Its been a tough night. Sleeping in the car wasn’t as comfortable as one would hope. Fell asleep around 2 am, then woke up at 430, after a couple hours of sleep. My nose felt really cold, eventhough my body feels warm. Ran the car for a few minutes until the car’s interior warms up. Its 4 only degrees outside.

Its much too cold to be camping in the north western USA. Glad having a car.

By 630 am, I woke up to the sunrise with cold, and couldn’t fall asleep anymore. Decided to cook some breakfast until noticing this

Tire rubbing marks, rubbing along the body on the Driver side rear fender. Giving these are really wide tires for the car, 255/30/19. A bit overkill for this car, but it really grips like its on rails. With a trunk full of stuff, rear seats full as well, then a full tank of gas, it has put so much weight on the suspension.

Its strange with all the automotive preparedness prior to leaving: borrowing a spare tire, emergency tool set, car wash, headlight hid ballast replacement, engine and tranny oil change, alignment, front bumper and hood waxing( easier to remove road kill bugs) , rain x application (better visibility in the rain), spare key, emergency kit, blankets, flashlight, tire patch repair kit, and list goes on. Even having cover all that I could think of, the suspension sagging wasn’t one of them.

As I recall testing the car after the alignment at Alpha 1, there was still a finger gap between the tire and fender. The car is very neutral in the rain, very good throttle control of the rear, allows a control drift even without LSD. Changed from the typical safe BMW under-steer settings, to driver oriented neutral setup. Not too aggressive toe, as to minimize tirewear for the long roads ahead. Just civilized enough for everyday use, with a bit of performance.

Well, the only solution is to raise the rear suspension, got to love Blistein PSS9 coilovers. The sad thing is, the adjustment wrench are not with me. As I had to borrow from my honest mechanic Danny at Alpha 1 Auto.  Really not comfortable with the tire possibly rubbing the rest of the trip. Good that we aren’t far from Vancouver, trip will have to resume once the car is ready, after raising the rear.