Grinder's OBP
- Thread starter Grinder34
- Start date
Grinder34
Track Monkey
I did a ghetto alignment on the OEM suspension since the coils are off the car (just maxed the negative camber on the bolts), so finally felt like pushing the car a bit. First, WOAH. Its so WEIRD how much the car moves now. With the coils, you could get it to rotate with some slight lift in a corner, but now its downright dangerous. I know its just an adjustment period, but the car seems like a different animal. On a cloverleaf today, there was a putz going like 10 mph, when i was doing 50ish(?), so I caught him right before the merge. I had to basically totally lift off suddenly, and I dont know how the car didnt spin with all that weight transfer and tire unloading. With the coils that would've still been an "interesting" moment, but not quite as pants-browning.
Also, the ride is only marginally better. With the OEM I was expecting a much more plush ride, but it's still quite uncomfortable over sewers and bumps.
Also, the ride is only marginally better. With the OEM I was expecting a much more plush ride, but it's still quite uncomfortable over sewers and bumps.
Grinder34
Track Monkey
That appears to be an m5?
Specs and info plus a ton of pics are demanded by me on behalf of the entire forum.:ty: :lol:
No real pictures yet. That picture isnt THE car, but exactly like it. 2000 M5 in Silverstone Blue.
It's been my dad's car since 2000, when he bought it, so I know its ENTIRE history. It's been babied, daily driven, garaged, and well maintained. It's had a few fender benders, but they were all professionally repaired. He's retired now, so he's downsizing his life, and is selling it to me for a very reasonable price. It currently has a CEL (SES, "Service Engine Soon" in BMW circles) light on for a really dumb problem, but EXTREMELY common, related to secondary air pumps (emissions stuff). It looks like theres no Tactrix/AccessPort-type tuning solution to disable codes. There are lots of OTS tunes that include the code disable, but they tend to be pricey. There's a Turner Motorsports "Shark Injector" for cheap. But i kinda want to leave engine mapping as-is, and JUST delete the code. I have yet to dive into the factory tunes, but I havent read much (yet) about the OEM tunes being bad...and who knows how much R&D went into these low-volume solutions.
I should have it just in time for it to be cold and snowy, when I wont want to drive it with summer tires. I think a winter setup for the car is too expensive at this point, and RWD < AWD for snow...especially with its friggin wide tires. So the timing is pretty horrible, but maybe on non-snowy or non-salty days i'll still take it out. I must say, given its level of grip, its amazing how COMFORTABLE it is compared to the STI.
Grinder34
Track Monkey
Well, its mine! Muhahaha.
Impressions vs the STI:
Ride Quality:
Omg its so much more refined. I mean, its a premiere BMW, but the ride quality is just so supple. Bumps that I used to cringe to go over now just pass without much pain. Not as floaty as the wife's jetta, but close. Which is surprising when we get to handling...
Handling:
I havent REALLY pushed it too hard yet, but the initial impressions are that it'll take a corner just about as well with its current all-season tires as the STI (on stock suspension) will on summer tires. Now, that could be skewed: The summer tires definitely fall off in the cold, and the STI is running some unfortunate POSITIVE camber right now. So I'll have to wait for an alignment and the summer for a true test. The steering is noticeably heavier than the STI, and Im not sure if thats good or bad at the moment.
Power:
About the same? I also have yet to do too much WOT, but it doesnt feel too much faster given an appropriate gear. From my childhood I'd remembered it as being a bat out of hell, but I think the STI has provided that for a while now, so its a bit of a let down. But downshift-less passses are now easy. Even in 6th on the freeway, you just stomp and she goes. And holy cow does it sound good!
Creature Comforts:
The seats power adjust like 800 ways, but I cant get it low enough for my liking. Everything else feels/looks amazing though. Except the cup holders. The cup holders really suck.
hmm, what else?
The good news is that I can make the STI into a winter/track car, so I may decide to do something like get rid of the A/C and go more extreme on suspension.
Impressions vs the STI:
Ride Quality:
Omg its so much more refined. I mean, its a premiere BMW, but the ride quality is just so supple. Bumps that I used to cringe to go over now just pass without much pain. Not as floaty as the wife's jetta, but close. Which is surprising when we get to handling...
Handling:
I havent REALLY pushed it too hard yet, but the initial impressions are that it'll take a corner just about as well with its current all-season tires as the STI (on stock suspension) will on summer tires. Now, that could be skewed: The summer tires definitely fall off in the cold, and the STI is running some unfortunate POSITIVE camber right now. So I'll have to wait for an alignment and the summer for a true test. The steering is noticeably heavier than the STI, and Im not sure if thats good or bad at the moment.
Power:
About the same? I also have yet to do too much WOT, but it doesnt feel too much faster given an appropriate gear. From my childhood I'd remembered it as being a bat out of hell, but I think the STI has provided that for a while now, so its a bit of a let down. But downshift-less passses are now easy. Even in 6th on the freeway, you just stomp and she goes. And holy cow does it sound good!
Creature Comforts:
The seats power adjust like 800 ways, but I cant get it low enough for my liking. Everything else feels/looks amazing though. Except the cup holders. The cup holders really suck.
hmm, what else?
The good news is that I can make the STI into a winter/track car, so I may decide to do something like get rid of the A/C and go more extreme on suspension.
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Grinder34
Track Monkey
Holy crap what a morning. Lots of snow in DC...way more than expected and the "pre treating" was useless and snowplows were all napping. Normally, I'm like "eff yeah! Snow!" But I havent swapped to snow tires yet, since I'm lazy. Consqeuntly, today was a nightmare! Things were fine until ...they werent.
Let me state that I'm not totally wreckless. On my morning walk with my dog, the main streets near me all looked wet, but clear. The snow wasnt really coming down that hard, so I decided to do it.
The first 15 minutes of the drive continued like that...wet with a bit of slush, only changing lanes seemed dicey.
So I go on this beautiful parkway, but there are 0 exits for about 10 miles. So when something bad happens, the whole things comes to a standstill. Things are fine for about 9 of the miles. Then a mile before the next exit, solid brakelights. After each stop I had a little trouble getting going, but for the most part it wasnt too bad. Until I got here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.934...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sOMt7eENMWftUVAJqw8uWzw!2e0
Uphill with significant camber. And mix that with 10 seconds stopped, follwed by 2 car lenghts forward. I tried the sit-and-wait-for-more-space trick, but people just cut me off. So each time I moved, I was at about 45 degree angle. As I proceeded up the hill i ended up with my rear tires using the (fortunately very low) curb as a bumper. I'm thinking...ok, this sucks, but I got this. Until near to the top of the hill there's a full sized van half on the shoulder, stranded. All of a sudden my use-the-curb trick was going to have me broadside him. Somehow, I manage to get enough momentum to scoot to the middle of the road (still at 45 degrees) and miss him by what must've been inches.
Then I get here, my exit:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.939...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1spbQBuvdseUv8XcCdhC455A!2e0
Again, uphill with lots of camber. Worse, there are about six cars spun off in the middle of the cloverleaf. Some are in the road still, some on the grass. But then I see yellow flashing lights behind me. Out of nowhere a plow had appeared. It didnt have any salt/sand sprayer, but i wave him past. I, to the annoyance of those behind me, wait for him to get all the way to the top, and then hold my breath and go. The plow must've given me the extra tiny bit of traction I needed. At a crazy 45 degree angle I end up making it to the top, again with my bumper missing a bunch of cars by inches (including a 911, 135, and a legacy!). So my 20 minute commute took 3 hours (with 2.5 of those consumed in a 1 mile stretch).
At the end, I'm super glad I made it. But I wonder did the people behind me think i was crazy, awesome, or a bit of both?
Let me state that I'm not totally wreckless. On my morning walk with my dog, the main streets near me all looked wet, but clear. The snow wasnt really coming down that hard, so I decided to do it.
The first 15 minutes of the drive continued like that...wet with a bit of slush, only changing lanes seemed dicey.
So I go on this beautiful parkway, but there are 0 exits for about 10 miles. So when something bad happens, the whole things comes to a standstill. Things are fine for about 9 of the miles. Then a mile before the next exit, solid brakelights. After each stop I had a little trouble getting going, but for the most part it wasnt too bad. Until I got here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.934...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sOMt7eENMWftUVAJqw8uWzw!2e0
Uphill with significant camber. And mix that with 10 seconds stopped, follwed by 2 car lenghts forward. I tried the sit-and-wait-for-more-space trick, but people just cut me off. So each time I moved, I was at about 45 degree angle. As I proceeded up the hill i ended up with my rear tires using the (fortunately very low) curb as a bumper. I'm thinking...ok, this sucks, but I got this. Until near to the top of the hill there's a full sized van half on the shoulder, stranded. All of a sudden my use-the-curb trick was going to have me broadside him. Somehow, I manage to get enough momentum to scoot to the middle of the road (still at 45 degrees) and miss him by what must've been inches.
Then I get here, my exit:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.939...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1spbQBuvdseUv8XcCdhC455A!2e0
Again, uphill with lots of camber. Worse, there are about six cars spun off in the middle of the cloverleaf. Some are in the road still, some on the grass. But then I see yellow flashing lights behind me. Out of nowhere a plow had appeared. It didnt have any salt/sand sprayer, but i wave him past. I, to the annoyance of those behind me, wait for him to get all the way to the top, and then hold my breath and go. The plow must've given me the extra tiny bit of traction I needed. At a crazy 45 degree angle I end up making it to the top, again with my bumper missing a bunch of cars by inches (including a 911, 135, and a legacy!). So my 20 minute commute took 3 hours (with 2.5 of those consumed in a 1 mile stretch).
At the end, I'm super glad I made it. But I wonder did the people behind me think i was crazy, awesome, or a bit of both?
Last edited:
HolyCrapItsFast
Drinks beer!
Sounds like you had quite the adventure. I bet you won't hesitate to put the snow tires on next year! :tup:
Grinder34
Track Monkey
I finally got around to installing my brake ducts. It wasn't too bad, except me being a little over-zealous with the drill. I can post up a how-to if anyone's interested, but the conclusion I came to is that the "RooDuct" is indispensable on the passenger side, but actually harder to manage on the driver's side. If anyone on the board needs/wants a driver-side RooDuct I'd be happy to part with it.
I also have a super-secret gauge that I was hoping to install, but ran out of time.
I also have a super-secret gauge that I was hoping to install, but ran out of time.
Grinder34
Track Monkey
As I've mentioned a few other places, I've been really busy between family, school, and work. I've had very little time, but I need to get back under the car to repair my brake-duct install, so I'll snap some pictures while i'm down there. I forgot to tighten a hose clamp, so one of the high-temp hoses fell off and was destoyed. Anyone have about 18-24" of high temp hose lying around?? What's killing me is I threw out about 5 feet of it the day before.
I also NEED to fix the ABS on the car, as i'm due for an inspection. I was reading about the DIY methods of diagnosis, and they seem to rely on an ABS diagnostic plug under the steering column area. There's conflicting reports, but some forums/posts claim that it's only in Pre-Hawkeye models. That would be a weird think to remove, IMO, but if they did my only option is a stealership.
I also have a cool little package from Holy that I've been WANTING to install quite badly. I just haven't had any time other than that one brake-duct install, but I needed to get all that crap cleaned out of the garage. Ugh, I miss my no-school free time of installs and tinkering!!
I also NEED to fix the ABS on the car, as i'm due for an inspection. I was reading about the DIY methods of diagnosis, and they seem to rely on an ABS diagnostic plug under the steering column area. There's conflicting reports, but some forums/posts claim that it's only in Pre-Hawkeye models. That would be a weird think to remove, IMO, but if they did my only option is a stealership.
I also have a cool little package from Holy that I've been WANTING to install quite badly. I just haven't had any time other than that one brake-duct install, but I needed to get all that crap cleaned out of the garage. Ugh, I miss my no-school free time of installs and tinkering!!
Grinder34
Track Monkey
It's a sad day, but I'm thinking about selling my STI. What do you think a tracked, but well taken care of car should go for?
Here's my NASIOC listing...what do you think? How can I make it more enticing, and how much do you think I should be asking?
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2782608
Here's my NASIOC listing...what do you think? How can I make it more enticing, and how much do you think I should be asking?
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2782608
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