Hello all -

I recently purchased a 2004 R53 and it was rough changing gears. I had to push all the way to the floor to have the best chance of shifting smoothly, but I'd often have to really force the shifter to have it go into gear.

After doing my research, everything pointed to the slave cylinder, so I thought I'd give it a go... all of the YouTube videos looked simple enough, right? My first few attempts were not pretty with the fluid line popping off, spongy pedal, etc. I finally got to the point where I started over with what I had learned and was quite certain I had everything perfectly bled. I had the cylinder compressed, moving it around, tapping with a wrench during the bleeding process as I went through quite a bit of fluid on several rounds, making sure the master cylinder didn't get too low. Clutch pedal feels tight, so I'm good to go.

I start the car with the clutch pressed all the way in 1st gear and it wants to buck. If I yank it out of gear, I can't get it back in. I thought maybe I jacked up the new slave cylinder with all of the attempts I made, so I ordered a new one and installed it. Same issue, so I tried to compress the cylinder again, in place, and bleed it again... no bubbles, still a tight clutch. No luck, same issue.

I'm at my whits end. Does anyone have any suggestions? Do I need to somehow adjust the clutch pedal since it was engaging so low to the floor initially? I have no leaking from the master cylinder, so I feel ok about it, but should I?

Thanks!

 

Recently had similar issues on changing the slave cylinder. These cars are notoriously hard to bleed - any fluid system; clutch, cooling, brakes. The standard go-to for this board in case you haven't yet discovered it:


Couple other things to try without back tracking on the progress to date:
Thing #1
>elevate the car's front end with a good 10degrees of up-angle when bleeding
>pin the clutch pedal to the floor overnight, maybe even for a whole day if you can swing it
When I did this, it went from about a 65% pedal to about an 80% pedal. Others have had similar or better results.
Thing #2:
Drive it, a lot - assuming it can now be driven. Sometimes (in my case after several hundred miles) the rest of the air works itself out. Weird, but works (sometimes).

Failing the above:
if you decide to bleed it *one more time* maybe consider 'reverse bleeding' - haven't tried it personally - having discovered it well after this last go-round - but will next time. And apparently it's a thing in the greater BMW community.

Would also have a helper operate the clutch while you watch the slave cylinder and clutch actuation lever (or rig up a phone camera / GoPro etc) to see if it's hanging up somehow

Other possibilities:
>Master cylinder - believe they can leak/fail internally without an external leak
>Leak(s) in any of the lines and unions between the master and slave, most naturally well hidden from immediate view or reach:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=21_0178
>Clutch itself. Mod MINI has a two-parter for it on his channel. There are others on YooBoob but so far his is probably the best. Also the DIY section on Pelican Parts' site. And of course .
Good luck with the repair, please update us on how it goes, and welcome to the board.

 

Thank you for the thorough response!

- I watched the first video before attempting this repair thinking this was going to be an easy task... lol. Like that video, I had the front end only lifted.
- I did try pinning the pedal down to the floor after my previous attempt, but I haven't after the last one, so maybe I'll try that again. Although, the pedal seems like it's close to 100%.
- I'm not sure it can be driven. It won't shift gears while the car is running.
- I had seen the reverse bleeding video before but I couldn't find an oil can at any of my local stores, so I'll order one and give it a shot.

If the clutch was working before, just not smoothly, would that remove the possibility of the master and clutch itself being the issue? I can see the line somehow getting jacked up from all of my fiddling around, but the clutch never slipped and it would allow me to switch gears before all of this.

I think I'll start with checking the slave cylinder and clutch actuation lever to see if that's even doing anything. Then I'll order an oil can and pin the clutch pedal while I wait for it to arrive and reverse bleed it.

Fingers crossed

 

Some questions based on one of your comments. Do you not normally depress the clutch pedal clear to the floor when shifting? Do you rest your foot on the pedal while driving? Do you leave it in gear, clutch disconnected while stopped in traffic? If the answer is yes to any of those, don't do that. You'll also be replacing the TO bearing sooner.

 

I wouldn't normally push the pedal all the way to the floor to shift, but it felt like I had to in order for it to have a better chance of engaging smoothly. I've driven many manuals and this is the first time I felt like I had to do that. Knowing that this felt odd to me is why I mentioned it in case it pointed to another issue that I'm not thinking of.

I also don't do any of the other things. I was taught at an early age that you'll burn out your clutch much faster doing so, so I'm religious about it.