E61FUN

My E61 just emerged from phase II update where a KW V3 setup and M5 brakes were added, along with front strut brace, front and rear lower braces, and an OEM M5 touring rear stabilizer bar. Rear VMR 710FF 19x9.5 were changed from ET45 to ET22. Corners? Yes please!

Have a little quality time with my favorite alignment rack tomorrow and then after a week or two we'll see how things settle and dial-in the ride height.

Phase I awhile back was 19x8.5 and 19x9.5 et45 VMR 710FF wheels with 245/40 and 275/35 tires at stock ride height. All fluids were drained, flushed and refilled. BMS OCC and RB PCV were also added at that time.

Thanks to Evan’s inspiration, I located a heated M5 steering wheel with paddle shifters and installed a Motive Mods control module. Huge improvement. Be it freeway crawling or compression braking, I loves me some paddle! I never touch the shifter anymore except for park and reverse. I have a manual trans car to drive if/when I want, so this wagon build is more for "spirited" touring and less for canyoning. Still hunting for that elusive SAT flash!

Now that the first phase of the brake update is done, a JB4 will get installed along with larger intercooler and downpipes. M5 fenders and front end emerge from the paint shop shortly, so then tire sizes will be reconsidered.

pocholin

E61fun, very nice!

No pictures of the steering wheel and paddles?? :-(

Alpine003

Very nice ride indeed.

You got lucky with the m5 heated steering wheel. I was on the hunt for a heated version for a few months. Finally gave up and ended up getting another Sports steering wheel that was heated and had the SSG paddle shifters. Thought about the SMG style shifter afterwards and glad I got the SSG version as it would allow me to upshift/downshift with one hand, allowing me to hold my hamburger with the other. LOL.

E61FUN

Just before, during, and after...

E61FUN

Thank you. These wagons are fun for sure.

I can attest that there aren't that many of the heated M5/M6 wheels out there. Found this one in Europe. There was one that came up on eBay in the states, but it had a gash on the leather.

I think your choice may make better sense! There are times mid-turn where I would really like to downshift with either hand, but alas only lefty gets that duty.

E61FUN

I mentioned the RB PCV, which in this case is the newer black unit, so they are less "noticeable" to those trained to notice such things. There have been other little updates to the car too, like the Bavsound underseat mid bass drivers, which were recently released.

Bavsound really botched that roll-out... sent me these 8ohm drivers and additional seals and really unclear direction whether my car needed the seals or not... then followed with another flurry of emails and shipment of the proper 4ohm units for my car. Whoops! Hilarious total fail, but the speakers are great! LoL A big improvement to midbass tonal clarity, and great bass growl, especially when mated with a proper sub. (And since I had the seats up, I fixed the driver's thigh support. Man are those little plastic gears needlessly cheap!)

Considered a full array of OEM M5 touring "individual audio" mids and tweets, including the back roof assemblies. One could cobble together pieces which come up on eBay, or new drivers can be had for about $1.3k, shipped, last I priced them. Some reading indicates that they sound good when mated with a little more oomph (amp).

For now I went with the Bavsound mids and tweets and will keep the amp stock (save for a slave sub amp). I have a couple good audio guys who have been bugging me to "play" with the audio, so when I let them get their hands on the car we'll see what they come up with. I don't like funky audio setups and expect seamless integration, which is why I haven't let them get their hands on it. Many audio setups have too many layers of complexity and what I want is good sound and good linearity over the entire bandwidth and perfect integration to the car's systems, including electrical load, etc.

MiniNL

Always important

JNJ

Had time to put on my trinity m5tech bumper today

GTYellowJacket

Installed an M5 instrument cluster

Discussed here

ucsbwsr

Nice, although I am not a fan of the red needles during the day as I find they are harder to read than the non-M white, I do miss the dynamic redline which my old M5 had.

When coded to the car does the red portion of the redline move to 7k where it should be for the N54 or does it stay at 8K? Can it be adjusted with coding?

Having oil temp instead of MPG is another bonus.

Evan