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Friday, March 29, 2024

Doug's Domain

Doug Vetter, ATP/CFI

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May 2002

I had entertained the notion of trading the car on a new 330 coupe around this time, but given the lackluster market conditions in my industry and the fact that MY03 is now less than 6 months away I decided to keep the car for now and reevaluate when the '03's become available this fall. For this reason I've made the decision to go ahead with the various maintenance items.

The tires were near the end of their life, and thus most pressing, so I decided to give my baby new shoes. The OEM SP2000's lasted 30K. With 59300 miles on the clock the SP8000's lasted roughly 30K as well, but that's probably not a fair comparison -- the SP2000's were into the treadwear indicators at 30K miles and the SP8000's were probably 1/16-1/8" ABOVE the indicators. I could have run them for another 5K miles but given that their wet performance had decreased enough to make things interesting and their noise at highway speed had increased noticeably, I figured it was time. Damage was $140 each mount & balance.

While checking the lug bolt torque spec (72 ft/lbs) in the owner's manual, I happened to note in the maintenance log that it's been a little over the two-year recommended interval since the brake fluid and coolant were flushed, so looks like I'll make an appointment to do that along with the brakes very soon.