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      04-01-2014, 06:16 PM   #1
atomic80
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My X5 "mod" thread

while mine is nowhere as involved as wdimagineer, I'd like to think that I've done a number of tasteful mods. This will be my build thread.

So far, I've installed:

Escort Max
X-Pel clear film (engine front, rocker panels, fender openings, door pockets and mirrors)
iND black grille
iND painted front and rear reflectors
///M pedals
///M brake kit
Coded a number of changes


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      04-01-2014, 06:34 PM   #2
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Looks fantastic...
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      04-01-2014, 06:37 PM   #3
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Atomic80,

Your mods look great! Is there a great improvement in the braking ability of the vehicle with the ///M brake kit?

Regards
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      04-01-2014, 06:47 PM   #4
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      04-01-2014, 07:04 PM   #5
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for your photography.. What did you do with the second picture
I'm getting xpel on Thursday. Is the film noticeable? If someone is looking at the car, will he know that there is a clear film on it?
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      04-01-2014, 09:16 PM   #6
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Atomic,

Looks good.
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      04-01-2014, 09:24 PM   #7
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Awesome ! Great photo teknik
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      04-02-2014, 12:36 AM   #8
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r33, what's the intake kit you're referring to in another thread? Is it a BMW ///M part or aftermarket?

Here's another close up shot from above
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      04-02-2014, 02:12 AM   #9
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Nice back garden you have there sir!
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      04-02-2014, 05:27 AM   #10
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I like the transparent hood :P

I think I'll go for the black grille on mine, but I want to check first how it will looks like on a carbon black.
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      04-02-2014, 09:03 AM   #11
atomic80
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sirajkas View Post
for your photography.. What did you do with the second picture
I'm getting xpel on Thursday. Is the film noticeable? If someone is looking at the car, will he know that there is a clear film on it?
Thanks! I actually put my camera on a tripod and took two pictures, one with the hood open and the other closed and superimposed the latter onto the former creating that transparent hood look.
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      04-02-2014, 09:25 AM   #12
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Great pics, especially the second one!
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      04-02-2014, 09:45 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by atomic80 View Post
Thanks! I actually put my camera on a tripod and took two pictures, one with the hood open and the other closed and superimposed the latter onto the former creating that transparent hood look.
Very Nice.. Awesome..
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      04-02-2014, 12:29 PM   #14
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atomic,
The air intake I use is aftermarket by BMS. It is for the N55 motor.
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      04-02-2014, 05:54 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by r33 View Post
atomic,
The air intake I use is aftermarket by BMS. It is for the N55 motor.
Oh yeah...I have that in my Porsche. Think they'll come up with one for the N63 motor too?
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      04-02-2014, 06:38 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by atomic80
Quote:
Originally Posted by r33 View Post
atomic,
The air intake I use is aftermarket by BMS. It is for the N55 motor.
Oh yeah...I have that in my Porsche. Think they'll come up with one for the N63 motor too?
Atomic,
You are talking about BMC. Mine is BMS (Burger Motorsport), same guy that made the JB Tuning.
They don't have intake for the 50i.
You can try K&N drop-ins.
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      04-02-2014, 06:53 PM   #17
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Does anyone really believe either of these two own F15's....?
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      04-02-2014, 09:06 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by r33
Quote:
Originally Posted by atomic80
Quote:
Originally Posted by r33 View Post
atomic,
The air intake I use is aftermarket by BMS. It is for the N55 motor.
Oh yeah...I have that in my Porsche. Think they'll come up with one for the N63 motor too?
Atomic,
You are talking about BMC. Mine is BMS (Burger Motorsport), same guy that made the JB Tuning.
They don't have intake for the 50i.
You can try K&N drop-ins.
K&N don't make a filter yet. Ordered what they said was compatible. Turns out it's for the older engine. BMW switched to cartridge based filters on the F15 which will likely make drop-in stuff impossible. (For now.)

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      04-02-2014, 10:42 PM   #19
atomic80
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ingenieur View Post
Does anyone really believe either of these two own F15's....?
What was that comment for?
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      04-02-2014, 11:46 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by atomic80 View Post
What was that comment for?
maybe he meant this one? wait....you don't have one...do you?
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      04-03-2014, 09:39 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rhonig View Post
Your mods look great! Is there a great improvement in the braking ability of the vehicle with the ///M brake kit?
Atomic80 didn't answer this, but I'd be surprised if the answer is yes. There are several factors that affect the ability of the brakes to slow the car:

1. Tires. In almost all cases the limiting factor is tires. If you jam on the brakes in an emergency stop so that ABS kicks on, that means the tires are sliding - in other words the power of the brakes is overwhelming the traction available from the tires. So to improve braking the first step is to improve tires.

2. Brake Pads. Under repeated high speed braking it's possible for the brake pads and calipers to get very hot. Stock brake pads are a compromise design to keep the brakes quiet, effective at all reasononable temp ranges likely to be encountered on the street, and reasonably priced. But under the high heat of repeated hard braking they can get hot enough to lose friction, and you may get "brake fade." So the 2nd step in improving braking performance is to get higher performing brake pads, realizing thet you may have to sacrifice some quietness and cold temperature operation. Many of us swear by after-market pads such as Hawk High Performance Street (HPS), which povide a bit of improvement in this area without sacrificing in any significant way on noise or cold temp operation.

3. Brake fluid. Also under repeated hard braking - like at the race track - the brakes may get hot enough to boil the brake fluid, also contributing to brake fade. So third step is to switch brake fluid to a high temp formulation. The downside to this is that high temp brake fluid is more hygroscopic than regular fluid, and consequently you must flush the brake fluid at least once per year. I woud recommend this only for the most aggressive canyon carvers.

4. Brake calipers. The last and least effective change to improve brake performance is to switch from the stock calipers to a multi-piston design, and also to consider a larger brake rotors and pads (a big brake kit). Larger rotors have more thermal mass, so can absorb more energy from braking with less temperature rise. Multi-piston designs can provide a more even clamping force of brake pad to rotor, and may give a better modulated feel in braking. This may be important at the track, where most braking is at threshhold level, but generally is not noticeable on the street. No one's running an X5 on a race track, so a BBK really doesn't do much for the X5.

So at the risk of sounding a little negative - there really is no practical reason to swap out the brakes from stock. Really the only reason to consider it is for the looks. Same reason why drilled or slotted rotors are so popular on sport cars and larger diameter wheel on all sorts of vehicles - it's the look! And yes, I admit - they M brake kit does look sharp!
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      04-03-2014, 11:08 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChipB View Post
So at the risk of sounding a little negative - there really is no practical reason to swap out the brakes from stock. Really the only reason to consider it is for the looks. Same reason why drilled or slotted rotors are so popular on sport cars and larger diameter wheel on all sorts of vehicles - it's the look! And yes, I admit - they M brake kit does look sharp!
Lots of truth in what ChipB is stating above. Big calipers and rotors do look sharp, but performance advantages are hard to quantify, if at all, over the stock setup.

BMW does brakes very well and the single pot equipment is more than capable to do the job.

As a data point, I used stock calipers (single pot) on my M3 DE/track car. With track pads (perf friction 01), tires (nitto NT01) and brake fluid (ATE2000), I could achieve retina detaching results lap after lap in the heaviest of brake zones. The only down side was the weight of the car equated to pad heat. That heat contributed to an increase in pad consumption.

Adding a big brake kit would help reduce some of this residual heat and thus pad consumption. The detractor was that the cost of all the consumables (pads/rotors/caliper rebuilds) would also increase exponentially. In other words, the big brake upgrade was not worth it for amateur track work.

Since BMW stock calipers are track worthy out of the box, they are more than capable to handle what is thrown at them on the street. That pretty much makes the big brake kits overkill, but man do they look GOOD!!!
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