Kbc

I recently decided to keep my e61 for a few more years. I've also decided to do some mods and after plowing through hours of forums i decided to try to distill some of this into the 'top 3' things you need to know about each. Here goes.

>>>>> Mod #1 - Cobb Tuner >>>>>
1 - DIY: Yes, as simple as it gets

2 - Don't do this on a low battery, the update will take 10 minutes and if your battery goes dead so will your car. Either you need a fresh battery or you need to have yours hooked up to a charger.

3 - eBay purchase for ~ $400 but worth every penny, big improvement to the car
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>>>>> Mod #2 - Sport Auto Tranny (SAT) Flash >>>>>
1 - DIY: Kinda. You wont be able to find all the software you need on your own in less than 12 hours of searching. Your best bet is to reach out to wedgeperformance@gmail.com. He'll point you to the installation files and instructions for a small donation for his time. Totally worth it. You'll also need a $30 cable from Amazon.

2 - There's a lot of misinformation about this mod. It does in fact work for the e61 LCI (post 6/07 build date cars) and it is a nice improvement to the experience. You can see the car shift (S1 - S6 in dash) and it shifts *noticeably* quicker.

3 - Can be stressful. At first i bricked my car and it wouldn't go into gear. After a few heart attacks i calmed down and tried again. For no rhyme or reason it worked the 2nd time (using GKE215 - ZB 7601458).
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>>>>> Mod #3 - BMS Dual Cone Air Intake >>>>>>>>>>
1 - DIY: Yes, easy. Youtube videos are out there if you need help. Basically you remove the airbox and insert the intakes into the two tubes that the airbox did connect to.

2 - Performance diff is not noticeable.....but it sure sounds cool to hear the turbos wind up.

3 - Worth it just to get rid of that 10lb old airbox from the car and for the enhanced sound.
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>>>>> Mod #3 - LUX V5 H8 LED Angel Eyes >>>>>>>>
1 - DIY: Yes, pretty easy. Wear rubber gloves else you will cut up your hands working in a very tight space.

2 - The ballast at first looks too big to fit into the light area. However, once you pull the bulb out then there's just barely enough space to drop it in. You'll need to do that first and then screw the bulb back in.

3 - Definitely makes the car seem more modern. Lighting is improved, although only marginally over the stock Xenon config. BTW, this particular mod only works for those of you with Xenon's. Note that this does not change the color of the 'eyebrow' over top of the lights, nevertheless it looks much better.

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That concludes round 1.

So far, in spite of nearly bricking the tranny, its been fun and a good learning experience.

>>>>> Mod #4 - M5 Steering Wheel + MotiveMods Paddle Shift Kit 7/10/2016 >>>>>>>>

1 - DIY: Easy so long as you have the right tools, pay close attention to detail and have patience. Make sure to use a torx 20 to remove the airbag or else you'll spend an hour with something that should take 2 minutes (dont use a flat head screw driver, you'll go insane). Make sure you have a breaker bar/torque wrench to easily remove the primary bolt on the steering wheel, or else you'll be stuck. Be very careful with all the plastic wiring tabs, its easy to break them when you're connecting wires.

2 - Motivemods.com is AWESOME. During the install i got the wiring backwards and they provided personalized customer support over text/phone for literally 2+ hours to help me. This in spite of the fact that i bought the kit here on the boards and they had no duty to help me. most companies would have told me to go away, but they bent over backwards to help me out. THANKS!!!!

3 - The most critical part of the install is connecting the wiring into the rear steering harness. there's 3 open pins and you need to make sure to use the two *leftmost* pins. i misinterpreted the instructions and used the right side which cost me many hours of debugging and frustration. in hindsight it was dumb and i should have figured it out faster myself, but i didn't. oh well, i'm now an expert at BMW steering wheels and i can easily swap in about 10 minutes

4 - Overall this is a great mod. the car is a lot more fun to drive now. i also have the alpina SAT upgrade and that's a big improvement too. Between both options i'm starting to see the potential of this car. now of course i want to start doing the inlets, downpipes etc. Another benefit of this mod is that the new wheel is a big aesthetic improvement over the old sport wheel. much thicker, nicer looking. it definitely improves the feel of the car.

>>>>> Mod #5 - BMS Wheel Spacers 7/16/2016 >>>>>>>>

1 - DIY: Yes, a 20 minute job, if you can lift your car.

2 - Benefit is purely aesthetic and that's fine. I'm not ready to invest in a full wheel setup so i just wanted to see if this would give the car a slightly better look. it does.

3- I have the stock sport 18" wheels and with 12mm fronts and 20mm rears i'm fine, no rubbing.

>>>>> Mod #6 - OEM M5 rear sway bar 7/24/2016 >>>>>>>>

1 - DIY: Yes, a 10 minute job, if you can lift your car.

2 - the bar alone wont suffice. you need new rubber bushings to properly fit the bigger diameter of the m5 bar. something to keep in mind

3 - ride definitely feels more firm and sturdy. i'll give you a better update after i take it up into the mountains and hit some twistys.

Next up:

1. Tailgate fixes - left hydraulic popped off. defroster and wiper not working.
2. Brakes TBD - if you have recommendations let me know. prefer to keep stock 18" sport wheels so m5 doesn't appear to be an option
3. FBO. Downpipes, inlets. etc.
4. Suspension TBD
5. M5 body work
6. Other engine perf upgrades ?
7. Wheels TBD

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pocholin

They're all good mods, congrats on the decision to keep it and get some mods done.

wooboodoo

With full of respect can you tell me please what do you mean "nearly bricking the tranny"? Installing sat retrofit itself only? You forgot to change VO from 205 to 2TB or you bricked it during flashing?

Thanks
Mark

Kbc

the first time i installed the SAT update using WinKFP i got the gear symbol and the car would not go into gear, so effectively it was bricked. i think reapplied the update and it worked, luckily. not sure what the difference was, i didn't change anything. Point is - make sure you pay attention to the fine details when making applying these updates. Also make sure you annotate your current versions in case you need to rollback.

wooboodoo

Well I did this mod in my car (full with flash) long time ago and had no issues at all that's why I was courius what exactly happen. This is one of the best mods 535 lci owners can do in their cars imo.

Kbc

updated initial post today (see post #1 in this thread) with new:

Mod #4 - M5 Steering Wheel + MotiveMods Paddle Shift Kit 7/10/2016

Kbc

updated initial post today (see post #1 in this thread) with new:

Mod #5 - BMS Wheel Spacers 7/16/2016

quattromeister

Nice post. Would you be able to post before and after?
Thanks

Kbc

possibly. which ones are you interested in seeing?

GTYellowJacket

I'll just add that for anyone else interesting in these mods that the MotiveMods kit is not the only way to get paddle shifters in the e61 with the SAT flash. With a wheel with standard SAT paddles, a couple wires is all it takes. With the M5 wheel, a small resistor network and the same two wires will get it working.