Soo.. I completely forgot that I had started this thread.. So, why not put my updates here to keep a constantly evolving history of the car. Plus, it provides me a place to document what I've done or doing to the car. I've got a lot of updates in store in the very near future.
Quick update, "Creamsicle" has approximately 96,000 km on her so far. She's payed off, definitely out of warranty, and to tell you the truth, that really doesn't bother me. She's been a great car so far in the almost 5 years of ownership. However, lately I've been trying to go through the car to clean up any bumps, scrapes, niggles and/or service related concerns that are common to daily driven vehicles. She's far from being a show car, but I don't want it to be a s*@t pit either. I like to take care of my kit.
First out of warranty maintenance related concerns.. The OEM brake pads, rotors and fluid had served their time. Well actually, the front brake pads were still at around 25%; however, rear pads and all four rotors were at their limit. So, because I'm not made of money; I couldn't shop through the dealer. I wanted to keep the car faithful to the build specs so I wanted to maintain the 2 piece rotor design. One thing I definitely didn't want was any "farkled-out" rotors (drilled, slotted), because quite frankly, they're annoying to deal with on a daily driven vehicle and IMHO aren't worth the money on the street. Also, I didn't want to sacrifice initial bite in the pursuit of lower dust; so ceramic pads were also out.
I ended up deciding that Brembo aftermarket was the route I would take. Heck, it's probably the same stuff that's in a different box from OEM anyways. I went with some 370/345 Brembo plain 2pc rotors, Brembo low-met brake pads, and because I had it on my my parts shelf already, some Motul RBF660 fluid.
Rotors, well they look like the BMW rotors that came off car; except newer. So far they've been great.
Brembo low-met pads: HOLY HELL the initial bite comes on hard; they're a lot better than the OEM pads. When you're braking hard, they're about equivalent to the OEM pads. I'm happy to see they bedded in quickly on the new rotors, and so far aren't showing any signs of dusting..
Motul RBF660: I've raced with this stuff in all my bikes. It's the only brake fluid I'll trust with my life.. That being said, I highly doubt I'll EVER reach those temperatures in the car.. after all, I don't track the car because bikes are so much cheaper/easier to fix.
Ok, sorry, too much text. So here's a couple pictures.
Rear rotors
Front rotors
and, because I haven't shown my current curbed winter wheel setup (rep 666's)
