I am a frequent poster on the bimmer.org E46 messageboard and I am in the process of writing a FAQ. When I am done, it will be placed on bimmer.org.

I am posting this message because I thought some of you may be able to 1) find this useful 2) contribute any ideas you may have.
We're all car enthusiasts here, after all.


Inside the E46 FAQ there is a link to IronMike's post on the A4 FAQ regarding cleaning leather with black shoe dye. I also want to make sure that IronMike or any other A4 guys are OK with me linking the two.

Thanks,

Kris L.<ul><li><a href="http://pkx.todiefor.com/cars/bmw/e46faq/e46faq.html">E46 FAQ (beta) - still needs lots of work!</a></li></ul>

For the break in period, perhaps I am misunderstanding your wording. You encourage engine breaking and also say to NOT be light on your breaks. My reaction is to ask "well, which is it?" Normally you're not going to be hard on your breaks if you are also engine breaking. Did I miss something? Please clairify.

Trying to help,
Mark P

I'm not a mechanic.. but I believe that using engine braking pulls oil all the way up the piston wall to fully lubricate them. (I could be totally off.. feel free to correct me anyone!).

BMW recommends this.. they also recommend making sure that the rotors are heated up properly when they're new.. and this can't be done if you're very light on the brakes. (I guess)

Kris

Brakes need to be babied the first 300 miles or so. The reason is that the rotors and the pads need to mate to each other in order to develop grooves that are exactly the same. After that, you can do what you want. Hard braking early can cause overheating due to the fact that the pad and rotor don't match, causing certain materials in the pad to boil off. This will cause your pads to never gain their full effectiveness. Also note that regardless of how hard you brake you need to use and dissipate the same amount of energy, it's just a matter of how quickly you build it up.

Gary Bonham
1.8tqms