Unfortunately it's well justified to remark about the lack of effort people put in to doing valve clearances.Jon_Bmw wrote:I knew that would G you up!bss325i wrote:I always do this!Jon_Bmw wrote:The valve clearances are a boring, but sort of satisfying job. I think I adjusted 9 out of 24 on mine. Only 3 were out of spec, but when you are doing it yourself, you have the time to adjust the ones on the bottom tolerance window whereas a dealer/independent would never do this.
Not only do i have my own set of shims i also have a tub full of part worn shims to use to get the clearance bang on to bottom as with the shim kit they are set sizes with .04mm gaps between them so the next shim up is sometimes too big to use to get it to that end of the window.
The joys of a surface grinder to hand makes life easier as well. I found on my motor all of my shims required were within .16, so quite consistent wear / original valve seat depth. So much that I might order some more to replace that part of the set.
I've even heard of one main dealer workshop controller telling people specifically not to do them!!!
S54 ones are easy anyway as the shims pop out easily due to their size compared to S14/M88/S38/S50 large shims that are fiddly to get out as the film of oil between the bucket and shim holds them together.
Care must be taken with the S54 shims though as they are easy to drop into the engine.
But I got a quote from BMW for genuine wheels and was shocked at how reasonable the are (if you can call £1,800 reasonable) and was going to pull the trigger. But I asked on m3 cutters people's opinions and the overwhelming majority told me to save £1,300 and buy the reps, including several who own both. So ordered those, a set of 12mm spacers all round and new extended bolts for the grand total of £525 delivered once VAT was removed. 
