[Kevin_The_Clean1]

That IND front painted piece makes the M2 look much nicer IMO.

[Mr. Hankey]

Originally Posted by Kevin_The_Clean1

That IND front painted piece makes the M2 look much nicer IMO.

Agreed, simple cosmetic thing but completely worth it IMO. Otherwise that black section looks set back in the bumper, sort of featureless, and the IND painted section tones down/connects the blocks on either side, granted I didn't mind those before, but like it more now. The part looks expensive from IND but appears they double masked it - painting it black then adding the color. Which is a lot of work so the price seems like a deal to me now! Still 1/2 the price of the cheapest lip, I would 100% do this again.

[Mr. Hankey]

IND Painted Center Front Section (V1), Center Mesh Install









I Installed the IND painted center section. I am VERY pleased with how this looks and it really ties together the front of the car for me, especially as I am not going to run a front lip on this car (for that reason it’s a deal!). Paint and color match on this is excellent and OEM level, as you would expect from IND. I installed this before having the front of the car wrapped so that the painted section is now wrapped as well.

At the same time I made and installed a custom cut lower central mesh to protect the radiator. It is the following: Small Diamond Grill Mesh Sheet - Gloss Black. They have a lot of options online with other materials, worth a look if you're interested in making your own center mesh. Sure there are cheaper options out there but I like the look of this and it is high quality. If this type of mesh is good enough for the Porsche GT3, it's good enough for the M2.


Removing Center Section:
Here is the IND front center section. Note there are four 10 mm bolts along the bottom and 2 locking push pins on the bottom sides. If you’ve never removed these before, first remove the locking pin, then pull out the remaining push pin. IND has a good video of the install and how to deal with the parking sensors here: IND Front Center Section Install Guide

Pin Removal: Remove the locking pin


Then remove the push-pin.


There are then 8 locking tabs between the top of the center section and the bumper cover, circled. I found using the Y-shaped prybar and pushing straight in worked the best. Mask off the bumper cover before doing this, you can see even then there is some minor trauma to the tape. But the paint remained unscathed.



This is the tool and how I used it to unlock the 8 tabs. Easier if you start with the tabs at one side and work your way tab by tab to the other side, I went left to right but you can be a rebel and go right to left haha:



NOTE: Why won’t the center section just pop off now??? Along the left and right bottom of the center section are 2 tabs. So once all the bolts, push-pins, and 8 tabs are undone you scratch your head wondering why the thing is still really stuck onto the car, yes it is those 2 left and right bottom tabs holding it in. I used a smaller plastic prybar and once one was undone it just came off.

OK now we’re in business!




Mesh/Radiator protection Installation:
Next I mocked up the size of mesh piece I would need and see how it fit. There is a rubber seal all around this area pushed up against the bumper cover (grey section), so it’s easy to wedge something in there.

Overall size of the insert I made 6.5" tall, and 22-3/4 long, although 23" would have been fine. I think 6-3/4” tall would also have been fine, so there is some margin for error if your cut isn’t exactly square.

Then I cut the mesh ( Small Diamond Grill Mesh Sheet - Gloss Black ) – I had a 12x48” piece of mesh and used the cardboard to tape off my measurements on the mesh. Used a Milwaukee 3” cutting wheel to make the cuts, although tin snips would work they might bend the mesh around the edges on the long cut. I then smoothed the edges off reasonably by trimming back some of the “snaggle” ends that were sticking out and smoothing the rest off with a die-grinder. Optional step is to black paint the exposed metal section from the cuts around the edge – on mine some silver was visible in 1 corner, so paint eliminated that (used Eastwood Chassis Black gloss Paint).

Cardboard Mock-up:


Mesh Sheet:


Template on the sheet with planned cuts taped off:


Next the mesh simply slides into position (I went left to right as you can see):


This was the first attempt and I was happy with this:


I then looked at it for a while and decided to attach with zip-ties. Here is it attached with nine 18-pound zip ties (the really small ones). Zip ties are not visible at all, even if you know they are there and go looking for them - completely behind everything, and I seriously dislike zip ties on cars, so the fact they are entirely hidden makes it sort of OK . I just like the look of the mesh behind the center posts. I drilled five 1/8" holes total--1 into the passenger left side grey central strut and 1 into each corner on the sides. The other 4 zip ties are at the tops and bottoms of each of the 2 posts. 9 Zip-ties total, 5 drilled holes. I think this now qualifies me as a plastic surgeon .

CENTER SECTION: Zip tied top and bottom to the struts under the black center piece to the mesh. These 4 go completely around and over the grey central struts. The "body" of the zip ties sticks out on these and I was worried they would be too big but when covering with the black center piece it didn't make contact with them:



I also put a zip tie on the passenger side strut by drilling a 1/8" hole and the body of the zip tie is inside that post as that side has the 1 inch indent presumably for the cruise control module which I don't have):



And here is the body of that zip tie, really the only one “visible” now if you really look for it:


Passenger and Driver side attached at all 4 corners. Drilled 1/8" holes and ran the zip ties from the brake duct side of things so the body of the zip tie is behind everything. So overall the insert is 6.5" tall, and 22-3/4 long, although 23" would have been fine. It is held in place by 9 zip ties.





Here is where the body of the zip tie is located on the 4 corners, well hidden:



No zip ties are visible (but at least 9 were harmed for this ). This mesh is very secure. Looks great, I’m very happy with this entire mod.


Brake Ducts: Wow! BMW built brake ducts into the front of this car! What a great surprise...Have to love them. Now I know why the dust goes everywhere .

Initially I was thinking I would cover the 2 ports on either side of the radiator intake. Wasn't sure if they were accessory radiator tunnels but turns out they are brake ducts going straight to the wheel wells, right through the slats everybody's tires rub on (haha made a funny, but troof ). For this reason I'm leaving them uncovered. I want as much air diverted through those as possible. They are easy enough to clean out. They will stay open. I haven't decided if I will cover the accessory inlets in the "cubes" yet.

[BroDoze]

Awesome post ^^

[Mr. Hankey]

Originally Posted by BroDoze

Awesome post ^^

Thank you. I had bookmarked all the posts I could find on taking the front center off while in "nesting mode" and think added a few more details that others didn't include. The biggest one being those 2 accessory tabs on the left and right bottom that seems to have caught some up forcing them to take the entire bumper cover off.

Obviously if any questions from anyone, just ping me!

Picked the car up today from tint and wrap. 20% rear, 40 front, comes in at 37% combined in the front and my state is a 35% state. Having had to take tint off of front windows many years ago on another car, just keeping it legal. Too old for that shi....errr...hassle now .

[Mr. Hankey]

canDO+ Install

https://cando.plus

I installed the canDO+ controller last weekend and have just started to play around with it. It is a very interesting device that essentially allows you to build "macros" of settings that will be activated given a condition - such a pressing an assigned button on the steering wheel, center console, or simply starting the car. At its simplest it will set the car to whatever you want your normal driving settings to be and turn on the M-sport displays at the same time, just by starting the car - saving a bunch of clicks. Or assign that macro to the M buttons.

But it seems the limits of the device are that it can control just about anything that has a setting in iDrive 8. I'm fine with it just setting my drive mode and turning on M-sport displays, but theoretically it could also turn on your seat heater along with turning on the steering wheel heater (yes I'm a snowflake in a cold climate ). Can also set your traction control mode. Regardless I love this sort of thing--so sign me up!

It plugs into the CAN bus and the easiest access point for that is from the iDrive controller in the center dash. It comes with a Y-adapter that makes the canDO+ the end of the daisy chain if you will. So here's how I installed it in the manual:


1. If your car is a manual, put it in neutral so there is space to lift that section up once free (use your parking brake!). Lift up on the USB-C port in the center console, it will pop up left and right at the bottom




2. Pull back on that same panel where it meets the dash, there is a clip left and right, they just pull out.




3. Use a plastic prybar under the tabs where the previous panel's clips inserted and this will disengage the clips holding the center section down, pry the left and the right side so it is popped up on both sides.




4. Pull up in this location left and right and the entire panel will pop up. I didn't remove the manual boot, but you can.




5. And it's separated. I love how this car can't be turned off. has a mind of its own it seems.




6. CAN bus attachment is circled and is purple. I thought this had some kind of locking mechanism but it doesn't. It is just a really tough connector to get out. Some needle nose and wiggling eventually won.




7. Here is the CAN bus plug. A little beaten up but not too badly. Red is positive power, Brown is ground. This matters because I wanted to install a switch so I can turn it off. Not sure if the communication wires can act as a ground, so planned on using the red wire (which lined up with the yellow wire in the canDO+ harness, you color may vary).




8. Here is the Y-adapter that comes with the canDO+. One end goes on the purple CAN bus plug you just removed from iDrive then the other 2 split to the iDrive controller and the canDO+ unit.

I of course can't do anything straightforward so I tapped into the harness so that I could cut power to the unit. I did this with the blue wire and a 2-prong harness connector that is wired to itself as the "switch".




9. What I did was cut the yellow wire (positive) going to the canDO+ unit and spliced/soldered this blue wire in. Rather than use a switch that might accidentally get turned off, I decided on the 2-port harness that clicks together so I would have to physically disconnect something if I want to turn it off. Bimmercode for example says to remove any extraneous equipment from the CAN bus or it can interfere with coding, which means it could also interfere with the dealer trying to run diagnostics on the car (I'm not sure if it does interfere to be fair, this is just my OCD). So for service I can unplug that harness and the canDO+ turns off, I've confirmed this happens.




10. There is a nice deep space just in front of the console on the airbag ecu. I secured it with 3M Dual-lock tape there. Don't want anything vibrating. I also zip-tied the wires together to keep them organized.




11. Installed. There is a little opening in the console that my rudimentary "on-off"; harness fits through. I can connect that end and it tucks inside there out of sight, and can fish the blue loop end out with some pliers when needed (or pop off that panel, very easy to do. And yes I did see that metal clip in there once all together and took it back apart to find the tab it came from).




I tried it out before putting everything together. also tested harness switch on a continuity tester and wiggled it around with no loss in current or flashing of lights, so I know the power going to the canDO+ is solid. I was going to install a nice switch in the console, but figure something will bump it off and this is pretty secure.

[Mr. Hankey]

Brief Overview of canDO+ - what can it do as of 5/18/24?

EDIT: canDO+ Version 1.67 as of 7/7/24 added a lot more functionality, see post #48

OLD INFORMATION BELOW:
Here are events you can associate an action with:




And here is a list of what it can change (there are custom settings you can make as well, these are the baked-in ones for now, but many more have been trickling in with the updates):

[Mr. Hankey]

canDO+ Macros/Associations

canDO+ Version 1.67 as of 7/7/24 added a lot more functionality, see post #48 - but this info below gives you an idea what it can do

I was playing around with the canDO+ module this morning. I figured out how to toggle Gearshift Assist (autoblip) on and off in the canDO+ module. Hopefully this will be added as an association to future software.

In the meantime I setup a startup macro for my car. So every time I get in and start the car up, the canDO+ module will automatically put the car in the following settings, and turns on the M-sport display. It makes all of those changes without me having to do a thing, wonderful!!!



I put the home button press on there so I always start on the same screen. Maybe I will keep that, maybe I won't since I pretty much exclusively use CarPlay. Will have to play around with the M1/M2 button settings as they are now completely freed up.


Coding

I have Bimmercode and coded in B&W sound system and got rid of the warning messages. I also set the passenger sideview mirror to tip only 60% rather than 90% and gave myself red light as an option for the interior which I prefer for the 90's 'retro' BMW look. Nothing earth shattering here. BMW has actually included a lot of things I used to code as options in iDrive now, so I don't need much. B&W Sound profile is a little cleaner I must say than stock. But someone posted EQ settings for the H&K stereo. I'm not sure what thread it was in but I dialed them in yesterday and they are REALLY good. I would have NEVER tuned my settings this way. Make sure you set the Bass and Treble settings on the far left and right first as they 'nudge' the other settings:



My car came with a 2023 version of iDrive and buried in the settings I unchecked "install auto updates" for iDrive. Hopefully this will prevent the car from updating the software on me and making me have to go back in and re-code things, or losing the ability to do so as Bimmercode seems unable to keep up. Maybe it will work maybe it won't, these aren't "must-have" things for me, but they are nice. Well having the side view mirror point directly at the ground isn't cool, wish BMW would add a range into iDrive for that passenger side mirror tipping in reverse - 40-60-90% sort of thing (hint BMW if you're reading this, which you aren't ).

I might also try pro-tools on android and see if I can activate the anti-dazzle high beams 100% as that gives access to the KAFAS module and will enable VO and FDL coding. To be continued...

[ScottyRyan2019]

Great write ups! Very helpful 👍

[murderspice]

By chance, do you have any pictures of the car without either the stock lip nor the painted one on?

[Mr. Hankey]

Originally Posted by murderspice

By chance, do you have any pictures of the car without either the stock lip nor the painted one on?

Yes in this post above, just not pictures from further away (and I think this is what you mean):

Link here: IND Center Section Install

the picture with the tape on the bumper and all the grey in the center is without the stock or the IND center section on. I can check my photo roll and see if I have any pics from further back, but not sure ifI do. If you mean something different let me know as I did take a lot of pictures.

[murderspice]

Originally Posted by Mr. Hankey

Yes in this post above, just not pictures from further away (and I think this is what you mean):

Link here: IND Center Section Install

the picture with the tape on the bumper and all the grey in the center is without the stock or the IND center section on. I can check my photo roll and see if I have any pics from further back, but not sure ifI do. If you mean something different let me know as I did take a lot of pictures.

A pic of the car without this section on. Wondering if other insert designs would work. Or does this just cover the stock scaffolding/louvers/etc?

[Mr. Hankey]

BMW ID is SO ANNOYING

Just a rant.

Car comes with 2 keys. I am the only driver of this car. It is my daily. One key lives in my briefcase, the other stays at home. On workdays easy - grab the man purse and go, key always in it. On weekends and when not traveling for work I use the other key.

This car (unlike other BMWs) does not have the ability to link your BMW ID to both keys, JUST ONE . I discovered this 2 days ago when I smacked my face on the A-pillar and aggravated a herniated disk in my neck because as I was mindlessly getting into the car I didn't notice the seat advancing toward the steering wheel WAY TOO FAR and had to adjust my landing whilst my arse was about to land in the wrong spot (it was all graceful with the athleticism of the wiley antelope I'm sure to the casual observer UNTIL I hit my head on the A-pillar ).

Got in and seats were wrong, seat memories were blank, mirrors wrong, no EQ settings set. Car is running Guest profile. So I assigned the BMW ID to this key in my bag typing in my BMW credentials at red lights while looking at my phone for the 32-random digit password on the account in order to prevent phishing attacks involving ads for "B1G PEN1S P1LLS". Everything then went to normal settings, and no pen1s pill ads, whew...

Then last night I took the other key to go pickup one of my kids from softball and that one is now assigned as guest (had been assigned to my profile before), and same dang thing happens.

Talk to my CA. If both keys are in the car you can go to BMW ID settings and link both keys. EXCEPT YOU CAN'T in the M2, but you can in other BMWs...only 1 key allowed to be assigned at a time in the M2.

So my workaround this weekend is I will start the car with the guest profile. Get all my settings the way I want them. Go and get the other key and unassociate my BMW ID from that key. So I am able to have 2 guest keys. Just can't have 2 keys associated with the owner of the car . dummkopf. Makes zero sense.

All I want is for the car to be predictable in terms of its settings when I get in and drive off....and I have to use 2 keys, just my system. If I start using just 1 key, it ends up somewhere random then I can't find it when trying to go to work....huh don't remember leaving it on the back of the toilet ...I guess I could just show up everywhere with my briefcase. Handcuffed to my wrist might get people thinking...

Ich verstehe nicht BMW. Verrucht.

[Mr. Hankey]

Originally Posted by murderspice

A pic of the car without this section on. Wondering if other insert designs would work. Or does this just cover the stock scaffolding/louvers/etc?

8th picture down in that post I linked is the scaffolding behind that part. There are support beams that run behind the 2 central support beams (the grey ones), those could be cut out and something custom manufactured to fit in there yes.

[Mr. Hankey]

Originally Posted by Mr. Hankey

BMW ID is SO ANNOYING

Update to this
You can't save shortcuts or change/remember any meaningful settings with the guest account, so that didn't work. There has to be a BMW ID selected in order to remember radio EQ settings, shortcuts...etc.

So I set up my wife's BMW ID in the car and assigned that to my other key. Then went through all the settings in the car I could think of and put them in the same as my master key. So at least the seat won't try and randomly squish me now and the car maintains a decent set of settings. I have my seating and mirror positions perfect, so hopefully I can duplicate them between the keys.

And discovered today that one of my windshield washers doesn't work (drivers side of course). So other than the AC not really getting cold, a bad taillight, and no drivers-side windshield washer, the car is great!

BMS Clutch Stop UPDATE
I originally installed the BMS clutch stop with 1 of the 3 provided washers installed. The top of the clutch stop is 1/8 foam rubber and that settled a bit driving the past 2 weeks so I added a second spacer to it today and the clutch stop is PERFECT now. Still love the shifter feel and clutch engagement on this car.

8/31/24 UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: The second spacer settled a bit so I added the 3rd one, it is now perfect again...just go with all 3...so long as your car isn't rolling in 1st or R with the brake off, the clutch is disengaged.

[Mr. Hankey]

Investigated the windshield washer today. These are installed on the wipers themselves. Drivers side had a kink in the tube so was working but at about 10%. Unkinked it and adjusted nozzle at the end of the tube and back in—-well in—business.

Exhaust
Been researching exhausts for this car ever since I ordered it. The F80 sounded like an angry snowblower to me, slightly better with the MPE. I REALLY like the tone of this car compared to the F80, so would like to enhance that tone but keep it about the same. It sounds very familiar to the F80 but just has better tone. Not sure how much of the tone is due to ASD vs the engine and exhaust itself. I don’t want loud. Sounds like a midpipe would be perfect. But I’d prefer not to have cut pipes on it so am more interested in something that has a midpipe and an axle-back, just bolts on and is refined if that exists or makes sense.

If anyone has thought about this please pipe-in (see what I did there?)…

[mtenhoven]

Originally Posted by Mr. Hankey

If anyone has thought about this please pipe-in (see what I did there?)…

Went with IRL midpipe and SST valve controller here with the stock muffler. Opens the exhaust sound up nicely without being over the top. IRL does also make full midpipe through axle back systems too.

[Mr. Hankey]

Originally Posted by mtenhoven

Went with IRL midpipe and SST valve controller here with the stock muffler. Opens the exhaust sound up nicely without being over the top. IRL does also make full midpipe through axle back systems too.

Do you feel the car is substantially louder outside, or do you hear it more inside the car? Or I guess both? Have you tried ASD coded off?

And are the burbles much louder (I like them at their current volume)?

[mtenhoven]

Originally Posted by Mr. Hankey

Do you feel the car is substantially louder outside, or do you hear it more inside the car? Or I guess both? Have you tried ASD coded off?

And are the burbles much louder (I like them at their current volume)?

Both. The burbles are louder when opening the valves 100%, but subtle (close to stock) with them set to the factory setting. I coded ASD off from the first week, so these impressions are without it on. I did go with the non-resonated midpipe as I wasn't interested in changing the OEM muffler. I believe the burbles can also be reduced by having the M exhaust button off. However, I keep it on 100%. It is an M car after all. 😁

[Mr. Hankey]

Ceramic Coating

I had my car wrapped with PPF (Stek) full front, full roof, full rocker panels and in front of the hips in the rear. After that much wrapping for the high impact areas I really wasn't in the mood to shell out another $2000 for ceramic coating. The prep work is the difficult part, putting on the ceramic coating on is the easy part. Obviously you can mess up a ceramic coating and allow it to harden with high-points (which will look like smudges or small bubbles on your clear coat), so you do need to pay attention with application and just take your time. Since the car is new obviously there isn't as much prep. I had Gtechniq Ultra professionally applied to my non-wrapped F80 and it was still going strong at 6 years, so I stuck with their products. Obviously as a mere-mortal I am unable to purchase the ultra and I'm Ok with a product that might need re-application in 2-3-4 years. I'm not sure how well it will bond to the wrap and expect wrapped areas to need re-application more frequently - no science behind this, just a feeling.

So yesterday we had great weather and got her washed, some water marked areas polished, and wiped the whole thing down with CarPro Eraser which removes any residual oils.

I am a fan of Matt at Obsessed Garage and have followed him since the early days. I love that he tries everything and constantly works in new products that he likes into his detailing regimen. I was happy to find that he also likes the Gtechniq products, although there are a lot of great products out there. So based on that I ordered his kit of Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light (prosumer version of their ceramic coating), Exo V5 hydrophobic coating, and Wolffs Ceramic Glass Sealant.

Apply the Ceramic coating first (Crystal Serum) followed by the Exo V5 designed to work with it (instructions say to wait 2 hours between each coating). Then did the windows. Very happy with everything, will be interesting to see how it holds up. If this is an every 2 year thing, totally worth it to me. If it lasts longer, great. I imagine the window coating will be a yearly application, but that is super easy (clean, wipe on and wipe off). Entire process took me 5 hours, but that included washing, and time in-between. That includes ceramic coating the rims, although in my experience this doesn't help with dusting but might help with staining. These newer brake pads are a different level of brake-dust hell compared to the F80...I thought the F80 was bad, BMW you have upped your game!



Also want to give a shout-out to AMMO and their Tire Mud. I think it's the perfect tire dressing. It isn't cheap but a little bit goes a long way. It's a gel and is a semi-gloss. Just makes the tires look clean.



And finally because I think there needs to be a pic, here's the car after the coatings were applied. It looks polished, they do add a nice sheen to the thing, even the Stek looks better:



My passenger side taillight is broken (came from BMW that way) so I also took it apart and disconnected the wiring harness hoping there was a loose connection but no dice, wiggled the wire and connecter as well to see if it was a poor connection...Seems the taillight needs replacement which the dealer has ordered (backordered) OR it is a wiring harness issue somewhere in the system, which would suck. I think it might be a wiring issue because there are times the light works completely normally, as if something is making intermittent connections. We will see.

[canDO_Stef]

Originally Posted by Mr. Hankey

Wheels

930M - Winter Wheels


I will be using the Stock 930M rims for my winter wheels which is what I did with my F80 M3. With the F80 I used the stock 9.5” front and 10.5” rear staggered rims (both front and rear were 19s) on a square set of 275 width winter tires which I rotated tires relative to rims every 2 seasons.

For this car I bought two 930M front rim takeoffs from another member in the marketplace so I can run a square winter setup on the the 9.5" rims using 275/35 r19 Nokian R5s. I will hold onto my rear 10.5" 930Ms just so I have a "stock set" when I eventually sell or trade this car. We don't like them now because they are heavy, but they might be difficult to find in a few years. Buy them now while plentiful and cheap .

Summer Wheels - Apex VS-5RS


I spent a lot of time looking at rim and tire sizes. The main issue obviously is the weight of the stock cast 930Ms. Secondary is adding a bit of wheel width. Third I want to avoid spacers. I looked at all OEM BMW rims but they have complicated designs that will be difficult to clean with the dusting on these cars. They would also require spacers.

Fortunately for us, there are plenty of affordable lightweight forged wheels out there now, and I don’t want to be daily driving a set of $10K rims worrying about them (Had FI-Rs on my F80). The 5-Y design was easy to keep clean.

I extensively researched Apex, Richland Forged, and VT Forged, among others. I’m an OEM+ person and want to use stock BMW center caps because I like that splash of color on the wheel (to the point I even made my own BMW roundels for my the FI-Rs). All fantastic options but ended up with Apex as I don’t want to spend $1600 on new tires right now, will stick with the 19-20” diameter stagger and not have to worry about fitment or rubbing. Their offsets look great, warranty is great, wheel is strong and light and they are track proven. If I decide to change wheel sizes later on and go to a square setup it they should be easy to pass on to someone else. Well, their Spring Sale helped also. Received the rims and they are fabulous, and very light compared to the 2 front 930Ms I have here. I’m very happy with them.

Those wheels are awesome. Great build!

[BroDoze]

Those wheels are.. I’ll be in my bunk.