[Olly_P]

Well, after some good advice on this forum I decided to say goodbye to my trusty old E90 330D LCI and said hello to my 440i Gran Coupe in estoril blue! Its a 2017, mint condition with a loads of options such as adaptive suspendsion and M sport plus pack so really happy.

First thing I did, other that a spirited drive home, was take some photos!

Will keep this as a bit of a build thread as have a few choice mods planned such as a remap, ACS springs, black kidney grills, M Performance rear difuser and rear reflector delete. All in good time though.

[winther1]

Congrats - awesome car! I came from an E90 330i.
Massive upgrade in every way - the huge boot got me really excited
As it's a 2017, you can get mppsk - highly recommended. I've seen them around for 30-50% off

[Mick.86uk]

Great colour and spec! Looks identical to mine when I purchased last August.

I'd recommend the LCI rear light retrofit.

[otee10]

Congrats mate, looking forward to seeing the upcoming changes!

[Kam05]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-340i-...kAAOSw51tdUXuS

[john lummis]

It's a lovely design, sporty and elegant at the same time.

[Olly_P]

Originally Posted by Mick.86uk

Great colour and spec! Looks identical to mine when I purchased last August.

I'd recommend the LCI rear light retrofit.

Yea pretty similar spec. I do like the look of the LCI rear lights though...

I looked into the mppsk, does look (and sound) good. Bargain price on that eBay link as well.

Think i'll go down the route of some new tips, engine and gearbox remap instead. Especially as the cars out of manufacturer warranty. I've had previous cars mapped by Evolve which have been good, get a forum discount too.

Although I wasn't really looking for any options in particular on the car, it did come with a good list of them:

- M Sport Plus package
- Adaptive M Sport suspension
- M Sport braking system
- Enhanced Bluetooth
- Heads-up display
- Reversing camera assist
- Harmon Kardon
- Electric seats and mirrors
- Surround view cameras
- Parking assist front and rear
- Innovation package
- Power operated boot lid
- Brushed aluminium interior trim
- Professional nav

Really nice car to drive and yea better than my old E90 in every way bar steering feedback. My first auto too so will take a bit of getting use to.

First things first, enjoy the car for a while. Having said that, I ordered some black kidney grills and replacement number plate (plane with no branding or screw holes) this morning though! Also updated the iDrive software.

[Rukka]

Congrats OP. Lovely car. I still have a soft spot for the 440i since having one myself a few years ago. I'm sure you will enjoy it

[Olly_P]

Cheers

First little mods, de-badged the rear, removing the 440i badge. Easy to do with some dental floss, WD40, polish and patience.

Also added some new number plates, ones without branding at the bottom and stick on so no screw holes.



I have some quotes from Cotswold BMW for some car mats as not a fan of the rubber ones. Also some black M Performance kidney grills and M Performance rear diffuser. Might have to wait until next month though.

[otee10]

Originally Posted by Olly_P

Cheers

First little mods, de-badged the rear, removing the 440i badge. Easy to do with some dental floss, WD40, polish and patience.

Also added some new number plates, ones without branding at the bottom and stick on so no screw holes.



I have some quotes from Cotswold BMW for some car mats as not a fan of the rubber ones. Also some black M Performance kidney grills and M Performance rear diffuser. Might have to wait until next month though.

Slippery slope... once you add those parts mentioned you'll suddenly have an urge to mod the other sections of your car. All part of the fun though!

[Olly_P]

Well, so much for taking my time and enjoying the car as it is for a while! Decided to get a few little mode done

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Coding

Realised that the OBD coding tool, Carly, I used for my old car works on my current F36. So made a few changes based on my personal preferences:

- Enable optical lock and unlock
- Turn iDrive off when opening drivers door
- Turn volume control pop up off
- Enable messages while driving
- Turn off legal disclaimers
- Use telephone ringtone
- Enable video in motion
- Enable close boot with remote
- Enable close boot with dash button
- Seatbelt reminders off
- Seatbelt warnings off

------------------------------------------

Lowering Springs

After spending far too long researching lowering springs and reading countless forum posts, decided to go with some ACS lowering springs as wanted to keep my adaptive dampers, also got some 10mm spacers for the front and 12mm rear. I was worried they would give an uneven lowering but they're spot on, fill the arches nicely with a near stock ride (wife confirmed).

BEFORE


AFTER


ACS quote a 2cm drop all round, took some before and after measurements and they're pretty much spot on. Really happy as managed to event things out a bit too.

All measurements are from the centre of the wheel to the arch

BEFORE measurements:
Passenger front - 37cm
Passenger rear - 37cm
Driver front - 37.3cm
Driver rear - 36cm

AFTER measurements:
Passenger front - 35cm
Passenger rear - 35cm
Driver front - 35cm
Driver rear - 34.5m

TOTAL lowering:
Passenger front - 2cm
Passenger rear - 2cm
Driver front - 2.3cm
Driver rear - 2.5cm

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Black kidney grills

Picked up a set of genuine M Performance black front kidney grill for a bargain on eBay. I think it really suite Estoril blue cars and goes with the black vents on the front arches.



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Fixed scratch and dent on roof

I'd had the car for less than a week when this happened. Was driving on the motorway and the car in front kicked up a bit of old lorry tyre, which landed on my roof and did this:



As it needed dropping the headliner to fix the small dent, BMW wanted £1,280 to repair which seemed extortionate. Went to a local body shop I’ve used several time before who fixed for £250. Looks good as new and glad I got fixed quickly.

[Olly_P]

Well, a few more little mods done during lockdown 2.0. Needed to do something to keep me entertained!

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Bootmod3 Engine Remap

I've been looking into remap options for a while and based on all the good reviews decided to go with Bootmod3. Really easy to do yourself and like that I can make changes if I want in the future as there's a lot of customisable options. Worth it as the only extra cost was £18 for an ethernet adapter for my phone and £12 for the ethernet to OBD adapter, lots of options on Amazon/eBay etc.

With Bootmod3 I went with their off the shelf stage 1 remap for 95 RON fuel. Based on the claimed figures it takes my B58 440i from the stock 321BHP / 332FT-LB to around 380BHP / 420FT-LB. Although from what I've read the stock power figures are much higher than BMW claim with B58's running the same stage 1 remap getting between 400 - 420BHP.

It would have been nice to get a before and after rolling road, I guess that would be a benefit of taking it to a tuner for a remap rather than doing yourself. Any way, not really bothered about what the actual figures are as for me its all about how the car drives. It feels so much faster in all gears and really feels like the cars woken up. Very pleased.

------------------------------------------

XHp Gearbox Remap

My 440i is an auto so decided to go for a XHP gearbox remap at the same time as flashing Bootmod3. Again, really easy to as uses the same adapters and like that I can make any changes I want down the line.

Shifts are noticeably quicker in every mode, most noticeable in Sorts and Sports+. The car feels like it wants to go fast now, with the stock map it could sometimes feel a little lethargic. I also found sometimes the car would change gear at odd times such as accelerating round a corner, or jump down two gears under heavy acceleration, the tune seems to fix this. I only been running XHP for a month or so, but the only minor down side I've noticed is that it seems to hold 2nd gear for slightly longer than stock. Not an issue really as can either get use to it or edit the shift point.

I decided to go stage 2 for now as the cars a daily driver for me. The license you buy comes with stage 1-3 maps, I'll prob give stage 3 a go at some point with a few tweaks. Stage 2 is perfectly fine for now though. I didn't expect a night and day difference, but its much better than the stock map and overall well worth the upgrade.

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Exhaust flap mod

I found it a little annoying that most of the time only one tail pipes used. A feature of Bootmod3 is that you can open and close the rear exhaust flap via the app, this resets when the cars turned on/off though. Playing around with this there's only a minor noise difference between the rear flap open and closed, I believe there are other flaps that are opened when in Sports/Sports+ mode.

I liked the idea of having the rear exhaust flap permanently open and found THIS thread with info on how to do it properly. So ordered myself a dummy flap actuator and blank connector from BMW. From what I've ready the car permanently removes the actuator from the ECU after 24 hours with it disconnected without the dummy flap connected. Apparently it's a trip to BMW to get re-added, so worth installing to keen the option of swapping to stock again in the future.

Easy install, first opened the exhaust flap, checked that both pipes were being used and disconnected the cable running to the actuator. Turned the engine off which leaves the flap open.

Fitted the dummy plug actuator to the cable I'd disconnected. I had to drill a small hole in the plastic next to an existing cable run to mount but looks neat and tidy.



I didn't want any moisture getting in the exhaust actuator itself so fitted the blank plug. I'd sealed the top of this with a bit of plastic and a lot of glue.



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M4 Paddle Shifters

I've never been a fan of the bulky stock paddle shifters on my car, but not a fan of any aftermarket ones either. I really like the shifters on the M4 and realised that they are a direct swap on all F series cars.

So after a bit of help and advice on THIS thread, I picked myself up a set of genuine M4 paddle shifters on eBay. Pretty straight forward to fit, although always slightly nervous removing an air bag. Really happy with how they look and feel though.



------------------------------------------

Updating iDrive from v5 to v6 Lite

My cars running iDrive NTB-EVO-5 so a nice little upgrade is updating the software from v5 to v6 lite. This is pretty much just a different skin, but visually looks a lot more modern and up to date. I really like the live tile view too so can see multiple things at once.

After some help with coding via USB on THIS thread I updated. Really happy and a nice free upgrade.

[Iyrix]

Loving the work and thanks for the research on the springs... I think i'll get these for mine now.

[Olly_P]

A final few mods for the year, decided to give myself a early Christmas present...

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M-Performance Rear Diffuser
I've never been a fan of the OEM rear diffuser, so had my eye on a M-Performance one for a while. Spent ages deciding weather to keep in the unpainted grey or go two tone.

Decided that keeping in unpainted grey would look too similar to the OEM diffuser so went for two tone, outside in Estoril blue and the center section in black.

Bit of hassle with ordering with M Style. A Order hadn't arrived after a month, when I phoned up they said the delay was because they weren't happy with the paint job so had it done again. When the diffuser finally there were several defects, such as a paint run, swirl marks and bits of the blue section where the paint was missed a the black plastic under color showing. Ended up getting a refund for the paint job and got sorted by a local body shop i've used before, very happy with the result.

As both exhausts are permanently in use now (exhaust flap mod), I took the opportunity to give both tips a good clean while the diffuser off too, took ages!

OLD vs NEW


NEW DIFFUSER FITTED

[2JPW]

Looks fantastic and a great write up.

[Bachu1]

Love the colour co ordination on the rear splitter,

Who did the v5 to v6 lite upgrade? i have the id4

[goodbyalfa]

Do like the rear splitter.
What was the impact on insurance cost?

[SuperHamz]

Originally Posted by goodbyalfa

Do like the rear splitter.
What was the impact on insurance cost?

Should be negligible, apart from maybe an admin charge for changing your policy. It's a better looking piece of plastic replacing another piece of plastic.

I'd understand there being a change in insurance cost, if the diffuser was CF. Although most insurance companies would probably replace it for an OEM part.

[Olly_P]

Cheers, yea pleased with how its come out in the end.

Originally Posted by Bachu1

Who did the v5 to v6 lite upgrade? i have the id4

A user on this forum kindly created a config file for me, then just updated using a USB stick. Info on THIS thread.

I don't think it's a straight forward upgrade from v4 to v6 lite though. v6 lite is essentially just a different skin on the same v5 software I was running previously.

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by Olly_P

A final few mods for the year, decided to give myself a early Christmas present...

------------------------------------------

M-Performance Rear Diffuser
I've never been a fan of the OEM rear diffuser, so had my eye on a M-Performance one for a while. Spent ages deciding weather to keep in the unpainted grey or go two tone.

Decided that keeping in unpainted grey would look too similar to the OEM diffuser so went for two tone, outside in Estoril blue and the center section in black.

Bit of hassle with ordering with M Style. A Order hadn't arrived after a month, when I phoned up they said the delay was because they weren't happy with the paint job so had it done again. When the diffuser finally there were several defects, such as a paint run, swirl marks and bits of the blue section where the paint was missed a the black plastic under color showing. Ended up getting a refund for the paint job and got sorted by a local body shop i've used before, very happy with the result.

As both exhausts are permanently in use now (exhaust flap mod), I took the opportunity to give both tips a good clean while the diffuser off too, took ages!

OLD vs NEW


NEW DIFFUSER FITTED

The diffuser - and the rest of the car - looks great. I have the same 2017 440i GC but in Glacier Silver. Cannot say enough about how much I enjoy driving this car.

[Olly_P]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

The diffuser - and the rest of the car - looks great. I have the same 2017 440i GC but in Glacier Silver. Cannot say enough about how much I enjoy driving this car.

Yea love the 440 GC's, certainly shift, especially with a remap. Still getting use to the car to be honest as only picked up over the summer.

[Olly_P]

No mods, just some pics
Just been enjoying driving the car of late, no mods planned but do like the look of the OEM M Sport rear spoiler (smaller and more subtle than the M Performance one).

Any way, picked up my new phone a few days ago and wanted to test out the camera, the main reason I got it. A good excuse to give the car a clean too and make the most of some nice weather.