1st update.
Within a day or two of purchasing the MKS I noticed an annoying clunk from the suspension while driving over fairly normal road cracks. Figured I would have the dealer look at it and take a look at the rest of the car while they're at it. Dropped it off just about a week ago and got a call later that day. Suspension problem was the sway bar links. Simple enough fix for me to do myself. They also said it needed new spark plugs, rear brake pads, a shaft seal and... a water pump, ugh. Well I know what happens when the pumps go out so I told them go ahead and do the pump and seal. I'll take care of the rest.
Got the car back today. All in for $3200. They replaced the water pump, all the timing chain parts, new gaskets due to disassembly, new coolant, new tranny fluid, new oil and the shaft seal. Not an cheap job, but I have good piece of mind now moving forward.
Also during the past week ordered new 534 plugs, front sway links and a new air filter from Rockauto. Also ordered some EBC Yellow pads. Got the fronts off Amazon for a steal at $52. Rears I had to pay full price at $109.
Immediately after getting the car back from the dealer I brought it home to get to work. Sway links were not too bad, just tedious. Front pads and air filter went fine. I forgot to look if the rear calipers were the twist type so had to put the rear back together and got a tool this evening for those. Took it out for a romp to break them in. Much more bite than before. Did realize half way through the drive though that my dumb ass forgot to put the brake reservoir cap back on so have to go find a new one tomorrow. Either way, brakes work great, suspension clunk is gone.
Later this week the plugs will go in, PTU fluid and RDU fluid will get swapped out and some fresh all season tires will go on. My Dragy unit should show up tomorrow as well.
Also ordered an SCT X4 from Brad (AJP) which should show up in a couple days as well as a 3 bar map. Once the car is back to a good baseline in terms of maintenance I'll do some base runs with the Dragy before throwing in the tune.