How To Tune Your BMW On A Budget

For many bmw enthusiasts, once they buy a car, that is just the start of an extensive and sometimes costly project of modifying to get increased BMW performance. There are many hundreds of various decisions on how to go about this process. Where does one begin, what can be completed by the average home mechanic and what requires professional help? Also, where can you source the best parts at the best price? Sourcing parts is the area of modifying that you have considerable control over and where you can save the most time and expense, if you do your homework.

Now, there is more than one opinion on this subject. For BMWs, significant design and engineering was completed by BMW to make a premium car that is arguably a better overall performer than many of its peers. It is far too easy to whind up going backwards in your objective for speed by sourcing flawed parts, installing them incorrectly or not matching up the performance characteristics of various systems on your car. Also, BMW is selling a line of its own aftermarket parts so you can be assured of the quality and engineering in these parts as the rest of your car. The drawback is these parts are often more costly than their competition.

So, how can you find quality parts for your car? I am a huge fan of doing research online using a variety of tools. There are many good forums consisting of many thousands of BMW owners. With very little effort you can often find a member with your same BMW who has already done similar modifications to their BMW and can often provide some valuable insight into what works, who has the most competitive price, install instructions and more. Some of my favorites are E90Fanatics, e46fanatics and roadfly.org. Time spent here will save you signifiacnt money and frustration so you don't have to repeat the mistakes of others.

Another great source that is often overlooked is eBay. The choices is often overwhelming and there are a bunch of cheaply made, knock-off parts that you should try to stay away from. However, if you buy from a known supplier with great feedback and do your homework on the part you require and at what price, you can really maximize your modifying budget. You can source new parts, OEM BMW parts and used BMW parts quickly and easily to make your modding project a winner.