Ill start from the beginning...Maybe 6 months ago, my throw out bearing broke. I had to limp the car to my mechanics house with the clutch stuck in the engaged position. Pushing the clutch did absolutely nothing. My mechanic replaced the clutch and throwout bearing. With the new clutch, the first thing I noticed was that once the car was hot, the clutch felt a bit stiff. It also made a rubbing noise when pushing the clutch down. It also seemed to engage very early and quickly on the pedal. Approximately .5 in from the floor it began engaging. I figured it needed to wear in. I also had problems getting into reverse. After a month or so, it seemed to get better. It became softer and easier to use and began engaging further from the floor.

Starting about a month ago, it began engaging closer and closer to the floor. Slowly, it began to not fully disengage and make it difficult to get in and out of gear. Now, it will not go into gear at all. I can pop it into reverse and the car jolts and creeps with the clutch all the way down. I pretty much have to turn off the car to get it into 1st. I can only change gears when the revs match and it will pop in or out.

My first though was the slave cylinder. I replaced that...and it made it about 10 times worse. I bled the clutch and it would not go into gear at all. Before I replaced that, it would go into gear (not easily) and would creep like an automatic. After that, I put about half an inch extra on the end of the slave cylinder to give it more travel. That seemed to make some difference. It still won't go into gear with the engine running and the car still.

My current theory is that the pin that holds the lever in place that the slave cylinder pushes is sheared and the lever is not in the right place. To rule out this theory, I NEED HELP!

Can someone post a picture of their slave cylinder with the clutch pedal all the way up? I need to see whether the pin is supposed to line up with the notch on the plastic bushing at the base of the lever. If it is supposed to line up, I can begin to fix this.

I am about to have a BMW specialist look at it on Thursday. I will see what they find out. If anyone has any ideas or has had similar problems, please let me know! I will not take it to the dealership since they will charge me thousands in labor.

 

I will say that the slave cylinder on these cars is the most difficult car to bleed next to an old Fiero that I worked on once. Probably next to impossible to do without having the clutch slave cylinder piston pushed all the way into it's bore. There is a special tool for that the slides two pins throught the slave cylinder flange bolts and lock in place, and then a large bolt gets screwed in and pushes the piston all the way in. Still very difficult though.

That said, was your slave cylinder leaking to begin with???


HTH, Chad

 

It wasn't leaking. I was getting a rubbing noise and vibration while pressing the clutch pedal down that felt like it was coming from the slave cylinder. I was hoping it was something simple that would not require dropping the transmission. I didn't have too much trouble bleeding it. It begins to move as soon as the clutch gets pushed down though. I don't think it is a bleeding issue...unfortunately.

 

The problem was there before I changed the slave cylinder and it wasn't present after the clutch was installed.