Does anyone use a clutch stop on their R53? ECS Tuning sells one but I'm wondering what the driving experience is like. Anyone?

 

I have the Turner Motorsports one (purchased from ECS) on my F56 and I had one on my BMW E93 as well. The thing, in my opinion, is one of the absolute best mods that can be done. I love it. The biggest benefit for me, is that I am quite short (5'6"), so by using the clutch stop, I am able to push the seat back a couple more notches and get away from being so close to the dash. I also find that my shifting is much smoother. I had the one on my BMW for several years and still loved it the day I sold it.

 

How did you adjust the start switch when you installed the stop? I couldn't find the switch on my R53, so it wouldn't start with the clutch stop in place.
Cooper48- The kit is pretty strange for an R53, you have a cast aluminum bracket that needs to be drilled out and then access to install the RivNut is poor making installation a b****. If they gave a bit more instruction as to installation (there is NONE) it might be a little easier, but you have to figure it out yourself. Mine is sitting on the bench useless.

 

This appears to be a two part question.

1) Regarding the starting of the car, you still have to press the clutch in pretty far even with the clutch stop installed, so it has never been an issue for starting. I've heard from others, that did have that issue, that they just needed to remove one of the rubber washers to increase the throw just a little bit and that worked.

2) I have an F56, not an R53, so unsure of the issues you are having. For the F56 and BMW cars, it's a 10 second install. The BMW, you just remove the rubber grommet and install the clutch stop plug - done. For the F56, the clutch stop doesn't fit by itself, so you have to drill a hole in the middle of the rubber grommet you take out, then press the clutch stop through it and then reinstall. Still takes less than than a minute to do.

 

Thanks for the answer, both Cooper48 and I have R53s and the rubber grommet hole is too big for the threaded post of the clutch stop necessitating the use of a threaded insert into the cast aluminum pivot bracket. I'll have another look at the switch mounting though.

 

Gotcha - that seems to be a similar problem to the F56, so I'm curious if my solution would work for you as well.

On the F56, a rubber grommet that is plug shaped is pulled out of a hole behind the clutch pedal. The diameter of that hole is much wider than the diameter of the clutch stop threaded post. In addition, the depth of the hole is too shallow for the threaded post of the clutch stop as well. By drilling out the center of the rubber grommet that you take out of the hole and then pushing the threaded clutch stop through that hole and then re-inserting the original grommet back into the hole, but with the new clutch stop now sticking up through the middle, it alleviates both problems.

Not sure if this would work for the R53, but might be worth investigating.

 

My original one was powdered hopes and dreams, so one of these spiffy ones will replace it once I'm ready to actually start driving the car.

If anyone is having issues with a mechanic sensor with a depth switch, just move the switch closer or further away to adjust the engagement point.