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Does anyone have experience with the more premium AGM batteries in vehicles that see extreme use such as a race track? The battery would be subject to intense vibration and heat. It would rarely get charged by the alternator -- but would be on a Battery Tender between races and events. My...

This is the second oil change my 2021 C63S has received and the first full interval using Mobil 1 FS 0w40. This car is a daily driver but I don't have any sort of daily commute.. I do like winding it out to hear that V8 pop and bang! The car has the hand-built, wet sump M177 bi-turbo 4.0L V8...

I asked this last year and it's probably time to ask again: does anyone know what the Labor Day promos will be for Discount Tire and America's Tire will be? Their Labor Day deals page isn't live yet but I know some people manage to get the info early...

This is the first differential change that my 2021 Mercedes-AMG C63S sedan has received. The car has the hand-built 4.0L bi-turbo V8, engine code M177 (503hp). There's some conflicting information about whether or not these cars should get a special break-in diff fluid change. The AMG owner's...

This is the first oil change that my 2021 Mercedes-AMG C63S sedan has received. The car has the hand-built 4.0L bi-turbo V8, engine code M177 (503hp). Unknown what the factory fill is, but probably the typical Mercedes 5w40 or something similar. Car had 3,000 miles on the clock when I bought it...

I've been looking at the bottles for the OEM Mercedes transmission fluids but don't recognize them. The gear oils are Castrol (they don't even relabel or rebrand them). Here is an example of the bottle, the OEM 236.17 ultra-low viscosity ATF "FE" for the Jatco 9-speeds. Given that the list of...

Traded in my truck for a 2021 Mercedes C63 S sedan, which will be my first-ever Mercedes. I've owned BMW and Audi in the past and am fairly familiar with the German uber sedans. :-) Who is making the OEM Mercedes oil? I see Mercedes is aligned with Mobil 1 and I believe this motor (M177)...

A lot of the new F-150s are using the Pirelli Scorpion ATR as their OEM tire. I'm seeing it on most of the 4WD models except the Platinum and Limited which use a Hankook Dynapro AT2 instead. It looks like this is an older tire (Tire Rack tests are from 2006!) and it falls near the bottom against...

I posted this to the F-150 subreddit but figured I would ask here too. I am currently trying to decide between a new King Ranch and Platinum but after sitting in several examples of each, I'm noticing a big disparity in seat feel and comfort between them. Two of the King Ranches I sat in were...

Does anyone have visibility into the potential deals that Discount/Americas Tire will run for Labor Day? In the past it has been "double rebates" and similar, but I'm not sure if they're tightening the belt. My Corvette needs some new street/wet track tires and the ones I want are not on sale...

Without going into too many details now, I was wondering what the consensus is on the risks of replacing a dashboard in a modern car -- namely are you risking introduction of problems like rattles and squeaks. Anecdotal evidence always seems to scream "you'll get lots of rattles!" but it's hard...

I bought my first-ever truck today, a 2021 Nissan Titan Pro-4X. Fully loaded and at a great price with the end-of-year deals and haggling. It's got the trusty VK56VD in it and the manual calls for 0w20 every 5k. This motor was revised for 2017 where they made it direct injection and bumped the...

First full interval on the glorious Motul 300V 0w40 "Trophy". I switched to this stuff after seeing too many UOAs of the M1 Formula ESP 0w40 come back out of grade. It had worked well in my other cars so figured it was worth a shot. Roughly the same number of miles as the previous OCI, and...

Is there any value in having clutch fluid (Super DOT 4) analyzed via UOA? It is not a shared sump with the brakes, but rather, a dedicated system.

My Corvette has worked fairly well as an only car for the last 3 years, but I think it's time to finally relegate it to track duty and fun/weekends. Not only does this give me more leeway to run more aggressive tires and potentially modify it further, but it adds a "safety margin" should...

This is the third manual transmission change the car has seen. Mileage worked out to nearly double (14.4k vs 7.6k) and track time was about 50% longer (22 hours vs 15 hours). The car has a dedicated transmission cooler. Blackstone said things still look fine. Wear metals are dropping on a...

This is the third rear differential fluid change the car has seen. Mileage worked out to a tad longer (14.4k vs 11k) but overall track time was similar (22 hours vs 24 hours). The car has a dedicated differential cooler. Blackstone highlighted that iron came down even further despite the longer...

This is the third full interval with the M1 ESP Formula 0w40. I pushed it past my usual 20% OLM reading and let it go down to around 3% which was around 2k extra miles. But this also worked out to a lot of track time: about 15 hours! Several of those track days had ambient temps in the mid-90s...

A bit late to share this, but figured I'd throw it up to tide some of you over until the racetracks reopen and you can get back out for some spirited driving! March 6-8 - MotorSport Ranch Cresson (1.7 CCW), NASA Texas March Madness event Time trial is the next step up from HPDEs so I decided...

What are some proven fluids for track/race use in a GM manual transmissions requiring Dexron III? The usual suspect always seems to be Red Line D4 ATF but I'm open to other options. Motul Multi ATF, Schaeffer 204SAT All Trans Supreme, Renewable Lube Bio-SynXtra ATF PLUS, and Amsoil SSS all look...