samaritrey

Well congrats on the job man. About dam time you started working again lol. You are going to over take me very soon it looks like i am at 149k. guess i need to just get some jack stands and leave my car at 60mph all day lol. And i think apples quality is slipping on the new portable devices i am starting to see a lot of the new stuff come back. Which actually makes my day worthwhile.

LILBENZ230

The magic moment in my driveway tonight.



An EPIC fail poor quality photo of my C230 and Marco's 2001 330i. Even at 90,000 miles my C230 is quite the spring chicken in comparison - the 2001 330i is nearly at 200,000 miles. They both run like champs. I want to race them. New the 330i had 225hp and my car 189. I wonder how well the BMW's held on to its performance advantage? We'll soon see.

LILBENZ230

Oh, another thing. For a long while now the driver's side front wheel will be darker with heavier brake dust after a while without a wash than the passenger's side front wheel. It concerns me somewhat as the passenger side is where the pad sensor is, IIRC. No unusual performance issues but definitely more dusting on that side.

Thoughts?

Glyn M Ruck

Rotor surface not as good on one side vs. the other or an unlucky soft pad. The W204 guys have been plagued by an "unlucky" batch of soft pads on the rear.

LILBENZ230

Hmm hopefully you are correct and it is not a sticking piston caliper. The rotor doesn't seem to be grooved unusually or anything and the brakes are certainly wearing well at almost 40,000 miles.

Glyn M Ruck

Sticking pistons are awfully rare. Especially in a well used car like yours that never stands for a year or whatever without use.

LILBENZ230

Or 12 hours.

Speaking of brakes:

Two nights ago I driving down a two lane highway at about 11pm. The speed limit on the highway is 55mph and it is not lit. There are no cars in sight and I'm cruising at about 65mph, windows down, thinking "I can't believe it's been over 2 years and I still love this car" when something white catches my eye just a little out of the high-beam range. It was only a matter of microseconds, I'm sure, but it felt like I sat in disbelief for 10 minutes at what was happening. A kid, couldn't have been more than 13, had stepped out in front of my car. I used both feet to stomp the brake pedal - BAS/ABS and all - but there was no way the car was stopping in time at this point.

Luckily, he jumped clear - and ran.

I went about a half mile up the road and pulled a u-turn. I went back by where this had happened and there was no sign of him. I went half a mile down the road and pulled another u-turn back in the original direction. This time a car passed and was in front of me. As I'm accelerating, I see the car in front hit its brakes. I step on the gas and close the gap, then hit the brakes and come to a stop beside the kid. He's standing in the other lane eating a bag of potato chips. I say "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!" and he says "I'm eating my chips, want some?"

At that point I just take off. It was like the twilight zone or something.

bdgdl08

Happy Halloween! lol

LILBENZ230

Marco painted the factory rims of his 330i black like your car (only you have E55 ones). It must be the new "in" thing.

LILBENZ230

From a rambling PM I sent, highlighting what this car has been through:

The really surprising thing about my C230, though, tires aside, is how well it has held up to the nearly 6 years. I was just with a friend yesterday in her 2005 Corolla with 89,900 miles (to my 90,100). Corolla's are damn durable and excellent cars but it was showing a lot of age in comparison. I've piled friends in the C230 (regularly), taken it through corn-fields, down dirt trails to soccer games, hauled numerous kids, let everyone and their mother drive it, it's been rained in, soaked with diesel fuel from a truck on the interstate, had mud thrown all over it by a truck on a highway, been hit with a big gulp of soda from a pissed off SUV driver, never been waxed, is washed exclusively by an automatic wash, hit a dog, a cat, three possums, grazed a few deer, been ran hard in the mountains countless times, ran through tar, hailed on, hit with soccer *****... this could be a commercial for Benz. Through all of that and more it still runs like new and is quite the head turner when it is clean (I get compliments all the time). Aside from a few suspension pops it drives like new, tracks fine, rides well and is super quiet, has outstanding brakes, gets over 30mpg on the highway and can take off quick enough to surprise people in more powerful cars. 27 months, 65,000 miles make it the longest time and most miles I have ever owned and put on a vehicle and I still love it.

LILBENZ230

My attitude about the C230 is essentially "let's see what I can throw at it". So, in the spirit of that, my friend who is an independent contractor for the Atlanta Journal needed a substitute to do her route today. Free as I was I decided to use the Benz for this truly grueling work. Now it can add newspaper work to its long list of things it has been subjected to. It's got quite a resume.



The trunk was crammed.



Averaging 25mph with all the starting and stopping it took 3 hours.



Treated to a wash after the work was done @ 90,550 miles.

samaritrey

lol

W203E35

Damn, 90k miles huh? I recently hit 50k. Hope mine treats me as good as your did.

If the backseat can handle you and Drew doing what you guys do best I'm sure it can handle a couple of newspapers.

MW_ATL

Cleaned mine today and was thinking how right you are Matt. These cars age very gracefully.

I can only imagine how horrible the newsprint can be with the light interior. I did that for a while when I was younger and it got *everywhere.*

LILBENZ230

That's why they were relegated to the trunk.

LILBENZ230

Getting ready to do some pre-100k service on the Benz in the next couple of weeks. Just bought:

Air Filter
Cabin Air Filter
M1 0W-40 & Mann filter kit
Sway bar end-links (clunk noise)
Sway bar bushings (inner and outer)

I'm at 92,500 now and Marco's 01 330i is at 199,500 and is in somewhat better shape than my car.

tommy

That's a lot of junk in the trunk.

Glyn M Ruck

Well the Beemer has obviously not seem the same level of abuse. Their suspension clunks like an old wagon in SA conditions long before a Merc.

LILBENZ230

Neither 330i or C230 have an advantage on each other as far as how well they run - they both run perfectly. I was talking more about the interior on his 330i (the leather, dashboard, etc) is all perfect and shows almost no age at all. It sees similar use to the C230 but spent a large part of its life with a traveling salesman. It's absolutely shocking to see how great it looks up close and how great it still feels and drives at 200,000 miles, though. The paint is still glossy, the doors shut with a nice thunk instead of the rattle some cars get as they're old, etc. A $90 coil pack has been the only issue until today.. it has an SRS warning. Gotta get that taken care of ASAP. Still it's hard to complain @ almost 10 and 200k. The engine and transmission are silky smooth. The suspension is original and feels fine and doesn't have any clunks in normal driving (but neither does my car).

The C230 has a recently developed clunk over speed bumps in my new office park. It doesn't manifest in any other way but I still want it gone. There's no doubt that my C230 will still be running like this @ 200,000 miles itself.. it will be entertaining to see how many miles the 330i has by that time.

LILBENZ230

M271 gas mileage FTW!



After 40,000 miles of usage with me it was time for this warning. I only do OEM brakes so that's coming up soon.

LILBENZ230

I'm at 95,200 miles now. The car's been with me for 75,000 miles and never let me down. On Thursday my indy mechanic kept my car and installed new brakes ($160 total), a new air filter ($40 total), did an oil/filter change ($60 total), side to side tire rotation ($0), inspected the front suspension, tightened everything down, pulled, poked, prodded, lubricated, etc ($36) and gave my car a clean bill of health, although I think the original battery's time is near due to a couple of weaker cold starts lately. I also topped the coolant up with MB stuff and distilled water.

On Friday, I took Marco's 330i for the day and he kept the Benz and cleaned it to showroom standards - it's never been so clean before (and I do keep it clean!). Sometime between my last post praising the 200k mile 330i and Friday it has came up with 9 DTCs on a CEL. I'll have to post those up if anyone wants to help me out with an analysis!

I'm trying to reach 100,000 by year-end.

Sometime Thanksgiving week it will be getting a transmission fluid/filter change (finally!) and then late December or early January I'm supposed to get Drew's 07 Sport rims and I'm going to buy a JB Speed AMG-sport spoiler as well.

I am completely overwhelmed at my new job and don't have much time to post anymore but I do still love the Benz.

W203E35

Go drive your 135i you Traitor!!!!!

Good stuff Matt, hope to see it hit 200k miles

havoc_vulture

Good to hear that the benz is well
always like reading you're adventures with her

W203E35

him

Glyn M Ruck

Go well with the job. Better to be overwhelmed than without.