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Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
My BMW X1 23d Xdrive Journal
- Thread starter SMRTARSX1
- Start date
Thank you for the wonderful feedback and comments!
The car is incredibly capable. Off road the only issue is the front bumper and that it does bottom out due to ride height which the lift kit made a big improvement with.
In terms of daily usage the car runs incredibly well - 190kw and 440nm through permanent 4wd makes its a pleasure, though it does use more diesel than an ordinary 2.0d Sdrive.
My car is fitted with a rather unique motor, the N47S which is a twin sequential turbo 2.0L Diesel - I feel the 23d motor is a complete beast. The small turbo spools the larger turbo and gives you such smooth power delivery especially with the mapping, exhaust and filter.
Hopefully taking delivery of another MINI next week, so will get a thread up for that and the old MINI as its quite informative despite me already handing the car over.
The car is incredibly capable. Off road the only issue is the front bumper and that it does bottom out due to ride height which the lift kit made a big improvement with.
In terms of daily usage the car runs incredibly well - 190kw and 440nm through permanent 4wd makes its a pleasure, though it does use more diesel than an ordinary 2.0d Sdrive.
My car is fitted with a rather unique motor, the N47S which is a twin sequential turbo 2.0L Diesel - I feel the 23d motor is a complete beast. The small turbo spools the larger turbo and gives you such smooth power delivery especially with the mapping, exhaust and filter.
Hopefully taking delivery of another MINI next week, so will get a thread up for that and the old MINI as its quite informative despite me already handing the car over.
FerdiBotha
Well-known member
SMRTARSX1 said:
I’d be interested to know who mapped the car and why the torque is so low in relation to the power of the car.
I assume at 190kw it will be flywheel power, but the torque is only very slightly more than stock.
Anyway, thanks for the great write up and props for doing what most people won’t do in X-drive vehicles.
FerdiBotha said:
The car is ATM-Tuned and that power is at the Flywheel - Keep in mind, this is the N47S Motor, not the single turbo motor.
There is a reason for the odd figures - The factory mapping is a bit like an on/off switch between the two turbos, it also limited torque in 1st and partially in 2nd gear. Which is great if you want a smoother drive but not for my usage of the car.
When I had it mapped there were two requirements.
1. It had to allow as much power as possible in 1st and 2nd.
2. It must be safe usable power.
When the car is off road, particularly in a position where the suspension is flexing the Xdrive system is immensely clever. Its a 40/60 split under normal driving but can send ALL of its power to a single wheel.
So take these examples:
The cars wheel sensors have determined one of two scenarios in this type of action.
A) 3 wheels have traction and one doesnt
B) 2 wheels have traction and two dont
What it will do is determine which wheel has no traction and use the ABS to lock the spinning wheel (IE the wheel in the air) forcing the differential to provide drive to the wheel that isnt moving or on the ground.
The issue is, its okay to split 440nm across two wheels that have traction, the issue comes in where the car is not moving, on a slope, weighing in at 1.6 tons in first gear with no restriction AND is sending ALL 440nm to a single driveshaft.
You will hear in a few of my videos the bigger turbo wastegates - That means that at a standstill in for example this video:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BckPMcxF0Op/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The car is at FULL Boost, it actually cuts the throttle twice on me to prevent overboost. You can also see how the Xdrive works in this video, the wheels initially spin and you can see the ABS grabbing them followed by movement.
Under normal circumstances... A stage 1 map on this particular motor is good for 210kw and 600nm. But for my usage, ATM Tuning (who I know the owner well) did some special work for me.
The mapping made a mammoth difference off road, its made the power useable and so far we havent broken a diff or driveshaft so the safety measures have worked perfectly. :smilebounce:
What an epic thread...
Unbelievable how capable the X1, i honestly had no idea of them and Im glad you decided to share this story with us.
The pics are amazing, the story is brilliant and you can the enthusiast behind it all. I wouldnt in the least bit say its abused, its 10x more well looked after then ANY road going x1 I know that hasnt even seen dirt roads.
Subscribed....
Oh and the plates...rofl...well done.
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Unbelievable how capable the X1, i honestly had no idea of them and Im glad you decided to share this story with us.
The pics are amazing, the story is brilliant and you can the enthusiast behind it all. I wouldnt in the least bit say its abused, its 10x more well looked after then ANY road going x1 I know that hasnt even seen dirt roads.
Subscribed....
Oh and the plates...rofl...well done.
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Silverbird_96kw
///Member
Impressive thread :thumbs:
r0ckf1re said:
This is a long story.
When I went to view the car at Paarlberg BMW it had a set of aftermarket BMW Reps on it, which I was not happy about - The car was approved used with 4 months plan left. The aftermarket wheels had brand new tyres on it.
After seeing the spec, and that the car had the exclusive wheels I asked for them and was told they have them so I insisted they be fitted with new tyres as per the aftermarket wheels....
Long story short.... It had a set of Pirelli Runflats on but the drivers front wore like shit - Nobody could explain why until the day the tyre gave in on the N7... Supa Quick patched the tyre for me which put me in a predicament.
I knew the tyres were coming up on needing replacement, but I wanted to run a more aggressive tyre. The issue is, the current set of wheels is a 8J / 9J staggered fitment. I wanted to fit Geolanders to it but because of Xdrive you have to match brands and tread and replace all 4, and GO12's dont come in 255/60/18 which would mean having to stretch the rears which I was not happy to do. This is how the setup would have looked:
The end result, I needed a set of non-staggered 17's to make the new tyres work and in between the 4x4 specialist I took the car to explained the driver side control arm had failed and was the result for the one tyre wearing so badly.... Yet another defect on a car that was BMW approved and had been through a quality check.... I had been in discussion with BMW to bring a set of these in for me:
OEM BMW Supplied "Winter Wheels". The only issue again was that the set of wheels was nearly R12k, the Tyres a further R15k and I was going on a roadtrip in two days and needed a safe set of tyres.....
The specialist I had the car at suggested an interim tyre choice, to keep the car safe on the road until my savings and ambitions could be met.
PowerTrac Tyres, including fitment of 2 new control arms for R6500.00 aligned and balanced. I was expecting them to be horrific - R1k per tyre should be shockingly crap but so far I am beyond pleased - The brand has made massive inways in the 4x4 world with their dedicated all terrains and muds.
They are, given they have done about 15 000k including tons of off road and being deflated to .8 bar fairly often for sand, showing signs of uneven wear on the fronts, which is a result of the lift kit. The rears still look brand new.
Just to add, the other reason for the premature failure of the original Pirelli was because Paarlberg BMW put a used set of tyres on the car, not new as I requested, and of the 4 tyres three had different manufacture dates to the tyre that ate itself, which was a 4 year old tyre.
Hope that answers your question. :=):
Edit to add, I still plan to go the Steel Wheel Geolander Route, just had to spend my cash elsewhere but counting the km down.
Dirtydeedsman
Active member
Just fixed that for you there, no need to thank me :thumbs:
SMRTARSX1 said:
AlexYannoulatos
///Member
Awesome write up man, have always enjoyed your instagram posts!
Issues getting images to link...brbAlright! Update time.
So first up, what the car was designed for, beautiful scenic trips! We had lunch in Philadelphia which was lovely, as was the drive, nicely planned to explore a few dirt roads.
Thereafter we had a minor incident with the X1. Parked at an event at the school down the road I was aware of some tall grass in front of me. So before:
And then after...
I was in a rush to leave and with a que of people behind me and nobody willing to let me reverse out I did what any BMW driving smart arse would do, and I went forward, I mean its my X1, some grass wont kill it.... Yeah, but a slab of concrete hidden in the grass might.
I was fairly annoyed, we walked straight through the grass to get to the car on the same route I took to go out, guess its school fees and a bit of arrogance.
So that had to be solved and given my MINI was in storage at a clients house I was left with a car with its bumper dragging on the ground. Ever eager to learn I shot down to nancefield and returned with fibre matting, some resin, hardener and some masking tape.
Bumper off! This takes me less than 10 minutes these days:
Masked back together:
Resin and Matting in process:
I ended up doing three layers with curing time of 2 hours in between, then proceeded to remove the masking tape and voila!
In between, the car hit 110 000km, with a smile.
And a friend sent me this picture he found, after collecting his mommy wagon from Merc... This is how I drove the car around in the drought. Again, all praise to the Gyeon Ceramic Coating for protecting the goods. We were at Merc buying a car, which is a LONG story.
I also decided the straight pipe exhaust was starting to be a bit much. I loved the noise, there was never any drone or resonance but when the second turbo kicked in the sound is best described as "BRAAAAPPP" and that wasn't very classy, especially in town, setting alarms off.
I opted to keep my standard boxes when we did the exhaust and given I hated every tip we ever fitted to the car this was the obvious choice:
This was refitted to the car by Powerflow (R400 later) and the difference in sound is superb, its still throaty and turbo still whistles but its much much more refined and the car feels better for it too.
.....
I hated how it looked so a wire brush sessions, some taping up and high heat black:
Its since gone dark black by the way.
From there, a few nights ago I went to fetch our MINI from its hibernation spot, quick Seattle Coffee stop with friends (we do this, just random in the middle of the night coffee meetups with friends, be it Claremont or V&A or Durbanville).
On the way home a drunk driver swerved into my fiancé's lane... He reacted by slamming on the brakes and swerving which brought the cars arse around (they were mid corner at about 80) and the bum of the car lightly grazed the metal armco.... Given this is a popular means to hijack cars these days and that the bakkie immediately took the Brooklyn off ramp, I advised my love to take the high road and just come home.
He was okay, the car was okay and the scratches 90% polished out. Lucky!
Other than that, I gave the car a bit of detailing love, a layer of SRP and cleaned the leather as I am a bit OCD about shiny leather.
Next bit of work will be to remove the rear bumper inlay (its plastic welded in from the factory) and get rid of the patchy paint, then when I have a moment, drop the front bumper to be sprayed... Again.
This time I think a new of arch liners can go in instead of the repaired ones I keep recycling.
And thats all for today! Enjoy.
So first up, what the car was designed for, beautiful scenic trips! We had lunch in Philadelphia which was lovely, as was the drive, nicely planned to explore a few dirt roads.
Thereafter we had a minor incident with the X1. Parked at an event at the school down the road I was aware of some tall grass in front of me. So before:
And then after...
I was in a rush to leave and with a que of people behind me and nobody willing to let me reverse out I did what any BMW driving smart arse would do, and I went forward, I mean its my X1, some grass wont kill it.... Yeah, but a slab of concrete hidden in the grass might.
I was fairly annoyed, we walked straight through the grass to get to the car on the same route I took to go out, guess its school fees and a bit of arrogance.
So that had to be solved and given my MINI was in storage at a clients house I was left with a car with its bumper dragging on the ground. Ever eager to learn I shot down to nancefield and returned with fibre matting, some resin, hardener and some masking tape.
Bumper off! This takes me less than 10 minutes these days:
Masked back together:
Resin and Matting in process:
I ended up doing three layers with curing time of 2 hours in between, then proceeded to remove the masking tape and voila!
In between, the car hit 110 000km, with a smile.
And a friend sent me this picture he found, after collecting his mommy wagon from Merc... This is how I drove the car around in the drought. Again, all praise to the Gyeon Ceramic Coating for protecting the goods. We were at Merc buying a car, which is a LONG story.
I also decided the straight pipe exhaust was starting to be a bit much. I loved the noise, there was never any drone or resonance but when the second turbo kicked in the sound is best described as "BRAAAAPPP" and that wasn't very classy, especially in town, setting alarms off.
I opted to keep my standard boxes when we did the exhaust and given I hated every tip we ever fitted to the car this was the obvious choice:
This was refitted to the car by Powerflow (R400 later) and the difference in sound is superb, its still throaty and turbo still whistles but its much much more refined and the car feels better for it too.
.....
I hated how it looked so a wire brush sessions, some taping up and high heat black:
Its since gone dark black by the way.
From there, a few nights ago I went to fetch our MINI from its hibernation spot, quick Seattle Coffee stop with friends (we do this, just random in the middle of the night coffee meetups with friends, be it Claremont or V&A or Durbanville).
On the way home a drunk driver swerved into my fiancé's lane... He reacted by slamming on the brakes and swerving which brought the cars arse around (they were mid corner at about 80) and the bum of the car lightly grazed the metal armco.... Given this is a popular means to hijack cars these days and that the bakkie immediately took the Brooklyn off ramp, I advised my love to take the high road and just come home.
He was okay, the car was okay and the scratches 90% polished out. Lucky!
Other than that, I gave the car a bit of detailing love, a layer of SRP and cleaned the leather as I am a bit OCD about shiny leather.
Next bit of work will be to remove the rear bumper inlay (its plastic welded in from the factory) and get rid of the patchy paint, then when I have a moment, drop the front bumper to be sprayed... Again.
This time I think a new of arch liners can go in instead of the repaired ones I keep recycling.
And thats all for today! Enjoy.
To add, if anyone knows an M-Sport X1 Front Bumper for sale anywhere do tell, I missed out on a perfect one a few weeks ago, I really want this bumper gone (hence the patchwork to keep it going).
The engine cover plastics secures the arch liners which secures the front of the bumper which secures the arch trim which stops the metal plating under the car from shaking and and and.... So you cant replace one without doing them all together. I am dying to have it all fitted, given its sitting in the garage in its boxes.
Worst case, I must suck it up and order a M-Sport Bumper from BMW. The cars use will be restricted to light trails and road trips from here on so I am confident in finally fitting the parts I have been collecting.
The engine cover plastics secures the arch liners which secures the front of the bumper which secures the arch trim which stops the metal plating under the car from shaking and and and.... So you cant replace one without doing them all together. I am dying to have it all fitted, given its sitting in the garage in its boxes.
Worst case, I must suck it up and order a M-Sport Bumper from BMW. The cars use will be restricted to light trails and road trips from here on so I am confident in finally fitting the parts I have been collecting.
What a cool write up :bravo:
When these X1's first came out, i thought theu were hideous.
Then i bought my 320D and fell in love with the engine, chassis etc.
Then when browsing at the small suv's i came across the X1 23D.
After some research, i found they are actually a total underrated and almost unknown 2nd hand gems. i didn't even know we got this motor here.
Love your adventures with, and look forward to seeing more
raise::chef:
When these X1's first came out, i thought theu were hideous.
Then i bought my 320D and fell in love with the engine, chassis etc.
Then when browsing at the small suv's i came across the X1 23D.
After some research, i found they are actually a total underrated and almost unknown 2nd hand gems. i didn't even know we got this motor here.
Love your adventures with, and look forward to seeing more
raise::chef:
