umm... it is... its kinda a gulf R or more like a Jetta R

7/28/2015 11:06:36 AM

Yeah I know. Moreso than any Audi sedan before it (in a long time at least). Traverse engine, non-Quattro AWD system, etc. Hence the question.

Also, congrats on purchase! Might have sounded a bit snobbish in my last post, whoops.

7/28/2015 4:39:15 PM

changed gear oil, diff fluid with lsd friction modifier, and coolant flush

7/29/2015 9:15:14 AM

I didn't take it as snobbish.


write-up:

I got a 2015 Glacier White S3 with the 19" performance package and little else. That 19" PP comes with magnetic ride and of course 19" wheels. I didn't need navigation, backup cam, or the Bang & olafson stereo - although i kinda wish I'd gotten it now because I've heard so many people rave about it.

Coming from a lowered, Dinan stage 1 335i that was tail-happy as fuck, the S3 rides like it's on rails. On the test drive, the salesman actually encouraged me to push it to the limit on a couple of sweeping curves, and that limit was well beyond what I would've felt comfortable doing in the 335i with other cars around. We're talking 60-70 mph, where I would've been doing some drift shit in the bmw.

The AWD is not true quattro, it's a haldex if I'm not mistaken. Some people claim that they can tell there's a FWD bias, but for all intents and purposes from my daily driving of it for a week and a half, I cannot.

The steering is extremely direct in every mode but "comfort," and even there it's fine for the daily commute. When I put it in dynamic mode, the suspension stiffens, the steering gets super precise, and the engine starts to snarl in a way that's extremely surprising for a turbo 4-banger. The engine sound is really fantastic. It's one of the reasons I bought this car instead of waiting for an m235i - the real engine sound, not piped in wav/mp3 files.

On the interior, the seats aren't as comfortable as the 335's were, but the leather is about 20 times better comparatively. It's also nice having cupholders that aren't an afterthought like they were in the e90s.

The steering wheel is nice and chunky, although it took some getting used to it being flat-bottomed. I think between this one and the m235i's wheel, I preferred the latter. Now that I've driven it for a week or so, however, I'm used to it.

There's a built-in screen that opens/raises when you turn on the car, but unlike a lot of cars in this generation, you can press a button to turn it off & hide it, which is nice. Otherwise it just sits there and is distracting.



Things I'm not a big fan of:

It has an electric parking brake that takes a couple of seconds to engage/disengage. Slightly annoying.

When you put it in reverse, it doesn't start rolling automatically, nor does the passenger side mirror pivot down (BMW feature). I didn't think I would need a backup camera, but losing that mirror pivot means that I may retrofit the backup cam at some point.

Same for putting it in drive. No roll for about half a second. I've read that this is something to do with the DSG (S-tronic) transmission and can be rectified with a software flash, but I'm not going to do that while it's still under warranty.

and finally, it's not as fast off the line as the 335 was.... but it's close, and it handles better.

7/31/2015 9:14:02 PM

you can do a convex stick-on mirror in place of that mirror pivot

8/1/2015 8:43:56 AM

I could

8/1/2015 2:55:05 PM

put some air in the rear passenger tire

8/1/2015 10:48:55 PM

Let Hiro drive it, again.

8/2/2015 1:29:07 PM

Installed a short ram intake on the maxima, changed the cabin air filter on the venza.

8/15/2015 6:07:11 PM

temporarily rigged up the freshly thinned wiring harness on black truck to test my work - it runs! The only fail so far is that I burned up the fuel shutoff solenoid after a brain fart... ( it operates off of two separate circuits - one high-amperage circuit that energizes with starter circuit and pulls the solenoid in, and one low-amperage circuit energized with key-on to hold in place) ...I straight wired the high-amp circuit wondering why it wouldn't stay running after I let off the key, because my dumbass forgot to reconnect the low-amp power feed.


Havent decided whether I will get a new one at $120 or just do a pull-cable setup.

8/15/2015 8:28:03 PM

Fixed up my g/f's GS500E. Its a '92, but she's ridden it so well the past year and a half that I figured she no longer needed to ride something that looked like crap. Shoutout to Quinn for letting me use his space and air tools.

Before and After complilation. It's definitely a 6 footer with minimal orange peel, mostly on the plastics that I opted minimal prep time on. I'm waiting for paint to fully cure before buffing and finishing off with "Suzuki" decal on the tank, which case it'll be a 1 footer for sure. Maybe I'm being overly critical of it. Almost everyone standing right up on it say it looks epic, but I guess they don't really know what to look for in a good paint job?







OLD


NEW


[Edited on August 19, 2015 at 8:40 PM. Reason : .]

8/19/2015 8:25:32 PM

That looks great.

8/19/2015 8:46:27 PM

I didn't do it, but I got Pete at TVP to tint the windows and clear bra the front end on the S3.

Ordered a billet dogbone mount insert that I'll probably put on next weekend.

9/5/2015 2:00:01 PM

great work on the gs. that was my first bike too, until I sold it to Woodfoot

9/6/2015 1:21:27 AM

Quote :

" Almost everyone standing right up on it say it looks epic, but I guess they don't really know what to look for in a good paint job? "

Yeah, I mean, I can see the peel even in pictures...but it still looks really good. I"m sure it'll be great once you finish the detail finishing.

9/6/2015 3:25:25 PM

Ripped out the rear fender liner, with the tire.
Went over a rather large divot in the road, compressed the rear enough that the tire caught, and bam, no more liner.
Now to remove the other side and then matt the inner metal so it doesn't dent from rocks.

9/9/2015 7:54:28 AM

Drove the Cayman back 500 miles from NJ without incident. But then 2 days later both tires on the passenger side were flat.

Removed both wheels and couldn't locate any offending pieces of metal. Discount Tire was able to fix them, and said both tires had pin hole sized leaks. Go figure.

9/16/2015 11:22:58 AM

had to put a new battery in pick up truck. the old Diehard had a date code sticker of 10/2006

9/21/2015 6:12:39 AM

Alignment on the vette. Thanks Performance Chassis!

9/22/2015 10:06:59 PM

Detailed the beast and switched to the glass top.




[Edited on September 23, 2015 at 11:59 AM. Reason : .]

9/23/2015 11:59:04 AM

Began rebarreling and relipping my small collection of 3pc wheels

...because why not

9/23/2015 1:15:19 PM

spark plugs and wires on my truck today

9/26/2015 4:13:53 PM

oil change, air filter, transmission fluid and filter on the truck today

i would like to find the guy at GM who made the call to not install a transmission pan drain plug on this model truck and wring his fucking neck. then, i would rip the limbs off his corpse and use them to beat some sense into the fucker who put the shift linkage bracket in the way of removing the pan. fuck me, dude. that job was not worth the money i saved doing it myself.

9/27/2015 8:58:08 PM

Pretty sure I blew the head gasket

9/28/2015 12:56:43 PM

got some new michelins on the truck today

9/28/2015 8:09:49 PM

^michelins are the worth the extra money if you plan to keep the truck fo sho

Quote :

"i would like to find the guy at GM who made the call to not install a transmission pan drain plug on this model truck and wring his fucking neck"

my 02 silverado has a plug but it had loctite and is some non metric or standard size so you have to buy a new bolt and chisel the old one out the first time you try to remove it.

[Edited on September 29, 2015 at 7:14 PM. Reason : a]

9/29/2015 7:13:58 PM

^i highly doubt that it's not a metric or SAE size, but even if that was true:



[Edited on September 30, 2015 at 7:28 PM. Reason : adf]

9/30/2015 7:27:41 PM

^that wont work. the bolt is recessed in pan and the head of the bolt is only a couple mm tall. its a PITA. i not only one:

http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/41782-transmission-drain-plug/

http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/222842/

[Edited on October 1, 2015 at 5:24 AM. Reason : f]

10/1/2015 5:11:19 AM

This is a fairly active thread so I figured I'd ask the question in here...
My 94 Toyota V6 pickup (181k) has a recalled head gasket. I checked online and it says the recall is still active. Assuming a dealership will do it, should I take it and get it done? The engine has always been pretty solid and I took it all the way to the fuel cutoff one time. ~95 mph
Can I trust a dealership? If it ain't broke don't fix it.

10/1/2015 1:18:20 PM

they have to warranty the work so i'd let them do it. a new multi-layer HG with some copper spray. let them then do the valve cover gaskets, adjust the lifters, and all that other shit you /should/ do, but no one ever does, then drive it another 20 years.

10/1/2015 2:18:07 PM

Quote :

"and I took it all the way to the fuel cutoff one time."

You say it like it's a bad thing. Nothing wrong with doing that all the time.

10/1/2015 2:24:17 PM

^^^^damn, i guess GM has some real chucklefucks in the transmission dept

10/1/2015 7:16:25 PM

Any strategies for ordering like 5 parts to troubleshoot something, knowing you'll have to return the 3 that don't fix your problem? Amazon? Autozone and pay more?

10/6/2015 12:30:37 PM

changed the oil in front and rear diff and the fluid in the transfer case. wrung one of the cover bolts off when putting the rear diff back together. it was one of the side bolts, so i went ahead and filled it with oil and it seems to not be leaking. hopefully it holds until i can get a replacement bolt and come up with a game plan. need to go ahead and have a helicoil kit on-hand in case drilling it out doesn't work. fucking sucks

10/11/2015 8:38:27 PM

^^try all, return all, buy correct one from rockauto/amazon/ebay

10/12/2015 7:09:20 PM

New locks for the YJ.

Bead blasted and painted some mirrors to replace the broken ones on my g/f's motorcycle.

10/12/2015 9:20:09 PM

Installed a new head unit, amp, and speakers in my new ride.

10/17/2015 6:47:13 PM

wheel spacers + rear view camera install

10/18/2015 7:58:07 AM

New tires for winter. Was at the wear bars, and it was getting interesting in all the rain.

11/7/2015 10:15:42 PM

I just got new rear tires on the 335i. Had Continental ExtremeContact DWS on there which had a 50k mile treadwear warranty. I got almost 14k miles out of them (ran down to 1-2mm), so instead of $200/tire I ended up paying $56/tire. Discount Tire is the best. This is the 2nd time in a row I've got fresh rears for ~$150 otd.

11/8/2015 3:02:00 PM

put some wild new silverstars in my heads and fogs.

11/9/2015 3:36:18 PM

New rear brake pads for Silverado. First time I drove it both wheels got hot due to brakes dragging. Found out 99-04 rear calipers are made of aluminum and corrode so when you push piston back they stick. Got some reman calipers and back in business.

11/14/2015 5:26:23 PM

Ditched the motherfuckin' SAAB for a '16 GMC Canyon. Base model in Cyber Gray Metallic, 4-banger, 6 speed manual tranny.

I ain't doing anything to this thing except drive it, change the oil, basic scheduled service items, and maybe put step bars on it. These damn things are a mile off the ground and I have to damn near climb up in it. Oh, and maybe a trailer hitch receiver and the wiring harnesses so I can pull a boat with it. Yes, it has enough power.

I've pretty much had enough of turning wrenches. The SAAB was the straw that broke that camel's back. It served its purpose but at roughly 50% over the budget I had planned for it. That's ok, because they gave me $1000 trade in on it...with a howling power steering pump, a mystery ps fluid leak (probably sucking vacuum through a hole in a suction/return line while running, then leaking all over the driveway while sitting overnight), and the driver's power window with a busted regulator. And all the clearcoat coming off the hood and the roof. And a myriad of other duct-taped items. 217k miles, though. In all reality, it did the job for which I bought it.

11/14/2015 9:56:33 PM

APR intake and DTUK piggyback tune. shit really moves now. debating which full exhaust and ic to add.


also, I need to get some winter wheels and tires, but I've got to get rid of my old 335's wheels + mostly gone tires - any of y'all folks interested? I'll give yas the ol TWW discount.

11/15/2015 8:09:20 AM

Oil change on the 335 at 71k miles. TWW better not go down bc it's my maintenance log.

11/15/2015 6:25:21 PM

^ you want some of these for the winter: http://www.e90post.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=662502&stc=1&d=1332362618


Mine are in better condition, though. but the tires are trash, completely worn. I'll make you a deal you can't refuse.

11/15/2015 8:29:12 PM

I've already got those wheels

And the winters around here aren't nearly bad enough to necessitate different tires

11/15/2015 9:26:27 PM

Finally fixed (knock on wood) the water leak at the base of the Integra's windshield. After verifying this fix I then replaced the interior blower fan motor and fan speed control module/resistor (water leak caused pre-mature failure of the motor).

Nice to have working interior ventilation and 4 fan speeds again after 9 months without

11/16/2015 9:55:47 AM

replaced my boat trailer tail lights with some that mount up high on the guide posts. shouldn't have to deal with all the issues that come with submerging tail lights anymore. went ahead and rewired the whole trailer while i was at it. also put new leaf springs and new tires on it.

sprayed all the non-aluminum parts down with Fluid Film. check this stuff out if you haven't heard of it. it's lanolin-based and leaves a thin layer of oil that won't wash off. easier than smearing bearing grease all over your springs, hubs, brackets, etc.

12/6/2015 12:45:48 AM

Some fucking truck ran over some shit on I-40 (not sure what it was, drywall maybe) yesterday when I was close to passing it. I was one lane over, but whatever the debris was, it exploded when the truck hit it and my Cayman was hit by it, despite my swerving (not fast enough) onto the shoulder.

Bad chips/scratches on bumper cover, hood and roof. Body shop estimate is roughly $1400.

I was so fucking mad about this yesterday.

[Edited on December 11, 2015 at 3:53 PM. Reason : k]

12/11/2015 3:52:09 PM