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FC · 03-31-2024, 10:27 PM

This weekend was interesting. Yesterday I washed the car. Nothing interesting about that other than the liberating feeling of knowing the car was fully wrapped so I did not have to be super careful with any panels.

Today I took off the winter wheels. The front brakes had a VERY annoying high-pitch squeal coming to a stop. I figured I'd add more paste. I pulled the calipers only to find that the (nearly new and clearly replacement OE) front pads had zero paste on them. Perhaps they technically don't need any, but after I applied some the issue went away. We'll see if it holds.

I'll add that pulling those calipers was a PITA, even though it's supposed to be easy. I won't bore you with details.

On the road, things got more interesting...

1. The weird vibration/wobble I felt seems to have gone away. (yay!) I was hoping it was winter wheel/tire-related and that seems to be the case. Will confirm tomorrow on a much longer round trip to work. If so, I'll get that set rebalanced.

2. Further confirmation that P-Zero's suck in the cold. Today was sunny and 57F. I took the car out at 3PM. You have to imagine that the pavement is at least 10F warmer than that. Well, two miles in, I took an on-ramp pretty fast. Ok, maybe very fast. Nevertheless, it was a speed that an AWD performance car should handle and I probably would have felt ok taking that turn on winter tires. Anyhow, the car went on a 4-wheel drift. I had visions of it spinning out on me. Luckily I managed a pretty epic drift pulled it off. WAY too exciting. Must have missed the curb by 2 inches. I had to check the wheel when I got home to confirm I did not make contact.

Kudos to the M5 for the great balance and ability to let me control the car through that. But as far as the P-Zeros, WTF?! The tires had no business giving up grip in that situation. As a result, I will be even more cautious driving the 718 in "cold" weather and will hold off on putting the summer tires on the mini for a couple more weeks. I know I pushed the tires, but still. Man, that was stressful.

03-31-2024, 10:27 PM	#91
FC Solving problems Join Date: Oct 2003 Carmudgeonly Ride: M5 / 718 GTS / Cooper S / GTI / LR4 Location: Metro Boston Posts: 25,280	This weekend was interesting. Yesterday I washed the car. Nothing interesting about that other than the liberating feeling of knowing the car was fully wrapped so I did not have to be super careful with any panels. Today I took off the winter wheels. The front brakes had a VERY annoying high-pitch squeal coming to a stop. I figured I'd add more paste. I pulled the calipers only to find that the (nearly new and clearly replacement OE) front pads had zero paste on them. Perhaps they technically don't need any, but after I applied some the issue went away. We'll see if it holds. I'll add that pulling those calipers was a PITA, even though it's supposed to be easy. I won't bore you with details. On the road, things got more interesting... 1. The weird vibration/wobble I felt seems to have gone away. (yay!) I was hoping it was winter wheel/tire-related and that seems to be the case. Will confirm tomorrow on a much longer round trip to work. If so, I'll get that set rebalanced. 2. Further confirmation that P-Zero's suck in the cold. Today was sunny and 57F. I took the car out at 3PM. You have to imagine that the pavement is at least 10F warmer than that. Well, two miles in, I took an on-ramp pretty fast. Ok, maybe very fast. Nevertheless, it was a speed that an AWD performance car should handle and I probably would have felt ok taking that turn on winter tires. Anyhow, the car went on a 4-wheel drift. I had visions of it spinning out on me. Luckily I managed a pretty epic drift pulled it off. WAY too exciting. Must have missed the curb by 2 inches. I had to check the wheel when I got home to confirm I did not make contact. Kudos to the M5 for the great balance and ability to let me control the car through that. But as far as the P-Zeros, WTF?! The tires had no business giving up grip in that situation. As a result, I will be even more cautious driving the 718 in "cold" weather and will hold off on putting the summer tires on the mini for a couple more weeks. I know I pushed the tires, but still. Man, that was stressful.