Evolve CSL Airbox Filter Cleaning / Replacement / Oiling question

[robgill]

That is crazy, never seen a failure like that. I'd ping Imran over at Evolve and get his take. He's very responsive in my experience.

Also welcome back Doog!

[Exclusivs]

OMG!

That’s absolutely insane. Would expect that from a replica cheapo eBay box. Not Evolve!

Did you buy this brand new? I def would not attempt to put back together yourself. Change your oil.


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[HassanEido]

Hahaha!!

I did. Get this:


1) I sent it off to my friend who sells on consignment (he owns Garage Kept Motors in Grand Rapids) for 4 months. I listed for $32k, lowered and lowered all the way to $23, just wanting to be done with it - too painful to own and not have.

It never sold! Finally, as the snow thawed this past spring I said: F*** IT! These people don't deserve it - I have more than $23k into PARTS.


2) Then, I decided I had to try ONE more time. So I listed privately. I found a buyer; he came to look and drive and loved it, but (THANKFULLY) said he had to sleep on it. I slept 3 hours that night - miserable night. Finally at 7am I said: "I'm sorry man. I can't do it." (Of course it was a much longer text). He said he understood perfectly and was a cool cucumber about it


I told my wife that morning: I will never sell it. It will rot in a barn or I will wreck it or I'll drive it until it has 350k miles, but I will never - ever - sell it now.

And I mean it! Thank God. Absolute best purchase of my life. It's a gift I'll always treasure now, hahah.

Hilarious, huh??

DGN

Fascinating story man, as always. Trust me. You don't sell this car and not regret it.

[TheDoogan]

Thank you very much, gents!

Yes, it was bought brand new from Evolve and shipped from England, for $2500 in Feb of '17.

I will reach out to Imran, and we'll see what happens

He's probably going to ask if I've been hitting lots of jumps, or what ;D ;D

[TheDoogan]

PS - THANK YOU for the advice on the water pump!

Would simply replacing the whole pump solve the problem altogether?

[heinzboehmer]

PS - THANK YOU for the advice on the water pump!

Would simply replacing the whole pump solve the problem altogether?

If it's leaking through the bearing then yes. You can shine a light in there and check to see if there's any dried coolant on the backside of the water pump pulley (and no drips from above). That will all but confirm that the water pump is leaking.

In my case, I replaced my original pump with a Geba one (metal impeller) not too long ago and it has just recently started leaking through the bearing. I'm assuming that the heavier impeller wore out the bearing and caused the leak. Plan on replacing it soon with a genuine BMW water pump. I've just been lazy and haven't done it because I'm not driving the car too much these days and the leak is super small.

[TheDoogan]

Heinz,

This makes perfect sense. My mechanic has been telling me about a very small seepage for the last two oil changes, but hasn't had time to investigate. I'll bet this is what he's referring to.

Now comrade, can you please speak to this upgrade of yours?

"https://www.kasselperformance.com/pr...re-conversion/" - MSS54HP Conversion

I have a MAF delete CSL airbox as well (obviously, re: thread) - is this something that you think is an essential mod? What does it do?

I ask because every 1/10 times when I rev-match to downshift, my engine bogs with a low, buuuuuurp. The way through it is to apply deeper throttle, which "snaps it clear" with a high rev. By now it's muscle memory even in fast driving to hit the throttle deeper but to still let off at the point of rev-match. But I've never known what causes that and how to fix it.

Thanks!

[heinzboehmer]

So there's a couple things to address.

First, you can run a CSL airbox without a MAF and an alpha-n tune (which I'm assuming is what you have) or you can swap out the MAF for a MAP sensor like what's found in a real CSL. However, in order to run a MAP, you need to be running CSL software and in order to run CSL software you need to have the facelift DME, called the MSS54HP (pre-facelifts came with an MSS54). Fortunately, the hardware differences between them are not too drastic, so you can convert an MSS54 to an MSS54HP by swapping out a couple components, which is what I did on my car.

Going by your signature, you have a car with an MSS54HP, so no conversion needed for you. The one thing you could do is add a MAP sensor and switch over to a CSL-based tune. Whether or not that's worth it is a very debated topic. I chose to add one to try and stay as close to a real CSL as possible.

Now onto your downshift question. What you're describing sounds like the infamous "CSL hesitation". If you search that you'll find a million threads trying to find a solution for it. Some people say that adding a MAP cures the hesitation and others have had success with alpha-n tunes. I personally have not experienced any hesitation and the only car with a CSL box I've driven is my own (so haven't had a chance to drive an alpha-n setup) so I can't really comment on what causes or fixes this. I'm sure others who have resolved their hesitation —or attempted to— can chime in.

[0-60motorsports]

Glad you kept the car. Get in touch with evolve and get that airbox sorted.

[TheDoogan]

Thank you, Heinz!

This makes a lot of sense. And, my signature reveals my ignorance and probably makes my car seem cooler than it is. All I mean by "CSL mods" is: airbox + CSL spec Schrick Camshaft + headers. No electronic conversion. You're right that mine is an Alpha-N setup.

Absolutely fascinating that others have experienced this hesitation condition - enough to make it infamous.

I have determined that is can only happen when you go from 0% throttle to greater than ~~~30% throttle in a very short amount of time (like, half a second). The DEEPER the press (ie, 80%+) the more likely it is to happen, but still never more than 20% of the time I think. That's why it almost exclusively happens when in neutral, doing a throttle blip to downshift. It shows how little I "launch" that it's only ever happened when actually in gear twice - both times when trying to get out into traffic in a HURRY.

Both instances were when going from stopped to first gear - it's simply never happened in any other gear.


GOOD NEWS, GUYS:

Evolve, the rock stars, is going to replace my intake for free. They wanted me to return mine first, which would keep my car down for a while. But now they've worked it out so that I can get a new one on a core charge, and then return my broken one.

In other news, I don't know if it was getting the broken trumpets out of there or if it was cleaning my filter, but *noticeably* more power now.

In other OTHER news, I am now part of a local West Michigan M3 meetup group (there are half a dozen of them, with another dozen M-car guys involved). I literally came upon an M3 on the freeway - the first time it's ever happened. We tried to have a shouted conversation, but then just raced. 80mph up to 145. I SMOKED him! 4 car lengths - he was a bone stock SMG coupe. My top was up, but all 4 windows were down - it felt like I was pulling a parachute, but it goes to show you the power of the mods I have over even a more lightweight stock car. I can't imagine how fast the CSL coupe M3s must have felt.

Anyway, then we both pulled off at the next exit and chatted about our cars for 10 minutes, hahah. That's when he told me about the meetup group. So cool.

[Tbonem3]

As another original evilve airbox owner, that's great to hear. Happy for you too Doog.

The alpha N thing is over blown btw, enjoy your car.

[dl.m3]

Thank you, Heinz!

This makes a lot of sense. And, my signature reveals my ignorance and probably makes my car seem cooler than it is. All I mean by "CSL mods" is: airbox + CSL spec Schrick Camshaft + headers. No electronic conversion. You're right that mine is an Alpha-N setup.

Absolutely fascinating that others have experienced this hesitation condition - enough to make it infamous.

I have determined that is can only happen when you go from 0% throttle to greater than ~~~30% throttle in a very short amount of time (like, half a second). The DEEPER the press (ie, 80%+) the more likely it is to happen, but still never more than 20% of the time I think. That's why it almost exclusively happens when in neutral, doing a throttle blip to downshift. It shows how little I "launch" that it's only ever happened when actually in gear twice - both times when trying to get out into traffic in a HURRY.

Both instances were when going from stopped to first gear - it's simply never happened in any other gear.


GOOD NEWS, GUYS:

Evolve, the rock stars, is going to replace my intake for free. They wanted me to return mine first, which would keep my car down for a while. But now they've worked it out so that I can get a new one on a core charge, and then return my broken one.

In other news, I don't know if it was getting the broken trumpets out of there or if it was cleaning my filter, but *noticeably* more power now.

In other OTHER news, I am now part of a local West Michigan M3 meetup group (there are half a dozen of them, with another dozen M-car guys involved). I literally came upon an M3 on the freeway - the first time it's ever happened. We tried to have a shouted conversation, but then just raced. 80mph up to 145. I SMOKED him! 4 car lengths - he was a bone stock SMG coupe. My top was up, but all 4 windows were down - it felt like I was pulling a parachute, but it goes to show you the power of the mods I have over even a more lightweight stock car. I can't imagine how fast the CSL coupe M3s must have felt.

Anyway, then we both pulled off at the next exit and chatted about our cars for 10 minutes, hahah. That's when he told me about the meetup group. So cool.

Can confirm the off throttle hesitation (downshift rev match) went away after I switched from AlphaN to CSL tune with MAP sensor.

Just my experience.

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[tnord]

found my way "back," not that I was ever all that active (KS Golfer) before. I have the evolve airbox, and I went full MAP conversion and don't notice any real drivability issues. I have the Kassel MAP kit. I was under the impression that I have a 2003.5 based on build date, but on closer inspection my DME was actually the non-HP version. BMW and their approach of using the parts till they run out on the line strikes again. I had a mix up with a transmission in an E39 previously. Kassel did my DME conversion to the HP hardware, and put their performance tune on it as well.

In the end, I haven't had any issues with the MAP conversion from Kassel.

I only have about 1k miles on the setup, but I should probably just buy another couple filters from evolve, or find another source. Even though I'm shopping 911s, this car is staying with me for the long haul.

[bjz!]

I have one of the oldest evolve airbox and that dont happens to my airbox, i hope it doesnt happens. The airbox have a lot of track kilometers and street kilometers and.. the only problem is the yellowing in the gelcoat or clearcoat, pretty disapointing, actually. Obviously, they never trade mine for a new one.... 😂😂😂

[siamkazi]

Thank you so much, guys. And Hassan! I actually was searching Google for you. I'd love, still, for you to take a look at my tune.

Gents: I need your advice, but also I have a story that I forgot about. Let me share this.... it relates to selling my car. And I need to disclose: I am the opposite of someone who goes around looking for "signs", as to whether or not to do something. Confirmation bias in the human mind is too powerful: people, myself included, are too apt to justify doing dumb stuff. But still... let me share this:

An hour after that guy left, who came and drove my car and said, "I love it, but I promised my wife I'd sleep on it - I'll call you in the morning", I told the kids to hop in: "let's go pick some mulberries." As I drove it over there, I was thinking about how much I have loved those times - when my 3 oldest kids and I bomb around, listen to this cheesy "Take a Walk Outside Today" kid's song, and go explore one of the Lake Michigan coast trails.

So, we all load up and hop in. The car won't start! The battery (new 13 months prior) has inexplicably drained within the span of 3 hours since it was driven (he and I had talked cars for a long time after his drive). No problem: I put it on the charger. Charge for 30 minutes: absolutely nothing - I get maybe 2 cranks before it has no power. So.... I pull the battery, take it to Autozone, get a free replacement via their warranty... re-install. vvRROOOmmmmmm - fires right up.

OKAY.... let's finally go, kids!

So, we drove the mile or so to the parking lot nearest the mulberry tree.... we get out, have a blast picking and eating berries... and then we get back in the M3.

I fire it up, and it dies after maybe 20 or 30 rpms - like 1.5 seconds. "WTF?" It's literally never done this before in its life. I fire it again. rrrRMMMmmmmm...dead. Again. Again. Again. I have 3/4 tank of gas - nothing could be the matter. I try the ignition TWENTY TWO times. Same thing every time. So, I text my wife. We're only a mile from home, but the girls came barefooted. "I've got a bad fuel pump I think. Get the Rover and come pick us up, babe!"

Now I'm sitting there thinking: "There goes this deal. This guy would be a fool to buy this car after this incident, no matter what it turns out to be."

As soon as I put the phone down, I try it again. "vvrrrRMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" - fires and idles perfectly! But still I'm thinking: "I've got to tell that guy, and there's no way he's going to want it."

Well, I ended up deciding to keep it the next morning as I explained, but get this - the car has not had a single further instance of a starting issue. Isn't that so weird??


(And the day before that guy came to drive it, I was cruising on the freeway in a bright, sunny June day, when it started sprinkling. I looked up - there was a single gray cloud out of the entire blue and white sky. Of course, my top is down and I'm going 80mph in traffic. Pretty soon it is POURING rain - still perfectly sunny. I could only turn and look at the black woman smiling at me from the right lane and just grin and shake my head, and stick my hand up above the windshield to catch some of the water. It was over after 15 seconds, but it was a memorable moment.)


Okay, now I'll ask for your advice in a new post, stand by:

I love this story, thanks for sharing!