[Voight-Kampff]

So I recently bought a 2017 230i. There were a number of changes and updates I wanted to do to the vehicle, and as of this week, I finally got everything done. I figured I'd share the results and experience with various products, if only for future reference for others.

Aside from the work I had done this week, the very first thing I did after I took delivery was change out the intake and charge pipes. Got rid of the crummy plastic and replaced them with after market aluminum pipes (from FTP). They seem like good quality. Other than the increased reliability of the charge pipe, the intake pipe doesn't have a "resonator" like the factory version.

Whoever originally ordered this car selected almost every option, except for the adaptive lighting (and track package). I prefer the "angel eye" look for the DRL, so I asked my local dealership if they could retrofit those headlights, but they just said no way. So, I looked around and settled on BayOptiks Vision retrofit.

Instead of removing my existing lights and send them to be retrofitted, I opted to buy a new pair. Which means it took almost three months to get my lights. Ordered the beginning of April, got them the beginning of July. Looks like the lights were on a slow boat from Germany and then languished in customs for a while.

It's a little difficult to tell from my picture, but the whole housing is "blacked out". LED angel eyes and "eyebrows" were added. They're still just the standard halogens. But I don't do much night driving. And the extra cost of having them install "fake" projectors and Xenon bulbs wasn't worth it to me.



Finally, the big ticket item(s) was installing a tune. I went with Dinan S1. This is still just a daily driver, so I preferred Dinan's philosophy of squeezing out extra performance, but not at the cost of reliability. In addition to the tune, I also had Dinan coil packs and their 240i performance exhaust installed. I prefer the symmetrical exhaust look, vs both tips on one side. The exhaust tip diameter was a bit larger than I was anticipating. But in a good way. Definitely imparts a more aggressive look. As for sound, it's certainly louder than stock. You can notice a bit of drone in the cabin, but I don't consider it bad at all.



I've only driven the car back from the shop, and I didn't push it at all. So thus far I can't comment on performance enhancement. However, I can comment on efficiency.

Prior to the upgrades, when cruising open highways in "Eco Pro" mode, the trip computer would hover around 36mpg. My trip back from the shop was on an open highway. So I put it in Eco Pro mode. Even with the AC on the whole way, the trip computer was hovering around 41mpg. I'm not entirely sure I believe it, and I'm going to crunch my own numbers between fill-ups. But I take it as a promising sign. Especially with gas prices these days. Heck, at this rate, the fuel savings might pay for the tune.

One final note. Despite being a 2017, it turns out that my DME was locked. The shop had to take it out and send it to Dinan to remove it before the tune would work. The guy doing the upgrade said he was surprised to see a 2017 locked like this. Not a big deal, but it added a week, waiting for it to ship to and from Dinan.

[jose.munoz]

Did you have any advice on the exhaust conversion? I want to get symmetrical tips on my 228xi too