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Was a little fresh this morning, but a stunning commute to work...!

As I strongly feel this to be a bug and the consumer should be able to reset (like you can on your router/phone/pc etc), and I've wasted many hours, I wrote to BMW UK to be told: Good afternoon Ian Thanks for your email about the issues you’ve had with your iDrive. I’m sorry to hear about this – I can understand this must be disappointing. I’ve spoken to Liam in the service department at BMW Knight North Staffs about this. He’s confirmed that you didn’t want them to carry out a diagnostic of your vehicle, you only wanted them to reprogram your iDrive - which they carried out. But, I’m afraid this is at a cost to yourself and not something BMW UK would look to cover or reimburse you for. As you’re no longer within your warranty period, we feel it reasonable for the owner to cover the cost of work carried out to their vehicle unless a manufacturing defect is found during a diagnostics. I realise this isn’t the answer you were hoping for and I’m sorry for any disappointment caused. If there’s anything else we can help with, please let me know. I wrote back and asked for their complaints procedure. The first step in the procedure is to speak with the Service Manager or Business Manager at my 'Stealership'. I've done that and they initially advised they couldn't do anything as it's a BMW UK issue! I asked for this in writing so I could go back to BMW UK. The 'Stealership', called back shortly after to say they are sending me a CQ for the £90!

Unfortunately he bought a 1.8 without realising it was the inferior motor so not quite as many spares to pinch as I would have liked! 😉 Nice little camping spot for the night, other than the 10km gravel track to get there. Views were great though!

Annoyingly, and BMW are terrible for it, so many modern cars that are intended for the performance saloon/hatch/et al market segments have started to exhibit the same thing over the last few years. Stupid, stupid brakes, that are designed in such away that even relatively gentle pressure generates a disproportionately fierce initial bite; this in turn gives the impression of a car with much more “brakes” than it necessarily has, not that I’m saying the brakes aren’t necessarily good, just that on the whole, they’re not really that much better on than on their non-over servo’d, non-artificially manipulated competitors models. Its all just smoke and mirrors to make the driver think the brakes are better than they actually are. (PS, I’m talking about the regular braking setups, by the way, not physically upgraded versions, Carbon ceramic options, etc) Ive had the same thing, climb from my old five series with its razor sharp brakes into a Westfield with AP Race brakes and good pads, and initially, it feels softer and less bite, till you switch from having to delicately brush the pedal, like the beemer, to applying properly modulated force, at which point the tables turn completely!

Interestingly, the 'M Sport' brakes (made by Brembo) are much, much better that the standard BMW brakes. They actually have decent peddle travel, the braking force is fairly linear through the travel and so they are easy to modulate. They also really stop the car when you need to. Climbing out of my M135i into my Dad's bog standard 3 series, I've nearly gone through the windscreen. Massively overservoed, with all the power in the first couple of inches of travel, then nothing. Such a strange way to do things. The sad thing is that it clearly works on a lot of the population. My wife says she hates the brakes on my car, as they don't feel like they're doing anything. She is just far to used to crappy overservoed ones that she only has to rest her foot on to stop.

How long does it take to drive from Warwickshire to Helsinki? 1806 days. That's 1800 days to build the car, and 6 days to drive it here. Reckon I could cut the driving time down to 5 days at a push though! Today was my first day not doing big mileage. We had a slow start to the day before heading to Helsinki. I picked up some waterproofing spray for the hood and we then hopped on a passenger ferry to check out an 18th century island fort just off the coast. Pretty fascinating place! We then drove just outside Helsinki to find another camping spot in some more woods, cooked a little dinner and settled in for an early night. We're up early again in the morning for a ferry to Tallinn, then driving down to Pärnu where we have a hostel booked tomorrow night so we can get some clothes washed and sleep indoors for a night. Weather tomorrow doesn't look great, but hopefully the forecast might improve overnight!

But we may still do cake Just to clarify... 😂

More Good Fun!

At the meeting on Tuesday 1st October we will be having a Scalextric night. This is something I've been working on for a while, and hopefully all will go well. Meet at the normal time of 7.30ish and I should have it all set up.

As this is the last sprint weekend of the season I was hoping that a lot of us can make an effort to can eat/drink in the bar on Saturday night and make it a great end. Several of us will be in there Friday night as well but it would be good to have a lot of us having a good natter celebrating the events we have taken part in, who did what and what we could have done better etc Hope to see a good turnout 😀

We had the same problem, and got some of These from eBay - looks similar to the ones you've linked to. They've made everything much better, and would definitely recommend them. They still squeal sometimes, usually at low speeds, but change the braking pressure slightly and they go quiet.

Please note that at the Dinner we will be holding a raffle/auction to raise money for the "MAKE A WISH" foundation which creates life changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. I would therefore appreciate and prizes people might donate such as chocs, wine, vouchers, toiletries or anything else appropriate. To see what the foundation does you can visit https://www.make-a-wish.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/ Please get them to me or hand them over at the start of the evening. Let's hope we can raise a lot for this worthy cause.

The exact route is being planned, but Ian will know the approx times....

I'm not going to be popular once she's back from her hols and discovered I've pinched her chums and you've eaten all the cake!

I'm meeting @Quinten at 8:00am at M&S Ashbourne, if anyone wishes to join us. We'll aim to leave by 8:30am. Waterside Retail Park, B1-B2 Clifton Rd, Ashbourne DE6 1DG Aim to park somewhere near the cars highlighted in yellow:

I'm going to meet @Quinten on Sat and attempt to guide him around the peaks! If you're out on Sun, you may find us! Alternatively, if you want better weather, join us on Sat:

I would love a bit of fish and chips.... shame about the distance..

I wasn't enamoured with the brakes (M16) on my Westy when I first got the car, and although knowing it takes a good amount of pressure due to the non-servo set-up, I was still not impressed. Even with sportier pads, it made little difference. After the brakes seized on the way to Stoneleigh this year, I bought new replacement M16 calipers and Mintex pads - the improvement was night and day! You still have to stomp on them but now they stop good - clearly it was the semi-seized calipers that were the fault. Now my problem is that the M1144 pads squeal like a raped pig at slow stops in town (quiet when braking out on the road) - all very embarrasing, it's that loud and getting worse. The pads came with these funny backing plates that only covered half the piston, they just looked wrong so I didn't fit them. The previous pads had an adhesive (kevlar?) that stuck to the back of them, can you get something like that on its own for retro-fitting? (edit) I've just found this, might do the business https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MINTEX-CERATEC-LUBRICANT-GREASE-AND-4-ADHESIVE-ANTI-SQUEAL-BRAKE-PAD-SHIMS-SHIM/251292559571?hash=item3a823428d3:g:OEMAAOSwd4tUHVex

Get down the gym Stu

great pics, what more could you ask for, good company, good food, great weather and an empty track to allow you to explore the limits of your pride and joy. brilliant day all round, thanks @Steven (WE51STE) - Joint Warwickshire AO for organising and keeping us fed and watered.

Helloooooo all, Just gauging if there's any interest in a Saturday Blat, the weather looks good for an all day jaunt and it's been too long since I did the Triangle, any interest???? Nem.............

Exactly, Driven loads of current and recent generation five series, and a few three’s and all have been the same - though none with the M Sport package - good to know they’ve got a properly configured system, at least.

No, but I've just borrowed some from the motor factors next door. Here's the result 40.81mm

Haven't you got one of these in your man cave? https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUHU833-Digital-Electronic-Vernier-Micrometer/dp/B078X37Z21/ref=asc_df_B078X37Z21/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=235021894018&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15599760523046700106&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9073591&hvtargid=pla-718230772040&psc=1

Few pictures from the great day yesterday. Thanks @Steven (WE51STE) - Joint Warwickshire AO for organising, cooking the breakfast rolls and BBQ very nice.

Pressing the brake pedal hard is so difficult to get used to, I have a m5 as a road car which has ceramic brakes, I can blow on the pedal and they put you through the screen so I have bothered ends of the scale to deal with🤦🏻‍♂️

Ha ha thanks nick 🤦🏻‍♂️😜

That was nice of him to bring spares - good man

Obvious, but I will remark it here. Remember that you will never get more stopping power than locking the wheels. And to be honest, in a westfield you can lock even the stickiest of the slicks with 100% road brakes. So, as Adam says, in a car like this the questions are: How long will they last. (usually forever with decent pads and fluid... even with tiny no vented disks) And how will they feel. And as Adam says... better to have a rock solid pedal with very tiny movement, and locking by applying insane amount of force on them, than displacement with very little force required. Once you get used to it, is easier to modulate a range from 0 to 40kg of force requiered from your leg, than a 0 from 15 kg. (providing that you are fit for this leg workout... but even I can do it with lifetime ankle injures ).

Just bought this one!

Never got those problems on me old cortina.......😁 Hope you get a satisfactory fix...

Yeah I've ordered one. Only problem now is my torque wrench only goes upto 210nm.....Aaargggghhhhh!