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.

 

Yes that's right! According to my colleagues and some of my friends, I have been deemed an Apple fanboy in their eyes. Little do they know that I just favour convenience over style (of course style matters a lot). Anyway, who says I am an Apple fan boy? I use an iPhone 4 on a daily basis, I have my iPad 3 with me which I absolutely adore because I watch movies on it when I travel, I connect to my PLEX server at home and I read all my Manga on it. I also have a 2008 Macbook Pro which is sort of dying and soon to become a permanent home server for me and a couple of iPods which I won last time. Who says I am an Apple fan boy?

So when I managed to convince my friend (he was currently using the Note 1) to get the new Samsung Note 2 after catching Tiger Woods at the CIMB Classics last weekend (Maxis had a booth offering the Note 2 for RM999 for Maxis One Club members), I only managed to get my hands dirty with it a couple of days ago (sorry mate, my hands wasn't exactly dirty and I know you put your phone next to your face). And boy, was I completely blown away. Mostly with the beautiful size of the screen, as much as a retina display supporter I am, the larger screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was just awesome.

Of course there were certain drawbacks. The phone was huge! Could barely fit into my tight work pants but definitely in my casual shorts. The phone was surprisingly light! But the OS interface seems a little messy and I feel that there are just way too many features which I think clutters up the whole screen. But that is just an initial feel, I felt the same way when I moved over to iOS.

I was quite convinced, the few apps which I use quite often are available there (mostly mainstream ones such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LINE, etc,etc,etc). Other than the cheaper price, I know the iPhone 5 would cost a lot more when it launches as well as not having a larger screen (compared to the Note 2), the pull of the dark side was really really strong! But seriously guys, why do you call yourselves the dark side anyway? Apple seems like the empire to me right now and since Disney bought over the Star Wars franchise, I can just imagine Storm troopers breaking out in song just before firing upon the rebels.

Anyway, back to my current itch. It was the 31st of October, the very last day of the offer by Maxis, I was still contemplating whether or not should I go for the Note 2. I am currently not bound on any Maxis contract and the last phone I purchased from Maxis was the iPhone 3Gs. Whilst sitting at my desk in my office located at KLCC, the Maxis store beneath Menara Maxis was but a 5 minute walk and I was comparing the current plans that I had versus the new 2 year plan I would need to sign up.

About 80% convinced, I shared this with some of my colleagues who kept on pushing me to go for it (especially those who are currently using the Android platform). Of course those who were true to Apple would still tell me to wait for the iPhone 5 which hasn't had had any indication on when it will be released in Malaysia.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it is currently my project's cutover period. Cutover is a word used to articulate how busy an IT person might be and is constantly one of the key and most stressful times of an IT project. Hopefully that gives an idea of how hectic it has been here at work where I was running from multiple meetings and discussions until I noticed my watch and it was already 9.00pm and I have missed out on the offer.

Oh well, I think my iPhone 4 (which I am officially borrowing from my mum) still rocks. Somewhat.

I feel like I am opening up a large can of worms here.