What have you done with or to your M3 today?

[SAMM3Y]

Originally Posted by DRLane

Had a great experience with Gebhardt BMW in Boulder today. Driving home from work I heard a loud hissing as the TPMS warning went off. Luckily was just driving by the dealership and pulled into their service bay intending for a quick air refill to get me 2 miles down the road to my home. Unfortunately, I had a valve stem embedded in tire so that strategy wasn't going to work.

Instead the dealership sent me home and back in a Lyft to grab a track wheel to get me home. Put it on and wouldn't even accept $20 for beers. Really impressed with techs willingness to help me out and appreciated their recognition that I clearly care about my car and thus went the extra mile. All of this without me having any relationship with the dealership as I try to turn my own wrenches or support a local indy when it's outside my abilities.

Driving around town on semi slicks as the regular wheels get a refresh.

I hope you drank $20 in beers for them then..

[Grip Addict]

Originally Posted by christoepurrr

Replaced the seat covers, figured might as well add a little customization to it

gotcha, I been thinking about getting some Recaro Sportster GTs.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by DRLane

Had a great experience with Gebhardt BMW in Boulder today. Driving home from work I heard a loud hissing as the TPMS warning went off. Luckily was just driving by the dealership and pulled into their service bay intending for a quick air refill to get me 2 miles down the road to my home. Unfortunately, I had a valve stem embedded in tire so that strategy wasn't going to work.

Instead the dealership sent me home and back in a Lyft to grab a track wheel to get me home. Put it on and wouldn't even accept $20 for beers. Really impressed with techs willingness to help me out and appreciated their recognition that I clearly care about my car and thus went the extra mile. All of this without me having any relationship with the dealership as I try to turn my own wrenches or support a local indy when it's outside my abilities.

Driving around town on semi slicks as the regular wheels get a refresh.

What a great guy, makes one day! Pass it on when you get the opportunity.

[DRLane]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

What a great guy, makes one day! Pass it on when you get the opportunity.

Agreed and I always try to!

[Grip Addict]

Drove to take the puppy to my in laws so he could get a haircut with his sister-pup, then on the way back stopped at a coinwash to shoot a bunch of dust off the car so I can waterless wash anything I missed and wax the car tonight.

[akkando]

So within the last week or so I had an alignment done. I asked them to get it as close to OEM as possible. When I got the car I knew it had an alignment issue, and the tires were worn unevenly, made even worse by my aggressive driving on back roads.

I had oil change with Castrol 10w-60. I believe rod bearings were done with BE in the last 1k miles so seemed worth it to do oil change. Next time I am going to try Redline 5w-50.

Three year old Apex studs removed and bolts put back on. Two sets of different wheel locks used.

Old Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position 255/35 Front and 285/30 Rear Tires replaced with new Michelin PS4S 255/35 275/35 on APEX EC7 19 x 10 Front and 19 x 10.5 Rear Wheels despite Apex telling me not a good idea. So far so good..... Some other people said they ran the same setup. I figured if it didn't work I could just buy new front wheels in 19 x 9, and move the 19 x 10 wheel to the back and sell the 10.5 wheels.

Pic after new tires.



Had OEM 2 pipe exhaust mod done. Got spooked of doing the 4 pipe because I didn't want drone. Down shifts sound great and driving with the windows down next to a wall sounds amazing, other than that from the cabin I don't notice much difference, no drone though. Maybe Should have gone 4 pipe. Sometimes I wonder if he even did the mod since I can't see it without dropping exhaust!

2011 car with no bluetooth music streaming so I researched combox retrofit, and the various Android Auto and Carplay upgrade kits from China. Decided for now to buy a TUNAI Firefly and a $10 magnet mount for my phone to the air vent until there is an obvious upgrade for the nav/idrive.

Suneshade also acquired.


Are these headlights after market? Previous owner didn't mention them. I know that some cause electrical gremlins....



The todo list is
-DCT GTS transmission flash.
-Cabin and engine air filters. Bought K&N oiled, maybe that was a mistake?
-Whatever that alternator/wire recall is....
-Maybe reflash a tune to the car, currently has ESS with top speed removed. Unsure if it's worth it to switch to Alpine and grab the DCT software, or just save the money and get the DCT flash as cheap as possible.
-Find rear fold seats in silver and install them.
-Get the car at least 1 step paint corrected. Lot's of clear coat issues.
-Clean and refresh the leather.
-Fix some of the wear on the bolster.
-Swap the Side gills to black.
-Maybe do the hood vents in black.
-Maybe swap badge in back to black.

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by akkando

So within the last week or so I had an alignment done. I asked them to get it as close to OEM as possible. When I got the car I knew it had an alignment issue, and the tires were worn unevenly, made even worse by my aggressive driving on back roads.

I had oil change with Castrol 10w-60. I believe rod bearings were done with BE in the last 1k miles so seemed worth it to do oil change. Next time I am going to try Redline 5w-50.

Three year old Apex studs removed and bolts put back on. Two sets of different wheel locks used.

Old Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position 255/35 Front and 285/30 Rear Tires replaced with new Michelin PS4S 255/35 275/35 on APEX EC7 19 x 10 Front and 19 x 10.5 Rear Wheels despite Apex telling me not a good idea. So far so good..... Some other people said they ran the same setup. I figured if it didn't work I could just buy new front wheels in 19 x 9, and move the 19 x 10 wheel to the back and sell the 10.5 wheels.

Pic after new tires.



Had OEM 2 pipe exhaust mod done. Got spooked of doing the 4 pipe because I didn't want drone. Down shifts sound great and driving with the windows down next to a wall sounds amazing, other than that from the cabin I don't notice much difference, no drone though. Maybe Should have gone 4 pipe. Sometimes I wonder if he even did the mod since I can't see it without dropping exhaust!

2011 car with no bluetooth music streaming so I researched combox retrofit, and the various Android Auto and Carplay upgrade kits from China. Decided for now to buy a TUNAI Firefly and a $10 magnet mount for my phone to the air vent until there is an obvious upgrade for the nav/idrive.

Suneshade also acquired.


Are these headlights after market? Previous owner didn't mention them. I know that some cause electrical gremlins....



The todo list is
-DCT GTS transmission flash.
-Cabin and engine air filters. Bought K&N oiled, maybe that was a mistake?
-Whatever that alternator/wire recall is....
-Maybe reflash a tune to the car, currently has ESS with top speed removed. Unsure if it's worth it to switch to Alpine and grab the DCT software, or just save the money and get the DCT flash as cheap as possible.
-Find rear fold seats in silver and install them.
-Get the car at least 1 step paint corrected. Lot's of clear coat issues.
-Clean and refresh the leather.
-Fix some of the wear on the bolster.
-Swap the Side gills to black.
-Maybe do the hood vents in black.
-Maybe swap badge in back to black.

Why would you go to 5w-50 having replaced RB with BE bearings? Seems counterproductive... Why deviate from the engine spec oil when the clearance issue has been fixed? Do not recommend that... Stick with 10-60 IMO, and LM is probably the best. Car is gorgeous BTW

[akkando]

Originally Posted by wfdeacon88

Why would you go to 5w-50 having replaced RB with BE bearings? Seems counterproductive... Why deviate from the engine spec oil when the clearance issue has been fixed? Do not recommend that... Stick with 10-60 IMO, and LM is probably the best. Car is gorgeous BTW

Well people running Redline seem to say the car burns less oil, gets to temp faster, idles better, better MPG. I figured if I'm not tracking the car, it probably doesn't need 10w-60 in it? The 10w-60 is so thick even with the greater tolerance seems like there would be greater wear and tear at least while the engine is warming up. I'm really just guessing though. I've read LM is thicker than the Castrol?

Previous owner said the same thing as you when I asked what he thought about switching oil weight.

[wfdeacon88]

Originally Posted by akkando

Well people running Redline seem to say the car burns less oil, gets to temp faster, idles better, better MPG. I figured if I'm not tracking the car, it probably doesn't need 10w-60 in it? The 10w-60 is so thick even with the greater tolerance seems like there would be greater wear and tear at least while the engine is warming up. I'm really just guessing though. I've read LM is thicker than the Castrol?

Previous owner said the same thing as you when I asked what he thought about switching oil weight.

I'm near 115K miles with BE bearings since 95K, service records I obtained showed LiquiMoly 10-60 for all the years I could find, and it's the only oil I have used.. my Indy is probably the BMW Indy in my state, and they refuse to use anything else for this car. Getting to temp faster isn't something to use as judging if it's better for the engine. BMW might have messed up the bearing clearance, but I would be terrified to deviate from the spec on oil for this engine. It's thick for a reason... don't change it up, IMO, if you have fixed the only major issue that is clearly documented, aka the RB clearance.

[Scharbag]

Originally Posted by wfdeacon88

I'm near 115K miles with BE bearings since 95K, service records I obtained showed LiquiMoly 10-60 for all the years I could find, and it's the only oil I have used.. my Indy is probably the BMW Indy in my state, and they refuse to use anything else for this car. Getting to temp faster isn't something to use as judging if it's better for the engine. BMW might have messed up the bearing clearance, but I would be terrified to deviate from the spec on oil for this engine. It's thick for a reason... don't change it up, IMO, if you have fixed the only major issue that is clearly documented, aka the RB clearance.

Redline 5w50 is about the same viscosity as Castrol 10w60. These engines are not that picky. People run 0w40 all the way to 15w60. If viscosity was really that critical, we would see that backed up by failures being caused by specific oil weights.

All of the synthetic oils are top notch. Pick your favorite. Change it when it needs it. Enjoy your car.

[Grip Addict]

Originally Posted by Scharbag

Redline 5w50 is about the same viscosity as Castrol 10w60. These engines are not that picky. People run 0w40 all the way to 15w60. If viscosity was really that critical, we would see that backed up by failures being caused by specific oil weights.

All of the synthetic oils are top notch. Pick your favorite. Change it when it needs it. Enjoy your car.

That isn't the best advice.

People run 0w-40 not to pick a random oil weight, but because they may live in a colder climate and need the oil to do its thing quicker. At least that is the gist I read somewhere.

Picking rando oil weights is a horrible idea. The quality of synthetic oil has little to do with the choice of weight.

"My car says 10w-60, thinking about running 0w-20" one week later......
"so we going to get a class action going for these S65s?!"

[SAMM3Y]

Got these new to me volks in stock.. had to mock them up.. they show so much brake i think these are here to stay.. can't beat a timeless 5 spoke, right? Maybe you can but not for this price.. 19.8lbs per wheel too

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by Grip Addict

That isn't the best advice.

People run 0w-40 not to pick a random oil weight, but because they may live in a colder climate and need the oil to do its thing quicker. At least that is the gist I read somewhere.

Picking rando oil weights is a horrible idea. The quality of synthetic oil has little to do with the choice of weight.

"My car says 10w-60, thinking about running 0w-20" one week later......
"so we going to get a class action going for these S65s?!"

Agreed, nobody pick their S65 oil random. Scharbag you're on the lose here mate!

Ps. If I lived in north of Sweden - where we regulary see -15 to -30C, I'd MAYBE consider a lighter oil. Down in Stockholm area though I run happily on 10w60 year around since 6 years.

[Scharbag]

Originally Posted by Grip Addict

That isn't the best advice.

People run 0w-40 not to pick a random oil weight, but because they may live in a colder climate and need the oil to do its thing quicker. At least that is the gist I read somewhere.

Picking rando oil weights is a horrible idea. The quality of synthetic oil has little to do with the choice of weight.

"My car says 10w-60, thinking about running 0w-20" one week later......
"so we going to get a class action going for these S65s?!"

We were not discussing 0w20 oils. I did not say pick a random weight.

0w40
5w50
10w60
15w50
15w60

They all work. Ambient temperature has more to do with the first number - once your engine is up to temp, then it is the second number that matters more. Unless you are racing in Florida in August, 40, 50 and 60 weight oils will be just fine.

There are enough oil threads out there. No one has blown up an engine specifically because they were using 0w40 or 15w60 (the two extremes). LM, Castrol, Shell, Red Line, Motul etc. are all top notch oils. None of them are a magic bullet that will save your engine from failure if the engine is too tight. None of them will save your engine if you lose oil pressure. They are just oils.

Cheers,

[akkando]

Originally Posted by Grip Addict

That isn't the best advice.

People run 0w-40 not to pick a random oil weight, but because they may live in a colder climate and need the oil to do its thing quicker. At least that is the gist I read somewhere.

Picking rando oil weights is a horrible idea. The quality of synthetic oil has little to do with the choice of weight.

"My car says 10w-60, thinking about running 0w-20" one week later......
"so we going to get a class action going for these S65s?!"

It wasn't random. That guy who rebuilds s85 and s65 engines was recommending it.

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1592340

As far as BMW says 10w-60 is the correct oil, well that was probably under the assumption that the bearing tolerances were good. I think it's reasonable now to question if that was the best advice. I think on track I'd still run it, not uncommon to run a heavier oil for the track.

Side note, unless I push the car, temps don't generally go above 200 for the oil. I've heard BE bearings tend cause oil to run at lower temps than OEM?

[Scrippy]

Originally Posted by SAMM3Y

Your shit would get keyed in California with that plate.. Karen would have none of it..

Poopy comment bra! Don't condone bad behavior!

[Aries326]

I just finished a two stage polish and the first layer of Moh's. I'm using Gyeon Synchro.

This week, I'll have the test pipes installed and a new tune from Alpine. Maybe some new brake pads and brake lines as well. Get it all done while the M3 is at the shop.

[SAMM3Y]

Originally Posted by Scrippy

Poopy comment bra! Don't condone bad behavior!

Not condoning anything bud, "maga" is a pretty polarizing acronym in Cali, some whack job would take offense. Just an observation is all.

[Chris_Penning]

Originally Posted by SAMM3Y

Not condoning anything bud, "maga" is a pretty polarizing acronym in Cali, some whack job would take offense. Just an observation is all.

Can we not explore this rabbit hole, please? This is about the only place I come that's not infected with this topic.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by Chris_Penning

Can we not explore this rabbit hole, please? This is about the only place I come that's not infected with this topic.

You're totally right Chris, took mine out. Let's stay to shit we understand - M3 cars!

[SAMM3Y]

Oh I was being accused of condoning felony vandalism based off political leanings, I felt a need to defend myself and clarify my post. My original comment had no political agenda and was very light hearted like most the stuff I say on this forum. It was also a response to a picture of an M3 directed at said poster, if you don't like it, don't respond or smash that ignore button, but don't try and censor me Gestapo!!

[Scharbag]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Agreed, nobody pick their S65 oil random. Scharbag you're on the lose here mate!

Ps. If I lived in north of Sweden - where we regulary see -15 to -30C, I'd MAYBE consider a lighter oil. Down in Stockholm area though I run happily on 10w60 year around since 6 years.

Bahhh, you know I did not mean for people to roll the dice to choose the oil for their M3

If I drove my M3 in Saskatchewan winter, I would have run 0w40 or 5w50 and a pan heater to combat the -20°C and lower temperatures.

See attached for last February - FML that was brutal. My M3 slept through that in a heated garage. I returned home February 5th to -40 at the airport. On a side note: my 2013 Subaru sat there for days, not plugged in, and started right away. I guess 0w20 has some advantages! So does a 2 month old battery.

Since I moved to Victoria, where it hardly ever gets to -10°C, I run 5W50 Red Line (it matches the HTHS and Viscosity of Castrol 10w60) or 10w60 Castrol/BMW. This will be the first year my M3 has been driven in December - I hope Christmas is nice so I can go for a rip!

Too bad these engines weren't designed by the Swedes. Volvo engines need oil of some kind - that is all. You can use 0w20, 15w50, 10w30 and every flavor in between. As long as there is oil in there, the damn Volvo will run forever (unless it has the Yamaha V8...).

Cheers,