Here is part 2 of the 320d modification guide. You can refer to part 1 here. As much as I can, I am trying to incorporate both the E90 and F30 models of the 320d into this modification guide. Well frankly, it isn't really much of a guide but more of an awareness of the kind of modifications you can attempt on your car.

Exhaust Modifications:
Changing your exhaust can also improve your car's performance. Modify at your own risk, unless you decide to use the original BMW M performance parts.

• BMW Performance exhaust - I have seen a number of the E90 320d cars sporting this exhaust. Frankly you won't get much of a difference in terms of exhaust note mainly because, its still a diesel. One of the more expensive option but it comes with warranty and a peace of mind. There was a case where someone compared dyno results between a 320d using this exhaust and one without. There were some differences in terms of power, close to about 10bhp. I haven't seen one available yet for the F30 320d. 


• Aftermarket exhaust - So far the only one I have seen available here in Malaysia is made by Jetex. This is only the catback portion with a 3" diameter. The exhaust note sounds a little lower, love the growl from this exhaust and it does sound nicer compared to the BMW performance exhaust.


• Custom exhaust - This is one of the options you can take, to fully customize your exhaust system from the downpipe all the way to the catback. For the E90 320d, most stage 2 modifications include a downpipe change to around 3" in diameter. A fully customized exhaust system sporting a 3" diameter all the way can be pretty costly and the price will depend on the material used. With a larger diameter, you should be able to achieve higher horsepower at the higher RPM range but will sacrifice a bit of torque.

Handling V2.0
Apart from the usual tower bars, ARB and suspension, to further improve on the car's handling in a more hardcore manner, there are options for the real hardcore. 

•  Urethane bushings - Powerflex makes a wide variety of bushings to fit many BMW's and they do have models for the 3 series. Using this to replace your stock bushings, it definitely makes you feel that everything is tightened but the downside to this is that you feel everything. By that I literally mean everything. Because the bushings are harder, you feel more vibration coming from the road but you can consider that a good and bad thing. 


• Foaming - Can you put in a special type of foam inside your car's chassis filling up the gaps. Once the foam dries up, you get a stiffer chassis with less flex. There are several vendors who offer this service, AutoFoam KL comes to mind. One of the key benefits of this treatment is that you also make your car feel solid and quieter as well.


• Roll cage - This is the ultimate way to stiffen up and protect your car especially during motorsports. So far the only BMW to come out straight with a roll cage from the factory would be the BMW E92 M3 GTS. I happen to know there is one available at Naza World going for around RM800,000.

Exterior Modifications
There are plenty of people who like only exterior modifications. Whether it may come in the form of body kits or rims.

•  Bodykits - For the F30, the M-Sport bodykit and trims are available and the full kit ranges from RM15,000 to RM20,000. But I heard that the M-Sport versions of the F30 320d will be coming soon to Malaysian shores. Brands such as M-Tech, Wald, ACS and Hamann have their own set of bodykits. In Malaysia, we also have the replica M3 bodykits which will fit the E90 320d because the original M3 bodykits such as the bumper will not fit the E90 cars. 


• BMW Performance Parts - BMW also makes and sell the carbon fibre bits which add on to your existing car's bodykit. Because they are made of carbon fibre (CF), they cost an arm and a leg. For the BMW 3-series E90, you have the front CF splitters which sticks to the bottom part of your front bumper, the rear CF boot lip, the rear CF diffuser and the CF wing mirror covers. They also have the matte black kidney grill available as well. Aside from getting the original BMW parts, known eBay OEM knock offs have surfaced for a tenth of the price.

I will stop here as part 2 of the modification guide. Will proceed with the next posts focusing on the interior bits. Will try to get more photos in here to allow readers to visualize the parts and modifications.

After owning a diesel car for almost a year and hanging out with a number of other diesel owners, I managed to learn a lot more about the car as well as the available mods that you can get. Note that these mods will span across both the E90 and F30 as I will generalize it but there are downsides to some of these mods which I will state in this post.

Power Mods:
These mods basically increases the power output of your car, whether it may be providing you with more horsepower or torque but most of the time it is both.

• BMW Performance Power Kit - Available for the 320d for both the E90 and F30. Currently the most expensive of the power mods available, now being sold at the BMW Authorized dealers for around RM7,000. Warranty is intact and you get more than just an ECU mod, you also get a larger intercooler as well as a radiator fan. 


• ECU Remap - A simple remap for your car's ECU. So far I haven't found any available here in Malaysia for the 320d (branded ones) but I think there are certain custom ones available. These usually do pull out the most power you can get out of the car especially the custom tuned ones done on a dyno machine. Warranty will definitely be voided.


• Piggyback - Basically a bypass between the ECU and the engine, one of the cheaper options from RM1500 to RM3000 depending on the brand. There are a few in the market currently such as DTUK, Vector, RaceChip, etc.  Gives good results and can easily be installed and removed. Falls within a grey area in terms of warranty.


• BMW Performance Power Kit + Piggyback - Seen a number of users having this combination. Provides the most amount of power output (with dyno results). Also the most expensive option of the lot.

Braking:
With great power comes greater emphasis on stopping the heavy machine.

• BMW Performance Brake Kit for E90 - A 6-pot Big Brake Kit available at BMW Authorized dealers. Warranty is intact and it is only for the front. Price can vary from RM6500+ onwards. Big brake kits are made by Brembo.


• BMW Performance Brake Kit for F30 - A 4-pot brake for the front and 2-pot brake for the rears. Warranty is intact as well.


• After-market BBK - Plenty of after-market BBK's available, brands such as Brembo, AP Racing and Stoptech are quite common.

Handling:
When managing those bends, you just want to go through them faster. And here are some of the available mods.

• Suspension - There are a few suspension set-up available, for the E90 you have your standard suspension and for the M-Sport version you have the M-Sport suspensions which are slightly lower and firmer. For the F30, currently there are only the standard suspension setup as the M-Sport variants haven't arrived yet in Malaysia. There are some talks about talking to your BMW Authorized dealer to order in the electronically adjustable suspension which BMW offers in other countries. One of the best mods to help you reduce body roll. Some brands which have been recommended include KW V2 suspensions, Bilsteins as well as local brands such as Titan (not too sure if Titan has one for E90, need to be confirmed). 


• Anti-Roll Bars - You can opt to get after-market ARB's which are thicker and firmer compared to the stock ARB. Those I have seen is the H&R ARB. This is only suited for the E90 as I haven't seen any ARB available for the F30 yet. Do leave a comment if you have seen it and I will update this post.


• Lowering springs - This lowers your ride but the downside is that you may feel a harsher ride and your suspension rebound rates may not suit the springs and cause the suspension to wear out faster.

This now concludes the list of mods that I have found, I will continue the mods (aesthetics and cosmetic) in another post and at the same time, maintain this post with more updates.

For those of you who love to keep your ride squeeky clean and in tip top condition as well as protected from our harsh weather, check out this new offer by Autodetailer. These guys really do a fantastic job cleaning and detailing your car, trust me!

Last Updated: 13-02-2013 - Patch version 6.1



Just last week when Maxis announced that they would be releasing the new iPhone 5 (new by so-called Malaysian standards), I was ecstatic and I quickly signed up my interest on their website. What I didn't expect that the sign-up rate was so great (30,000 sign ups) that Maxis closed it down the following day.

When I was confirmed that I would be eligible to get the iPhone 5, I was quite happy to state that I would line up for the first time in my life to get the iPhone 5 on the launch night. This meant that I would need to start queuing up at night and await for the official launch at 12 midnight 15th December. I guess another excuse I wanted was to get interviewed by my friend Melissa who was a TV presenter at NTV7. Talk about ulterior motives.

The night arrived and I was extremely excited. I was definitely lacking sleep as I had to wake up early for an 8am teleconference call, run around KL for meetings and then finally back to PJ to collect my car from the service center. After taking a short nap from 8pm-9pm, I headed to CAPSQUARE and started queuing at 10pm. That was a bad idea because I was already greeted by hundreds of other people.



It was a good thing that Maxis gave out free donuts and apples as well as hot milo, white coffee and water to the folks queuing up. After queueing for about 2 hours, I managed to get my few seconds of fame on NTV7. After watching it, I think I sounded like a crazed geek (prior to my interview, they also interviewed the guy who was first in queue who had started lining up since 10am that day and it was also his birthday).



So to cut the long story short, it took me over 4 hours to queue up and get my phone and finally back at home into bed.

Now after having lived with the iPhone 5 for the past couple of days, here are some of the things I loved about it as well as the things that I hate about it.

Love:

• It's beautiful form factor


• How light the phone is (comparing with my current iPhone 4)


• How fast it is and how apps respond  so quickly


• The extra space on the screen (being able to see more icons on the 1st screen)

Hate:

• Battery life. In short, it sucks! Sucks battery juice that is. I have to charge it at least up to twice a day. Lots of complaints about it here at the Apple forums (here, here, here and here). With the iOS 6.1 update as well as trying out several tips such as deleting general settings and network settings, the battery life has improved but I still have to charge my iPhone twice a day (pre 6.1 I used to charge around 1pm and post 6.1, I usually charge around 4pm).


• Maps, still always an issue and I know Apple is in the midst of getting it fixed. Until they do, it still sucks.


• Having to use the new lightning connector (the cable is RM69 whilst the adapter is >RM100). Now I have two set of cables lying around and to carry around, one for my iPad and one for the iPhone.

There were some issues regarding the phone as well but it seemed more from a carrier perspective. Here are some of the issues that has been reported.

• Able to make calls but not able to receive them (Maxis issue which has now been resolved)


• Showing wrong data usage and data available for each user (affecting iValue 2 users)


• Losing 3G, Edge and GPRS signal and not recovering back from it again. Post iOS 6.1 patch, this issue seemed to have started up again. Several folks mentioned it was a Maxis problem but it does occur for other networks as well. A tip which I followed was to reset my iPhone's Network Settings and it did manage to resolve it. 

I will definitely update this post as I go along. At the time of writing, these love hate relationship points were based on the iPhone 5 running on iOS 6.0.1. There is a new patch that was just released but I haven't tried it out yet.

If you know of any other issues, do post it here in the comments section and I shall add it up.

Updates - 13-02-2013 (iOS 6.1)

• Battery life has improved a little bit (lasts around 2-3 hours longer)


• Dropping of 3G signal seem to have reappeared but now it doesn't happen anymore. Some people have reported that Maxis was upgrading their network hence the cause of it but I followed a tip which was to reset the phone's network settings and it did seem to work.

Updates - 21-12-2012 (iOS 6.0.2)

• Cases have been reported that the new patch does indeed drain the iPhone 5's battery life. Read in a couple of forums including the Apple Support forums and found that one of the solutions is to reset your phone settings, Settings>General>Reset> Reset All Settings


• This does not wipe out your media and data 


• Currently testing this method now and so far, after almost 2 hours, I have only used 6% of battery. This is with service locations on for certain apps, mails set to fetch, wifi and bluetooth on.