Lady and Gents,
Just wanted to provide a quick update on my F10 M5 as I just completed a major servicing yesterday. This is for those who are concerned about long term longevity with this car.
The M5 (Mika) now has 38,500 miles on it. Service performed yesterday included the following;
- 4-Wheel Alignment
- Oil Change
- Brake Fluid Change
- Differential Oil Change
- Front Wheel hubs cleaned for infamous clicking noise
I'm planning on taking my M5 out for a few major road trips this summer so it was perfect timing to get all of this stuff done.
I'll go over each in brief detail now.
4-Wheel Alignment: Believe it or not, I just had an alignment done back in April. These East Coast roads and highways are just a whole other level of terrible on the suspension of the M5. I complained to my friend yesterday that back in California I never once had to have an alignment, now it seems like I need one at least every 3 months, and my M5 isn't even my daily driver! Coincidentally, my daily driver takes the potholes like a champ and still doesn't need an alignment for some reason. One thing of note is that I must have hit something really hard on my passenger side front wheel as my camber is now off by -0.3 from my left wheel which has a normal camber of -1.3 degrees. The dealer said that on ///M cars the camber cannot be adjusted and that the only way to fix the camber is to buy a new control arm. After researching a bit I believe that this is true and must be the reason why Dinan now makes negative camber control arms for our M5's and M6's. So now that I know my camber is not equal on both wheels, I may just go ahead and order the Dinan Negative Camber Control Arms in the future instead of spending what will probably be an equal amount of money on a new factory control arm. Anyways, East Coast sucks, West Coast rocks, that is all I have to say about that.
Oil Change: My engine still consumes oil about every 3,000 miles I'd say. In fact I had to top off the oil the other week before I just did the oil change yesterday. I still do independent oil changes in between the free BMW Maintenance Plan interval of 12,000 miles. The tech said my oil looked fine.
Brake Fluid Change: The computer said that it was time to change the brake fluid, so I let them do it even though I had racing brake fluid in there already. My racing fluid had been in the M5 for exactly 1 year now, so I just let them change it. It's not as big a deal for me right now, because I don't even come close to driving my M5 as hard as I did back in California. I used to make my brakes smoke at least once a month on the mountain and canyon roads in San Diego and I have no plans to go to the track this summer here on the East Coast either. So for every day street use, the regular BMW brake fluid is just fine. If I do intend on tracking the M5 in the future, I'll switch the brake fluid back to racing fluid again. No biggie.
Differential Fluid Change: Was a bit surprised when the servicing said it was time to change the Differential Fluid, but I was like ok sounds good to me. This is good to know for when I'm out of factory warranty and maintenance plan. I think I'll change it again at around 75,000 or 80,000 miles.
Front wheel hubs cleaned: Yes the infamous clicking keeps on coming back. Honestly it has been a while since the last time I had the hubs cleaned, like about a year, but this is an issue that I don't think will ever go away on these cars.
Overall, I have been very very very very happy with the reliability and hassle free experience of owning this car. I've not had one major problem yet and I don't foresee anything happening in the near or medium future. After my servicing yesterday, my M5 felt like it was back in tune. It handled sharp again and felt a little more responsive. Felt so good if you know what I mean and I had a smile on my face from the driving experience. My medium term plan is to buy an aftermarket extended warranty next year to last me until 100,000 miles which I think should get me to the year 2019, at which around that time I'm hoping that the LCI GXX M5 will be out and I'll probably be getting one of those. We'll see.
Now enjoy a cool video that was uploaded on YouTube only 2 days ago. I don't know who's M5 this is but not too shabby for an M5 with those mods and using stock 20" wheels and street Michelin PSS's. Although it does look like in the video that he has a condom hanging off his rear stiffening plate. Lol! Maybe that's slowing him down?
I'm pretty sure I recall Greentrbo95gst getting better trap times with the BMS tune and a stock exhaust though.
Also who needs an F80 M3 for better lap times when you can just do this.