BMW X1 Tuning

"Thanks for reading my BMW X1 (E84) tuning guide."

The X1 is a particularly good project car to carry out, the crossover SUV lends itself nicely to tuning and we see a growing array of parts and options for it which shows no signs of letting up.

The relatively compact size of the X1 and chassis design adds up to make it a fun car to drive, and tune.

With the right mods your X1 can be transformed into a stunning project. But don't waste money, do your homework before applying upgrades and mods.

Our unbiased guides to each performance upgrade explain the pros and cons so you don't waste your money.

Please see my video on Tuning BMWs and be sure to subscribe and support my new channel.

Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more torque out of the top end.

The best power gains come from the turbo engines which are crying out for a remap.

Even the NASP 3.0 N52B30  can be tuned, and will give another 20% of power with a fast road cam, revised intake and exhaust and timing tweaks.

Engine Tuning on the X1.

All engines felt quite lively and produced a decent amount of power but all can be improved with a remap, fast road cam and if you have the N52B30  adding a forced induction (turbo) upgrade will give phenomenal power gains. Tuning the X1 is only really limited by your budget.

Petrol engine  options included

• N20B16 1.6 L turbo 143 hp
• N46B20 2.0 L i4 148hp
• N20B20  2.0 L i4 turbo 181hp
• N52B30  3.0 L I6 215hp & 255hp
• N20B20 2.0 L i4 turbo 241hp
• N55B30  3.0 L I6 turbo 300hp

Diesel options were

• N47D20 2.0 L i4 turbo 201hp
• N47D20 2.0 L i4 twin-turbo 215 hp

Remaps on turbo engines usually yield another 20-30% power increase, fast road cams on the NA (naturally aspirated) engines will provide around 15% more power whereas a tune/remap on the NA (naturally aspirated) engine only nets an increase of around 7%.

Typically the following mods are usually installed by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you get going.

Getting the right sports mods for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 competition upgrades just won't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best mods for your X1

1. X1 Handling modifications - Replacing worn bushings and shocks radically improves your X1 handling Coilovers and Bushings are the usual go to mods
2. Tunes - A tune/remap provides the most power for your investment, aftermarket ECUs, and inline Tuning boxes are all alternatives.
3. Brake Upgrades - Enhancing your stopping power needs to be near the top of your Mods list.
4. Air Induction kits and Exhaust Upgrades - Please be warned on their own these mods won't ADD HP , but they can help release power after other mods by minimizing the restriction.
5. Fast road cams are significant power adders, but should always be fitted by someone familiar with setting them up on your car and you might struggle to find one but you'll probably find a local firm to regrind a stock cam .
6. Flywheel lightening - a reduced weight flywheel will significantly improve the engines ability to rev freely. Not always a great mod for all X1 engines.
7. Forced induction upgrades - Adding a turbocharger is the most significant way to improve intake air supply, this means you are able to burn more fuel and make more power. Although one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
8. Flowing and porting the engine head - for larger gains, you will get better flow and make a more efficient engine if you do this to support your other mods.

X1 Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Sports exhaust, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Alloy wheels, Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Remap.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Fast road cam, Power/Sport clutch, Ported and polished head, high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Sports gearbox, Engine balancing, Competition cam.

Your targets when modding your car should be a flat and wide torque output. You want to avoid sending all the power to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motor sport car.

The whole point of our articles is to give a limited introduction of modding upgrades and point you in the right direction, our forum is where you can ask for more detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best uprated mods and all aspects of modding cars.

Fast road cams offer one of the biggest bhp gains for your money as far as a bolt on motorsport modifications goes on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine.

The exhaust & intake flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic.

You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU to fully realise your gains.

Don't forget to increase the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

Most power losses, and erratic idling after modified upgrades are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues.Improving the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If have increased your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

X1 Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many X1 owners uprate the handling of their cars with sports suspension modifications as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

If you set the toe out to 1 to 2 degrees on the front, and add a little negative camber then cornering will often improve, depending on your wheel size and tyre choice.

We would go to a maximum drop of 27mm - 36 mm on most models. You risk compromising your handling if you go lower than this.

Uprated Bushes

What factors should you consider when setting up and selecting your bushes if your X1 is also used as a daily driver?

Bushings, which are rubber mounts, allow the X1's suspension components to be connected with the car's chassis. The rubber ones will degrade over time.

By replacing new OEM rubber bushings, you may greatly improve your vehicle's performance.

Because polyurethane bushings are stiffer, the ride may be less forgiving, but the bushings will last longer and maintain the car's handling for longer.

They may also speed up the depreciation of other suspension parts due to the increased vibration and play.

A new set of polyeyurothane bushes should assist in lessen the excessive play associated with rubber bushes.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine.

Induction kits only help to increase performance if the air intake is restricted!

Adding an induction kit to most engines will see NO LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL but on the X1 the intake can be improved giving a nice boost throughout the RPM range.

If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications.

TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts balance the flow of air through the engine. But if your exhaust is too big, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of the exhaust flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Airflow through the head can be dramatically increased with some professional polishing and ported.

These should match and be setup to take into account any other engine mods. In nearly all cases of X1 tuning your clutch will start to suffer and this needs an upgrade - read our guide onclutches for more information.

The best mods in our opinion for your X1 are Remapping or piggy back ecu, fast road cam and air intake and exhaust.

Turbo engines are just asking to be Reprogrammed. You will see impressive power gains on most modern turbocharged cars including diesels making a tune/remap one of the most cost effective and impressive modifications for your money.

We've also come across some owners toying with twincharging applications and making some very high power hikes.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains.

It is usually cheaper to add a supercharger than it is to get a turbo working. Turbos increase power in exponential proportion to rising engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice directly proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the compression ratio of the engine .

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels will help the brake cooling and are generally lighter than the steel ones. We can't go into too much detail here about tires but they are how the car puts the power down on the road so are a critical choice.

directional tread pattern tires work well on X1, and make a big difference over budget tires.

The downside to large alloy wheels on your X1 is that you alter your effective final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on performance.

Due to this fact we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 19 inches, although we know some of our members have installed larger rims with no problems.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss X1 options in more detail with our X1 owners.

It would also be worth reading our unbiased BMW tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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