Posts Tagged 'M coupe'

Since the M Coupe is sleeping over the winter, it’s always good to start it up at least once a month, let it warm up, and roll the tires a bit.  Thankfully it’s underground home never really gets particularly cold (~10-12C in the winter) but its still always a good idea. I decided to make some video of my warm up and trip around the parking garage.

 

I’d let the engine warm up for about 10 minutes before touching the throttle, oil had come up to about 60-70C. Garage was about 10-12C, not particularly cold. Never the less, car never really revs past 3500 or so while sitting there.

Sadly the ‘auto’ audio level on the 5D mk2 reduces most engine noise to minimal levels as if it were background noise. The mic also seems to lose the bass frequencies completely. I’ll have to play with it more another time, and I really should plug in an external mic. First time using iMovie 09 too.

Camera was situated in the engine bay and on the ground on a bag of bird seed acting as a posable mount.

I also took a chance to attach a BMW CCA grill badge, which is a bit trickier on these guys than most cars, since the grill isn’t attached to the bonnet:

Headlight glow shows that the lens filter was kinda dirty.  :) I probably need to straighten the badge a bit better some day too :P

So about two weeks ago, my flat tire monitor chimed on driving on the QEW. We pulled over, checked the tires, they all physically looked fine so we drove off. When I got home I took out the tire pressure gauge and sure enough the drivers rear tire was low. I refilled it using the cars onboard mobility kit. While these are definitely *not* run flats, they are carbon fiber side walled, and as a result will never have a bulged appearance until they are critically low, which these were not. Watching it during the week, it appeared to lose a consistent about 2 PSI a day. After missing the noon closure last weekend, this weekend I managed to haul over early enough to Jensen Tire to get it repaired. A modest $25 later, a 2″ nail was removed from the tire, the hole enlarged, filled with new rubber and epoxy, patched, and then shaved down using a Dremel tool. After a balance and remounting, I’m ready to smoke them once again drive cautiously and in a mature fashion.

The other cool factoid of note is that the car is equipped with the FTM (Flat Tire Monitor) as opposed to the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitor). US cars all got TPMS in 2007+, though the guys at the garage told me some Canadian and European models kept the FTM. The FTM works by tracking wheel rotation and can detect if a tire is spinning too fast. It has to be calibrated after changing tire/wheel size or extreme temperature change, but at least it doesn’t have the breakable/losable wireless stem monitors.

The e86 chassis is so stiff, with the rear tire barely off the ground, the front tire freely spins around :)