so i bought this 996 turbo car about 4 weeks ago now.first thing i did was have someone make straight pipes for me. they soundGREAT! also cost me about $475 and they look a lot better than the $1300 AWEones.

i put some ebay 90 deg bend o2 spacers on it and nocodes. its been over 700 miles now and nothing. kinda happy about that seeingthat i didnt think it would work.

anyways..... i had my bachelor party this weekend and wedrove to NJ for waterfest and then to AC. my buddies were driving with me andone of the has a 135i with the n54 motor (twin turbo). it has a cobb stage 3tune, intakes, intercooler, downpipes, and an exhaust. now he tuned it himselfso hes running a rather aggressive map and 100% e85. so the car makes about430whp and about 470tq. its quick!

so we did a pull from 3rd and he was pulling on me everso slightly, shifted and we were about even then we let off. now my mods are asfollows, k&n, diverter valves, straight pipes and REVO 93 octane tune. ithought for sure i would have walked him but guess not :/

now on to driving and the transition. so driving about700 miles this weekend in and out of traffic ive noticed a few things. shiftingout of second gear can be harsh. not really sure why. its like you press in theclutch and sometimes the car like jumps or almost bangs. now mind u im nottalking about racing or shifting fast, just daily driving it. and it doesntalways happen either. kinda odd to me.

also ive noticed while on the highway, driving and slowlygetting on throttle its like the peddle has stages or steps. hard to explainbut it doesnt seem as smooth as i would have expected. is this due to thewastegates?

the car is great and im still learning but id like tosmooth a few things out and maybe extract some more hp out of her. now food forthought, i just sold my built c5 z06 that made over 900 crank for this car soyes i know, everything will feel slow to me now haha.

 

what kind of power would a car like mine put down? like 420whp?

 

Regarding clutch smoothness and "steps" as you describe, you might want to look into changing out your helper spring. Here's the DIY. Here's the link to the spring from Home Depot. The mounting geometry is such that it goes from giving you resistance, to assisting you in depressing the clutch at about the halfway point. Might be what you're feeling.

The jumping or banging in second gear though? That sounds like something else altogether. I'd look into it further because it doesn't sound normal to me.

And congrats on your upcoming wedding!

-V

 

its almost like sometimes disengageing the clutch while in second gear, its not very smooth. also doesnt happen everytime. i thought maybe it was me and my shifting haha. ive stayed in throttle, let off throttle and pressed in the clutch while getting off the gas simultaneously. nothing seems to make a difference. and again it doesnt happen everytime.

 

Your clutch might be slipping. I know that when my clutch was slipping it was a pretty violent shake coming from the rear but I have an aftermarket sachs stage III.

 

not slippling. she holds under load just fine.

 

Hey Deadbeatrec, have any pics of your straight pipes? Just curious! Thanks. And those 3.5TT's in the beamer can be modded fairly easily to be pretty strong so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Good luck on figuring on the shifting/engagement issue!
S

 

i will take a few pics tonight.

and its a 3.0 but yea they are stout!

 

with all this said............... x50 upgrade, worth it or not?

now im a little confused. the x50 came with the k24's? what are the k16 hybrids?

 

How many miles are on yours? Any chance it could be coil packs and plugs and/or the MAF? If it's not something related to power production then I would highly recommend looking at your transmission mount (as well as motor mounts).

Mine exhibited similar symptoms and my transmission mount was shot. My car is also a tiptronic though. Currently I'm getting a little bit of a hesitation/stumble, and had a little bit of breakup under WOT so I'm going to replace plugs/coils/maf/fuel filter (car just turned 45k miles, so I might as well do it right for piece of mind). Not sure if it's related at all or not, but when "coasting" (tiptronic) downhill around 2000rpm in 2nd gear when the car is cold my car feels like it goes from engine braking to not engine braking and cycles between the two. Audible change as well as minor RPM change as well. Hopefully that's related, because I just noticed it and it worries me.

What's the automotive equivalent of a hypochondriac??





regarding your question on k24s - does your car have the X50 from the factory (and thus have the k24s?). If you don't already have them, I'd save the money and talk to some of our great vendors about their K16 billet packages. I know 911tuning and EPL were running some pretty good specials back at the beginning of spring, so those are the first two that come to mind.

 

But arnt billet k16's smaller than k24's and make less power?

 

Adding to what MBH said, a billet K16 car will be STRONG, easy on wallet and easily take down the friends 135i. I just sold my EPL-tuned billet K16 car and it will be missed. Freakin' fast for little *** K16s... I beat a lot of stuff including bikes.

 

Ok but..... Will k24's make more power? I don't mind losing power down low for more up top. In fact I prefer it

 

I wouldn't worry too much about a heavily tuned N54 gaining a bit on you. Whereas your Metzger has a pretty mild tune, the N54 is working very hard and likely won't be reliable in the long run. Anyone can make a car quick. Making a car quick and reliable is really what's important.

 

Where in ny are you and who did your straight pipes, pics and videos would be great.
In mine 1st to second shifts seem to be the most noticeable but not to the extent that you mention. Also if you could link to where u got the o2 extenders, I just installed a catless exhaust and now throwing codes p0132, p0152 which is for the fronts even tho I installed these mini cats.

Thanks