So I tracked the car yesterday, and immediately after the very first session, the ticking started to come back. I guess it's the heat that passes to the lugs?
But in any case, I retorqued the lugs in between sessions, and it still came back after the following session.
By the end of the day when the car was cooled down from being parked for a while, the ticking seems to be continuous. I can hear it now even just moving the car in a straight line, no particular load. With the engine off, and car in neutral, I can hear the ticks just from pushing the car forward by hand.
Going to take ALL my lugs off and clean them thoroughly to see if it really is caused by grime/friction between lugs and wheel lug holes. Will report back thereafter.
On another note, the LSD seemed to behave just as normal...still kind of pissed that the "reputable" shop tried to lead me down the path of high-costs
And as far as engine oil temp goes, I was seeing it near the 3/4 mark on the instrument cluster. And interestingly-enough, when I tracked my buddy's stock E90 M3, his oil temp gauge also read the same. As far as I can tell, both cars' gauges read the same values, with 210*F as the middle point.