[toxik]

Figured I'd start my build journal, as my car nears it's 1 year anniversary of ownership with me. It was my dream to have a daily driver that is both AWD and Manual, luckily the B58 came along and the options for me were narrowed down to only 1 car. Below is an outline of all my mods and work I've done to my F30, in chronological order. If you have any questions about mods, part numbers, or etc, feel free to reply or PM me, and I'll do my best to help.

Car Background: 2017 340i xDrive 6MT. Mineral Gray Exterior with Saddle Brown Interior. Car is pretty much fully loaded, only packages missing is the Track Handling Package with the 19 inch M-Sport wheels and the Blue M Performance calipers.

• Mineral Grey Metallic / Saddle Brown Dakota Leather with Dark Brown highlight
• Technology Package
• Driving Assistance Package
• Driving Assistance Package Plus
• Cold Weather Package
• M Sport Package 1
• M Sport Package 2 - Adaptive M Suspension
• Apple Car Play
• Cold Weather Package

Picked up at the end of January 2021. CPO from BMW with 40,000 miles on the clock:

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Wheel Spacers: First mod a month after picking up the car were wheel spacers. Picked up some BMS 10mm front and 15mm rear wheel spacers (comes with a free wheel pin!). Made the stance slightly more pleasant:

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Ambient Lighting Strips and Bimmercode: Picked up a OBDII connector dongle on Amazon and bought a Bimmercode license, coded a few things based on YouTube video suggestions. Coded ID6 with live tiles which I highly prefer over ID5 that my 2017MY car came with. Also installed the Amazon ambient lighting strips for that awesome El Wire look that makes the interior look way more modern

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Front License Plate Bracket: Picked up my favorite front license plate holder from US Mill Works, this is the Lightened + Quick Release Kit due to me having park distance control that requires an offset tow hook frame

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Turner Motorsports BMW F30 M Performance rear spoiler: Wanted a subtle spoiler lip, nothing with CF or black, just a color matched lip to give the trunk a little more character that it seems to be missing stock. I lucked out and ordered the very last Mineral Gray spoiler they had in stock on the website, seems all other colors were out of stock as well!

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M Performance Exhaust: I really wanted to get the Remus Catback exhaust, as after doing months of research, I thought it was the best sounding exhaust that retains the OEM valves. Unfortunately, due to COVID they were on an indefinite backorder and I just got impatient. I thought the 340i deserves more growl and noise than stock. The MPE axleback ended up being an excellent choice in my opinion. Since it is an axleback, I don't mind losing the OEM valves, in fact I prefer not having to worry about that damn valve rattle that I got with the OEM muffler. It's loud when I want it to be by going WOT, and its subtle and daily drivable when I'm just commuting to work. I didn't think I'd be as satisficed with a "quiet" exhaust as I ended up being, have no desire to touch my mid pipes or Cat for more sound.

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Installing 2-Channel Dash-Cam Thinkware U1000: Spent a few weeks researching what would be the best deal for a full dash-cam system. I didn't want to half-ass it and splice it into the fusebox and rely on my car's battery to power parking mode. I found that unlike Blackvue, the Thinkware standalone battery had really great reviews. I do wish the front camera was more of the lipstick shape like Blackvue has, but I got used to it quick, and it's mostly blocked by my rear view mirror.

Routing the wires was really easy, surprisingly. Tucking into the headliner and then running the wires on both side of the car through the bottom plastic channels of the side sills. The battery I ended up installing in the empty space below the trunk floor, I used velcro to secure it, so I can easily check it's connection, turn it on and off, or just see if the light is on. Other option was to mount it directly next to the rear fuse box, but I thought carpet might provide a better resting place for it.

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Filter Upgrade: Figured it was time for a filter upgrade, both cabin and intake. Decided to go with the aFe PRO S Dry filter, never was a fan of oiled filters and this was a great choice in my opinion. I also really liked their ram-air intake duct, and got one in Carbon Fiber to add behind the kidney grille. Thought I noticed a bit of a louder growl when revving the engine, but could've been a placebo. Either way it's a good upgrade over stock without spending $500 that most intakes cost. I do think the OEM system is already great, just too bad it doesn't produce any cool induction sounds.

For the in-cabin filter I went with a Micron filter from FCP Euro. Mine wasn't too dirty but I had no idea when it was last changed, so I did it for peace of mind.

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Kies Motorsports M Performance Style Rear Diffuser: I probably should've gotten a rear diffuser sooner, I remember having an Alpine White e92 coupe and how nice it looked with a contrasting color diffuser, the shadow color paint that BMW use on the M Sport diffuser is WAYYY too close to Mineral Gray in color, so it just ends up looking like there's no diffuser. Although I love how much more aggressive the diffuser looks, I mainly got it for the darker black color that gives great contrast to the rear of the car. Installing wasn't too bad, I read a lot of stories about bad fitment and big gaps.

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Interior Mods: I felt that the exterior mods I have plans for weren't as important to me as the interior. In trying to build the ultimate daily driver, I wanted to have the absolute best F30 interior I could possibly get. Some mods I did a ton of research on, in order to find things others haven't yet done, and other mods I simply wanted to upgrade to the greatest and latest BMW had to offer that was compatible with my car.

The very first mod I did was one of the first mods I really coveted before I bought the car. Although most people opt for the $1800 price tag of the Bimmer-Tech 6WB package, I decided to get in touch with my local BMW parts guy and ordered one for slightly less than $1100. Coding was done by Steve @ Codemybimmer. Although, still a very expensive mod, I don't regret it one bit. And unlike most mods that you will do to your car, I think this is one of the few that will raise your car's re-sale value.

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G11/G12 750i Stainless Steel Start Button: Next interior mod was one of my favorites that I've done, although very simple in nature I did not see anyone else attempt it prior. I was on the search for a stainless/aluminum start button look that I've seen on other luxury brands, and the plastic Red/Yellow and other color buttons that after market companies sold never really appealed to me, nor did I think they suit the look I was going for.

I wrote up a guide and made a separate thread for this DIY, for those interested: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1853626

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BMW F15 X5 Upgraded 10.25'' Screen Retrofit: My favorite and probably most technically difficult mod that I've done on my F30. Had to search far and wide, on the junk yard database car parts websites. Finally saw one for sale in a recently brought in X5, that hasn't even been catalogued yet. One of the pictures showed that the screen still worked, since the wreck didn't effect the car's electronics.

I read the bimmerpost thread about the retrofit a few times, watched Tommy L Garage's video on how to trim the screen in order to make it fit. Felt confident and comfortable, with doing the mod after all the resources the community provided. Link to thread here: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1168747

Coding was fairly simple since I got a NBT EVO Touchscreen version of this display. Just had to enable to touch features and change the resolution. A very worthy upgrade if you're thinking about it. Being able to pan and zoom, and scroll the map to check traffic info has been a life saver for me and my commute.

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Hand Brake and Shift Knob upgrade: Decided to add a little alcantara and CF into my interior. Got the Autotecknic Wet CF/Alcantara hand brake, it was quite an annoying DIY, getting the hand brake back on the car was quite difficult. Eventually, after sweating a ton I got it done.

Next upgrade was the F8x M Performance Pro Illuminated Shift Knob. I wrote up a DIY on this installation for anyone interested: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1872457

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Random Accessories: Got the Gates Innovation G style key-fob, absolutely love this thing, feels so great would recommend it all day long. Replaced the orange front reflectors with the Ziza smoke reflectors. Added a greyscale ///M logo to my brake calipers, since I hated the blank caliper look, felt a subtle logo makes the car look a lot more premium. The M Performance BBK is in the near future for my F30!

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Side View Mirror Upgrades: Got a great deal on Euro Aspherical mirrors, while taking the mirrors off I decided to also the smoked sequential turn signals and some Forged Carbon mirror caps. I wasn't sure if Forged would make the car look incomplete, since I don't have any other forged pieces, but in the end I loved how it complimented the Mineral Gray and Shadowline M sport Gloss Black trim perfectly. The colors mesh really well and I absolutely love how it looks.

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Re-Badging of the rear: Did a full matte black, black-out, of my rear badges, a subtle yet amazing change to the rear of the car

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Steering Wheel Make-Over: One of the best tactile mods I've done so far to the F30 was the complete make-over of my steering wheel. I hate the OEM leather of the F30 steering wheel, it becomes disgusting quite quickly. I'm also not a huge fan of smooth leather, and much rather have perforated leather instead. Ordered a cover from eastdetailing, along with a replacement steering wheel trim made out of Carbon Fiber, added a little ///M wheel badge to the bottom to complete the look! My girlfriend did the hard part for me, and sewed the wheel cover on perfectly.

[par__m3]

I love your car, man. Excited to see it evolve.

[toxik]

Originally Posted by par_m3

I love your car, man. Excited to see it evolve.

appreciate the love 🙏

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A few shots of the car in a shiny clean form after a pre-winter clay bar and ceramic coating

[F30_320D_UK]

Nice ride man. Tasteful mods. Love the color seats. Any wheels / suspension planned?

[toxik]

Originally Posted by F30_320D_UK

Nice ride man. Tasteful mods. Love the color sears. Any wheels / suspension planned?

thanks man!

have to get new tires in the spring/summer, thinking of powder coating my oem 18s when i do. as far as suspension, planning on doing the bilstein B16 damptronic coils at some point.