BMW X3 Tuning

"Tuning guide to the most effective BMW X3 modifications."

The X3 is a really good project car to do which responds well to mods. The key to X3 tuning is doing it right - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

The X3 was originally designed by BMW in conjunction with Magna Steyr of Graz, Austria, and opened a new market for BMW.

Thankfully it was very well received and went on to be a great seller for BMW.

Turning our attention to the X3's engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Engine Tuning.

This list of the stages and sports mods are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.

Getting the right modified upgrades for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport mods just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

• First generation (E83; 2003–2010) Shared the 3 series platform. 2005 saw a facelift to the model 
• Second generation (F25; 2011–2017) All models came with xDrive and there was an update in 2014 with facelift.
• Third generation (G01; 2018–present) Shares much of the tech from the G30 5 series adn was almost 60kg lighter than the previous model.

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Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Remap, Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm).

Stage 2 mods: high flow fuel injector, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, Power/Sport clutch.

Stage 3 mods: Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Engine balancing, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Sports gearbox, Competition cam.

You should keep as much low end torque as possible and aim to achieve a long power band rather than a narrow top end power hike.

The point of our tips is to give a limited introduction of customizing upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best sport upgrades and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road cam will be one of the best NASP power mods you can do mechanically to your engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust flow and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a reflashed ECU. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to pay attention to the fuelling.

If you find you suffer from flat spots and surges after your tuning parts you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. To get sufficient fuel you may need to increase the injectors on your engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Please note that WE DO NOT FIND IMPROVEMENTS WITH INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car massively and are finding that the standard air intake has become the bottleneck.

Derestricting the airflow into the engine is the primary part of car tuners so get a better flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean only if you find the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound sporty but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not do much to increase power and often rob you of power.

Do not go with the widest exhaust you can get this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

flowed (porting and polishing) the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools Your clutch can slip as you increase the power if it starts to break and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 46%. Fit a performance clutch to avoid power leak through the transmission. The best mods in our experience for your X3 are Remapping or piggy back ecu, fast road cam and air intake and exhaust.

Turbo engines are just pleading to be flashed. You will see large power gains on most modern turbo engined cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and large modifications for your money.Adding forced induction will see massive power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Superchargers are generally easier to add than a turbo. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it difficult to map fuelling with.

Superchargers however will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is easier to map. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many X3 owners uprate the handling of their cars with coilover suspension kits as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you X3 usually enhancing your drive.

We suggest that you fit performance suspension and lower the car by 30mm - 35 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with motorsport suspension.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloys include lowering your unsprung weight and better brake cooling. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of directional tread pattern tire. It is worth noting that although they can look cool on the X3 big alloys will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

Due to this we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 18 or possibly 19 inches, although we know some of our members have with bigger wheels with no problems.

There is a more updated version of this X3 Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss X3 options in more detail with our X3 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased BMW tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered. We really do love seeing our visitors car projects and which mods work best for them, this site is very much a community effort, and we remind our visitors of our non profit non commercial approach to running this site. All of your comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually revised, tweaked and updated.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under BMW. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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