BMW and M Power Owners

Associate
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2 Jan 2009
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The fact it's a 330d is irrelevant to the price. For whatever reason BMW have seen fit to equip cars fitted with M Sport Plus package with absolutely insanely over specified brakes which are as good as those you'll find on far more exotic machinery.

Particularly amusing when you consider they are fitted to many 320d too :D

All that matters now is looks and they look proper wicked innit.
I think this is a good problem to have though.
For what is worth, there are two version of front M sport blue calipers, the 6 cylinders get the 370mm discs (same size as F series M3/4) and the 4 cylinders get 340mm discs (same size as the 334/340 F series which come with the gray standard Brembo 4 pot calipers). Pads are interchangeable on all, including M3/M4 although they are a different compound.

After having such brakes on my F30 330D, I did find the stock brakes on my A4 B8 rather inadequate, and the newly replaced discs + pads (345mm) were quite poor on my e92 335D.
Managed to convert ny current 335 to the 340mm Brembo 4 pots (they bolt right up and yes, disc prices vary wildly!) and the difference is night and day. I don't care about what other people say, it is just signficantly more balanced, predictable and stable when braking at at 50+mph, whereas the standard sliding calipers can have a rather unpredictable initial bite. I've had a proper brown trouser moment in Germany a few months ago where I was reminded that they are nowhere near as good at speed, they were upgraded within a few weeks!
 
Associate
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21 Jun 2004
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What do people think of:
https://usedcars.bmw.co.uk/vehicle/201903266296135?location=London, UK&quoteref=3d5d3c4f-0d05-4f21-be3b-5d83de033753 ?

I have no experience with Lister BMW. Anyone heard anything good or bad?

It is a 2.5hr round trip to view, is it possible to buy and drive away the same day? I could complete insurance and tax on a phone or laptop there.

I’m also guessing like OPC my warranty is national so just would need to make sure wheels/body work/interior need no tidying before purchase.
 
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Man of Honour
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I have never been able to collect a car same day - they always seem to need to do a week or so of random faffing after concluding any deal.

The warranty is national - I would be keen to negotiate a second year on that car as it will cost you circa £850 to renew it.

That car has Icon LED lights - these are exceptionally rare on the F10/F11. I've only ever seen a handful of cars with them fitted, very nice find.
 
Man of Honour
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The ICON LED lights are in reflector housings and not a patch on the older adaptive Xenons.

Interesting. They are so rare I've never tried them but there is no difference in performance between the pre and post LCI Adaptive Xenons in the F10 and surely given the £1200+ cost over the Xenon options the LED lights represented they must be better?

That said, my experience of the LED headlights in the F30 - also in a reflector housing - was very poor. By complete contrast the LED lights in our Mini, in a projector housing, are like portable suns, so you may be onto something.
 
Soldato
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10 Oct 2006
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3,571
I think this is a good problem to have though.
For what is worth, there are two version of front M sport blue calipers, the 6 cylinders get the 370mm discs (same size as F series M3/4) and the 4 cylinders get 340mm discs (same size as the 334/340 F series which come with the gray standard Brembo 4 pot calipers). Pads are interchangeable on all, including M3/M4 although they are a different compound.

M3/4 has bigger discs 380mm on the front and 370mm on the rear
 
Soldato
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Interesting. They are so rare I've never tried them but there is no difference in performance between the pre and post LCI Adaptive Xenons in the F10 and surely given the £1200+ cost over the Xenon options the LED lights represented they must be better?

That said, my experience of the LED headlights in the F30 - also in a reflector housing - was very poor. By complete contrast the LED lights in our Mini, in a projector housing, are like portable suns, so you may be onto something.

It’s the same adaptive setup as the 3 Series also on the X5. Strange decision to go to reflector housings even the G30/31 with the adaptive LED headlights has a reflector in the lower half of the light unit.

I personally think the Xenon setup is better.

My wife’s Mini has adaptive LED headlights and they are very bright better than the Xenons or LEDs on the 3/5 series. One downside is the adaptive fuction is too slow on hilly back roads.
 
Man of Honour
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It’s the same adaptive setup as the 3 Series

Thats good news, I feel less irritated that I have the Xenon's now. The Adaptive Xenons in the LCI F10 even do the cool beam splitting thing, too.

My wife’s Mini has adaptive LED headlights and they are very bright better than the Xenons or LEDs on the 3/5 series.

Yup, same experience here. They are too good IMHO, constantly get people flashing headlights at us.
 
Soldato
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Yup, same experience here. They are too good IMHO, constantly get people flashing headlights at us.
I think the problem with projector housed LED headlights is the beam cutoff can be extreme, with virtually no light spill upwards and so they can appear to be 'too low' - a common complaint on the Skoda forums when the Octavia facelift got LEDs instead of Xenons. Maybe Mini have compensated by either aiming the beam a bit too high or purposefully allowing some spill that's causing people to flash?

The Mini lights are horrendous to drive towards imo, though I don't bother flashing anymore as they're all like it, so it's clearly not something the driver is able to sort out from the seat.
 
Man of Honour
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17 Oct 2002
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It seems to be popular opinion that LED > Xenon but it seems to be that the benefits are all around power consumption not necessarily light performance?

For me a proper adaptive high beam setup is what makes the difference rather than whether the system is LED or Xenon.
 
Associate
Joined
21 Jun 2004
Posts
1,607
What do people think of:
https://usedcars.bmw.co.uk/vehicle/201903266296135?location=London, UK&quoteref=3d5d3c4f-0d05-4f21-be3b-5d83de033753 ?

I have no experience with Lister BMW. Anyone heard anything good or bad?

It is a 2.5hr round trip to view, is it possible to buy and drive away the same day? I could complete insurance and tax on a phone or laptop there.

I’m also guessing like OPC my warranty is national so just would need to make sure wheels/body work/interior need no tidying before purchase.

Unfortunately already sold. Will need to keep looking.
 
Associate
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31 Mar 2010
Posts
1,522
Location
Lancashire
+1 on the above RE: Led Vs Xenon. Find it odd that BMW seem to be using reflectors on a lot of the range for LED headlights, when reflector units seem inferior to projector units regardless of light source. Didn't the 1 series LCI even get LED projectors?
 
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