Magnaflow "California" Replacement Catalytic Converters - for 1995 BMW e36 M3

So after going through the hell that is California SMOG, I thought to share some of my experiences with you guys.

SMOGGING THE CAR
Stock 1995 BMW M3, 188k miles on motor - new plugs, O2 sensor, and newer intake, timing, etc. sensors. Oil, filter and air filter changed. And YES, the cats were HOT... come on guys, I've been on this board 10 years now...

15 mph: HC 123 (max 85), CO .32 (max .50), NO 833 (max 695)
25 mph: HC 50 (max 50), CO .15 (max .47), NO 492 (max 717)

The main issue here is unburnt fuel (HC) and Nitrous Oxide (NO) which sometimes is the temp of the combustion chamber, but if both the HC and NO are high, the catalytic converter isn't working. In my case, it wasn't converting the unburnt fuel molecules, and was just cooking - hence high NO. Think of a bad cat like a hot boiling fuel soup.

MAGNAFLOW
So Magnaflow makes a California SMOG-approved Catalytic converter - part #36004

It's a universal deal, but the fit and finish is good and it welds up nicely. Magaflow retails the Cats for $410.

For reference - BMW will sell you the ENTIRE CAT system for $2300 retail. OEMBMWParts.com (something like that will sell it to you for $1300). Bavarian Autosport sells DAC CAT Systems for $750-ish.

$1300 wasn't bad for a new stock system. But installation and shipping would add an easy $300 to $400 to that price.

The DAC is a good price, but the warranty of two years sucks. We have smog every 2 years so what's the point of that?

After reading some reviews with Magnaflow on other car boards like Honda and Toyota, I pulled the trigger with another muffler shop near me in Dublin CA. (Scott's Minute Muffler - yelp him. Solid 5 star reviews).

Long story short, Scott got me the cats AND installation for $400 ($429 with tax). Yes, I got parts and labor for less than retail!

Ok so +1.

I drove the car for about 5 days to get a few miles on the cats for SMOG. About 250 miles in my case.

Before my SMOG, I did a 20 mile round trip to make sure all systems were warm. I pulled into the smog shop at 3pm. It was about 67 degrees outside.

Here's the results...

15 mph: HC 59 (max 85), CO .06 (max .50), NO 10 (max 695)
25 mph: HC 22 (max 50), CO .02 (max .47), NO 5 (max 717)

The drops are pretty staggering.
1. The HC's dropped in half - obviously the catalytic converting the unburned fuel.
2. The Carbon Monoxide dropped by 500%+
3. The Nitrous Oxide dropped by 500%+

+2

And for the final bonus...
1. 5-year, 50,000-mile external warranty; 25,000-mile internal warranty
2. Cost $410 retail
3. Performance? Put it this way... my highway torque picked up A LOT.
I had to sell my TRM chip, intake, HFM, and injectors to help finance this replacement (got some monster bills this month), but given that my stock cats weren't flowing as well, installing the Magna ones helps make up that feeling of the power I lost.

In short
I'm pretty stoked. I saved an easy $800 over the best price I could find over the stock system, got back some lost power, and passed smog with numbers only new cars see.

Cool Carbon BMW S/T Street Pads - About $250.00 set for BMW M3 applications

Some weeks ago, I had to opportunity to receive a couple sets of test pads from David at Cool Carbon performance. I’m going to do a long-term test on these pads and offer reviews of them.

For the aggressive street and auto-x review, I enlisted the help of Sarah and Anthony Zwain from Edge Motorworks in Dublin. They are a well known husband and wife team that not only share their passion for each other, but also their cars. For the banzai street review, I’ll take point and offer my input on how they do as daily pads with spurts of testosterone on-ramps.

The Zwains installed the pads first and have some initial feedback already (pad comparison versus OEM pads):

Car 1995 BMW M3

1. Installation – Like all other pads.
2. Pedal Feel – Like OEM
3. Stopping Power – COLD, very good, similar to OEM. No surprises. Doesn’t require heat to make them grippier unlike aggressive street or race pads, which demand some heat before offering stopping power.
4. Overall impression first few hundred miles – “We like the pads. The first thing we noticed is that the pads don’t rattle or squeal. Also the low-dust is a welcome feature to help keep our race wheels all shiny. We look forward to trying them out when the spring Auto-X begins. At this point, we’d say they make a great alternative to the stock BMW pads.”

Kenwood KCA-BT300 Bluetooth® adapter for Kenwood receivers

If you are like me, you have a bit of a drive on your hands to get into work. In my case, it’s a drudge of 70 miles from the driveway of my house in Dublin, into the downtown belly of San Francisco.

So with California passing a law making it illegal to drive and use (talk, text, read, etc.) a mobile phone, what are the alternatives out there?

In the past couple of years, I’ve gone through 3 Bluetooth headsets. The first was the cheapest Motorola unit I could find. It barely hung on my ear and was barely loud enough to hear once the car was in motion. The second unit was a Plantronics unit – better design, light, but just didn’t fit right. I finally splurged on the (UGLY) jawbone unit. It sounded great, had “military-grade” technology for noise cancelling… but in the end… still liked to fall off or quit working when the battery died.

Around the time I gave up on Bluetooth headsets I purchased a new Kenwood stereo for my BMW. One of the selling features was a USB port for my iPOD. I used the stereo for about a year when I noticed that it also had Bluetooth plug-in capabilities.

So on my next birthday, I decided to give it a try as I found a refurbished unit on EBAY. For $85, it was a price definitely comparable to another headset.

I ordered the Kenwood KCA-BT300. Kenwood’s been making this unit for about 5 years now with mostly firmware upgrades being the only changes. The unit is fairly simple to behold – a grey box labeled Kenwood and Bluetooth, a cord protruding from it to plug into your stereo, and a microphone cord with a mic on the other end - you know, to talk into.

Installation is fairly simple but does take some planning.

First you got to find a space for the module – I choose under my glovebox in the footwell (secured using 3M double stick tape and 2 small self tapping screws).

Second, you need to fish the lines to where they need to go – I pulled the car’s OBC and accessory box out (comes out with a gentle tug) from the dash and ran the stereo line behind the climate control unit to the stereo. The mic I ran a similar path but snaked it under the steering column and up to the gauge cluster.

Third – pull the receiver deck out and plug in the stereo line.

It sounds daunting, but it’s barely an hour of work and the only special tool is the stereo removal tool (that comes with most stereo decks) and maybe a small screwdriver (for the self taping screws for the module).

The Kenwood stereo deck upon powering on, self-senses the Bluetooth module and will display some sort of ON message. The message varies from model to model of stereo deck. My Kenwood deck is older, so the Bluetooth module resides in the XMEDIA source.

Currently, I have the module synced up to my Apple iPhone 4. Pairing is pretty painless, set the iPhone to look for Bluetooth devices, then confirm when it finds the stereo.

Performance
So here’s the important part. What’s the big benefit other than being hands-free to talk?

1. No more power issues – unlike a Bluetooth headset (when the battery dies, you are back to illegally talking by hand) the module draws power from the stereo/car. So it’s always on when the stereo is on.

2. It plays through your speakers – that stereo you paid $$$$ for is now really being put to good use. And the nice thing is, if there’s too much reverb or bass, you can adjust the speakers accordingly so you get the best sound you can.

3. Truly hands free – when a call comes in, just hit answer on your phone and the call is automatically routed to your Bluetooth module. You don’t have to fumble with switches or knobs to make it work.

Caveats

Some stuff to consider and do…

1. To use this set-up you have to turn your stereo on when you start the car, and make sure your Bluetooth is on with the phone. From there, it automatically pairs up and is ready.

2. Bluetooth can be well, finicky… sometimes Bluetooth likes to drop a connection if it isn’t being used or doesn’t pair up. But I notice this about every 1 out of 50 times I use it. The solution? Turn off the stereo or phone, turn on again and allow it to re-sync up.

You can get the Kenwood unit online from Crutchfield.com for $149.99. Going price for Refurbished units on EBAY is $88.