Back in a '98 - Aitch's BMW 750iL

[Aitch]

Nice classic BMW.

Btw, do you miss Ferrand Drive? lololol

The only thing I miss about Toronto is family and the lack of dust constantly settling on my car. That golden California sun? Its because of dust.

[Aitch]

As mentioned earlier in this thread, I deleted my rear mufflers last year. The sound was pretty decent - a bit more bass, and a mild roar when accelerating into the upper rev range.


However there's been lots of buzz (heh) among E38 owners recently about installing an X-pipe in place of the factory resonator (which is itself a sort of x-pipe; the two exhaust pipes are perforated inside of the resonator). I bit the bullet and purchased a stamped X-pipe from Amazon in the stock exhaust diameter; my thinking was that by not going to a larger diameter I'd avoid too much bass in the exhaust. I really wanted the high-end wail of the V12 to come through, without too much booming on the low end.


Well, I got the wail, but there is some low-end drone/resonance on cold start-ups and while driving at low speeds around 2000 rpms. I put together a bit of video showing me driving around this morning, along with a couple of full-throttle pulls towards the end. (Excuse my squeaky steering wheel clockspring). I think it was partially due to the exhaust dumping underneath the trunk, from where I'd cut off the stock mufflers originally. When the x-pipe was installed I didn't have them extend the piping back to the bumper (didn't think it was necessary at first).





(Click to 2:05 if you want to hear it from outside the car)


After recording this video, I went back to the exhaust shop and had them extend the pipes to the back bumper with 30-degree downturns. Didn't want to cut the bumper for exhaust tips as it would tear the vinyl. There is still a bit of a drone/boom around 2000rpms, but it is reduced from before and you can hold a reasonable conversation in the car again. The drone wasn't unbearable before, but it was louder than I wanted.

[CH0SiiN1]

Nice crisp sound, even better now if it's how you want it (less drone)

[Aitch]

I ordered a new leather steering wheel wrap off of eBay. They only recently came out with the version for the 3-spoke M-Sport wheel, I know, I've been looking for 6 months lol. Perfect timing for Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised with the box it arrived in, with good instructions, double-sided tape to help installation, and the thread and needle all included.














Nicely labeled as well:



My existing wheel was ok, but the leather surface had delaminated.








I could have gone tri-color stitching with some foresight, but I wasn't sure how it would turn out and how easily I could do nice stitches, so I went all red. This way any mistakes aren't as glaring.





Overall it came out very nicely. It was REALLY tight to stretch over the wheel, to the point I think they could have a bit more material in there and it would still be fine. The edges on the side spokes are tricky to align and here too a bit more material would have been useful. But for $50 and my own time, I'm happy vs. what it would have cost a shop to do.

[Default User]

That looks amazing
Would heating the material help with stretch?

[PoSaiDoN]

That quality of the pictures

Loving this build !!! Thank you for taking the time to share all of this with us. I remember when you bagged your 2nd gen mazda3. We gettin old


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