Author Topic: California Emissions vs Federal Emissions M42 (Read 2420 times)

EN318isPDX · « **on:** October 30, 2007, 01:27:44 PM »

So i was thinkin yesterday, holy crap my M42 is from Cali, means maybe its had some better looking girls in it than i've managed BUT! That is not my concern! What I have been thinkin about since i found that out is what kind of extra emissions do i have on my beamer?

I was thinkin about it and i don't see any extra "hardware" so if BMW really did increase emissions to make the Cali standard did they do something with the ECU? I plan on getting an aftermarket ECU, but if this holds true than it may speed up the process of me buying a new ECU.

I have only had the car for a few months and there might be a small chance that someone else has changed out the ECU but i doubt it.

Anyone know?

gearheadE30 · « **Reply #1 on:** October 30, 2007, 01:36:30 PM »

I have a cali car as well, and as far as I can tell, it is the same as all the other 318is's. The ecu is definitely the same, and mine has a markD chip with the same results as others with the chip. Exhaust doesn't look differrent, and RealOEM doesn't have different sections for a cali car. I think BMW stopped making separate cars for Cali after the early e21 because all of their cars met the requirements or they took Cali into consideration when designing everything e30-on.

EN318isPDX · « **Reply #2 on:** October 30, 2007, 01:42:44 PM »

Quote from: gearheadE30;36879

I have a cali car as well, and as far as I can tell, it is the same as all the other 318is's. The ecu is definitely the same, and mine has a markD chip with the same results as others with the chip. Exhaust doesn't look differrent, and RealOEM doesn't have different sections for a cali car. I think BMW stopped making separate cars for Cali after the early e21 because all of their cars met the requirements or they took Cali into consideration when designing everything e30-on.

That's kinda what i was hoping but i know my 280z had some stupid extra emission pieces on it even though it is no-cat. Silly Californian's Fear the Governator

bmwman91 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 30, 2007, 03:44:10 PM »

All of the US 318iS's were the same. Smog rules were not AS stringent back when these were new, so they were the same across the nation. The factory tuning is pretty lame, but not due to smog regulations. It was more to make sure that M42 cars would not pose any real competition to the M20 and S14 cars (would have been bad for profit margins...same reason GM got rid of the GNX's from hurting Vette sales #'s).

I highly recommend leaving the cat on the car. From what I have heard, it only hurts the already lacking bottom-end performance, and makes the car sound kinda ricey. A chip & lighter flywheel are basically the only worthwhile mods on a stock-internal M42.