Official Forced Induction Maintenance/Service Thread

I don't see this *important* info posted often so thought I would start a thread to see what everyone is doing to keep thier F/I cars running at top performance. Hopefully everyone is aware that F/I puts a lot more stress on your car's parts that are designed to wear and be replaced. Please post what's on your list of items to check and how often. Here's mine..

Engine Oil/Filter: I believe BMW recommends servicing the oil/filter every 15k miles, even for a n/a car with no mods that seems a little long to me. I may be on the extreme side of caution but my cars gets new oil/filter approx every 2 -3k miles.

Air Filter: Easily overlooked, if you're sucking in a lot more air your filter is going to collect dust and debris a lot faster. Last time I cleaned mine I was a bit overdue. I now clean and oil my filter with each engine oil change.

Transmission Fluid: BMW claims the tranny fluid is good for the life of the car, although they even recommend service @ 100k miles. My car has 50k miles on the clock (most of that was n/a) - I'm planning to change the tranny fluid soon.

Differential: Don't recall what BMW advises - I just changed mine recently. (Wear some kind of gas mask, the diff fluid smells like Sh!t.)

Flex Disk: If you're unfamiliar this is the ultra strong circle of reinforced rubber that connects your transmission to your drive shaft, I replaced mine about 5k miles ago as it was cracked and splitting everywhere. Replace as needed.

Spark Plugs/Coils: I generally replace these as needed. I keep saying I'm going to pony up for the Okada Coils, so far the $1k+ price has deterred me. If you own a HPF car they have recently upgraded to a new high performance plug that is quite expensive, but runs cooler, is pre-gapped, operates more efficiently, lasts longer and puts less stress on your coils.

Tires: uhh..

Brake Pads:

Methanol Injection: If your car has this remember to add two teaspoons of "Alcohol Fuel Lubricant" per 1.25 gallons of methanol. See this thread for more info: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...fuel+lubricant

Coolant: I live in Texas and it gets HOT during the summer months. In the summer I add a mix of distilled water and 2 bottles of Watter Wetter. In the winter months I go back to the oem BMW coolant.

All I can think of for now. Look forward to hearing other's rec's.

hope this gets stickied

where do get the flex disk?

how hot is it in dallas? i might be moving up to dallas next month..

Sniper, I have a new flex disc in box if you need one.

i guess if ur boosted, u would be putting some extra strain on suspension components too
maybe a good idea to check in with CAB's, RTAB's...etc

^ good thread by the way

Engine main belt every 20k miles (At 30k mine was disintegrated with the TS2)

Fuel pump @ 80k miles

Fuel filter every 20k miles

MAF Cleaning 2-3 days after air filter cleaning / re-oiling (I have the K&N drop-in oiled filter)

Brake fluid / Coolant / PS Fluid every 2 years

Originally Posted by ispeedm3

Sniper, I have a new flex disc in box if you need one.

wat does it cost? pm plz..

Scott, good thing you seen that cuz that would be some **** to have break while goin fast down the highway, Mine was also in very bad shape but its been replaced.

SniperM. You can get them from bmw for like 130 bucks or so If i remember right. Part #26112226527

Originally Posted by paraklas

Fuel pump @ 80k miles

Doesn't AJ recommend a new fuel pump every 60,000 miles?

Originally Posted by InDiGlOM3

Scott, good thing you seen that cuz that would be some **** to have break while goin fast down the highway, Mine was also in very bad shape but its been replaced.

SniperM. You can get them from bmw for like 130 bucks or so If i remember right. Part #26112226527

thanx for the info!!

Great post scott!

I havent done my air filter yet i should probly do that very soon.
My flex disk was cracked also pretty bad.

If you call that bad, Then I dont even know where to begin describing how bad mine was haha

cool thread.. ive done all of this.. except for the additive to meth kit, but i am only running a 50/50 mix

is there any symptom when the flex disc is bad or do you just have to pull it out to see if it is bad or not

Originally Posted by mtran850

is there any symptom when the flex disc is bad or do you just have to pull it out to see if it is bad or not

oh trust me you will know. you will feel a very bad vibration coming from the driveline.

gotcha, thanks

My flex disk looked pretty bad when I replaced it, but never noticed any vibration, etc. One of the techs at my BMW dealer pointed it out to me so I replaced it. I just make a point to check on it when my car is up in the air.

I do the tranny/diff fluids once a year and will definitely add the flex disk to my list.

Great thread!

I suggest changing the OEM fuel filter every 15-30k. This really depends on your power levels and how hard you push the car, as the more power you make and the harder you drive, the more fuel is flowing through that filter for each mile driven.

Originally Posted by InDiGlOM3

If you call that bad, Then I dont even know where to begin describing how bad mine was haha

x2, Wait till I post pics of mine!

Originally Posted by mtran850

is there any symptom when the flex disc is bad or do you just have to pull it out to see if it is bad or not

Originally Posted by ispeedm3

oh trust me you will know. you will feel a very bad vibration coming from the driveline.

I never noticed any symptoms, and mine was very very torn apart.

Originally Posted by InDiGlOM3

If you call that bad, Then I dont even know where to begin describing how bad mine was haha

haha wow what do you guys do to your car....