32kmiles

Happy Christmas Everyone :-)

new tyres for MR2 Mk3

Tyres for the MRS seem like rocking horse sh*t and expensive too !
Cant really get Goodyear F1's in the right sizes so after searching through forums it appears the best option is Toyo T1-R's
Not my preference but hey ...

Std >2003 on the car is 185/55/15 front and 215/45/16 rear.
Ive gone up to 195/50/15 and 225/40/16 T1-R's , apparently the important bit is keeping the 30 width front/rear stagger.
270 notes all in for 4 from the usual masters at Auto Image Glasgow.
Too early to tell but at least theres some rear end grip for the current abysmal weather.

(fitted @ 25000 miles)

Enjoy

31k miles in M3

30k miles now hit....

and there you go.............
Heres an up to date pic of my nephew Ben , mums nose and dads smile?

nearly 30k / door dent !!!!

Argggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Yep its true , some filthy swine has dented my pride and joy.
Looks suspiciously like a dropped ladder end from a window cleaner ...........but the chances of proving it .....none.........
Oh well , I guess that means I can get the small dent in the rear quarter done + the stone chips at the same time , in fact maybe after Xmas.

Car runs superb , mostly on Vpower , nearly at 30k ! which will tick over this weekend coming. Note the barely believable figures on the dash readout...
217 miles covered , estimated 205 left in tank! thats 422 miles! (Although in reality I would prob only get to 390 ish) , All motorway @ 85 mph. Definitely goes further on Vpower and feels better too.
Dunno if its my hearing either but the car seems to 'tick' less at idle these days , go figure.

J

29k miles in M3

been a while on an update ! Too much work to do...
Car now edging towards 30k! which is scary.
Due to being down south a lot , Im now running the car on VPower fuel most of the time. Definitely seems to run better , hesitation is reduced (although still there!)
Tyres doing really well and dont seem to be wearing too fast either....

27k miles in M3 E46

Yep another 1000 miles .....

Tyres supreme , especially as its now getting very wet and lots of standing water on the motorways.
Only thing that really annoys me now is the flatspot/stutter at low revs (<3k) when transitioning from small to med/large throttle positions.
The car appears to stutter just for a second then go OK. When cold its VERY noticeable. Although to be honest M3 's appear to be a bit temperamental when warming up....
Perhaps a coil pack etc ? dunno yet.

Phone Upgrade Time
Yep , 12 months have passed , so its time for a new phone.
So out with the D600 and in with the D900 , so far so good.
Only downside so far is that the power/usb cable is different so my additional chargers for the D600 are defunct.

J

26000 miles in M3

Car continously astounds me , a true all rounder that I dont know how I will ever replace.......

Tyres (235/265 Goodyear F1 combo) are now bedded in and for me at least I feel no less grip in the dry compared to Michelin PS2 , wet they are AWESOME.
3k miles on them so far and wear seems minimal which is a good sign.
Turn in and feel when 'leaning' on them in corners is good giving a high degree of confidence. Sadly the inbuilt understeer , whilst minimised is still there and can annoy on roundabouts when pushing on. (I guess you could argue thats an excuse to get the rear end out if you are a competent driver but for me I think it should hang on much longer....maybe 245's up front next)

Continues to return an average 28MPG general driving , this increases to 28MPG @ 85MPH. Previous experience shows computers to be optimistic , so I guess thats probably 25 MPG ish which is superb for a car with 300+ horses and I dont drive slowly sometimes !

Sun was out today , miss the bike badly , especially when stuck behind lines of traffic on loch lomond side ........

Enjoy

Inspection 1 service completed

Inspection 1 service

Well , there it is in its full glory........

Car had Inspection I service by Henry Bros Glasgow. So far excellent service from them.
Cost of M3 specific oil is however somewhat horrific! as is the total bill ! 765 quid is big in anyones book.
Although fair play , they replaced both rear springs which were broken under warranty (car felt fine to me , just made some odd noises when parking).
So top marks to Henry Bros for spotting it.
They also adjusted handbrake to remove the excess travel.

Also object to being asked to pay 12 quid insurance for a hire car , given the actual service is that kind of money. Had a 3 series 320SE which was nice though , way too slow and no character however.

Happy to stay with approved dealer (for the fsh) until its out of warranty , then I plan to take it to Thorney Motorsport in Milton Keynes.

Windscreen chipped
Picked up a bleedin stone chip AGAIN on Sunday , thrown up by a car in the fast lane (and no I wasnt that close!) , just beside the interior mirror , and looks like itll need another screen at some point !!!

A new arrival :-)

Born to proud parents Colin and Claire Graham , a lovely baby boy 'Ben' 7lbs 7 oz , and of course he has an 'Uncle John' :-)
May your future be filled with happiness....

2nd pic is finally a shot of Gerry's GSX-R 750 ...

Car in for service today. So will report on that later.
Car @ 24800 miles , a big weekend on the mileage front what with having to visit the newborn :-)

(Tyres fitted @ 23500 miles , so well run in now and proving to be even better than I expected)

23k miles / New Tyres

Yep another thousand miles !

The Inspection II service looks like its gonna be 800 quid !!!

And given its now raining again Ive ordered 4 new tyres (front are legal but Id rather have a matching set).
Going from Michelin Pilot Sport 2 [225/40/19 + 255/35/19] to
Goodyear Eagle GSD3 F1 [235/35/19 + 265/30/19] which is the std CSL size , apparently you can also go up to 245/275 f/r on M3 wheels.

Will report how I get on , because I was VERY impressed with the Michelins , just that they are extorsionate to replace.
Tyres bought from Auto Image Glasgow for 800 quid for 4 , which I think is a good deal.

J

Bike written off / 22k miles / Oulton Park

Shock horror , the bike was confirmed as a writeoff this week , so a cheque arrived from the insurance company, and a reasonable offer it was too :-)

Car is now @ 22400 miles with 1000 est to service time.
Rear tyres ok in this dry weather but would be a nightmare in the wet........

Spent the day at Oulton park for the superbike racing which was awesome.
Truly amazing stuff and the weather held up too.

Also met up with a guy from mini2 on saturday and sold him my compomotive wheels.

Pic 1 is graemes car (lowered)
Pics 2 + 3 are Oulton park (just a taster of the number of bikes present)
Pic 4 is the 2006 GSXR750 in black , the bike I would buy now if I was going down that road again !

J

M3 hits 21,000 miles ........

clock ticks ever closer to the Inspection II service which will be in around 3000 miles time , big bucks + defo need 2 new rear tyres and fronts arent far behind.
Dont fancy having a mismatched set.....

Went out for a quick run tonight to enjoy the car and had some fun with some bikes.
Should hear about my own bike this week too.

Enjoy

clean car / MR2 front plate

My car clean and Allans MR2 with the kid on front number plate ...even smaller than mine (show off)

bike + diesel = pain

Well first things first Im still in one piece :-)
Run home tonight , dry road , exiting a roundabout , leaned the bike over to take the bend and whoooosh front wheel folds under and Im sliding down the road at 30+mph .............

Bike is a mess , whole LHS is destroyed , crash bung probably saved me from breaking my left ankle/leg , escaped with just sore legs/shoulder and some grazing.
Helmet all scuffed on the front too so its bin material now too.

The reason?? f*cking diesel , a whole line of it on the exit of the roundabout clearly visible on the road.

Lucky , sh*t Ive lost one of my nine lives lol.

Write off ? Dunno but we will see.
Honda Insurance service has so far been poor , no numbers for recovery except
Motorcycle Direct , and I dont even have a policy with them ffs!!!
However top marks for recovery company Kerr Smith who took me and my bike back to Glasgow.


Will keep you all posted on whats happening..........
Off to bed now , gonna be sore in the morning but f*cking relieved to still be walking.

Take care out there ....

Bike hits 7k and M3 hits 20k miles ......!

Yep....do I ever do anything other than burn petrol lol

Bike passed over 7k , running well.
Car passed 20k which has doubled the cars mileage since I bought it a few months ago (10200 miles when bought).
10000 miles @ average 30MPG = 333 gallons = 1513 litres @ £1 per litre(optimax or ultimate) = 1500 notes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(oh and the small matter of averaging 2500 miles per month / 600 miles per week)

Oh and it needs new tyres soon ......lol its only money

Enjoy

bike wheels with blue rim tape

Added some fancy blue rim tape to enhance the looks of the bike :-)
6600 miles now on bike. new rear tyres looms !

[TODO :Add pic of Gerrys bike]

18k miles ....

Well thats 8 thousand miles in 3 months ! thats 32k/year ffs !!!!
Car continues to run like a dream though and truly is a fantastic all rounder.
Cant believe how much grip the rear tyres have in the wet.....
Only one problem ...... 80 feels like 30 !!!!!

Bike is back in service too until I can sell it. Sublime...

a bike AND an M3 , now thats having yer cake , eating it and asking for someone elses portion LOL

Take care
JohnO

17k miles

and another 1000 miles bites the dust ! ......

16k miles+ / polish pics

At last some decent pictures of the car with some polish on it :-)
Click on the picture for all of them..

Enjoy
JohnO

Allans MR2 with new wheels

sneakily took as walked past his flat today :-) sweet...

new windscreen fitted

:-)
Superb mobile service by a guy @ Autoglass. Very professional and speedy.
M3 has rain sensor built into screen but no heating element.
Heres a pic whilst is was 'sans screen'....

15500 miles/first scratch/windscreen chipped

Yep lots more miles on ye olde motor , now added nearly 5500 miles since I got it!!! thats a hell of a lot of optimax...

One such journey was pic one which was a jaunt into North Wales Moel_Famau what a view....

Second pic is a bleeding scratch on the rear wheel arch....ho hum.....

Third pic is the large stone chip received whilst decelerating from light speed one morning.....trust me the screen did well given the stone size and my velocity :-) .

Fourth is mileage , am I sad or what taking a pic....?

Later
J

xenon flicker fixed...

Well , car went into Henry Bros , good service this time which is nice to see.
Xenon bulb on LHS was replaced. Engineer said transmission was fine and an M3 characteristic (expected this but wanted it confirmed). Apparently car ECU woudlnt accept the autolock coding so that hasnt happened yet.(wonder why it wont work?)
14300 miles now.

Oh and on my web searches I found that appararently there is a Clutch Delay Valve (CDV) in the clutch line that modulates how the clutch is released.
No matter how you release the pedal its always a controlled release and apparently this gives some odd behaviour.
have a look at this CDV info page

Later........

4000 miles completed in BMW

Scarcely true but I got the car with 10200 miles and now I'm at 14200 miles +
First pic are the wheels I plan to get lol [BBS CH]
Second pic is my car on Sunday after a quick wash
Third is the clocks showing 14k miles
Fourth is the MINI , its last clean on the day it went in to be traded for the M3.

Car running well , but will go into dealer to check out the xenons flickering (and the LHS has in fact gone out at times), apparently some cars have a dodgy control box. Also get the 'autolock' feature enabled.
'Clunk' when engaging gear sometimes will also be looked at (apparently this is an M3 trait!) , can drive around it but its annoying all the same.

Head unit has been replaced with a kenwood one that allows control of my ipod.
[superb service supplied by mikey @ newministuff aka formby car electrical]

All in all the M3 experience is superb so far. Car is deceptively fast and very easy to drive for a 300+bhp rwd car. Averages 29 MPG at 87 mph (clocks) (82 mph by GPS) which is astonishing for a car of this type. Only ever run it on Optimax or Ultimate so far.

more when I remember
J

...M3 bought ......MINI traded in....

Hello ...
Yes , well I dont know how to explain this but...
Ive just bought an M3 :-) . Many reasons but the biggest one is getting rid of the motorbike , firstly to save my licence (so I bought an M3 LOL!), secondly safety wise I was always riding too fast. And of course its a bloody sexy motor car :-)
Here are the dealer pictures ....

First mods will be projector front indicators (to get rid of the big white bits beside the headlights , fit the micro road pilot and get an new icelink fitted.
Oh and a small front number plate :-)

Goodbye....
Tonight I removed the wheels from the MINI , put the runflats back on and cleaned the car one last time. Sad really , but we must move on. The MINI will certainly be a superb buy for someone , its in better condition than when it was bought 18 months ago!! Have loved every minute of owning the MINI , and can certainly see why everyone raves about them. Car is going with 33k miles on it.

Tomorrow is hopefully the start of yet another car journey for me....

choices???

Just to add to the mix are another couple of possibles instead of a E46 M3....

1. New Golf R32 : Nice but pricey at 30k ish for a well specced new car. Can be 3 or 5 dr
2. Subaru WR1 : One of the few subarus I really like.. and should only be around 25k for a good second hand 04 car with around 10-15k miles on the clock

Feel free to suggest any other cars :-)

32k miles / car finally washed! / new camera

"Before" and "After" shots of the MINI after a quick wash this weekend, what a difference the car was black.
Also now clicked on past 32,000 miles.

Also tried to get an insurance quote for an M3 from Greenlight and they said no !! Apparently too many claims .. sigh

Been a while since my last gadget , so splashed out on a 6MP Sony DSC-T9 digital camera :-) its sooo small and cool. Time will tell if its any good or not.

Enjoy
J

internet explorer startup and popup delay solved

At last!!! Since loading up Windows Xp 32 bit Ive been plagued by a 10 second delay when it starts or when triggering popup of spawned new windows...
The culprit?
Java VM 5.0 SE Update6 Browser Helper Object[BHO]
Disabled via Spysweeper (a top notch product which I thoroughly recommend) and its all back to being very quick :-)
Interestingly a google search showed very little , so Ive put it here in case someone else gets a similar problem.
J

what a stunner :-)

Well here it is , the only picture I have of myself at my heaviest ever (nearly 22stone). Why put it on the web ?? I dunno , I guess so I dont go there again. ( and of course because my scanner now works)
Thankfully my weight is much lower these days :-) Enjoy and be amazed lol
Funny thing is I used to fit in a Classic Mini , no wonder it felt slow!!!

M3 colour choices / XP64 to XP32

BMW M3 colour choices
mmm, right Ive narrowed it down to a non SMG , 6 speed manual car and thats about it so far.....
[colours in picture top to bottom]
silver-grey
green
black
imola-red
titanium-silver
mystic-blue
topaz-blue
phoenix-yellow
laguna-seca

So far I like black/red/topaz and phoenix......

XP back conversion
Finally after so long with poor driver support within XP64bit I have converted my machine to XP32 , now my printer works , my roadpilot can update and the phone can connect , what a joy to have all my peripherals back :-)
Process wasn't painless and took several attempts but I finally got there in the end.
Driver issues / Large disc support etc
I guess the moral of the story is I shouldnt have bought the PC with XP64 installed in the first place !!!!
FWIW the machine seems no slower than with XP64. The only annoyance so far is a delay when starting Internet Explorer or triggering popup windows.

Happy New Year to you all