Madness JCW Intake Filter Kit?

[sam_a156]

Has anybody else here installed this?

JCW Intake High Flow Filter Replacement - JCW Intake High Flow Filter Replacement

I did yesterday and so far have quite positive impressions about it. I also have already tried it with and without the "flap mod" (this mod keeps the flap that normally opens at 4500RPMs always open).

Conclusions so far:
- For the other DIY green beans out there: installing it was really easy, even though my hands-on mechanics experience is limited to fixing my sailing boat's 20+ years old 7,5hp diesel engine (also BMW by the way - BMW D7).
- Just changing the filter changes the CAI noise. I like my car quite civilized, but I must say that the new "inhale" noise when accelerating hard sounds cool - quite race car like, but not at all too loud or disturbing.
- With the flap mod there are more funny (though not very loud) whistling noises on lower RPMs. It sort of emphasizes why the JCW package has the flap in the first place: to keep things nice and tidy. With the flap always open it definitely sounds more "aftermarket", but probably gives you an additional HP/Nm or two on lower RPMs. I have not yet decided if I am going to be running my car with or without this...let's see.
- My car was also dynoed before and after. But unfortunately the dealer also tweaked the ECU mapping once again at the same time. First time around I had the latest US JCW ECU map, later the new EU JCW ECU map. With the former I had some issues with the emission warning light turning on. This being the case, I can not say anything definitive about the dyno results. However, my before results were 207,9Hp/232,9Nm & 202,5Hp/239,6Nm and after 212,1Hp/240,2Nm (NOTE: without the flap mod). So I am pretty sure that it did contribute into getting better results, though it is not possible to say how much.

Does anybody else have experiences from this here @ MINI2?

Sam