[dan-kc]

i'm owner of sub 10k mile n54.

i'm new to e90, previously having e36. after getting car, i saw online that there are some common failures such as hpfp, injectors, turbos, wastegate, gunk in valves/cylinder tops, etc.

my question is whether you've seen online that the those with upgrades such as cobb/jb4, etc have much higher percentage of issues than those with non-upgraded cars?

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Originally Posted by dan-kc

i'm owner of sub 10k mile n54.

i'm new to e90, previously having e36. after getting car, i saw online that there are some common failures such as hpfp, injectors, turbos, wastegate, gunk in valves/cylinder tops, etc.

my question is whether you've seen online that the those with upgrades such as cobb/jb4, etc have much higher percentage of issues than those with non-upgraded cars?

These issues will happen regardless of a tune. A tune will just expose those problems sooner as they are weak points.

In a nut shell if your HPFP was weak and you got a tune and it failed it was going to fail anyway.

If your injectors were on their way out and you got a tune and they failed it was going to fail anyway.

So it just brings out the weaknesses sooner.

If your spark plugs, injectors, fuel pump and the like are up to date and maintained you can tune this car happily well past 100K miles easily.

[Glowin]

There's no such thing as "chip" upgrades with our cars.

Either piggybacks or flash tunes.

[idrift4wd]

chip upgrade/tune/piggyback/flash is all interchangeable. we understand what he means.

HPFP and turbos have problems in stock n54's. So putting a tune in your car will work many things harder, but we cant exactly say that your HPFP or turbos will indefinitely fail from the tune.

we could say that you'll see a misfire eventually. from spark plugs or a faulty coil pack.

[Glowin]

I obviously understood him too.

But I don't see why it's so hard to refer to it as a tune vs. a chip if you do understand how it really works.

I had my old A4 chippedby APR. The ECU was pulled out and a new chip was soldered in. THAT'S a chip upgrade.

[Jklad]

Originally Posted by Jeff@TopGearSolutions

These issues will happen regardless of a tune. A tune will just expose those problems sooner as they are weak points.

In a nut shell if your HPFP was weak and you got a tune and it failed it was going to fail anyway.

If your injectors were on their way out and you got a tune and they failed it was going to fail anyway.

So it just brings out the weaknesses sooner.

If your spark plugs, injectors, fuel pump and the like are up to date and maintained you can tune this car happily well past 100K miles easily.

This is correct, sad to say. My dme fried because of a defect in the dme that would have happened tuned or not tuned. My hpfp failed bc Of poor BMW design. My lpfsensor failed because of engine vibrations that cause the old design sensor/rail to fail, not because of tune. Also, my oil filter housing gasket, tstat gasket, and oil line orings were leaking oil not because of a tune, but bc BMW gaskets leak oil over time. Not to mention the wp, this just fails on it's own too. Oh, and almost forgot my vanos solenoids - again, nothing to do with tune.

[Mike@N54Tuning.com]

Originally Posted by dan-kc

i'm owner of sub 10k mile n54.

i'm new to e90, previously having e36. after getting car, i saw online that there are some common failures such as hpfp, injectors, turbos, wastegate, gunk in valves/cylinder tops, etc.

my question is whether you've seen online that the those with upgrades such as cobb/jb4, etc have much higher percentage of issues than those with non-upgraded cars?

There are some weak links on this car.. Mostly fuelling related. A tune sometimes can bring a failing part into full failure but its not to say the part would have lasted without the tune. Most common thing I see is misfires due to old plugs when someone tunes their car. Usually a spark plug change fixes that.

One of the reasons we recommend spark plugs be changed when getting a tune if they haven't been changed in the last 15K or so.

Mike

[dan-kc]

thanks guys