Clutch Dilema

[gcmerak]

Hello All,

I am new to the forum and I am happy that such a forum exists.

My son and I have been working on his 1995 325is with a good amount of success. We replaced the control arms, replaced the brake pads replaced the cooling system[water pump/radiator] among other things.

Now I have hit the proverbial brick on this one. The clutch went out. We towed the car home. I decided to bleed the clutch slave cylinder. Parked the car in the garage over night-no leaks. Filled the reservoir with extra fluid.
We pumped the clutch to build up pressure. As I normally do with brakes I did the slave cylinder. I saw air come through the tube. Several more times but not pressure at the pedal. That's strange. Released the bleed screw and saw more fluid come through. Locked the screw, now we should have some pressure, no pressure. Now when the clutch pedal is depress it stays on the floor. Wow, talk about dead in the water. Maybe the car should be running during this bleeding procedure?

What am I doing wrong? This is a new one on me!

Thanks in advance for any help you folks can offer.

George

[gcmerak]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

George

[witeshark]

Have you tried the search function?

[gcmerak]

Hi Witshark,

I did not try a search function, I will do so now. I did download the manual. The master clutch cylinder looks like a prime suspect to me at this point. I'll see what I can dig up through the search function.

Thanks.

George

[gcmerak]

Hi Witeshark,

I now have done a search of the site's clutch problems. Nothing conclusive, many threads with little to no responses. There was one thread from a gentleman who was experiencing the same issues as I, but no resolution posted.

I downloaded the repair manual to get an idea about how the system works.

To me the master clutch cylinder appears to be a strong suspect. Your thoughts please. The car has over 150K miles.

George

[gcmerak]

Hello All,

I checked the clutch reservoir to see if there was any external leakage of brake fluid. There was none, the slave cylinder was in good working order. So, where is my problem? Turns out the the process of pumping the clutch pedal is a little different from my vintage cars. Pumping the clutch pedal down initially causes it to stay down. It must be pulled back up by foot at least 4-5 times, build up semi-pressure, hold the pedal down, release bleed screw, lock back in place, and resume the cylce. The brake fluid was clear and free of bubble till about the 5th cycle when I got a burst of bubbles. We kept the reservoir full and continued through another 4 cycles just for good measure. The pressure returned in full force!

Occam's Razor comes through once and again. Hope this helps someone who runs into a similar problem as I.

Also, Great Thanks to Torque for posting that awesome Bentley Service Manual PDF!!!!!

George