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My BMW M340i completes 2 years: Multiple cosmetic & hardware upgrades

2nd April 2023, 11:15 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

With the new downpipe, the car feels a lot less restricted and sounds fantastic too.

BHPian robimahanta recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

2 year/18XXX kms update : M340i

The M340i completed 2 years a few days back and it has been a great journey so far. After I got the Thar, I haven't been driving the M340i much, hoping to munch some miles this year.

I did the 2nd year oil/filter service at BMW and it was pretty quick and professional. They updated the built-in navigation maps for free and did a free wash and vacuum too. Overall quite impressed with BMW's service over the last few years (both with the 328 and the 340).

Latest Map version

Washed and parked next to an i4 after service

Cosmetic updates

I got the M style carbon fibre mirror caps. But it was a mismatch with the cerium grey grill surround and the lower bumper panels. So got a new black grill and bumper panels. I didn't want to mess around with the stock set.

Got the grill and the bumper panel hydro dipped in a dark carbon fibre look. The finish is reasonably good and you cannot find any difference between the mirror caps and the grill/panel unless you look at it really closely.

The M style Carbon fibre mirror caps

The black grill

The lower bumper trim in black

Hydro-dipped the grill surround and the panels

Final look of the car after installing the cosmetic bits

The CF Eventuri intake gel well with the grill and panels

Hardware upgrade

Active Autowerke (AA) Catted Downpipe

I wanted the Active Autowerke Catted (400 Cell GESI UHO series) downpipe as I didn't quite like the harsh sound of the decatted downpipes. Also, the weird smells and boost creep of decatted downpipes are not something anyone would desire, moreover it would throw a CEL and I did not want to tune (unlock dme) the car.

AA Downpipe

Comparing with the stock downpipe. It is one kilo lighter (3.8kg) and has a narrower midsection. Fantastic build quality and extremely simple plug-and-play.

The car does feel a lot less restricted and sounds fantastic. In comfort mode, it is as quiet as stock. Together with the M performance exhaust, the car feels like a different animal in Sports mode now.

Further details about the downpipe.

CSF Heat exchanger

With our weather conditions, more efficient cooling is always welcome. I got the CSF heat exchanger which has great reviews and significantly reduces intake air temperatures (IAT) and achieves much faster heat soak recovery (not just on the track but also on our hot and humid day-to-day drives). The best thing is that it is again a drop-in installation without much fuss.

Details about the heat exchanger.

I got the coolant from BMW and it is nice that BMW made the process of coolant bleeding so easy in their cars.

The CSF heat exchanger