My New to me 2013 Alpine White Beast

[ruben356]

Well, as some may know. I took a leap of faith, both in buying my latest car pretty much sight unseen, and proceeding to drive it cross country about 3k miles right after. The short and sweet is, I don't regret it not one bit, and I really got to fall in love with the car on this trip. I had spent a couple of months looking for the right options and price that I wanted, and the Alpine White just happen to be a plus in my book. Despite this not being a BMW dealership, I was put at ease by their willingness to make the transaction a breeze, and they accommodated all my requests and questions. They did all fluids, new Brakes and Tires, and a thorough inspection, as they were aware of my plans for a road trip. In the end, there were some things with the car, that could not really be captured on camera, or that may look good to someone and not so good to another person. All in all, I am satisfied with my purchase. I do intend to get my hands dirty with the car, both in upgrades, and repairs to get things to my liking. It is almost a 10yr car, so i took the faults it came with for what they were, just age reflecting, and despite good maintenance records some owners don't treat their cars as meticulous as some of us on this forum might. I had 3 "ohh sh.." moments on the ride, but the overall experience was pleasant, take care of the car and it will take care of you.

"Ohh Sh.." Moments:
1. Stopped in Denver to visit a cousin, got on it first and only time on the whole trip, some clouds of smoke from exhaust, and same with few revs at idle. More on this later.

2. Randomly driving to one of my hotel stays, about 10minutes out. Car kind of bucked a little like a misfire feeling. Drivetrain Malfunction flashed and went away immediately. Pulled over, read the code which was pending, and i believe was P1009 for HPFP. Don't quote me on the code number, but it didn't come back rest of the trip.

3. Leaving one of the hotels early morning for the last stretch of the trip. Deer ran out in front of me. Had enough time to see him running, car did awesome in slowing me down enough to miss him.

My takeaways are as follows:
1. The Active massaging seats are a godsend for long road trips.

2. The LKAS, and driver assistance functions do not like a collection of bugs, i lost those systems about half way through the trip. Need to troubleshoot further as they have not came back after car wash. No faults though.

3. Eat healthy on the road, prevents you from getting tired and having to stop early or more frequently.

4. The car preformed better than me at about 6k ft. of elevation, lol.

5. Are Toyo Proxies Sport that soft, or is the traction control system that sensitive? Car breaks traction whenever I give it generous gas, even when not in sport modes.

On to the pictures.....

This was at the hotel, right after I picked it up, gave it a once around the highway and locally after warming her up. Just to be sure nothing seemed off before I hit the road.


First Stop, a couple hundred miles, somewhere in Utah.


About 6,000ft of elevation, up in the Arches National Park in Utah.


Found an old Classic cars meet somewhere in Illinois the following day. Mostly older Volkswagen and Buggies, was at a Corvette Museum. Parking was literally on hay it seemed, lol.





Stopped in Casey Illinois - "Big Things, in a Little Town" lol




As I got further east, there were less interesting places to stop at, at least on the route I took. I didn't snap much more pictures of the car, was just enjoying the final stretch of the drive, plus hitting more traffic indicating I was close to home, lol.

Here is what i call my money shot, wanted to get something in appreciation for the car and the experience, plus in memory of all the bugs who gave their life to make this possible


Yesterday, I ordered all maintenance items, and some few upgrades to take care of. Found leaking oil cooling lines, plus oil around the turbos and PCV system. I am thinking this might have been contributing to the smoke i experience when I got on the car. The car was at the dealer for a few months, so i think a bit of oil accumulated in the intakes and after spirited driving yesterday the smoke was gone. Project Gamma silicone cooling lines are on order.



I had the dealer send me a video originally because I saw what looked like an aftermarket exhaust. It was just tips, and the video was of the car idling and did not seem loud. Upon inspection because of the burning smell, I found out the car has cat less downpipes currently installed, the rest of the exhaust system is stock, minus the added bigger tips. I also feel the car could potentially be tuned (need to find out how to confirm), mods i had already planned anyway so its ok by me.

You can see the O2 sensors sitting lower, this stood out to me so inspected more and saw the downpipes.


There are a few things needing fixed, mostly cosmetic, and few things happened along the way (cigarette lighters stopped working, fuse?, driver door handle wont lock/unlock, fuse or something else). As I said, I am ok with this, I want to get involved with this car and will be documenting things as best I can.

For those that want to see what I covered, I mapped the relevant places I stopped at. After Ohio, was 1 more hotel stop, and then up home to New England area. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk

[M5Rick]

^ Well done you made it! Looks like you have comfort entry and the d/door handle is a common problem with those, hope you don't have to replace it.

[M5Rick]

Have cousins in New England (Massachusetts) it's known as the friendly state.

[Beast27]

Thanks for the write-up and congrats!!

[ruben356]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

^ Well done you made it! Looks like you have comfort entry and the d/door handle is a common problem with those, hope you don't have to replace it.

Yes, it just randomly went out one morning when i went to get into the car, hopefully its something simple.

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Have cousins in New England (Massachusetts) it's known as the friendly state.

I live in Massachusetts, not sure if that was sarcasm, but I've yet to hear that statement . I'm originally from New Jersey though, so I may be biased.

Originally Posted by Beast27

Thanks for the write-up and congrats!!

Thanks, will be documenting as much as i can since i have much to do.

[ECB]

Impressive! I'm glad you had a good experience with the trip. You are more brave than I. Thanks for the notes and pics.

[AlisterB]

Congrats on the new ride ruben356 and glad to hear that you got it home safely (would be quite the experience doing a road trip like that in a 'new to you' car).

Looks great in Alpine White with the black interior (I'm a bit biased though as I have the same combo).

Any pics of the interior that you're able to share?

In terms of your questions (specifically, question #5), the car is very sensitive to tyres and easily breaks traction. Consensus view is to put Michelin PS4S tyres on which are amongst the best road tyres for getting the power to the ground. Don't be tempted to put P Zeros on it - they are garbage on this car.

[JG_Coupe88]

Awesome write up! Congrats on the car, and best of luck with it! Funny I was just getting ready to do my own post of my new-to-me alpine white M5 lol! We have twins!

[ruben356]

Originally Posted by AlisterB

Congrats on the new ride ruben356 and glad to hear that you got it home safely (would be quite the experience doing a road trip like that in a 'new to you' car).

Looks great in Alpine White with the black interior (I'm a bit biased though as I have the same combo).

Any pics of the interior that you're able to share?

In terms of your questions (specifically, question #5), the car is very sensitive to tyres and easily breaks traction. Consensus view is to put Michelin PS4S tyres on which are amongst the best road tyres for getting the power to the ground. Don't be tempted to put P Zeros on it - they are garbage on this car.

Nice, i did have my reservations, but i like to not dwell on the negative possibilities and ended up good, lol.

I will get some before after of the interior once i start working on it. Dealer did a not so great (used cheap products) detail job on it. Everything is all shiny and crap, i really hate that. So taking the time to properly clean it, and have it looking proper.

I wondered about the tires. The dealer installed 2 new ones in the rear for me, they're Toyo Proxy Sports, i figured they might be too soft for this car. I will look into the PS4S's, proper suspension is on the books as well. I want the car to have that on train on rails feel like my E60 did. Right now she's a bit too squirrely for me on the highway, lol. I've also used Bridgestone Potenzas and Hankook Ventus on my E60 with good results.

Originally Posted by JG_Coupe88

Awesome write up! Congrats on the car, and best of luck with it! Funny I was just getting ready to do my own post of my new-to-me alpine white M5 lol! We have twins!

Thanks, and congrats as well, looking forward to your thread. I love the white, can't wait to get properly corrected cleaned though, the age is showing on mines a bit. Good luck

[ianm5]

Great pictures and...

Welcome to ‘door handle club’ a very exclusive members only group.

I came to terms with traction long ago. It’s no different from most non-4wd sports cars and the traction is a very abrupt nanny but I’ve never actually reduced TC or switched it off so I can’t really judge.

I have a regular 90deg road junction turn, joining a fast moving inconsiderate road as part of my daily. In rain, ice and snow I’ve always been able to safely make that brisk 90deg turn from a standstill and the car has never broken out or gone banzai. I can’t say the same for virtually any other car never mind a 600bhp monster (always round up!)

[co_pa]

congrats ruben356 on the ride and what looks like a truly memorable experience. good storytelling, and what a cool thing to run into that vw meet.

one thing to consider: if it does have downpipes, it more than likely had a tune, too. maybe check for a jb4 or other piggy (unless it was removed, of course) if you haven't. and someone smarter than i can probably tell you how to know for sure if you were flashed.

drive in good health and look forward to seeing more of it around the forum!

[ruben356]

Originally Posted by ianm5

Great pictures and...

Welcome to ‘door handle club’ a very exclusive members only group.

I came to terms with traction long ago. It’s no different from most non-4wd sports cars and the traction is a very abrupt nanny but I’ve never actually reduced TC or switched it off so I can’t really judge.

I have a regular 90deg road junction turn, joining a fast moving inconsiderate road as part of my daily. In rain, ice and snow I’ve always been able to safely make that brisk 90deg turn from a standstill and the car has never broken out or gone banzai. I can’t say the same for virtually any other car never mind a 600bhp monster (always round up!)

Lol, thanks glad to be an exclusive member. I will try to document my troubleshooting and repair process on it soon.

Yes, i also don't see the need to turn traction of on this car, maybe not until i feel more confident with it. The traction control is a bit over sensitive. Even in winter with summer tires on the E60 wasn't this paranoid lol.

Originally Posted by co_pa

congrats ruben356 on the ride and what looks like a truly memorable experience. good storytelling, and what a cool thing to run into that vw meet.

one thing to consider: if it does have downpipes, it more than likely had a tune, too. maybe check for a jb4 or other piggy (unless it was removed, of course) if you haven't. and someone smarter than i can probably tell you how to know for sure if you were flashed.

drive in good health and look forward to seeing more of it around the forum!

Thanks, the vw meet was neat, a lot of custom cars there, shows a lot of peoples appreciation for them.

That is what i figured, I will be deep diving into the car this weekend doing maintenance, hoping to find anything indicative of it being tuned. From a brief overview, i do not see any piggy back modules or wiring in the engine bay, not sure if most tunes require that. I do believe i've seen some that just flash the factory DME without the need for any other devices on the car, so could be that. Will post up my findings soon.

[ruben356]

So installed my Project Gamma Silicone Turbo Cooling Lines over the weekend. The factory hoses were pretty rough again, and leaking a bit of coolant, despite the recall being done only about 25k miles ago. Goes to show you how much of a beating these rubber hoses take with all the heat in that area. The install was a bit of a pain, mainly due to space constraints in the thermostat/electric pump connections area. Will keep monitoring but i did take it for couple spirited drives and so far everything seems to be holding up great. Silicone is better at dissipating external heat, and you can touch the hoses without getting burnt in contrast to the factory aluminum pipes, even at full temp after a spirited drive. Lost about 2-3 quartz of coolant in the process, let the car sit overnight and all fluids to settle. Was not ready for all that coolant to come out of these lines, but once the fluid settled, there was some cleanup to be done. I had to top off the coolant, and perform the bleed procedure as i did hear gurgling, and the intake of air into these lines. I also did oil change and Diff fluid. My next projects to tackle will be dual catch can setup, DCT fluid and Aluminum pan install. As well as some other misc. troubleshooting like my driver assistance functions not working, driver door handle not locking/unlocking, and cigarette lighters stopped working.



As many have said, the hose just kind of lay there on top of everything, and pretty much touch the alternator pulley.


Here is the finished look with everything buttoned up. Luckily, I had this kind of retainer clip that is removable if needed. But a zip tie would have worked here, even though i would not have liked the look of zip ties in here. Given that the hoses are bulky, and the factory retaining clips push up on them, they do in turn push up against the plastic cover and the sides were popping up a bit, but I guess this is minor compared to the actual advantage of installing these. I recorded some footage, and plan to throw together a DIY vid some time soon.