[oem.plus_440gc]

Hello all!

First time over my years on multiple forums posting a "build" thread.

I'll start off with a brief history before getting to the F36.

First car was a 2002 Honda Accord Coupe 5spd. Great first car. Reliable, easy to learn to drive stick, and just a nice car. Threw a AEM intake on it for fun and a little noise.

Next a picked up a 2005 Honda Civic Si (EP3). I took it a bit further with this car doing intake, race header, catback, short shifter, headunit, HFP wheels, and a bunch of paint/plastidip on stock wheels, badges, and interior trim. Learned a bunch from this car. Got to the point where I was either going to turbo it or sell and get into something newer as it was right around the time I graduated college and started my professional job.

Ended up selling the Civic and getting a brand new 2015 Subaru WRX. This car taught me pretty much everything I know and I went down a pretty big rabbit hole over my 7 years of ownership. The mod list was massive but pretty much full bolt ons with a protune, lowered, wheels, lip kit, android headunit, etc. I learned how to do oil changes, trans/diff fluid changes, spark plugs, brakes, etc. and installed every mod (except lowering springs) myself. It was tough to get rid of it, but after 7 years and over 120,000 miles I was ready for something new.





Enter the BMW F3X platform. I knew I wanted something 4 doors, AWD, sporty, and tunable. My search started with a F30 340 xdrive. I really enjoyed the driving experience but the spec was no where near what I was looking for. I also test drove an F80 and honestly couldn't bring myself to cough up the extra $$ especially knowing it would be wayyy less loaded with features, maintence and mods would be wayy more $$, and I would want it in stick, which was one of the reasons for getting rid of my WRX (since my wife can't drive stick, has no interest in learning, and we just had a kid so having 2 cars we both can drive is important).

So the true search began for an F30. During my search, I kind of stumbled on the F36 platform and realized it actually check even more boxes than the F30 for me. So, 440i Xdrive 8spd with THP in AW over CR (Msport) was what I was after. After a few weeks of searching and calling multiple dealerships, I found one about 2 hours away from me and decided to take the drive up and check it out. Long story short, I drove home in a 2019 440i Gran Coupe XDrive in Alpine White over Coral Red with the 8spd, Msport, THP, lighting package, cold weather package, executive package, driving assist package with 37,000 miles.







What a car! I knew, in similar fashion to how I put together my WRX, I wanted to modify it in a OEM+ way. That meant, keeping the exterior fairly stock looking and using just BMW M-Performance (style) parts. The car came with OEM carbon mirrors, so I added a carbon fiber style M-Performance rear spoiler. I also added the M-Performance style gloss black rear diffuser, gloss black 440i and Xdrive badges and BMS black billet exhaust tips to pretty much eliminate any chrome on the outside.







Also threw on some roof racks as I to be able to throw my bike or snowboard on top of the car! Eventually wrapped the cross bars black (as you'll see in other pictures to continue to black/white exterior theme).





The interior had the “aluminum hex carbon” or whatever its called, but it was fairly scratched up, especially the front door handles. So I found some carbon fiber style door handle replacements and picked up all 4. I found a carbon style piece for the I-Drive controller area, and a real CF overlay for the dash around the vents and screen. This stuff looks good, not great. It will last until I either pull the trigger on the alcantara M-Performance interior set or a set of interior CF trim from an F80. In the meantime, my setup looks good enough. The one piece people really see is real CF and the pieces that get beaten up are all fake CF style. To give a bit of added style, I picked up a set of silver paddle shifters to match the silver trim in the rest of the interior. I love the way they look in the car. I also added an MMI box to run Android Auto. Of course, my car came with apple carplay, but being an Android user, I still had to install an MMI. As long as I use my cord and not use wireless, it is flawless. It is however a bit laggy when using a wifi connection.

Then came power. Coming from my FBO WRX (approx. 330/330 at the wheels) the B58 felt pretty good, but of course, I wanted more. I specifically searched out a B58 car for the tuning/power potential. However, during the CPO process prior to my purchase, the DME was locked and at the time I didn’t want to go through a bench unlock so I looked at other options. Ended up grabbing a JB+ used from a fellow forum member and ran that for about 8 months. Honestly, I loved it. Great bump in power for something so simple to install/uninstall.

But again, after a while, I knew I wanted more sound and more power. Enter a downpipe. I ran catless on my WRX and ended up getting sick of that towards the end of my ownership so I wanted to go catted this time around. But before pulling the trigger on a crazy expensive brand new downpipe, I found another fellow forum member selling a nearly brand new CTS catted downpipe and grabbed it. I know CTS doesn’t have the best reputation and there are a few stories of people blowing out the cats, but so far mine is working just fine. Installation was easy. Everything lined up no problem. So that helped with the sound, but I was still stock tune with a locked DME.

I reached out to Kies Motorsports about a bench unlock and since I am only minutes away from them, I was able to bring my DME directly to them for a bench unlock. As soon as I got home, I threw my DME back in my car, and immediate flashed BM3 Stage 2 Multimap. (Backstory, I bought my BM3 license the year before during a Black Friday sale. Killed me to wait 10 months to load up a tune.) I toned down all of the burbles to keep it subtle.

When I finally got to take the car out I was in love. It was powerful, had just a tiny burble when letting off the gas or during hard shifts. I programmed it to open the flap in Sport/+ mode so in comfort it is still quiet and subdued, but in sport with a heavy foot, it has a nice smooth growl and a tiny burble. Very OEM+ sounding with the catted downpipe and stock exhaust.

At that point (after dialing in some personal preferences on BM3), I felt pretty much “done” with the F36 and was just enjoying the drive. But of course, I wasn’t done. I was (foolishly) browsing the FS threads and found a set of gloss black 437M near me for a great deal, so of course I bought them. Got my nearly new Conti DWS06+ mounted on the 437M and then onto the car they went!

So, I’d say, for now, this car is pretty close to the perfect OEM+ status that I was going for. I definitely will be getting the car tinted this spring and I’m debating on lowering springs. I would absolutely loveee the look of the car lowered, but I really am trying to keep this car much more simple and practical that my WRX was. And I really enjoy the adaptive suspension so I don’t want to risk messing that up with lowering springs. I may wait it out until my suspension needs a refresh and then pick up some aftermarket adaptive coilovers/springs/dampers.

Otherwise, enjoy the pics!

[toxik]

perfect spec! keep it untinted so people can see that beautiful interior

[oem.plus_440gc]

More pics!

[oem.plus_440gc]

Hoping that this thread will motivate me to take more pics! I used to be much better about it with my WRX, but just haven't been in the picture taking mode recently. I hope to get some better pics soon!

[oem.plus_440gc]

Originally Posted by toxik

perfect spec! keep it untinted so people can see that beautiful interior

hahah thanks man! i love the CR/CF style interior and wanna show it off, but i also want more privacy and sun shade for both me/my wife/my daughter and for the sake of keeping the leather from cracking and wearing prematurely. we'll see what happens though! i won't go crazy dark on it if i do tint it.

EDIT: realized I didnt upload the one interior pic i have of the car so here you go!

[danarino]

Nicely done, amazing spec f36. I recently did a mild drop and it really set the car off and didn't negatively impact the ride quality in any appreciable way. As a recent father, I like the idea of the hatch back for the stroller and whatnot. What size are your tires on the new setup?

[oem.plus_440gc]

Originally Posted by danarino

Nicely done, amazing spec f36. I recently did a mild drop and it really set the car off and didn't negatively impact the ride quality in any appreciable way. As a recent father, I like the idea of the hatch back for the stroller and whatnot. What size are your tires on the new setup?

Thanks man! Do you have the adaptive suspension? I feel like I haven't seen a ton of review of adaptive suspension + a mild drop (H&R most likely). The OEM adaptive suspension is just so dam expensive and I don't want to prematurely wear it out from the lowering. My WRX had lowering springs and the struts/dampers lasted the life of my ownership so no real issues. A bit stiffer than stock, but not crazy.

And yeah, the hatchback makes the stroller and baby stuff so much easier to take with us. I also picked up a rooftop cargo box so if we want we can take the F36 for weekend trips if we want rather than my wife's X5 (F15).

I'm running stock (staggered) tire sizes. I just picked up a fresh set of Contis like 6 months ago (225/255) so i'm sticking with them for now on the 437m. A bit more stretched than I would like, but I also can't justify dropping another $1,000 on a new set of tires right now (235/265). Maybe in a year or so.

I went with a similar approach on my WRX when I picked up the used STI BBS wheels. They weren't in perfect shape so I ran out the tires that came with them and then got the wheels refinished with proper rubber like a year later. Spread out the cost of them over a bit of time. The current setup works just fine so I'll stick with it until I need new tires. It would also probably look muchhh better with a mild drop even with the 225/255 tires.

[oem.plus_440gc]

Probably should have put this in the first post, but here it is:

Mod List:

Power:
JB Plus Quick Tuner (REMOVED)
CTS Catted Downpipe
BM3 Stage 2 multimap
93oct

Exterior:
704M wheels (REMOVED)
Pirelli Cinturato P7 RFT (225 square) (REMOVED)
437M wheels (gloss black)
Continental DWS 06+ (225/255)
OEM CF mirror caps
MPerformance style CF spoiler
MPerformance style gloss black rear diffuser
Gloss black badging
Matte black BMS Billet exhaust tips
CF license plate frame (unbranded)
OEM cross bars (wrapped matte black)

Interior:
MMI for Android Auto
Renline phone mount
USB/HDMI input for MMI in passenger footwell
CF/CF style interior trim
Silver aluminum shifter paddles
MPerformance style shifter panel (not sure how to describe it)

Various coding (bimmercode app)

[danarino]

Originally Posted by oem.plus_440gc

Thanks man! Do you have the adaptive suspension? I feel like I haven't seen a ton of review of adaptive suspension + a mild drop (H&R most likely). The OEM adaptive suspension is just so dam expensive and I don't want to prematurely wear it out from the lowering. My WRX had lowering springs and the struts/dampers lasted the life of my ownership so no real issues. A bit stiffer than stock, but not crazy.

And yeah, the hatchback makes the stroller and baby stuff so much easier to take with us. I also picked up a rooftop cargo box so if we want we can take the F36 for weekend trips if we want rather than my wife's X5 (F15).

I'm running stock (staggered) tire sizes. I just picked up a fresh set of Contis like 6 months ago (225/255) so i'm sticking with them for now on the 437m. A bit more stretched than I would like, but I also can't justify dropping another $1,000 on a new set of tires right now (235/265). Maybe in a year or so.

I went with a similar approach on my WRX when I picked up the used STI BBS wheels. They weren't in perfect shape so I ran out the tires that came with them and then got the wheels refinished with proper rubber like a year later. Spread out the cost of them over a bit of time. The current setup works just fine so I'll stick with it until I need new tires. It would also probably look muchhh better with a mild drop even with the 225/255 tires.

I do have adaptive suspension and was thinking along the same lines as you when deciding on a plan. Take a look at my thread for some insight. I provide a 1K mile review of my setup on the second page. I'm really happy with it so far and would recommend a similar approach (or just get the 05-22 eibachs and skip the rear spring spacer if you're good with going lower than my setup).
https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1949408

You do something similar along with the larger tires eventually and you're golden.

[eff32fl]

Very nice ride! (the F36 lol)

[cfm56d7b]

Stellar F36 with B58 engine and red interior. Thanks for sharing!

[oem.plus_440gc]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

Stellar F36 with B58 engine and red interior. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks man! Looks like our garages are nearly identical! F36 and F15!

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by oem.plus_440gc

Thanks man! Looks like our garages are nearly identical! F36 and F15!

Indeed! Excellence has a tendency to be replicated.

[oem.plus_440gc]

F8X cluster retrofit coming soon!

Gotta keep up with that OEM+ interior theme!