TurboLlew
Honorary ///Member
As with my F10 (and inspired by AdiS's original of the E46) I decided to pull together some general advice for the F90 platform now having owned my car since 2021. I have gotten more and more requests for info about the F90 and my experiences with it. This is by no means exhaustive and I will add things as time passes.
I took a decision to pay it up and keep it after plan expires in April this year.
I hope someone will find this useful and better than reading the rambling thread on my M5 that isn't really focused.
Firstly if you are only here to see what platform issues exist:
1. Coolant Expansion Bottle: The problem is only if the owner has not attended to it immediately leaving the bottle to continuously flow into the rearmost 2 coilpacks and plugs. This necessitates changing the entire bank of coils and plugs (per BMW's guidance). They started off just doing two but return visits seem to have been frequent. I have had this issue several times but it has been fixed now it seems. I would still at the very least do a drip tray. Best is to replace the plastic bottle with a billet aluminium tank (below). Aliexpress even has some nowadays. The car is VERY sensitive to loss of coolant before triggering the warning so I can't understand how owners have let it get to the extent I've seen in some pics online.
2. Clicking bits of suspension: The front is known to make strange noises at full lock if not fitted with two wafer thin friction plates in between either side of the hub. This would likely have been done on all cars by now. It is just noisy (fortunately) and not an actual mechanical failure. For a Japanese AWD car, this would have been noted (together with diff noises) as 'normal' but M5 owners are a fussy bunch
3. Oil Change intervals: As with all BMWs the service intervals are absolute lunacy. Do your in between services as needed. Ditto for coolant and brake fluid. You may have spotted a reel or post of mine (not permanent) of my PRIOR F10 M5 being torn down after 180K kms (forged rods and bearings). This car had numerous oil changes pre-emptively done and looked quite good inside even modded at relatively high mileage. This was largely down to frequency of oil changes.
4. Toughening for mods: It is very easy to make bucketloads more power. For the love of God do a bearing and rod upgrade before you do crazy numbers.
5. Finicky lighting: the interior lighting on these cars is plastic welded to the door cards. It is difficult but not impossible to fix. The actual problem is the channel becoming 'cloudy' over time rather than a failure of the lighting itself. I have not experienced this myself but many others have. Exterior DRLs are known to fail with a telltale light-yellow look to them (Below). BMW is directed to replace the entire light unit which is fine under plan. If you are not on plan go to Firi and get some RGB or yellow DRL LED drivers and pop them in. You can lightly sand and polish the end of the channel if it has heated up and discoloured due to the failure.
General buying advice
LCI vs. Pre-LCI
The front lights, kidneys and bumper are materially different between LCI and pre-LCI. Conversion kits exist but getting everything coded and working can be a challenge. This boils down to preference since I actually prefer the "angel eye" style to the proto-snake-eye look.
The LCI is only available in Competition form. With the G90, the competition naming was dropped entirely and won't be returning. On the pre-LCI the comp has the lower diffuser section of the bumper surrounding the tailpieces blacked out. This is colour coded on the base car.
The rear has a much more dramatic change than the F10 had. I am going to retrofit the LCI tails to mine. It is the only bit I really liked from the facelift.
On the interior, the LCI has a larger screen, newer iDrive version and the fully digital dash. The pre-LCI has an analogue-look dash with some metal surrounds to it. This is largely a matter of preference on the gauge cluster. For infotainment: both can have full screen android auto or carplay which is what really counts these days from an infotainment perspective.
I have noticed that most of the LCI cars do not have the Bowers and Wilkins system specified. Unfortunate, since this is one of the more enjoyable boxes to tick.
Competition vs. Base Car
Power bump from 441kw to 460kw with the same torque figure. This is not easily felt on the road.
Stiffer engine mounts which can be retrofitted
0.1s (claimed) better sprint to 100
Ride height is 7mm lower (you can go lower if you put the M Performance HAS kit on either car. Springs are 10% stiffer and there are shocks from the M8GC fitted to the comp.
Rear toe-links are different. this can be retrofitted to the base or can be upgraded on both with a Dinan kit.
In practice the differences had become so small from a hardware perspective that the comp became the defacto 'base' and because it was (probably) dumb to have a 'comp' sitting on its own, it was dropped from the G series.
M5 CS
the CS gets a further 7kw bump and the same 750Nm over a (claimed) wider band. It claims a 3 second 0-100 but this was happening even for base cars when tested by media or owners with Dragys. Laptime improvements are down to tyres and suspension rather than power.
Weight is down by 115kg via a carbon fibre bonnet, carbon ceramic brakes and reducing the amount of insulation. You can achieve the same (for a price of course) on any F90 and it won't be close to what a CS costs. You only get a CS for collector value.
The M5 CS comes with Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres. They are not bad, but trust me - you are missing nothing. Stick to Pilot Sport 4S/S5 unless you just want the 'sporting credentials' of having these
Even stiffer engine mounts than the Comp - these can be retrofitted
The CS has alot of gold... you will either love or hate it.
Yellow DRLs
Gold versions of the Competition pack rims. They are the same rims.
Inside there is a 4-seater layout and carbon bucket seats with an embroidered logo on them.
The CS has carbon paddles and an Alcantara wheel (I have retrofitted both - plug and play and the paddles are just an M Performance part)
The CS also has a different rear spoiler (IMHO looks odd vs. the M Performance or base car) and rear diffuser (Looks good, but it is extremely expensive if buying OEM - 3-4x the price of M Performance).
Transmission:
The transmission is the highest performance tier of M-Steptronic box available (ZF 8HP). Pre-LCI has the 8HP75 and LCI has 8HP76 which has different software and some changes to the internals. It's got a modest torque handling improvement of 2.5% better. There are apparently some late pre-LCI builds with the 8HP76.
Note that the transmission service recommended by ZF is at 80000km and costs (at time of writing) around R8000. BMW initially called this a lifetime fluid but now lists the fluid change as required at a far higher mileage. Do this at 80000km as the manufacturer recommends.
The AWD system has been fine so far. I have used RWD mode a grand total of 3x in all the time I've owned the car and just to show people how it works 2 of those times.
In M mode it will not upshift unless you tell it to (it will bounce off the limiter just like a manual or M-DCT car). If you are requesting a lower gear that is mechanically impossible to get to, it will stop you as with any such transmission.
Seats and Interior
Seats are technically available in 2 styles (one being the CS carbon buckets). The normal seat design is available with heating (front and rear) or heated and cooling (heating on both, cooling on front). The latter are identified by perforated leather as opposed to smooth grain.
There are a variety of colours including two tone.
The seats are incredibly comfortable and adjustable. One of the best bits of the ownership experience has been getting into the car, hitting the button and having the seats get into position and wrap around you with lumbar and bolsters inflating and the upper backrest area tilting. Feels like donning an ironman suit LOL.
Alcantara headliner was an option
Although there is a leather-like material on all cars, full merino leather was a further option (top of the dash, lower dash and top of the door cards)
I took a decision to pay it up and keep it after plan expires in April this year.
I hope someone will find this useful and better than reading the rambling thread on my M5 that isn't really focused.
Firstly if you are only here to see what platform issues exist:
1. Coolant Expansion Bottle: The problem is only if the owner has not attended to it immediately leaving the bottle to continuously flow into the rearmost 2 coilpacks and plugs. This necessitates changing the entire bank of coils and plugs (per BMW's guidance). They started off just doing two but return visits seem to have been frequent. I have had this issue several times but it has been fixed now it seems. I would still at the very least do a drip tray. Best is to replace the plastic bottle with a billet aluminium tank (below). Aliexpress even has some nowadays. The car is VERY sensitive to loss of coolant before triggering the warning so I can't understand how owners have let it get to the extent I've seen in some pics online.
2. Clicking bits of suspension: The front is known to make strange noises at full lock if not fitted with two wafer thin friction plates in between either side of the hub. This would likely have been done on all cars by now. It is just noisy (fortunately) and not an actual mechanical failure. For a Japanese AWD car, this would have been noted (together with diff noises) as 'normal' but M5 owners are a fussy bunch
3. Oil Change intervals: As with all BMWs the service intervals are absolute lunacy. Do your in between services as needed. Ditto for coolant and brake fluid. You may have spotted a reel or post of mine (not permanent) of my PRIOR F10 M5 being torn down after 180K kms (forged rods and bearings). This car had numerous oil changes pre-emptively done and looked quite good inside even modded at relatively high mileage. This was largely down to frequency of oil changes.
4. Toughening for mods: It is very easy to make bucketloads more power. For the love of God do a bearing and rod upgrade before you do crazy numbers.
5. Finicky lighting: the interior lighting on these cars is plastic welded to the door cards. It is difficult but not impossible to fix. The actual problem is the channel becoming 'cloudy' over time rather than a failure of the lighting itself. I have not experienced this myself but many others have. Exterior DRLs are known to fail with a telltale light-yellow look to them (Below). BMW is directed to replace the entire light unit which is fine under plan. If you are not on plan go to Firi and get some RGB or yellow DRL LED drivers and pop them in. You can lightly sand and polish the end of the channel if it has heated up and discoloured due to the failure.
General buying advice
LCI vs. Pre-LCI
The front lights, kidneys and bumper are materially different between LCI and pre-LCI. Conversion kits exist but getting everything coded and working can be a challenge. This boils down to preference since I actually prefer the "angel eye" style to the proto-snake-eye look.
The LCI is only available in Competition form. With the G90, the competition naming was dropped entirely and won't be returning. On the pre-LCI the comp has the lower diffuser section of the bumper surrounding the tailpieces blacked out. This is colour coded on the base car.
The rear has a much more dramatic change than the F10 had. I am going to retrofit the LCI tails to mine. It is the only bit I really liked from the facelift.
On the interior, the LCI has a larger screen, newer iDrive version and the fully digital dash. The pre-LCI has an analogue-look dash with some metal surrounds to it. This is largely a matter of preference on the gauge cluster. For infotainment: both can have full screen android auto or carplay which is what really counts these days from an infotainment perspective.
I have noticed that most of the LCI cars do not have the Bowers and Wilkins system specified. Unfortunate, since this is one of the more enjoyable boxes to tick.
Competition vs. Base Car
Power bump from 441kw to 460kw with the same torque figure. This is not easily felt on the road.
Stiffer engine mounts which can be retrofitted
0.1s (claimed) better sprint to 100
Ride height is 7mm lower (you can go lower if you put the M Performance HAS kit on either car. Springs are 10% stiffer and there are shocks from the M8GC fitted to the comp.
Rear toe-links are different. this can be retrofitted to the base or can be upgraded on both with a Dinan kit.
In practice the differences had become so small from a hardware perspective that the comp became the defacto 'base' and because it was (probably) dumb to have a 'comp' sitting on its own, it was dropped from the G series.
M5 CS
the CS gets a further 7kw bump and the same 750Nm over a (claimed) wider band. It claims a 3 second 0-100 but this was happening even for base cars when tested by media or owners with Dragys. Laptime improvements are down to tyres and suspension rather than power.
Weight is down by 115kg via a carbon fibre bonnet, carbon ceramic brakes and reducing the amount of insulation. You can achieve the same (for a price of course) on any F90 and it won't be close to what a CS costs. You only get a CS for collector value.
The M5 CS comes with Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres. They are not bad, but trust me - you are missing nothing. Stick to Pilot Sport 4S/S5 unless you just want the 'sporting credentials' of having these
Even stiffer engine mounts than the Comp - these can be retrofitted
The CS has alot of gold... you will either love or hate it.
Yellow DRLs
Gold versions of the Competition pack rims. They are the same rims.
Inside there is a 4-seater layout and carbon bucket seats with an embroidered logo on them.
The CS has carbon paddles and an Alcantara wheel (I have retrofitted both - plug and play and the paddles are just an M Performance part)
The CS also has a different rear spoiler (IMHO looks odd vs. the M Performance or base car) and rear diffuser (Looks good, but it is extremely expensive if buying OEM - 3-4x the price of M Performance).
Transmission:
The transmission is the highest performance tier of M-Steptronic box available (ZF 8HP). Pre-LCI has the 8HP75 and LCI has 8HP76 which has different software and some changes to the internals. It's got a modest torque handling improvement of 2.5% better. There are apparently some late pre-LCI builds with the 8HP76.
Note that the transmission service recommended by ZF is at 80000km and costs (at time of writing) around R8000. BMW initially called this a lifetime fluid but now lists the fluid change as required at a far higher mileage. Do this at 80000km as the manufacturer recommends.
The AWD system has been fine so far. I have used RWD mode a grand total of 3x in all the time I've owned the car and just to show people how it works 2 of those times.
In M mode it will not upshift unless you tell it to (it will bounce off the limiter just like a manual or M-DCT car). If you are requesting a lower gear that is mechanically impossible to get to, it will stop you as with any such transmission.
Seats and Interior
Seats are technically available in 2 styles (one being the CS carbon buckets). The normal seat design is available with heating (front and rear) or heated and cooling (heating on both, cooling on front). The latter are identified by perforated leather as opposed to smooth grain.
There are a variety of colours including two tone.
The seats are incredibly comfortable and adjustable. One of the best bits of the ownership experience has been getting into the car, hitting the button and having the seats get into position and wrap around you with lumbar and bolsters inflating and the upper backrest area tilting. Feels like donning an ironman suit LOL.
Alcantara headliner was an option
Although there is a leather-like material on all cars, full merino leather was a further option (top of the dash, lower dash and top of the door cards)
