Haven't updated this thread for a while, mainly due to the trouble free motoring and not doing anything else to the car. Apart from a limited slip diff I'm happy with how the car is, I also picked up an e46 m3 early last year so a lot of my attention has been tidying that up recently.
In January the 4 year PCP was up on the car, there was nothing else on the market for similar money that I was really tempted by. Everything was ridiculously expensive, had incredibly long lead times and just didn't do it for me enough to tie myself in for another 3-4 years so I made the decision to purchase the car at the end. It was a no brainer really as at the time the prices for 340i tourings were almost double what the final payment was.
I'm still really happy with the car, its been reliable, it does everything I need and I'm not bored of the looks either so I'm happy to keep it for a while yet. While it was in for it's MOT I had an interim oil change done rather than wait for the next due service in a years time. If I'm to keep it hold of it then I want to keep it in good health and an annual 12k oil change can only help. I was surprised to see how clean the oil still was actually when it was drained.
Brake pads were running low and I had a full F80 set up in the garage that I was fitting to the e46. Because the discs didn't look too great, corrosion setting in around the outer edge, I knew they would be due soon so rather than waste a new set of pads I fitted the part worn ones out of the F80 calipers.
I much preferred the feel of the m3 pads, straight away you could feel they had more initial bite over the m sport ones. So I ordered up a new set of M3 pads front and rear and discs all round, went with the M Performance discs, they were actually cheaper than the regular blank ones so I thought I'd give them a try, for looks more than anything.
The front discs looked pretty bad on the car but when I got them off the backs were completely shot. You can see where they've put a chamfer on those brand new second hand pads that I fitted. Glad I never put new ones on at the time.
Rears looked fine until I got them off, they were pretty much the same on the back off the discs, bad corrosion and would have just chewed up a new set of pads as well.
Everything cleaned up and replaced and the car is stopping smoothly once again, feels great, must have slowly got used to the worn discs over time. Something so satisfying about fitting new discs and pads don't you think
That's them good for another 4 years/50k hopefully! New tyres all round next. They're all wearing pretty evenly and will be due before the autumn i reckon.
