My other car is a BMW E92 M3...

[guile]

thanks mate, I agree that generally I prefer the older model BMW's but I must admit I find something to like in every evolution of the M3...

I only put around 3k on it last year and about 5k the year before. I get the oil analysed with each service with the hope it will give an indication if the rod bearings are giving up. its not a conclusive test but it helps me sleep at night...

[guile]

I decided to refresh all the fluids starting with diff oil, of course I used OEM oil and fresh plugs with o-rings...



both the top and bottom plugs out and fully draining the fluid...



jacked the car up level and pumped it in the top until it was running out...



time for another oil change and did the transmission too...



OEM filter replacement also...



I wasn't happy with the condition of the oil plug from numerous oil changes and didn't want to risk putting it back in so I went to buy two new ones from BMW. I couldn't believe it but they didn't have any in stock and I wanted to put my car back together so some searching on google later and local Polaris motorbike shop came to the rescue. spot the difference...



$30 each for a drain plug is a bit ridiculous though...



12 months from replacing the fuel regulator I sent another sample off for analysis...





the fuel presence has now gone which is good and I noticed that all the other measures are pretty much the same other than lead. the lead content has reduced a lot so maybe that was linked to removing the fuel...

I was curious about the lower viscosity reading, its not by much as the Castrol Tech Data Sheet states 160 at 40 deg c...



so I emailed Castrol and received this response...



funny how they thought I'd sent a fresh oil sample and then stated its not unusual for used oil viscosity to drop down. I'm going to move to 6 month oil changes now regardless of k's. it's a good job I don't listen to BMW's recommend service intervals as they'd have me driving to the moon and back before an oil change...

yes I know you can't technically drive to the moon but hopefully the metaphor still works, kind of...

[guile]

I took a trip to the Nurburgring recently and spotted this, may be one day. dream on...



I've already ordered the kit...

[guile]

not my fastest lap time but a bit more interesting as there is some traffic to get around. the EVO was on cold tyres so that was easy enough and it wasn't too hard to go round the Megane and Golf R as I guess they were standard...

YouTube

[gmx]

How's the outside shoulder of your front tyres holding up?

I would also not use the OEM supplied FM boosted diff oil. It increases diff wear, and causes an already slow diff to lockup even slower. Preface: all LSD oils basically have FM booster., that BMW stuff has a lot. The old formulations, SAF-XJ, SAF-XA have the minimum. If you don't care about noise/clunks, get that while stocks last. The reformulated LSD synthetics from Castrol: "Syntrax LS" has a bit less FM than the BMW SAF-XJ+FM Booster.

[guile]

the tyres are holding up well and not down to the outside edge wear indicator which makes me think i can maybe drop the pressure a bit more...

thanks for the tip on the diff oil, i'll definitely consider replacing it...

[guile]

I decided to fix something that had been bugging me for a while so ordered this...



with the European left hand right hand thing I was a bit worried I ordered the wrong side but fortunately I had a win...



I wasn't too sure what the steel shim was for so I didn't use it but when I fitted the new seat belt extender it worked a treat, happy days...

[guile]

well the m3 is now sold and I know I'll regret it but I pretty much ended up with two track cars in the end which was against my original intentions...

m3 is now replaced with a far too sensible and cheap golf mk5 gti. my first dsg car and with a stage 1 tune plus exhaust it makes me laugh for a grand total of $6900...

I'll start a new thread to cover my service items on the GTi so far; its always helped in the past to remember when I updated things...