UPDATE 245K
now done 245k
been an expensive few months!
I had to replace the the steering track rods, even though the set on the car was only 6 months old! this is after having the last set only last 6 months. I gave the ebay seller the benefit of the doubt and ordered another set, only to have them last 6 months. I should of known. you get what you pay for! paid for my mistake in time and replacing parts that did not need to be replaced when chasing down handling/steering issues. pretty much all of this was because of the poor quality parts from........
name and shame. don't buy track control rods from this ebay seller..........
1stcarparts on eBay
cant speak for his other items, but I have now used 4 track control rods, from this guy and they all only lasted 6 months.
I fitted Meyle inner and outer assemblies @ £100.00. definitely put the receipt somewhere safe as they have a 2 year guarantee. lol live and learn.
UPDATE 245k
fitted a replacement steering coupling Guibo £60.00 or thereabouts from local BMW garage. easy job to do. need car on an axle stands on the drivers side (RHD car) remove aluminum reinforcement plate by undoing the 8 bolts and drop down revealing the coupling Guibo. This is a rubber bush with a double U link coupling encased in a metal shroud to protect it from the exhaust and turbo heat. there are 2 x E10 star bolts to undo and then the guibo cab be pulled away from by removing it from the steering wheel end first. the connections are keyed, but I made sure the steering wheel was locked in place. not sure if it made any difference, although I think my steering does feel a bit tighter. This was one of the things I replaced when trying to diagnose the steering issues when using those poor quality track control rods!
UPDADE 245k
oil service, fuel filter
UPDATE 245k
At about 240k the upgraded decat downpipe split. the downpipe was supplied by Ecotune. Stan and Campbell at Ecotune were fantastic and repaired the pipe FOC as it had a lifetime warranty.
I decided to buy one of their iFlash upgrades, on the basis that they saved me the cost of the replacement downpipe.lol. and I had read good reviews of the product and their service, plus I had never mapped my car.
Ecotune - economy tuning and performance tuning for cars and commercial vehicles, ecu remap, custom mapping, economy improvement - Ecotune UK Ltd
long story short. the upgrade was very straightforward, but my clutch couldnt handle the extra power. I was sort of expecting that as it had done 130k and was not new when I fitted it. lol. I asked for the max output tune because, well, whats the point otherwise and I do have a larger intercooler.lol.
I was also getting a rumble on acceleration that was probably the DMF, based on what Ecotune had told me and other comments on the internet.
1 x New clutch @ DMF from Eurocarparts £540.00. fitted by me on my gravel drive in the rain(well it was raining in the evening when I pulled the gearbox) took about 7 hours all in, but wasted 1 hour removing the DMF as I had to mod one of my tools to get the deeper access for its mounting bolts. also 1 hour wasted trying to refit the gearbox when it nearly fell off the trolley jack. Had a nice bath when I finished.
rumble was still the same under acceleration. Ecotune produced a remap with less torque that reduced the rumble to almost nothing, but I wasn't convinced it was the DMF as it was the same on the 240k DMF and the new one. turned out to be worn rear shocks and mounts, which I replaced. Meyle HD mounts £14.00 and new original OEM shocks £110.00
Ecotune have now provided a map that sits somewhere between the two maps in terms of its torque.
happy for now, but want to re-visit this as I will be taking the cat to Santa Pod later this year.
UPDATE 245k
on this service I noticed that I had lost a couple of the reinforcement plate bolts. After checking up on this, there is a specific tightening torque needed for these bolts and then a extra 90 degree +/-30 degree turn is needed. Ideal these bolts should be replaced every time you remove the reinforcement plate as they are designed to stretch when you install them and are considered a single use item by BMW, similar to the cylinder head bolts. I must have refitted these bolts more than 10 times!. not a problem maybe 2-3 times if you do it yourself and are very anal and follow the correct tightening procedure.
I treated myself to 8 new bolts £16.00. the upside is that the car feels significantly better on the road and over rough surfaces. I only just replaced them and haven't been on a long drive, but that single improvement on a short trip was enough to motivate me to update this thread! If you have never fitted new bolts and have removed the reinforcement plate, I say that this would be very worthwhile and you would be missing a trick. budget way to get the lb/ft setting would be to use a 12" long wrench with a fisher mans style scale. my wrench is 18" long so I divided the lb/ft by 1.5.