Final piece of the M5 puzzle is now sorted...
After I bought the car I realised that neither the M5 headrest logos nor the exterior door handle lights were working. ISTA revealed there was a short to ground on the circuit somewhere. After four trips to the dealer to change first the M5 headrest logo and then the entire drivers headrest, the problem was eventually sorted. Thanks mainly to be getting in contact with a previous owner who advised that Stratstone Leeds had re-trimmed the drivers seat to sort out a squeak (but looks like they buggered a wire in the headrest in the process).
Whilst it was in I decided to get it serviced at the same time. Bit early on the mileage but it was there anyway and the car wouldn't stop nagging me!
£750 quid later, I’m safe in the knowledge every bloody lubricant in the entire car is fresh!
The last thing on the list was the adjustable springs. After a week or two I noticed that the rear arch gaps where lopsided, with the drivers rear sitting around 7-10mm lower than the passenger side. Knowing that the previous owner had taken it into a local shop to set up the geometry and adjust the height previous, I took it back to them and asked them to fix it and raise the rear at the same time. It was just too low in my opinion. Place seemed very knowledgeable and the owner was going on about the raked chassis on the M5 etc etc. Anyway, they fiddled with it, and I was happy with the result... until a week later I realised that the gap was still different on each side.
So, I decided to cut my losses and take it to a place called Kenneth Brown Motor Engineering in Hillington (Glasgow). These guys are old school, track car specialists and had fitted my KW Coil-overs to my RS5, which with those on, is still one of the best handling cars I've ever owned. It was absolutely GLUED to the road.
I got the M5 back from Kenneth on Wednesday and it's now sitting perfect. So, that was the last of the "remedial" stuff that I felt needed down to bring it up to my personal standard (the other stuff being steering wheel re-trim and replacement of some scratched interior bits).
My next project is buggering about with the steering wheel. Firstly, I'm exploring getting the LCI switch packs fitted (making a bit of progress). Second, I'd love to get my hands on the CS steering wheel trim which from the photos I've seen looks like a dark chrome that matches the same stuff on my dash. Thirdly, having had a G20 3 series courtesy car recently, I was surprised how much I liked the thinner steering wheel, so I'm seriously thinking about buying a standard heated wheel and having it re-trimmed with M stitching etc.
Oh and having had them on for a bit, I'm not sure on the G80 shift paddles, they seem a bit far away from my hands. They could be doing with being a bit further out from the steering column.
Other potential stuff is swapping the side blades for Carbon ones to match everything else and maybe doing away with the M Performance front end bits in favours of a single piece splitter but I'm totally undecided.
