Ok this is getting boring now. I realize that most people on this forum have a problem with me, every time I say something most of you bash me down and try your best to prove me wrong or try make me look like an idiot and that's fine its a forum and its full of know it all's. Everyone on the internet is a genius and knows everything about everything.
I came here to tell you of my experience when I did practically the same mods, take it or leave it. nuff said.
Telling me I drove my car hard all the time when you don't know me is laughable too, telling me I didn't let my car warm up or idle for a couple mins before switching off is laughable as I used to baby my car. Yes my software map was probably too aggressive, that's not my doing as I never wrote the software that was put on my car. I went to many of these street races with the xcede guys.. why don't you ask them if I ever raced my car? not once and trust me they tried to set many races up for me to see how their software was performing on my car. All I ever did was watch and sometimes film and once I brought my bike and I raced that on the highway and that was all. oh and I went to a dyno day with them.
What you all seem to forget is that software if done properly is written for your car while taking readings from sensors in the car, exhaust gas temps, pressures, maf readings, decats, turbo readings etc. In SA most of the time a map is written or bought from over seas and just put on your car and you pay your money and your car performs and you think all is good in the hood(I am not saying that all software companies do this so don't get all sensitive now). What you forget is that a turbo boosts and needs to stop boosting at certain rpm's and under certain circumstances, if the back pressure is all gone and the map that you have loaded a year and a half ago isn't catering for it then your turbo is spooling for too long at a high RPM, Longer than it was designed to do!!! and thus it will pop eventually, The software is already making your turbo boost slightly longer to build more boost, so heat generation is already more.
The turbo is spooling up probably 3 times faster than it ever did before, so its time at maximum rpm is longer than it ever was not to mention that the software makes it boost harder so heat generation is much quicker, wear and tear is higher, inevitable destruction is just that...inevitable. Do you guys think you know more than one of the places that my turbo was sent off to get diagnosed, I think it was Turbo Direct which is the official distributor in SA for genuine Garrett turbochargers?
I don't care if your turbo explodes, I don't know you I will probably never meet you. I thought I was being a pretty decent guy by showing you my concern and telling you of my own situation with the exact same engine, turbo and gearbox.
Let me maybe tell you of my costs involved in this little exercise, perhaps you will better understand why I decided to tell you of my small situation.
When my turbo went the first time it cost me a tow which was over a grand, then it cost me another tow to get the car to BMW from my house as it broke at night which was over a grand, then to get it from bmw to my mech was another around R1200. then the couple hours of labor to get the turbo and inter-cooler, and boost pipes out was a few grand, I think it was like 4k, then the diagnostics from the turbo company I sent it to was over a grand that mixed with BMW's diagnostics which was like R1500. then getting the new turbo from a forum member for a couple of grand cant remember how much exactly, then fitment plus new inter-cooler which was on its own R4700 from BMW, new boost pipe as the turbine prop shot through the boost pipe was over a grand, think it was actually over 2 grand. so that in total was well over 20k. 3 days later the new turbo was a fuck up because of a factory defect on the turbo, apparently the turbine shaft wasn't balanced properly so it started touching the housing. I heard it and switched the car off and had to get it towed which this time was over 2 grand because I was far out. I had to then repeat the whole turbo replacement exercise. I then drove to Durban, put the car in cruise control 120kph and cruised the whole way there, second day I was there was on my way to the beach in traffic and as I pressed the accelerator the revs went up and the car stayed still. Had to pay for a tow to nearest BMW, over a grand. got quote from bmw to replace the gearbox as they don't repair them they just replace and fit and that was R85 000.00. Obviously that wasn't an option so I tried to get a tow back to JHB, quote for that was R12 000.00 that wasn't an option so Andy came to fetch me, which cost me a couple grand as I paid for his tank twice or three times if I remember correctly plus tolls for both our cars, I couldn't be more thankful as I would have had a serious problem if it wasn't for him. Gizmo then did a gearbox conversion which cost me a fuck ton of money, had to take a loan etc, his price was great but in the end all of this cost me over R65 000.00. Now the guy that bought the car from me has had shit luck with it too and has apparently spent over 50k on it, replacement of injectors another fucking turbo! redoing the engine etc. so that's over 100k spent on an old 330d, much more than what the car is actually worth.
what I am trying to say is that everyone has a big mouth till this shit happens to them, I did. We all think this will never happen to us but its happened to thousands of people, go read the international forums this is actually more common than what you guys seem to think.
@coisman, I understand that you have a modded car and that's fine. But your car is NA, Software on a NA car isn't as destructive as what it can be on a car with a turbo. Unless it was really written by a doos and its making your fuel mixture so lean that you end up burning holes through your pistons.
Yes I wrote another Essay just because you guys said I would, why would I let you down?
Your car might never give you shit and that's cool and I hope that is the case.
but why is it such a problem when someone says hey, I did this and that to my car and this was the outcome? I just don't get it. I thought this would be helpful info that people might appreciate?