[MySport]

I have now owned my M40d for 10 months and yesterday I discovered something new.
My Adaptive Suspension appears to have an ‘Adaptive’ mode, yet there is no mention of it in the handbook.

Yes it has the normal Eco, Comfort and Sport modes. The later can cycle through Sport, Sport Plus and Individual. But, there is another option.......

If you press the word Adaptive on the rocker switch, the word Adaptive is displayed on the dash in red. It didn't appear any different from Comfort mode, although I only drove for a coupe of miles.
Does anyone know what this mode does?

[clivem2]

Erm.... it's taken you 10 months to find this? Plenty of detailed discussions about its operation can be found here. It's good and It does more than setup the suspension.

[John26830]

Adaptive & Sport are the only modes I use 👍
And on a rare occasion Sport plus 😉

[ClaretFozzy]

Adaptive mode isn’t just tied down to the suspension. It alters the throttle and gearbox mapping on the fly too.

[SteveX3M40i]

Adaptive also uses the satnav info to know when you are approaching sharp bends - to stiffen up the suspension (apparently)

[SO8]

I didn't realise initially but use it a lot and it does seem to 'know' where you are when it comes to hills at least ! I love it.

[Jawa]

How do you select adaptive? I think I ticked that box when I bought it. I only seem to have buttons for comfort eco and sport.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Jawa

How do you select adaptive? I think I ticked that box when I bought it. I only seem to have buttons for comfort eco and sport.

Simply put, you'll have the separate Adaptive Mode button beside the other modes switching.

[Jawa]

Ok thanks. I found the button. Haven’t noticed it before in 11 months driving.

So I understand eco, comfort and sport.

What exactly does adaptive do? In simple terms!

[HoustonEaDo]

Check out this thread (post #21)
https://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1474629

[MySport]

Glad I’m not the only one who didn’t notice.

[Jawa]

If adaptive is so much better I don’t understand why the car isn’t by default in that mode? Having to select modes seems quite unnecessary

Anyway I’m glad I found a button right in front of my nose after nearly a year. A new toy

[Hopeful]

Originally Posted by Jawa

If adaptive is so much better I don’t understand why the car isn’t by default in that mode? Having to select modes seems quite unnecessary

You can code it to be the default, I have.

[jjl]

I have Adaptive and i rarely if ever select it. It's still unclear to me whether having adaptive but not selecting adaptive mode has any bearing on anything. I.e., if i only use comfort and sport/sport plus, does having the adaptive m suspension make any difference? I'm assuming it does b/c the thing that bothered me the most about my stock suspension F15 X5 was the fact that the comfort/sport selection had no bearing whatsoever on the suspension firmness, whereas with my car the mode you select definitely stiffens/softens the car, which i assume is attributable to the Adaptive-M. My understanding was that Adaptive-M mode is partially reliant on using the BMW nav to help decide driving profile, and i never use the onboard nav. bottom line it's a no brainer at $700 and I think it's doing something?

[jjl]

this is BMW's description of Adaptive-M... you can do better BMW, this explains very little to me and is confusing.

"Adaptive M Suspension extracts even more driving dynamics potential. The Dynamic Damper Control and air cushioning on the rear axle are tuned to deliver exceptionally sporty driving characteristics."

[Alias1431]

We have air cushioning on the rear axle?

[dmicah]

Originally Posted by jjl

this is BMW's description of Adaptive-M... you can do better BMW, this explains very little to me and is confusing.

"Adaptive M Suspension extracts even more driving dynamics potential. The Dynamic Damper Control and air cushioning on the rear axle are tuned to deliver exceptionally sporty driving characteristics."

Yeah, I saw that too and it kind of freaked me out. I would have thought the air springs were in all four corners.

[BobsM3Coupe]

Originally Posted by dmicah

Yeah, I saw that too and it kind of freaked me out. I would have thought the air springs were in all four corners.

The adaptive suspension uses electronically controlled dampers, certainly not air springs.

[freshxdough]

The X3 does not have air suspension. The only difference is the optional adaptive dampers which have an electronic valve inside them to adjust the damping for comfort or sport. The X5 has air suspension as optional but the X3 has never had it in any of the 3 generations.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by jjl

this is BMW's description of Adaptive-M... you can do better BMW, this explains very little to me and is confusing.

"Adaptive M Suspension extracts even more driving dynamics potential. The Dynamic Damper Control and air cushioning on the rear axle are tuned to deliver exceptionally sporty driving characteristics."

We have to be aware the sales and marketing descriptions are not always referencing our specific model, or even totally correct.

The description you have posted will be covering something like the 5-series wagons, which do have rear air springs, with or without the adaptive suspension.

[jjl]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

We have to be aware the sales and marketing descriptions are not always referencing our specific model, or even totally correct.

The description you have posted will be covering something like the 5-series wagons, which do have rear air springs, with or without the adaptive suspension.

I copied and pasted this description directly from the X3 M40i Build Your Own - Options page on BMW USA's website. They should do a better job of describing the option overall and as it pertains to the M40i...assuming they even know the answer lol.

[dmicah]

Attached is a picture from the configurator. It's either inaccurate or "air cushioning on the rear axle" is not part of the dampers/springs?