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In the last week of April, got a notification on the iDrive that the front brake pads are due for replacement in 1600 kilometers. Just the previous day, the iDrive was showing 10,000 kilometers of life.
Booked an appointment and took the car to the BMW workshop. They changed the brake pads and had the car ready in about 3 hours. I did not have to pay anything as this was covered under BSI+.
During the inspection, they found that there was oil leakage from the front left strut.
This is the strut I had upgraded as part of the MSport suspension setup. At the time of installation, I was told that all the MSport suspension components will have 2 years spare part warranty and will not come under BRI. This means I will have to pay for the strut replacement.
But the service manager told me that he will try to get the MSport strut replaced under BRI. He has raised a warranty claim and I am waiting for an update from BMW. Best case, this will be covered under BRI and worst case, I will have to pay for the strut replacement. Fingers crossed.
During the brake pad replacement, they inspected the tires and told me that the rear tires have very less tread left and will have to be replaced soon. The original setup was staggered with 225/50/18 in the front and 255/45/18 in the rear. As I could not get 255/45/18 in tubeless tires, I changed the setup to a squared setup with 245/45/18 on all four wheels.
I read many reviews that said having a staggered setup with narrower tires in the front provides a better steering response than having wider tires. So I thought of going back to staggered with 225/50/18 in the front and 245/45/18 in the rear. Spoke to Nikhilb2008 and found that 225/50/18 is available in Vredsteins Ultrac Vorti. Read some positive reviews about these tires and decided to get them. As I had to attend a function in Bangalore, paid a visit to Madhus tires to install the tires. I switched the 245/45/18 (with Yokohama Advan V105) wheels in the front that have more than half-life to the rear and installed the 225s in the front.
This could be a placebo effect, but I found the steering response to be a little sharper after changing to 225s in the front. The tires have very good grip in the corners and no road noise as well. Will have to see if the noise and comfort levels remain the same after the tires have run 10K or 20K kilometers. When the time comes to replace the rear tires, I plan to replace the existing Yokos with Vredesteins.
During this installation of the Vredsteins at Madhus, they found that one of the alloys had a severe bend and another one had a mild bend. The one with severe bend will have to be replaced.
The wheel balance report for the severely bent wheel.
The report for the mildly bent wheel.
Spoke to PJ Speed Sport from Chennai who had supplied the BBS alloys. They had one set in stock. I asked them to supply two alloys, but they asked me to take all the four as they will find it difficult to sell the remaining two.
As the alloys keep bending regularly, I decided to buy the full set and keep the rest as a spare. They sent me the alloys within two days and I got the alloys changed at NextGen in Coimbatore. Instead of replacing just one alloy, I installed two new alloys in the front. One of them is the severely bent one that I will be scrapping and the other one is with a mild bend. I will install the 245/45/18 tire on this alloy and keep it as a full-size spare wheel for long road trips in the future. A few pictures of the alloys being installed.
Finishing this post with a few pictures of the 3GT taken during a drive to Virajpet during the last long weekend.
That's all folks, I have for now. Will update about the strut replacement in the next post soon.
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