A month later....
So I've been putting in hours reading the board and working on the car. So far I've replaced the tires with Conti DWS A/S, as they came highly reviewed, and I'd rather have some traction for the couple days of snow we have a year here in Seattle, not counting last year. I've isolated the cassette player squeak to what I believe is the driveshaft center support bearing. It was easier and cheaper to just buy a new DS and guibo, so this weekend I'll replace that along with installing the e60 shifter per the board's recommendation. I'm thinking I probably have the original "lifetime" fluids in the tranny and diff, so I'll be pouring in some Royal Purple Synchromax and MaxGear 75W-140 for the LSD. I'm really hoping that will clear up some of the notchiness when the transmission is cold, esp going to a shorter shifter.
I replaced the defective rear view mirror, one exhaust CPS and I did an oil change with TWS 10W-60. I was hoping it would clear up the tick-tick that I have, but apparently not. Does replacing the seals on the Vanos do anything for the ticking? If it would shut the thing up, I'd put in the tighter spline gears that Dr. Vanos has.
I was worried I might have a miss still, so I pulled the coil connecters first, all cylinders seemed to be firing. I bought some BKR6EQUP plugs, pulled what looked to be the original plugs which had pretty good electrode wear. While at it I did a comp. test which showed all cylinders between 205-215 PSI. I still feel that the car runs 'weird'. Kinda lumpy, seems to not be as smooth as the 530i I had before. I'm not sure if it is a V8 thing or if there's another issue. I haven't bought a Peake yet, I have an OBD2 scanner which has no codes/CEL since I replaced the cylinder #5-8 CPS. Are there codes that the Peake detects that would not set off the CEL? What I'm wondering is if it would tell me something about the Vanos not working right. Would replacing the vanos seals possibly solve a 'miss' sound? My big complaints about the S62 at the moment is the ticking (appears to be coming from the #5-8 front valve cover mostly) and the miss which could be my imagination.
I think I have a failing thermostat, as my water temp is about 75C and the oil temp stays pretty low. I'll be doing that as soon as the BMW antifreeze arrives. That could also be causing some issues perhaps. I have a leaky PS hose near the reservior, I'm going to try using a real clamp on it, maybe cut a little old hose off. I've replaced the idler pulleys as they were making a little noise.
I installed my bluetooth ULF and MK4 nav from my old car. For some reason the back windows were tinted but not the front two Cali style so I had the fronts tinted to approximately match.
Regarding the Peake scanner, I was wondering if there's a better diagnostic tool like a PC based setup like GT1. I'd like to be able to do data logging, and I'd REALLY like to be able to do some sort of automated cylinder power balance test, if there's a tool that will do it.
Performance wise, the beast feels pretty quick. Traction control light comes on through 3rd gear - kinda annoying though. Maybe if I'd bought summer tires I wouldn't get that. What I'd really like to do is get my car in a great state of tune and try to lay down a 340 WHP dyno while it is stock. Not sure what I'd want to do power wise, cuz everything is big bucks. The SS headers look cool, but at 3K for 30WHP, the ESS kit starts to look economical at 10K for 140 WHP - or just enjoy it stock.
I'm thinking about precat O2 sensor replacement and fuel filter soon. I've got a lot more detailing to do, the black paint needs some TLC for sure.
After spending about 2k in the last few weeks, I've been wondering if the money bleeding will stop anytime soon, but I felt a lot better talking to my buddy with a Masserati. He's got 395 HP and he just got quoted 18K to do basically a bunch of maintenance - He said that his clutch (some sort of SMG) is supposed to be replaced about every 3K miles or something crazy like that. It makes the M5 look downright thrifty, although we all know we pay for the exclusivity, otherwise we'd all be tuning Subarus on the cheap.
Webmaster 
Besides the stuff you've done yourself who is doing all your work?
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