From lightweight Japanese roadster to complicated BMW M car, what could go wrong? F87 BMW M2 content

I have been talking about replacing my AP2 Honda S2000 for about a year now (probably longer if I'm being honest). This led to a plethora of test drives, tons of inner debate and a near constant search to try and find a machine that could match the smiles-per-hour of my torqueless little roadster. I started a thread (or 2?) about all my countless test drives, looking for such a machine: 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/selling-my-ap2-s2000-to-buy-a-gr-corolla-have-i-lost-my-mind/259221/page1/

I never grew to loathe anything about my S2000- quite the opposite, I still enjoyed it up until the day I sold it and would highly recommend the S2000 to anyone that was interested. The problem is that I just hardly drove it anymore. I wanted to replace it with something fun that I thought I would actually drive more often. Tough to find a car that will put a smile on your face like a roadster with a bit more comfort and practicality so that you actually want to drive it regularly. Trust me, I tried. 

After lots of searching and long test drives, I think I actually managed to find the car I was looking for: my new-to-me F87 2018 BMW M2 with a 6-speed manual! 

I won't recount how the M2 drives, as I've already written a full review (or 2?) about it, over here: 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/random-car-reviews-tales-from-a-nut-with-too-much-time-on-his-hands/262322/page3/

What I will say is that this car is hilarious to drive! Absolute hooligan car! 

I don't know what the future might hold, or what I might get the urge to do to this car, but as of the day I brought her home, this is how she looked in stock form: 

Beautiful car! The M2 is one of the few cars available I've considered trading my 2021 mustang gt in for. I haven't fallen in love with my mustang since I bought it. Finding a well powered, rwd, manual transmission, car big enough for two car seats in the back is easier said then done. I have always enjoyed your threads and look forward to following this one.

So, the M2 that I purchased was actually the 3rd F22/F87 that I've driven in the past year. I note that because I have a reoccurring issue with my right knee- there are some cars that agitate it, causing soreness/discomfort for hours (sometimes days) afterwards. The first 2 F22/F87 cars I drove (for fairly long test drives) never caused me any pain/discomfort. The 3rd one (that I bought) however, caused me some discomfort. Now, to be clear, on the test drive, I think I rushed myself without adjusting the seat properly as it looked like there was a gentleman that was waiting for me to get into the M2/leave before he got into this car, so I think I just drove off too quickly rather than taking my time to find a seating position that my knee would feel comfortable in. 

I should note that I also own an E82 2008 BMW 128i 6MT. The frames of the seats in the 128i appear to be pretty much identical to my M2's seats. The stitching is different, but after pulling out the measuring tape, I'm pretty sure they're built on the same seat frame. Why do I mention that? Because I found a pretty much perfect seating position in the E82 that I've been driving for almost 1.5 years now, that doesn't bother my knee in the least. 

Solution: pull the E82 into the garage, bust out the tape measure, the angle gauge and get the M2's seating position to feel like the E82's: 




I measured the length of the seat bottom- result: identical. 

I used my angle gauge to measure the angle of the throttle pedal on both cars. Both cars have hinged/floor mounted throttle pedals. Angle measurement? Identical. 

I measured the distance from the throttle pedal to the front of the seat in the E82 and adjusted the M2 to match it (it took me a while to find the correct distance in the E82, so I figured I would just copy the position in the F87). 

The front of the seat in the E82 is a couple mm lower than the front of the M2's seat, but I also just recently lowered the E82's seat a couple mm (in my E82 build thread) in order to give it more headroom for a helmet. It never caused me any pain before I lowered it, so I'm not convinced it's an issue. 

Now, the one area I know to be problematic from adjusting seats in the past is seat rake. Too much rake and my knee will start to feel from pain/discomfort within blocks. This was something I didn't adjust when I first drove the M2, as I wasn't rotating the seat control correctly to lower only the front of the seat, decreasing the rake. When I discovered this, I might have actually solved the issue without any other drastic measures needing to be taken. However, I haven't driven the car enough to know for sure, so I figured I would break out the angle gauge... 

First I measured the angle/rake in the E82: 



Then I measured the angle/rake in the F87: 




Aha! This is with both seats in their lowest position, with their seat bottoms as flat as they will go. I took multiple measurements at various points and the F87 seemed to have an extra degree of angle to it at pretty much anywhere I was measuring from. 

This is an easy fix that took maybe ~5 minutes. I literally just loosened the front seat mount bolts, removed the rear seat mount bolts, added a couple of M10 washers/shims underneath the rear of seat mount/rail and bolted the seat back down. Viola! The seat angle/rake is now pretty much identical between the 2 cars! I didn't bother taking photos, but it was super easy to accomplish and this wasn't the first time I've done something like this to get rid of knee pain (I added a LOT of shims in order to get rid of knee pain in my old Focus RS!). 

Finally, the M2 came with a set of hard plastic floor mats. I loathe hard plastic floor mats. Don't get me wrong, they do a great job of protecting your carpet and are easy to clean, but the hard, slippery surface has added to some of my knee strain in the past. So, they had to go. 

I found a set of OEM M2 floor mats, with the OEM blue stitching (to match the rest of the interior) on eBay and ordered them right after I bought the car. Someone took pretty good care of these floor mats: 




As a bonus, the seller of the OEM floor mats also threw in a set of OEM BMW M Performance all-season (ish?) floor mats in the event the car sees more inclement weather: 




Has my knee discomfort problem been resolved? I believe so, but I suppose I'll need to give it some more time, just to make sure. Honestly, I probably didn't need to do all this, but I've dealt with this enough in the past that I don't mind putting in the extra time and effort to alleviate this knee pain, so I can get back to the business of just enjoying the car. If it's not resolved (I'm pretty sure it is!), I'm prepared to go to great lengths to solve it (Recaros and floor mounts, what?), if needed and will update the thread. 

In reply to Mattk :

Thank you! 
 

If you don't mind me asking, do you have anything done to your S550? I've driven a few of them over the years and the only one that I found fairly fun was a track pack car (or whatever they call it) with 3.73's. I wrote a very brief review about it a while back:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/random-car-reviews-tales-from-a-nut-with-too-much-time-on-his-hands/262322/page1/
 

If I'm being honest, the Mustang that I enjoyed driving the most over the years was the S197 5.0 6MT with the track pack/3.73's. The S550 is a much nicer car, but I thought the S197 was a bit more of a hooligan. 

So did you trade in your S2000? 

In reply to docwyte :

I'll just copy paste what I wrote in the other thread: 

Yep, I actually ended up trading the S2000 in. It took 24 hours and a ton of negotiation before it made sense financially. I'm sure I could have brought in a bit more money on BaT, but in my state, you only pay taxes on the difference in values in the vehicles, so I saved a hefty sum of money in taxes. The tax savings combined with not having to put together a fly and drive (cost of flight, hotels, gas, food, etc) helped me justify leaving a bit of extra cash on the table (if you count tax savings and not having to do a fly and drive to find this exact spec of car, I likely only would have made an extra $1000-$1500 overall on BaT, based on recent BaT sales). I was shocked they were able to bid as high as they did on my S2000, especially since it's almost winter time. Hopefully they can sell it quickly, otherwise, when the snow starts falling, they're probably going to lose money on it. 

I ended up getting the exact spec M2 I would have sought out (2016-2018, Long Beach Blue, 6MT, no mods other than the OEM BMW Performance shift knob) for a lower price than any comparable M2 listed in the country (I did a nationwide search). I honestly despise the process these days. As someone that was intimately familiar with the business, from long ago in what feels like another lifetime, I used to love the negotiation process- I enjoyed the art of working a deal and seeing numbers fall... these days, it just feels like another stressor. But, after 24 hours of back and forth, we got it done. 


I also explained a few things in the previous thread that I'll copy here as well: 

In the past year, I've tried to make more of an effort to drive the S2000 more. I put 700 miles on it in the last year. I believe I only put about ~500 miles on it the year before that. When driven on the right road in anger, it's a wonderful machine. In any other condition, I just didn't want to drive it. 

I was planning on supercharging it, figuring that adding more power might make it more interesting on normal roads, which might result in me driving it more, but things started to sink in... $6000 for a supercharger... $1000 (+labor if I didn't want to do it myself) for a beefier clutch (would a stiffer clutch take away from the driving enjoyment?)... would I want to do cooling mods for the added boost? If so $$$$... I should probably install gauges to make sure boost and AFR are healthy, $$$$... instead of running a canned tune, I should probably have it dyno tuned for my elevation $$$$... at a certain point, something else starts to kick in: for all the money I'm thinking about spending, maybe I should just buy a faster car? Annnddd, here we are. 

In reply to roninsoldier83 :

I don't have much done to it at the moment. It's a base velocity blue gt. I've done a good bit of suspension work, wheels tires, and exhaust. It currently has a 3.55 rear end. Next thing I will be doing is going up to 4.11's. The Mt86d4's long gearing definitely takes away from the fun aspect. With the suspension bits and 285's on all four corners, the car handled pretty well. New rear end gearing and e85 should wake the car up a good bit more. 
I have been hesitant to mod it any further though. I haven't fallen completely in love with it. When I bought it, I was in need of a car asap. I wanted something with decent power, reliable, manual transmission, and could fit car seats in the back. The mustang checked all those boxes. It's a fun car, I just haven't fallen in love with it. I am back and fourth on keeping it or trading it in for something else.

I drove a couple s197 coyote mustangs before buying my '21. I preferred the s550 more as a daily driver/occasional kid hauler. If I was buying something for mainly track use, I probably would have went with the s197

In reply to Mattk :

That makes sense. 

I drove a few different S550's over the years. I thought the last one I drove with 3.73's in it was more fun the ones I drove with taller gearing, but I also never fell in love with the S550. I never considered buying one. And I 100% agree, the gearing is too tall for that motor- the Coyote wants to rev, which IMO, makes for a more fun experience with shorter gears. 

If you need a back seat, that limits your options quite a bit. Of the test drives I've went on over the past year, not many cars made my "love it" list... I loved the Jaguar F-Type R, but no back seats and the issues they supposedly have with timing chains scared me away... I obviously loved my S2000, but again, no back seats... same with the ND Miata- I don't fit/can't get comfortable in the ND and again, no back seats... on the cheaper side, I enjoyed the old Acura RSX Type S quite a bit, but it's down on power from what you're used to and pretty old for a daily... I also really enjoyed the last Veloster I drove- it wasn't the N, but it was boosted and was fun to drive- it had an old school hot hatch feel to it, it was too bad the ergonomics didn't fit my body type very well, otherwise I might have sought out an N to drive. 

Of the cars I've driven over the past year, the only other car that really set my hair on fire was the F87 M2 6MT. Hence me buying one lol. 

With that said, I used to own an FK8 Civic Type R. That car was amazing! Tons of fun to drive, huge back seat, quick, handled better than any FWD car has a right to handle, great shifter etc... but no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to stop giving me knee pain, which, that's a me problem, not a car problem. I modified the seat, pedals, etc, and the knee pain never went away. Which is a damn shame, as otherwise, there's a very solid chance I would have kept that car. 

If you don't mind FWD (which, the FK8 and presumably the FL5, both hide very well), I might take a long, hard look at the Type R, or maybe the Integra Type S (same car). 

Also, my wife used to own a 2016 Camaro SS 6MT (she now owns a 2016 Challenger 392 Scat Pack). When it comes to fun driving experience, I thought the Camaro was more fun to drive vs the S550, even if the clutch in the manual version was pretty rough. But like everyone has mentioned, the visibility is horrendous and unless you're on the shorter side, fitting with a helmet could be a real challenge. 

I also enjoy my wife's Challenger, but it's the ZF 8-speed auto. We drove both the manual and 8AT and both preferred the 8AT- the manual version just wasn't very engaging and the gears felt too tall to really be fun. 

As someone who has driven most everything under the sun (within reason), I might try to test drive a few cars before spending more money on the S550: 

-F87 M2
-FK8 or FL5 Civic Type R / Integra Type S
-2016+ Camaro SS

In reply to roninsoldier83 :

Thank you for all this information. It truly is appreciated. I have ready all your threads and appreciate your in depth reviews. I didn't consider any fwd vehicles when I bought my mustang. I just enjoy rwd so much. But, I also haven't ever driven a performance fwd vehicle. So, it may be time for me to give it a shot and see how I like it!

The new civic type r definitely peaks my interest. I just never test drove it since it was fwd.

my problem with the Camaro is, I enjoy high revving motors. Before my mustang, all my vehicles were 4 cyl and 6 cyl. I would rather have a motor that revs high than have instant torque. My boss has a Camaro SS that I drove home for him when he bought it. It didn't peak my interest at all honestly. 

In reply to roninsoldier83 :

Thank you for all this information. It truly is appreciated. I have ready all your threads and appreciate your in depth reviews. I didn't consider any fwd vehicles when I bought my mustang. I just enjoy rwd so much. But, I also haven't ever driven a performance fwd vehicle. So, it may be time for me to give it a shot and see how I like it!

The new civic type r definitely peaks my interest. I just never test drove it since it was fwd.

my problem with the Camaro is, I enjoy high revving motors. Before my mustang, all my vehicles were 4 cyl and 6 cyl. I would rather have a motor that revs high than have instant torque. My boss has a Camaro SS that I drove home for him when he bought it. It didn't peak my interest at all honestly. 

In reply to Mattk :

As of now, I have two toddlers. I need room for 2 car seats, manual transmission, 6 cylinder turbo or v8, budget around $45k, and decent reliability. It's hard to beat the s550 in those circumstances 

Congrats on the purchase. That looks exactly like mine. I bought mine new in 2017 as a 50th birthday present to myself. Got one of the first '18 LCIs that came off the line. I was on a wait list for an allocation starting in October of '16, got the allocation in June '17, took delivery in September '17.

If you haven't already thought about it, look into the full-screen CarPlay update that you can get online. Makes the CarPlay *way* more useful. Worth the cost.

Enjoy!

In reply to Mattk :

I agree that the S550 is tough to beat for the money. 

As far as fun 2+2 cars go, the BRZ/GR86 are also a good value for the money. It's a pretty big step down in power from your S550, but they're around ~1000 lbs lighter and have a pretty high fun factor when you start pitching them around. The 2022+ 2.4L motors are actually decently peppy now (far peppier than the old 2.0L motors). 

In addition to the cars listed above, I would also recommend a BMW M240i. The F22 M240i has a very strong bang for the buck- they're a good bit cheaper than the M2, while arguably coming with a stronger/more reliable motor (B58). I bought my M2 over an M240i mostly because of the wide body, suspension, clever rear diff, giant brakes, wider wheels/tires and well, because ///M car. However, in an acceleration contest, they're virtually identical and the B58 is a powerhouse that appears to be among the most reliable motors BMW has ever built. Thus far, folks are claiming the B58 has a leg up on the old N54/N55 motors. I believe they have a fully-closed deck design and forged internals. 

I love my M2, but if you gave me a choice between the N55 and the B58, with all other factors being the same, I would have picked the B58. 

Although to be fair, it's very difficult to locate a manual, RWD M240i. They exist, but for most people, it's a fly and drive situation. 

CLH said:

Congrats on the purchase. That looks exactly like mine. I bought mine new in 2017 as a 50th birthday present to myself. Got one of the first '18 LCIs that came off the line. I was on a wait list for an allocation starting in October of '16, got the allocation in June '17, took delivery in September '17.

If you haven't already thought about it, look into the full-screen CarPlay update that you can get online. Makes the CarPlay *way* more useful. Worth the cost.

Enjoy!

Note to self: look into this! 

Thank you for the recommendation! 

And it goes without saying, but nice taste in cars! 

So, the previous "seat mods" didn't fully get rid of the knee discomfort, so I decided to resort to measures that might be a bit more "extreme" if you will. I took off the lower right seat cover and bent the right bolster wing down a bit (bending the ~1/4" thick seat frame metal was no bueno!), just to give my right leg a bit of relief and not feel like I was sitting on top of the bolster (the pointy part felt like it was stabbing me in the back of the leg). 

For reference, I have a long-standing case of patellar tendinitis in my right knee (long-term overuse and abuse injury), so my knee is very sensitive to certain driving positions.

While searching the BMW boards, I stumbled across this thread: 

https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1227410

^^^Oh my word. I had no idea that BMW intentionally angled the driver's seat towards the front left headlight. Apparently it was done for some sort of safety nonsense. It was brought to light by one of my favorite car reviewers, Mr. Jason Cammisa (of course it was! I'm a huge fan of the tech details in all of his Hagerty, and formerly Motor Trend videos!). 

After discovering that thread, I thought this might be something that is a contributing factor, if my right knee is interacting with the gas pedal at an odd angle, due to the seat being crooked. So, I devised a bit of a plan.

It would appear that the right side of the driver's seat is mounted just a bit further forward of the left side, causing the offset angle of the seat. I drew a quick sketch to demonstrate what I believed was going on. This is NOT to scale and is an exaggeration of the actual seating mounts, only to demonstrate (poorly) what in the world I'm talking about:



My idea was to take a carbide burr and simply enlarge the mounting holes (3 of them- I left the front right side hole alone intentionally) so I could move the left side of the seat forward and rotate it just a bit. I drew another piss poor drawing to demonstrate what I'm talking about:



I then removed 3 of the seat mounting bolts, leaving the front right bolt in, but loosening it, so that I could rotate the seat. I got in the back seat of the car and rotated the seat until it appeared to be a bit straighter (using only my lowly eye-ball method- helped to take the headrest out so I could see a bit better). I then used a marker to mark where I would need to enlarge/oblong the mounting holes in order to try and make the seat a bit straighter. I didn't go crazy, as it's easy to remove material, much tougher to put it back in. 

I then threw a carbide/tungsten burr into my drill. They're pretty cheap, generally only $15-$30:




I then slowly started enlarging the mounting holes in the mounting rails of the seats:



You can see how I was able to move the left front mount forward and how there's actually more room if I wanted to go further:






Just changing the mountain point of the seat by that small amount took the angle of the front seat from looking like this:




To this:



^^^Note that the centerline of the seat might not be perfectly straight, but it's a helpful marker nonetheless. My end goal was to try and square my hips to the pedals, so I was more or less concentrating on the front of the seat vs the pedals. 


Is it perfect? No. I might go further when I get some free time this weekend. However, it is an improvement and it only took ~20 minutes of my time.

I'll also likely use some black touch-up paint on the rails as well, just to keep them looking nice.


After doing this, I went for a drive. During spirited driving, the car feels GREAT! Very comfortable, no pain whatever- all of the alterations were positive in nature. However, I noted just a bit of potential discomfort during steady-state cruising with the car in a high gear (when my foot is at a bit more of an upward angle/not pressing the gas very hard). 


So, I then did the smartest thing I could think of. Something I should have done YEARS ago: I called my physical therapist and went in for an appointment this morning. He did an assessment and thinks we might be able to get rid of knee pain over the course of the next 2-4 weeks, explaining to me what he believes to be the problem (which made all the sense in the world). I'm skeptical, but I've seen him work magic in the past (with lots of work on my end), so who knows. I remain hopeful and would love to cure this for good, so I can get back to driving whatever I want, whenever I want. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, even if it wasn't necessary, the car is now actually more comfortable for my frame in general. 

Also, I didn't care for the OEM Performance shift knob that the car came with. Nothing wrong with it, it's an OEM part per se, but I just prefer shift knobs that I can grab from more of a top position (vs cylindrical knobs). So I picked up an OEM M2 shift knob off of eBay: 




^^^I also prefer the stock M2 shift knob, as the blue stitching matches the rest of the interior (vs the white stitching on the OEM BMW Performance knob). 

Swapping them out took maybe 1-2 minutes. The knob that was on there came off with ease. Easy peasy. 

From this: 



To this: 




Huge improvement? Meh, a bit, but nothing life changing. Do I prefer it? 100%. 

I suppose I can probably sell the other one to recoup the costs of buying an OEM knob. 

That's really interesting about the seat angle.

I rode in and then drove my sister/brother in-laws M2 Comp this past weekend which has slightly different seats to yours (not sure an improvement as they lack the adjustable thigh support and no adjustable bolsters if yours has those). Anyways, I found the passenger seat quite comfortable but the right side bottom bolster dug into me slightly when I was driving it enough for me to notice in the 15 minutes behind the wheel.

In reply to adam525i :

I had the same experience with the driver's side bottom right bolster digging into me, so I bent the frame out a bit to resolve the problem. I'm not a big fan of the sharp/pointy shape of the bottom seat bolsters. The seats in my 128i are nearly identical in dimensions, but the lower seat bolsters are more rounded and they've never given me a problem. 

The OG M2 (2016-2018) does have adjustable upper/back bolsters, I'm shocked the Comp doesn't. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the Comp got the seats from the M3/M4. I think they might be slightly wider, but I couldn't say for sure. 

I have a boatload of maintenance goodies on the way for the M2, not because the car technically "needs" anything, but more because I don't know the car's full maintenance history, so everything is going to get freshened up. 

When looking into problem areas on these cars, there aren't nearly as many as I would have expected. One of them is the N55's inclination to destroy the OEM charge pipe, which is basically just the pipe from the cold side of the intercooler that runs up to the throttle body. Over time, they frequently get torn. 

I did all the searching for recommendations to solve this potential issue- there are a plethora of aftermarket charge pipes available- and I ended up spending all the money on the pipe that seemed to have the highest reputation for being a high quality piece, that's made in the USA: the Evolution Racewerks charge pipe: 



No, this isn't really a power adder per se, it's just to ensure that the OEM pipe doesn't form a tear that would cause me a boost leak. 

I'll be sure to update the thread when I eventually get around to installing it on the car. 

I had their intercoolers on several previous Audi's.   They make nice stuff.  Whenever I buy a used car with no maintenance history I end up doing a baseline on it.  So replace all the fluids and filters, belt(s), check the brakes, etc.

I didn't have a chance to do that to my daughter's Tiguan before she took it out of state to school, so will be doing it this coming summer when she comes home.  Thankfully she doesn't drive that much and it's still under warranty...

In reply to docwyte :

I'm sure you've seen my previous threads- I'm the same way. I should be receiving a couple large boxes from FCP Euro and ECS Tuning here shortly, containing new fluids, filters, belts, pulleys, spark plugs, etc. 

For whatever reason, I didn't see the OEM belt kit (made by INA and Continental if I'm not mistaken) for the M2 on FCP Euro's website. So, I ended up picking it up from the fine folks at ECS Tuning.



FCP Euro is usually my go-to for most euro parts, but honestly, I've also had pretty good luck with anything I've ordered from ECS Tuning. ECS also has an advantage of stocking a lot of non-OEM parts as well. Either way, it's nice to have options. 

Updates: 

-I drove the M2 around town yesterday and didn't notice any knee pain! I'm not sure if it's because of the various seat modifications, or because of the fact that my knee is actually healing (today was day ~11 of doing knee exercise/stretches that physical therapist recommended- we've had 2 sessions so far), but either way, I'm stoked! While I would like to think playing with seat ergonomics was helpful, I'm truly hoping my knee is just healing and this will apply to all cars in the future. 

-I'm in idiot. There is an oil temp gauge built into the dash, you just have to toggle it using the BC button on the stalk. It goes from 160 degrees F to 340 degrees F. It should help me decide what type of oil I would like to use, long term (there are a few different options with BMW's LL01 cert). 

-Most of the maintenance stuff has arrived: 



-Oil & filter
-Diff/LSD fluid & fill/drain plugs
-Trans fill/drain plugs (still waiting on trans fluid to get here)
-Air filter
-Cabin air filter
-Spark plugs
-Serpentine belt, tensioner & idler pulleys
-Coolant tank expansion hose (apparently they're known to crack/leak over time)
-Extra BMW coolant (I already have some in the garage, but wanted to make sure I had enough for a fill flush)
-The above-listed charge pipe. 

I also ordered a BendPak Quick Jack. After years of using a jack/stand stands, I finally decided to spend the money on a Quick Jack. I think it should get the car about ~6 inches higher than my jack/stands, which will be appreciated. 

After doing some reading, I'll likely order a new water pump and thermostat in the spring and flush the coolant at that time. Apparently they still haven't fixed the problem with these things, after all these years- they're known to commonly die between 60k-100k miles. I plan on taking the car to the Tail of the Dragon next summer, so I'll get the job done before then, just to be on the safe side. 

Maintenance records indicate the brake fluid was changed out in December 2023, so I'll skip it for a while (good pedal feel anyway right now), but I might bleed the clutch, just to say I did. 

Driving this car around, man, this thing is hilarious! 

Good call on the expansion tank, cheap insurance... 

I also recently got a QuickJack and now wonder why I waited so long!

I finally got around to doing maintenance on the M2. 

I assembled the Quick Jack over the course of a couple of days- the first day I used thread locker on the hose connections and waiting close to ~24 hours before proceeding, as instructed. Worked like a charm: 




Was the Quick Jack worth the money? Well, maybe. It's very helpful, giving me a LOT more room underneath the car vs jack stands and it was helpful for easily raising and lowering the car (which helped when I needed to get into the engine bay), but I still can't stand up or even sit up underneath the car. As per previous threads where it's been discussed, I think it would be more useful for if I eventually get a 4-post lift, allowing me to raise the wheels off of a 4-post. 

Old serpentine belt and pulleys: 



New belt and pulleys: 




I swapped in the new metal charge pipe, although it's buried behind enough stuff that if you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't notice it: 




Honestly, I read horror stories about how difficult the OEM charge pipe is to remove, which wasn't my experience at all. I had a helper and we removed it from the bottom. After everything was disconnected, we literally removed the OEM charge pipe from the car in under ~60 seconds, from the bottom, it was really that easy and didn't fight us at all. Probably much easier having a helper that could pull while I pushed. 

Disclaimer: this is an N55 powered OG M2. I watched tutorial videos on people doing the same thing in the N55 powered F22 M235i and F30 335i and while the pipe goes in the same place, these cars have different subframes (the M2 has an aluminum subframe, whereas the non-M cars have a steel subframe) and it looks like those cars have a hose at the bottom that would be more of a hindrance, that was in a different place on the M2. Doing this on a non-M car might be a bit more difficult. 

The biggest pain in the neck of that job? Getting the damn OEM intercooler back into place! That thing is sandwiched in there tight! There's just no room for my big hands in that tight little space. If it wasn't such a pain in the neck, I would have removed the OEM radiator fan to give myself some extra room to work. I also wasn't a fan of the "quick disconnect" vacuum hoses on the OEM intake and OEM charge pipe- my finger/thumb were bleeding for a while after removing those stupid hoses. 

I ended up doing a bunch of the things: 




-Oil change
-Transmission fluid change (w/new plugs- even though they're not really needed)
-Differential fluid change (also w/new plugs, which are actually needed, as they have a gasket built into them)
-Air filter
-Cabin air filter
-New serpentine belt, tensioner pulley (w/new bolt) and idler pulley
-Upgraded charge pipe (the OEM charge pipe was fine, I was just doing this for preventative maintenance, as they're known to tear over time- this way I don't have to worry about it, ever)

All in all, if you count assembling the Quick Jack, it was a full days work. The car started and drove perfectly afterwards. 

I was planning on also throwing in new spark plugs, but I had a clumsy moment: when removing one of them from its package, I accidentally dropped it on my concrete garage floor! Doh! So, I ordered another one from FCP Euro, it should be here in the next couple of days. The old one was probably fine, but they're cheap enough that I didn't want to go through all the trouble (there's a bunch of covers to take off), just to have to do the job twice. 


I didn't touch the coolant or expansion tank hose. I'm considering doing the water pump and thermostat in the spring, as preventative maintenance, so I figured if I'm going to do that, I might as well hold off on changing the coolant. Which, I'm not convinced it's 100% necessary to get a new water pump at this mileage, but the other part of my wants to take this car to the Dragon next summer and I would hate to have the water pump die along the way, so I might just bite the bullet and get it done.