Been a bit busy lately and haven't had time to dedicate to the car as much. Got a new boat so that was taking up a lot of my free time and disposable income..
As to the car - most recently the battery finally went. The car would sporadically give me 'increased battery discharge' warnings really since shortly after purchasing it a little over a year and a half ago. I have had it on a tender to extend the battery life as much as I could when the car sits between weekend drives. A few weeks back the car wouldn't even try to turn over and the electronics started going completely haywire (wipers going off, DSC malfunction, headlights flashing, etc.) so I turned it off and finally purchased a new battery. I read that the H6 battery works well on the M3 platform with some decent size and weight savings without sacrificing reliability too much and for a reasonable price. I picked up the Odyssey ODP AGM48 H6 L3 for $230 and about 12lbs shed. I was initially looking at some different manufacturers but ultimately had to go with what was in stock. Both suppliers I was working with had severe shortages in supply.
Removal of the old BMW battery wasn't bad outside of it being heavy as S*&t. Once I had it out I expected it to be quite old but to my surprise had a date stamp of 5/2018. That seemed a bit young for the battery to be completely shot, maybe some others can chime in? It was a Virginia car in its previous life and I know the cold can have negative effects on battery longevity but still curious. Another thing worth mentioning is that even when coming home from a long drive and throwing the battery on the tender, the tender would read 'charging' typically for hours before the green light representing full charge would come on. Meaning that the battery was never nearly fully charged even after longer, spirited drives - or at least the tender led me to believe this. I always thought this was curious as well. Happy with the new battery thus far, coded/registered it with Carly to the lower Ah, was a breeze. Will keep an eye on things. My fear is the alternator is next to go. Hard to believe on a 2012 car w 51k miles. I know there are ways to measure it's output so maybe I'll dig in a bit more.
My newest gremlin is some noticeable oil drippings left on my garage floor. Haven't had time to inspect fully but a quite flash light glance under the car leads me to believe it is my drain plug. When I had my bearings replaced they had to time sert a stripped plug and the last oil change I did the sert came out w/ the plug seized to it so I wasn't able to replace the copper crush washer. Thinking/hoping it's something as simple as that. Always something! In all honestly this car has been great to me and maintenance has been no problem at all. Will report back w findings.
Lastly, on the upgrades front - was waiting patiently for the BBK retrofit group buy and after months of little to no communication was told it had fallen apart. Back to square one. I really would like to upgrade the front calipers to a 6-piston set that fits to M4 rotors so I can take advantage of the FCP Euro lifetime replacement. Will keep digging for now. Hoping to have it dialed before Fall/Winter for some more track time.
Cheers
