I got another overdue alignment. I don't know why they printed it this but here's the info:

BEFORE:


AFTER:



I saw a CAT scale at a truck stop nearby so I went to weigh my car afterwards. Here's the car weight without me in it, and with a nearly full tank of gas:


Weight addition:
- 2 8" subs in ported box + amp
- Strut bar
- Aluminum undershroud
- 6.5" Garmin GPS, Uniden R3 detector, Thinkware U1000 front/rear camera w/ radar module, magnetic chi charger/phone mount
- long tube intakes
- remote start
- upgraded headlight bulbs/heatsinks/halos/etc
- 3D Maxpider floor mats (all 4 seats + trunk)

Weight reduction:
- test pipes
- catback
- Z1 2 piece slotted rotors
- Ferrara FR2 19x8.5 235/40/19 front and 19x9.5 255/40/19 rear
- No spare

 

Got home today from a 1300 mile road trip. Drove some fantastic 2-lane twisty highways, which were a ton of fun. Still so very pleased with the suspension and handling of a stock S sedan. The ride is firm, but so well controlled. Had a few LOOOONG days on the road, and was happy to see zero coolant loss or oil usage.

The bad news is that my new wheels and tires have a vibration at freeway speeds. What is odd is that while at constant freeway speeds, the vibration isn't consistent. It will get a little worse, then almost go away, only to come back again. If the wheels were out of balance I'd expect the vibration to be constant at a constant speed. I wonder if it is possible its the rust of my rotor hats causing this? I'll probably start with a re-balance to eliminate the simple cause before going to more involved fixes. Note, I am using hub centric rings and NISMO tuner lugs, so I don't think the issue is related to wheel install.

Pic of the dirty car at the beach on a rainy day:

 

Is your hub bore size the same as OEM on the new wheels? I had something similar and realized one wheel was missing the hub centric adaptor ring, fell out during tire change. The symptoms were pretty much identical, inconsistent vibration.

 

Last time I took my wheels off and cleaned my calipers and wheels really well, I noticed missing hubcentric rings. I thought the rears were both missing but apparently I was wrong and only the driver side rear was missing. I ordered new hubcentric rings before I realized this and they were a 4 pack so I replaced all 4. I also found out the previous owner had slightly incorrect sizing on the rings. Here is a picture of one of them on the rear driver side:



Speaking of the rear, I have that stupid axle click problem but I'm just going to leave it alone and not worry about it. Maybe one day I'll fix it.

And today I fixed the light bracket for the license plate lights by replacing the grommets and screws that hold it in:

 

I am running plastic hub centric rings, and all 4 are installed. 66.1mm ID and 73.1 OD, which is the hub bore of the Superspeed wheels. Maybe the rings were incorrectly packaged and I received the wrong OD size?

 

I thought about dealing with it years ago, here I am still with the clicking sound.

Might be worth taking the wheels off to measure everything up to confirm. If a shop put them on any chance a ring got stuck in one of the wheels and one corner has 2 rings on it? I imagine the plastic would just deform if a shop impacted the wheels on for install. Better to rule out the easy things first.

 

I checked and it's not in the wheels.

 

Prepping for my track day on Thursday, will be a shakedown with all seasons

Put in high temp brake fluid, swapped out my rubber lines for powerstop stainless set and put on a heat shield on my FI HFC to protect the clutch line




​​​​​


FI HFC Heat Shield

 

Very cool. I was at the Carlisle Import Nationals last weekend and watched some drifting and autocross and decided I need to get out in a track someday. Let us know how it goes.

Sea Stories

 

lol ^ I was there saturday. we must have been standing near each other. next year i'll probably sign up for that autocross.

 

I did something terrible to my sedan today.. researched more E90 M3 information and watched videos that's pulling me over to the dark side bit by bit. lol I made this thread over on some m3 forums: https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2017628

I'm curious what are your thoughts on the matter? Of course it's all up to personal preferences and circumstances, but it's nice to get different opinions. Besides the rod bearings and throttle actuators, the S65 seems pretty reliable overall from what I've read.

EDIT: Basically what I'm considering at this point is whether I want to dump more money into the G to get a lightweight flywheel, stage 2 clutch, 4.10 FD and diff brace, which would be my final mods, or if I just want to pocket that money and sell the G for an overall better performing and most likely more fun vehicle. It's very possible that I will be satisfied with those drivetrain/trans upgrades because that's one of my only complaints about the G. It makes the whole car feel sluggish even with weight reduction, power adders, and suspension mods.

 

The G does alot of things well, but unfortunately it will never match up evenly to a true performance sport sedan like the M3. If you ok spending 40-45K on a reasonable mileage 08-12 E90 M3 then you should take the plunge as you are already aware of the tradeoffs.

"I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done."....Lucille Ball

 

Yes indeed, we will see where life takes me within the next year or so. I should be able to find one with 60-90k miles in the $30-35k range, possibly a bit higher depending on other variables.

I also need to test drive one and there aren't many around the north Arkansas area, lol

 

I recently looked for a 4-door E90 M3 with 60k miles or less and there were just a few in the country. Naturally aspirated performance sedans are in demand because of higher reliability compared to forced induction. I think this is why the G37 Sport sedan will one day be an unassuming collectible as it has all the right ingredients (brakes, steering rack, lsd, torque/hp, decent trans, great chassis) and is NA and fairly simple in its construction. The G coupe will live in infamy as one of the best looking attainable performance cars made, but people will forget about the sedan.

 

You're probably right. But I didn't buy my 6MT Sedan with any consideration to what other people think. Whatever appeal my car has to me, it's a reflection, not a projection.

I have noticed over the last couple of years how both cars ae becoming increasingly uncommon on the road. Whereas 10 years ago the G sedan was everywhere. But I suppose that's a Mr. Obvious moment.

Backman, if a M3 is what you want, and you can swing it, then go for it. My only advice is to do it with a plan and not a leap of faith. It will work out better if you get engaged for a year, instead of eloping in Vegas.