Originally Posted by Henn28

Love the M3! Had that car in Imola red but the post Katrina roads here made it too painful to drive. Sold it to a guy from Miami who bought with a stack of bills it and let me keep driving it for a few months before he came to get it.

Just got back from a 1500 mile trip to Asheville with the X5. She was perfect and just crushed the miles like a beast. I need to go to war on the rattles, squeaks and wind noise though. It reminds me that the car is over 20 years old. I seem to remember it as it was brand new back in 2002. I am going to go to school on UCSBWSR’s fantastic write up on silencing the noise in his x5. I have a front passenger airbag to troubleshoot, and maybe speakers to install so I might do it all at once. I hate pulling the door cards off these days as the plastic is really fragile.

Interestingly the post fluid change transmission was noticeably smoother, most of the time. However, I did feel the occasional harder shift, both up and down, usually from 2 to 3, but not always. I’ve got plenty of fluid and will swap it out again shortly in an attempt to get more of the darker existing fluid out. I wonder if the Porsche shop that did the transmission install 4 years ago used OE BMW fluid, or something they had on hand, and now I’ve got mixed fluids. Who knows.