Angel Eye bulbs and new LED license plate lights, my early focus for the car will be improving straight line acceleration and overall drivability. I’ll start by looking at the performance offered from the factory. The below run is the baseline. This is stock tuning with all stock hardware, running Chevron 92-octane pump gas. The data is captured via Cobb AccessPORT by doing a full (2,000 – 6,000+ RPM) pull in third gear. I have a long flat freeway onramp near my house that I use to perform these runs. I then use Virtual Dyno software to interpret the data and give horsepower and torque readings. If you are accurate with your input variables, this combination of tools should be as accurate in measuring performance changes as any chassis dyno. I’ve used this setup for years to tune many different vehicles. I’m using the Dynojet settings on Virtual Dyno as it seems to be the most prevalent dyno used in BMW circles.
Not too shabby. It’s actually a little better than I expected. My 2008 RWD 335i showed 270WHP and 270 ft. lbs. in stock trim as a comparison. I expected to see this under 250whp due to the additional drive train losses through XDrive.
Simply pressing a few buttons on the Cobb AccessPORT loads up the Stage 1 aggressive off-the-shelf map and nets some nice gains…
Stock Baseline vs. Cobb OTS Stage 1 Aggressive: As you can see, peak gains are 49WHP and 73ft.lbs. of torque. More impressive are the midrange gains of 70WHP around 4,300 RPM and almost 90ft.lbs. of torque around the same 4,300 RPM. This makes for a very noticeable seat-of-the-pants bump in performance over the stock tuning.
This run was conducted after letting the car adapt to the tune for a couple of days. I went with the Stage 1 aggressive tune to start with because it worked well on my 335i despite only having 92 octane fuel (Cobb calls for 93 octane). As it turns out, it works well on this car too. I only see minor timing corrections once in a while on one or two cylinders. This reinforces the idea that Cobb’s OTS maps are a bit conservative.
Here I’ve done some runs on different days with similar ambient conditions to show the consistency of these tools.
Here is what happens when you ignore input variables. These runs are done with much higher ambient temperatures (+20 degrees F) than the runs above.
As you can see, the power drops off significantly. This is due to aggressive timing reduction based on intake temperatures in the Cobb map. Despite the drop in power, notice that the graphs are still consistent. If I planned on doing all of my testing in the late afternoon, then I would stick with these higher temp runs and try to replicate all ongoing tests around similar ambient conditions, however most of my testing is done later in the evening or early in the morning when the temps are a bit cooler, so it makes sense to compare against those runs done in cooler temps.
How do I combat this deterioration of performance as the weather heats up?
Next up: Testing with a 50% Ethanol blend.
The search for a “perfect” E60 turned out to be more difficult than I thought. I was looking for white, silver, or gray cars with sport, cold weather and premium packages and with fewer than 45,000 miles. XDrive was certainly not a necessity, but I didn’t rule them out as we occasionally get more than 6” of snow on the ground here. My search went on for weeks and I eventually settled on the car I have now. I picked it up with just under 44,000 miles on the odometer for $27,600.00. While the price is low for a CPO 2010 Xi with 44,000miles, the price represents some of the issues the car has. I will be addressing these issues in the coming weeks:
The paint is in awful condition. The previous owner must have used a scotch-brite pad to wash it. For the spots where the scotch-brite wasn't doing enough paint damage, I suspect steel wool was used. I will be addressing this weekly as I have time to break out my rotary polisher and detailing supplies, attacking a couple of panels after each wash. Progress before/after pics coming.
The front right midrange and tweeter are non-functioning. I suspect a bad IC output in the CIC unit, which will be confirmed by the dealer on 8/21. Unlikely that this will be covered by CPO. I will decide the best plan of attack for this after the diagnosis from the dealer.
The passenger seat motorized thigh bolster is non-functioning. The motor runs, but the bolster doesn’t move. This should be covered by CPO and will also be diagnosed on 8/21.
As of today, the car is in full “Grandpa” mode. Except for the window tint (installed by the previous owner), this car is as plain Jane as it gets, sitting on the factory 17” wheels and 225/50/17 tires. The XDrive models got the short end of the stick, as even when equipped with the sport package the suspension remains standard issue on these models. Follow me as I attempt to make my new project a little less homely and improve the performance.
Besides some minor cosmetic updates performed so far, including GP Thunder 8,500K Angel Eye bulbs and new LED license plate lights, my early focus for the car will be improving straight line acceleration and overall drivability. I’ll start by looking at the performance offered from the factory. The below run is the baseline. This is stock tuning with all stock hardware, running Chevron 92-octane pump gas. The data is captured via Cobb AccessPORT by doing a full (2,000 – 6,000+ RPM) pull in third gear. I have a long flat freeway onramp near my house that I use to perform these runs. I then use Virtual Dyno software to interpret the data and give horsepower and torque readings. If you are accurate with your input variables, this combination of tools should be as accurate in measuring performance changes as any chassis dyno. I’ve used this setup for years to tune many different vehicles. I’m using the Dynojet settings on Virtual Dyno as it seems to be the most prevalent dyno used in BMW circles.
Not too shabby. It’s actually a little better than I expected. My 2008 RWD 335i showed 270WHP and 270 ft. lbs. in stock trim as a comparison. I expected to see this under 250whp due to the additional drive train losses through XDrive.
Simply pressing a few buttons on the Cobb AccessPORT loads up the Stage 1 aggressive off-the-shelf map and nets some nice gains…
Stock Baseline vs. Cobb OTS Stage 1 Aggressive: As you can see, peak gains are 49WHP and 73ft.lbs. of torque. More impressive are the midrange gains of 70WHP around 4,300 RPM and almost 90ft.lbs. of torque around the same 4,300 RPM. This makes for a very noticeable seat-of-the-pants bump in performance over the stock tuning.
This run was conducted after letting the car adapt to the tune for a couple of days. I went with the Stage 1 aggressive tune to start with because it worked well on my 335i despite only having 92 octane fuel (Cobb calls for 93 octane). As it turns out, it works well on this car too. I only see minor timing corrections once in a while on one or two cylinders. This reinforces the idea that Cobb’s OTS maps are a bit conservative.
Here I’ve done some runs on different days with similar ambient conditions to show the consistency of these tools.
Here is what happens when you ignore input variables. These runs are done with much higher ambient temperatures (+20 degrees F) than the runs above.
As you can see, the power drops off significantly. This is due to aggressive timing reduction based on intake temperatures in the Cobb map. Despite the drop in power, notice that the graphs are still consistent. If I planned on doing all of my testing in the late afternoon, then I would stick with these higher temp runs and try to replicate all ongoing tests around similar ambient conditions, however most of my testing is done later in the evening or early in the morning when the temps are a bit cooler, so it makes sense to compare against those runs done in cooler temps.
How do I combat this deterioration of performance as the weather heats up?
- Simply adjust the tables in Cobb’s AccessTUNER Race to less aggressively retard ignition timing as intake temperatures rise. This may gain a little power back, but I suspect that without higher octane fuel I would just see increased pre-ignition and the car would retard timing in response, essentially landing me back in the same spot.
- Add a larger/more efficient intercooler to keep intake temperatures down. This is a great plan of attack; however it’s an expensive solution. I suspect changing nothing else and simply installing a good upgraded FMIC would net back almost all the power you see missing above. I’m saving this upgrade for down the road.
- Install a methanol injection system pre CAT sensor to add octane and cool the intake charge. This solution works very well to combat the issue we see above, however there are upfront costs, I would be adding another electro-mechanical system to the car that must be monitoredand maintained and there are ongoing expenses associated with the fluid used to inject.
- Run the car on an ethanol blended fuel. Ethanol blended fuels have the same benefits of methanol/water injection, but without the upfront costs of the hardware, the upkeep of the system and the ongoing time and expense of filling an auxiliary methanol tank.
Next up: Testing with a 50% Ethanol blend.
08-12-2014, 02:41 PM
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The dealership I purchased the car from clearly wanted to turn this car quick and put little effort into the cosmetic reconditioning. The only saving grace for this car is the fact that it’s white. If this were a dark colored car, they never would have been able to get away with leaving the paint in the condition it was in and expecting to sell it on their lot. I knew the paint was in subpar condition when I first looked at the car. I also knew from my previous experience with BMW Alpine White that correcting it was going to take some effort.
The trunk lid had some pretty deep scratches and was in overall mediocre condition. I started off with an orange 5.25” Lake Country pad on my rotary polisher using HD Uno and got unsatisfactory results after three passes. This was going to require something a bit more aggressive. I switched over to a yellow 8” Lake Country Edge wool pad and switched out the HD Uno for some Poorboy’s SSR3, which is like liquid sandpaper. Now I was getting some results. I followed this up with the HD UNO on the orange foam pad and the finish was looking quite nice. I wasn’t getting the deepest defects out with this strong combo, but I was removing a solid 95% of the issues and happy with the results, which were more than acceptable for a four year old daily driver. Here is a 50/50 shot of the trunk lid:
The rear of the trunk lid was in better condition with minor scratches and swirling. I was able to get this out with an orange pad and HD Uno.
The hood is where things get bad. I fought long and hard with some of the scratches in the hood and eventually gave up on any combination of pads and compounds I had at my disposal. The marring was much too deep to be removed with compounding, so I had to bite the bullet and wet sand these areas. How can someone take such piss poor care of a car to put it in this condition in only four years? This is one such spot that was in rough shape:
After wet sanding:
I followed up the wet sanding with my Poorboy’s SSR3 and yellow wool pad combo, but it was not getting me the desired results. It was taking most of the sanding marks out, but not all of them. This was the most aggressive combo I had on hand. I’m not sure why I eventually tried the HD Uno on the yellow wool pad, but that is exactly what I did. To my surprise, on a single pass the HD Uno was not only correcting the defects the SSR3 wasn’t, but it was leaving a much more refined finish in the process. It was almost good enough to stop at that point, but I wanted a little more clarity so I followed that combo up with the HD Uno on an orange pad and got a haze-free finish.
Here is a 50/50 shot showing the lower portion of the hood done with the yellow wool pad and HD Uno, while the top portion of the hood was done with the same pad and Poorboy's SSR3. Notice how much more haze the SSR3 leaves:
Here is the end result after the orange pad with HD Uno.
The trunk lid had some pretty deep scratches and was in overall mediocre condition. I started off with an orange 5.25” Lake Country pad on my rotary polisher using HD Uno and got unsatisfactory results after three passes. This was going to require something a bit more aggressive. I switched over to a yellow 8” Lake Country Edge wool pad and switched out the HD Uno for some Poorboy’s SSR3, which is like liquid sandpaper. Now I was getting some results. I followed this up with the HD UNO on the orange foam pad and the finish was looking quite nice. I wasn’t getting the deepest defects out with this strong combo, but I was removing a solid 95% of the issues and happy with the results, which were more than acceptable for a four year old daily driver. Here is a 50/50 shot of the trunk lid:
The rear of the trunk lid was in better condition with minor scratches and swirling. I was able to get this out with an orange pad and HD Uno.
The hood is where things get bad. I fought long and hard with some of the scratches in the hood and eventually gave up on any combination of pads and compounds I had at my disposal. The marring was much too deep to be removed with compounding, so I had to bite the bullet and wet sand these areas. How can someone take such piss poor care of a car to put it in this condition in only four years? This is one such spot that was in rough shape:
After wet sanding:
I followed up the wet sanding with my Poorboy’s SSR3 and yellow wool pad combo, but it was not getting me the desired results. It was taking most of the sanding marks out, but not all of them. This was the most aggressive combo I had on hand. I’m not sure why I eventually tried the HD Uno on the yellow wool pad, but that is exactly what I did. To my surprise, on a single pass the HD Uno was not only correcting the defects the SSR3 wasn’t, but it was leaving a much more refined finish in the process. It was almost good enough to stop at that point, but I wanted a little more clarity so I followed that combo up with the HD Uno on an orange pad and got a haze-free finish.
Here is a 50/50 shot showing the lower portion of the hood done with the yellow wool pad and HD Uno, while the top portion of the hood was done with the same pad and Poorboy's SSR3. Notice how much more haze the SSR3 leaves:
Here is the end result after the orange pad with HD Uno.
08-13-2014, 05:55 AM
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My Ride: 535xi 2010
Model Year: 2010
Subscribed. I also have a 2010 535ix. I've added a JB4G5, DCI and OCC as well as changed out the front bumper to a M5. Currently, I'm running the JB4 in Map 1. There is a major difference between that and stock based on my butt dyno.
I'll be interested to see what else you add. Good luck.
I'll be interested to see what else you add. Good luck.
08-13-2014, 07:37 AM
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Excited to hear how it goes for you. I have a 2009 535xi full loaded, jb4g5, DCI, RPi Scoop and a bunch more mods on the way such as the AR DP's, OCC, and a few others.
08-13-2014, 09:57 AM
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Thanks for the encouragement. I hope I can keep this going in the coming months with the new baby and busy season at work. I'm planning some more cosmetic upgrades along with suspension, wheels and tires and of course some more go fast stuff.
Initial ethanol results should be up by tomorrow.
Initial ethanol results should be up by tomorrow.
08-13-2014, 02:57 PM
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Not sure yet on the suspension front. The options are:
1.H&R sports with Bilstein B6 HD - not B8 Sports that have received so many bad reviews. This setup runs about $1,250.00
2. CKS Xi-specific coilovers. CKS still does these directly and will sell for about $1,725.00 shipped.
3. KW V3. The best deal is currently purchasing from Europe and importing at a cost just under $2,000.00 new.
Using Cobb AccessTUNER Race I altered the fuel scalar tables to account for the extra fuel volume needed to run E50, dumped E50 in the tank at the local gas station and started driving.
08-14-2014, 09:53 AM
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Initial testing with E50 is complete. I’ve been running it for the past week and logging results over the past four days. These initial results will probably be a bit of a letdown, but they are about what I expected. The only changes I made in AccessTUNER Race was to account for the E50 by altering the bank 1 and bank 2 fuel scalars to account for the extra volume of fuel needed. Because this was the only change I made, for the most part*** there are no net changes in power. Air/Fuel ratios stayed constant as did timing and timing correction factors. What we see is nothing was gained or lost from a performance standpoint by using E50. This first step of ethanol testing was to get it in the car and make sure it was going to run it, meaning the fuel pumps and injectors were up to the task (so far at these power levels). The next step will involve making the timing cuts due to charge air temperatures less aggressive in an effort to keep timing up and therefore power up in the higher rev ranges as the ambient temps get higher. I will follow that up with overall bumps in the main timing table to hopefully extract some additional power. I will be testing the effects of an aftermarket intake as power levels build as well.
For now, here are the initial E50 results:
68 degree ambient temps 92 octane gasoline vs. E50:
75 degree ambient temps 92 octane gasoline vs. E50:
***For the most part except at boost onset. This is a mystery to me. You can see that in both runs above torque comes in a little bit faster and there is a little bit more of it on the E50 runs. You can also see that the E50 runs were showing a little bit richer AFR in these areas, while boost and timing remained the same. This is a mystery because I touched nothing in the fueling tables and nothing in the spool mode tables. The extra richness is unexplained, but it appears to be the sole reason for the quicker and slightly more robust power delivery down low.
Unfortunately the weather has not been as warm the past couple of days here, which means I was unable to get results based on 90 degree ambient temps while running the base E50 map. Based on the results above, I suspect it would fall right in line with the results on 92 octane in 90 degree ambient temps.
The temps are supposed to jump back up over the weekend so I should be able to complete testing by Monday evening with a new map that has less aggressive timing cuts based on charge air temp.
For now, here are the initial E50 results:
68 degree ambient temps 92 octane gasoline vs. E50:
75 degree ambient temps 92 octane gasoline vs. E50:
***For the most part except at boost onset. This is a mystery to me. You can see that in both runs above torque comes in a little bit faster and there is a little bit more of it on the E50 runs. You can also see that the E50 runs were showing a little bit richer AFR in these areas, while boost and timing remained the same. This is a mystery because I touched nothing in the fueling tables and nothing in the spool mode tables. The extra richness is unexplained, but it appears to be the sole reason for the quicker and slightly more robust power delivery down low.
Unfortunately the weather has not been as warm the past couple of days here, which means I was unable to get results based on 90 degree ambient temps while running the base E50 map. Based on the results above, I suspect it would fall right in line with the results on 92 octane in 90 degree ambient temps.
The temps are supposed to jump back up over the weekend so I should be able to complete testing by Monday evening with a new map that has less aggressive timing cuts based on charge air temp.
Last edited by biz77; 08-14-2014 at 10:55 AM.
08-14-2014, 06:28 PM
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Not sure yet on the suspension front. The options are:
1.H&R sports with Bilstein B6 HD - not B8 Sports that have received so many bad reviews. This setup runs about $1,250.00
2. CKS Xi-specific coilovers. CKS still does these directly and will sell for about $1,725.00 shipped.
3. KW V3. The best deal is currently purchasing from Europe and importing at a cost just under $2,000.00 new.
Using Cobb AccessTUNER Race I altered the fuel scalar tables to account for the extra fuel volume needed to run E50, dumped E50 in the tank at the local gas station and started driving.
1.H&R sports with Bilstein B6 HD - not B8 Sports that have received so many bad reviews. This setup runs about $1,250.00
2. CKS Xi-specific coilovers. CKS still does these directly and will sell for about $1,725.00 shipped.
3. KW V3. The best deal is currently purchasing from Europe and importing at a cost just under $2,000.00 new.
Using Cobb AccessTUNER Race I altered the fuel scalar tables to account for the extra fuel volume needed to run E50, dumped E50 in the tank at the local gas station and started driving.
