Been nearly a year since I've last updated this thread. So if anyone is curious, the car is still in my ownership. As you all recall, we had a harsh winter early this year. I wanted to also keep the miles off this for a bit due to the fact that the suspension components although not at a stage where it needed replacing ASAP, it would need attention soon. Unfortunately I ended up having to use the car to get to work as my wife needed my cheap daily due to her car needing fixing which in the grand of schemes wasn't a bad thing. Despite the minus 6 temperatures early in the morning, it got me to work in comfort and although not a feature I was ever bothered about, heated seats had kept my ass warm!
This year was the year I wanted to start addressing all the issues and niggles I wasn't happy with. First things first, my usual oil service and also sort an issue I had last year and that was a new oil filter housing.
New filter:
New housing: I'm not completely happy with the fitment as this is an aftermarket item but it will do for the time being and no leaks and no rounded off bolts!
I invested in a pair of Sealey ramps last year and really happy with these as it saves getting the jack and axle stands out.
Next up is wheels. I had the original 18's on this car which surprisingly have held up. However, they are quite corroded with brake dust and on an inspection from BMW when it went in for a recall, the tech had found two wheels had a little deformity. Its likely from the run flat tyres and I have never liked them from day one. I also started having a slow air leak and found one of the front tyres having a bulge in the sidewall which eventually failed! Luckily the car was on the driveway.
Anyway, I wanted a set of OEM style 172's or commonly known as Spiders. The biggest problem with these wheels is many sets that are for sale tend to be buckled or have had repairs for cracks. I came across a set which were refurbed and no cracks and had been refurbed well from what I inspected. So I bought them and put fresh tyres on.
The OEM 19s tyre size setup is 275/30 rear and 245/35 fronts. However, I opted not to go for this size as I felt the low profile of these tyres doesn't protect the integrity of these wheels enough. I had no plans of running run flats anyway but looked at what I could run. I decided to run a tried and tested tyre size setup copying and pasting the E46 M3 setup.
Here they are with Avons with 255/35 rear and 225/40 front:
Back of the wheels and anyone curious what the part numbers are:
And mounted on the car:
First impressions with the Spiders on was like night and day. The ride was much nicer and noticeably quieter too. They also look the part on the E60 chassis and a great everyday wheel. One thing to note with the spiders is the weight. They are very heavy! I weighed them at home and they came in at a whopping 15.9kg for the rear and 15.1kg for the front.
Needed fresh badges and not wanting carbon fibre style ones I went for black and white ones which are of course aftermarket and not genuine.
On to the next post.......