Quote:
Originally posted by SDSUe36@Jan 17 2005, 03:44 PM
UPDATE:
Was told it is most likely the clutch slave cylinder. However (don't know if this makes a difference or not) I notice my car leaked some fluid over night, it leaked from the front area of the car (engine bay) and I can't figure out what kind of fluid it is. It's too clear to be motor oil, not red enough to be tranny fluid, not coolant as mine is clear, maybe its brake fluid???
I guess my question is: is it possible to just top off a fluid somewhere is am I definitely going to have to replace the clutch slave cylinder??
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The clucth on this car is hydraulic. You have a master cylinder behing the clucth pedal and a slave cylinder on the transmission.
First of all. Manual cars do not have dipstick for the tranny, not even on the automaci as BMW uses "lifetime" fluid,, that is another fix...
Anyway, your clucth went dead to the floor because the master failed, since you said you had oil leaking on the inside right? that is brake fluid, very corrosive to paint and much likely it did stain your carpet..
If you go at the engine compartment, look on th ebrake reservoir, there is a little, normally blue hose coming from the rear on the corner then goin down, that is the supply hose, it goes from the reservoir, to the top of the master cylinder inside the car, then out, on a pressurized line, to the slave cylinder on the transmission.
the reason why you had oil leaking the next day is simple, since the pedal is down, and the cylinder is broken, no pressure applied, the oil had to go somewhere, so it goes back to the brake resoervoir, and it got overfilled.
To fix this, i snot hard and with a basic set of tools, brake fluid and jackstacks it can be easily done.
Get new Master and slave cylinders, i know that the master was the one that onli failed, but this are parts that wear out pretty fast, so replacing them now together saves you trouble on the future...
The master cylinder, inside the car, is a question of removing the plastic trim on top of the pedals, then the knee protectinon device, is a metal with foam thing that is underneat the plastic trim, just uncrew it. then you have aesy acces to the clucht pedal. There are metal clips at the pivot point, just undo this clips and remove the pedal. then you see a black plastic thing, is hed in place by two bolts on the rear, is kind of tight, but be patienent is duable. remove the screws, once the cylinder is free, pull it up so you can take the hoses out and plug them on the new part, assembly is reverse of removal. Also to prevent more oil falling inside your car, i recommend getting a seringe or soemthing different and enptying the brake reservoir, so you dont have oil going down the supply hose while you have the line open.
then move to the bottom of the car once the inside is done, coming from the drivers side towards the center of the car you ll see the transmission, look on the side and you'll see a blck hose going form the cars body to a round metal thing on the transmission, that metal thing is your slave cylinder. the black hose looks like a brake line, but is the line comming from the master cylinder going to the slave.
then on the slave cylinder youll see two screw that how it on place on the transmisson housing, one on top one on botton, undo them, i believe 13mm.
once the slave is out, undo the line, then out, then put the line on the new slave cylinder, as on a brake line, the line is treated onto the part. once your done tightening the cylinder to the line, get out of there, leave it hanging. go to the engine compartment and using brand new DOT 4 brake fluid fill all the way up the brake reservoir, since the clucth system is dry oil hydraulic oil, you will need to keep adding as needed. ATTENTION, DO NOT STEP ON THE CLUCTH PEDAL WITH THE SLAVE CYLINDER BEING OUT OF THE TRANSMISSION, NOT INSTALLED ON PLACE. the rason for this is because inside the slave cylinder there is a spring that pushes the piston out, so when the cylinder is not installed the piston is already all the way out, stepping on the clucht pedal like this will make the piston fly away out of the housing, Ive done it and i know hoe stupid it feels.
How to bleed the clucth system, take air out,
if you have acces to the pressure bleeder then follow the instruction to preperly use it on the brake resorvir making sure you dont put much pressure on the system, mak is 20psi i believe. Once is pressurized, go to the bottom of the car, the slave cylinder has a bleed valve on the back, just like a brake caliper, loosen the valve, point the rear of the valve on the upwards position, the idea here is to make the place where air escapes the higest point on the cylinder, so when oil starts to flow out of the valve you can tighten it up, and so this will ensure no air on the system. I recommend doing this bleed with the clucth pedal on the rest position, upright, not being used position. this makes the piston inside the master cylinder to be out of the way and so the oil can flow better towards the bottom of the car.
if you dont have acces to the pressure bleeder, well then you can make the slave cylinder into a suction device, and here is how.
As with a syringe, when you pull the piston out it creates vaccum, and so it will suck air into it,.
on the slave cylinder the principle is the same.
after making sure the resorvoir is full, hold the valve of the cylinder on the upright position, so that it is the highest point, an dby doing this, the air will stay at the top and will go out trough the valve, just like the procedure above, but to make the cylinder suck oil to it, this is what you do. Open the bleeder valver, press the slave cylinder piston in with your hand, hold it, with the other hand close the bleeder, finger tigh, let the piston go out, it has a spring remember, since the bleeder is closed and the piston is moving out, vaccuum is created on the inside, sucking oil into it. Once the piston is out, open the valve, compress the piston, close the valve, let the piston go. repeat the procedure until you get a consistent amount of oil coming out of the bleeder valve, by consistent i mean with no air, or air bubbles.
This procedure above is described on the bentley service manual, I;ve done myself several times and it works like a charm.
when done bleeding, coat the tip of the slave cylinder piston with grease, this is a friction point between the piston and the clucth fork. then push the cylinder to the same place, put the bolds in and check to make sure verything is tigh and no leaks.
also, on the inside of the car, there is at least one swicth on top of the clucth pedal, this is for the cruise control, make sure the swicht is clicking when you press the pedal, this is to ensure that the swicht works and consequently your cruise control.
And since you have to remove the clucth pedal for the job, i recommend you to get delrin clutch bushings, this is a much tighter and stiffer bushing to fit on the clucth pedal to prevent squeaky noise that it does sometimes, if it did not do it, it will at one point.. just look for e36 clucht pedal bushings on google.
if need of more help let me know..
Clutch has no resistance...... 
No pressure! 
Linear Mode
