What a weird week for the M3, not major expense, just a few little things:
MOT
Sent it in a week early for the MOT, convinced that having sorted out everything I could, it would fly through with no advisories etc.. How wrong was I, one front brake hpse was twisted, something I thought odd when changing the front discs, the caliper was at a funny angle compared to the other side, and now I know why, so I had both fronts changed. The silver lining is the calipers had been changed not to long ago, and they are in great condition, so bonus.. £28 for two hoses.
Gearbox:
It's been niggling me that ever since I had the car I've been plagued with really difficult selection when cold (common issue), and when I had a 50K gearbox fitted, the cold selection was worse, not better.. I've done 1500 miles since and it's not got any better. I'm not being picky on this one, if you are doing >5MPH, when stone cold it's been impossible to get into 2nd gear, you have to man handle it out of first, and put it into third until the oil warms a bit.. It really makes the car feel high maintenance and at odds since the rest of the car feels so smooth and well engineered. So I had a chat with the garage who did the gearbox (can't fault their mechanical work), they said they'd checked/lubed the fork and was sure that was OK (one potential issue, sticking on dry splines when cold), and that pretty much left the obvious question of what oil they used. Normal 75w-80 is not good enough, BMW have their own mix (well they've had a few over the years) , but you can only get the LT2 OEM from the dealer, so whilst they where a bit sheepish rather than argue about it, I said it best if I source the oil and they agreed to change it free of charge. I was going to just get the BMW stuff, but looking on the forums, it seems a 50:50 mix of good synthetic 75W-80 and ATF is a known improvement for cold selection issues, so I ordered the recommended Redline D4 ATF / Redline 75W-80 MTL and handed it over the garage.
The result.. OMG, bit of a transformation, or really it now behaves as it should, nice easy selection when stone cold and lovely when warm, considering the cost of the oil (£40 delivered) I'm kicking myself I didn't specify this when I had the gearbox swapped.
Washer Fluid Leak:
Bah, just before I booked it in the Garage I had the low washer reservoir light come on, which I thought odd as I hadn't really used them much, but topped it up anyway, and getting it back from the garage, it was empty again.. So I jacked it up, removed the inner arch cover and sure enough, the windscreen washer pump is leaking. The odd thing is, by the looks of it, it seems to be coming from the housing itself< I tried taking the pipe off, and putting my thumb over, but could see fluid building around the body, and it starts well above where it pushes into the reservoir.. so I'll just get a new pump and seal/strainer.
Now the weather is getting a bit warmer, and having a reasonable trolley jack, small plastic ramps to just get the front high enough to make getting the jack right under that bit easier, it only takes 5 mins to get the entire front jacked up on axle stands, so jobs like the washer reservoir are quite easy and almost enjoyable! I even took the front bumper off to have a nosey and see how what condition everything is in (pretty reasonable, no damage other than cracked plastic covers on teh drivers side where it's clearly been beached on a kerb from the scratch marks underneath).
MOT
Sent it in a week early for the MOT, convinced that having sorted out everything I could, it would fly through with no advisories etc.. How wrong was I, one front brake hpse was twisted, something I thought odd when changing the front discs, the caliper was at a funny angle compared to the other side, and now I know why, so I had both fronts changed. The silver lining is the calipers had been changed not to long ago, and they are in great condition, so bonus.. £28 for two hoses.
Gearbox:
It's been niggling me that ever since I had the car I've been plagued with really difficult selection when cold (common issue), and when I had a 50K gearbox fitted, the cold selection was worse, not better.. I've done 1500 miles since and it's not got any better. I'm not being picky on this one, if you are doing >5MPH, when stone cold it's been impossible to get into 2nd gear, you have to man handle it out of first, and put it into third until the oil warms a bit.. It really makes the car feel high maintenance and at odds since the rest of the car feels so smooth and well engineered. So I had a chat with the garage who did the gearbox (can't fault their mechanical work), they said they'd checked/lubed the fork and was sure that was OK (one potential issue, sticking on dry splines when cold), and that pretty much left the obvious question of what oil they used. Normal 75w-80 is not good enough, BMW have their own mix (well they've had a few over the years) , but you can only get the LT2 OEM from the dealer, so whilst they where a bit sheepish rather than argue about it, I said it best if I source the oil and they agreed to change it free of charge. I was going to just get the BMW stuff, but looking on the forums, it seems a 50:50 mix of good synthetic 75W-80 and ATF is a known improvement for cold selection issues, so I ordered the recommended Redline D4 ATF / Redline 75W-80 MTL and handed it over the garage.
The result.. OMG, bit of a transformation, or really it now behaves as it should, nice easy selection when stone cold and lovely when warm, considering the cost of the oil (£40 delivered) I'm kicking myself I didn't specify this when I had the gearbox swapped.
Washer Fluid Leak:
Bah, just before I booked it in the Garage I had the low washer reservoir light come on, which I thought odd as I hadn't really used them much, but topped it up anyway, and getting it back from the garage, it was empty again.. So I jacked it up, removed the inner arch cover and sure enough, the windscreen washer pump is leaking. The odd thing is, by the looks of it, it seems to be coming from the housing itself< I tried taking the pipe off, and putting my thumb over, but could see fluid building around the body, and it starts well above where it pushes into the reservoir.. so I'll just get a new pump and seal/strainer.
Now the weather is getting a bit warmer, and having a reasonable trolley jack, small plastic ramps to just get the front high enough to make getting the jack right under that bit easier, it only takes 5 mins to get the entire front jacked up on axle stands, so jobs like the washer reservoir are quite easy and almost enjoyable! I even took the front bumper off to have a nosey and see how what condition everything is in (pretty reasonable, no damage other than cracked plastic covers on teh drivers side where it's clearly been beached on a kerb from the scratch marks underneath).
