E30 318i: Replacing Clutch Slave-Cylinder - Quick + dirty guide!

Clutch reservoir suddenly low on fluid? Gearbox housing covered in it? Sounds like a popped slave-cylinder. Not to worry, this has to be one of the easiest to replace ever made!

* This guide covers the M40 engine and 5-speed gearbox, but process is the same for most models. *

1. Lift the left side of the car.

2. Remove the 13mm nut from the outer side of the slave-cylinder. This one is easy to access and can be got with a ring-spanner or socket, but the ratchet is quite snug to the gearbox.

3. Remove the 13mm nut from the inner side of the slave-cylinder. This is quite difficult to get to as it is inhibited by the clutch-hose as well as limited access in the trans.-tunnel. I managed it with a socket and a 4" extension bar to get past the hose/pipe. 

* I have seen someone getting that difficult to reach nut using a longer extension bar and the ratchet further back behind the gearbox, but this was not possible on my E30, so I'm guessing this may be for 4-speed boxes or older M10/M20 engines. If yours cannot be got with the details in step 3, then try this. *

4. Remove the slave-cylinder fr the gearbox and allow to hang down on the hose.

5. Clamp the hose (optional, but saves time when bleeding system later).

6. Remove the hose end from the slave-cylinder using an 11mm wrench so the old unit can be discarded. [It is much easier to grip the slave-cyl. by hand while it is removed from the gearbox and get a turn on the pipe-collar, as well as minimising leaks from the hose.]

7. Prime the new slave-cylinder by removing the bleed-nipple and carefully pouring DOT4 brake/clutch fluid into the hole at the top for the hose/pipe until the air is displaced and the fluid run out of the lower hole. It won't need much. Refit and tighten the bleed-nipple. 

8. Refit the hose-end to the slave-cylinder and remove the hose-clamp if you're using one.

9. Refit the slave-cylinder to the gearbox and tighten the two 13mm nuts.

10. Top up the clutch reservoir with DOT4 brake/clutch fluid and bleed the system of air. [Which bleeding technique you use is up to you, but for all BMW clutches I would recommend using a one-way valve attached to the bleed nipple as detailed in THIS POST, which saves time and headaches.]

E30 318i [M40]: Massive air leak SOLVED - lower inlet-manifold gasket

I had checked and re-checked the idle control valve [ICV], the air-flow meter [AFM], ignition system, tested for the fuel pressure, performed tests on the DME [ECU] to make sure that was working and even laboriously tested the wiring loom for continuity, but still the engine idles terribly when cold. It ticks over lumpy, shakes the engine side to side and cuts out at will, even when power is applied. 

I checked the timing and all was good, under the rocker-cover showed no defective valves and the cam-shaft doesn't look all that worn. I guess the only thing left to check is the injectors... right?? Now hold on a minute I hear the E30 and M40 engine gurus cry, the symptoms you've described point towards an obvious massive air leak in the induction system! 

This is true and is also the very first thing I looked for and tested. Initially I performed the 'spray' test using a can of brake-cleaner (though 'Easy-start', carb-cleaner or electrical-cleaner work too, anything with alcohol content). This involves running the engine and spraying brake-cleaner around the intake-manifold, ICV, vacuum hoses, throttle-body etc. If unwanted air is being sucked in, say through a split hose, the brake-cleaner will be sucked in and combusted by the engine causing it to rev higher. If you are spraying in one particular place and the engine revs increase accordingly then you have found your air-leak. Thing is, I did this test over and over again and it showed nothing. 

I’ve heard that air can be sucked in past the injector bodies when the rubber sealing rings have degraded over time and that the lower intake-manifold is also a main culprit, but spraying round this area made no difference to the engine revs or affected the poor idle. I did a compression test and the readings were a bit low, but not enough to cause any issues.

At this point I decided it to bite the bullet and begin stripping things down. The removal of the lower intake-manifold is quite complicated because it involves removing the fuel-lines from the rail, which is why I put it off, but clearly if you want to fix something then you need to get your hands dirty so off came the fuel lines and away came the lower manifold to reveal.... well, as you can see from the photo, a virtually non existent gasket. Sigh. 

Cylinder 1 has a massive gap where the gasket is no longer there, so whenever there is a vacuum in the plenum it’s just filling up with fresh air even with the throttle-body shut and this explains why the ICV appears to be doing nothing and leads people to look there first. Whoever was refitting the manifold was obviously in a rush because the broken gasket has folded over on itself, causing the air gap to be even bigger. I guess they just tightened it hoping to make a seal, but alas no. Cylinder 2 is not much better with a noticeable gap and the rest of the gasket squashed flat. Cylinders 3 and 4 are better, but still paper thin. It looks like this may be the original gasket and the past 35 years have not been kind to it (or to me for that matter).

So... looks like I have found the culprit of the rough idle. Finally! New gasket is ordered, a snip at £6.88! Amazing how such a simple thing can cause such a severe problem and goes to show how sensitive these ‘analog’ ‘80s cars are to air metering issues!

E46 318i - Broken Coolant Hose! [11537572158]

 After about 650 miles in the E46 Touring the radiator light came on. Just the amber warning, to let me know it was getting low, not the red warning when it is running out and I refilled about 1.25 litres of water / coolant to the engine. This seemed about right to me, as I feared it may be using a bit of water and there was plenty in when I bought the car so 1.25L in 650 miles isn't catastrophic and can be lived with.
About two weeks later the radiator light came on again and I dutifully refilled 1.25 litres, but the car had only covered 120 miles so I knew something was now amiss, only for the light to come on yet again after just five miles of my six mile round trip to work. Under the hood with the engine running I could see a huge pool of water in the under-tray and a drip, which after much tracing turned out to be coming from a slim rubber hose that connects to the left side of the cylinder-head [N42 engine]. It was a constant drip, but when I wiggled the hose-end the coolant began to spray round the engine-bay, so here was the culprit. Turns out the hose-connector into the head was completely sheared off, as you can see in the pic, and should extend about half an inch into the housing. The only thing holding any water into the upper engine at all was a single M6 thread screw.

The hose in question was BMW Part No. 11537572158, shown in the diagram connecting the thermostat to the cylinder-head. This is a common fault I am told on N42 and N43 engines, along with several other coolant hoses that have plastic end connectors, particularly in the US where kits can be purchased to convert the brittle plastic ends to aluminium ones. This seemed unnecessary for me, given the cost of a replacement part and the age of the car.

As there are so many coolant hose variants, finding the right used OEM one on eBay and the like can be difficult, but they do pop up. I was able to get a new spurious part through work for just £18, but I'm sure commercial motor factors will not be much more expensive as long as they have stock. Spurious hoses tend to come with a new rubber O-ring fitted. BMW dealerships will charge a premium, but at least fitment is guaranteed and they are revised parts, though these may not come with the rubber O-ring which will also need to be ordered.

BMW F10/F11: Clogged/blocked Washer Pump Filter - EASY FIX / FILTER REMOVAL! [E90/E92/F07/F30 etc.]

Windscreen washer jets not working, but the pump can still be heard OK? Then you have a very common case of clogged filter. Due to the supposed inaccessibility of the bottle on later model BMWs I have read stories of high dealer bills, daunting inner-wing removal and even back-feeding the washer-hose with bleach to gradually unblock the gunged up filter... but before you try this read on, as it is an easy fix after all.

GUIDE:

1. Fully turn the steering to the right to give access behind the driver's front wheel to work. [Removing the wheel will give more access but is not necessary.]

2. Remove the 6 screws holding securing the rear half of the felt wheel-arch liner in place using an 8mm socket. This will allow access without removing the arch-liner completely. Four of the screws are located in the wheel well itself and two are located underneath next to the sill.

3. Remove the plastic 'mud-guard' trim on the outside of the wheel-arch that adjoins the felt arch-liner. This is done by pressing the centre-pin of the 3 plastic clips through the clip and then removing the clips with a panel-popper tool. [It may be possible to do the job without removing this trim piece, as the clips are very hard to get out and prone to breaking, but visibility and access are certainly improved].

4. Peel the felt wheel-arch liner out from the rear lip of the wheel-arch and if possible tuck it behind the wheel. The washer-bottle should now be visible to the rear of the front wheel. It sits in a tight gap between the outer and inner wings of the car body itself and access is very limited. [This is unlike E39, E60 etc. where the bottle sits left-to-right across the rear of the wheel-arch and access if much easier!]

5. Remove the windscreen washer hose from where it enters the pump and move it out of the way.

6. Slide a long flat-screwdriver in between the washer-bottle and the outer wing and prize the pump upwards until the spout is clear of the bottle and the pump can wedged up and out of the way.

7. The clogged filter should now be sitting in the washer-bottle where the spout of the pump fits. Use the flat-screwdriver to prize the filter up and out of the bottle. It should now be removable by hand or using long-nose pliers / tweezers.

8. Clean the gauze filter using water and lightly brush it with a sponge-scourer or stiff brush. [I find an old toothbrush works perfectly.] It is likely clogged with a 'gel' like substance that builds up supposedly due to the use of incorrect washer-fluid as well as dirt from the bottom of the tank if the washer has been run without fluid in for a while, but should clean up pretty easily.

9. Carefully slot the filter back into the washer-bottle and press it back into place using long-nose pliers / flat screwdriver or both, making sure it is fully seated.

10. Slide the pump spout back into the filter / washer-bottle, making sure it is fully seated and rotated to the correct position with the spout for the windscreen-hose pointing to the side of the car.

11. Refit the washer-hose, trim, wheel-arch liner and wheel. [Reverse steps 1-5.]


www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=930107
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=737416
http://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/120732-f10-windscreen-washer-not-working/
http://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/124943-f10-washer-problems/

E46 Clubsport: Nathan's split rubber + other issues.

More big spending as the Clubsport gets back on the road with a new MOT, starting with 4 new Maxxis tyres for the refurbed split-rims. It's been running a bit rough, but as he started it for the first time in a month it ran a bit worse and began producing a lot of white / blue smoke from the exhaust. Fearing the head-gasket he started dismantling and found it was just one of the profile-gaskets in the rocker-cover [16 in the bottom diagram] was split and hadn't seated in the head properly the last time it was replaced and was allowing oil to spill down into the chamber and was causing the smoke. This, he assures us, is a common problem in 6-cylinder BMW petrols and had nothing to do with any 'engine-weld' products he may have also added. Never the less, with a new rubber-gasket the smoke has ceased. During the job he found the rubber intake hose was also split in two places, clearly contributing to the lack of smooth acceleration suffered since he got it, so he treated the 330 to a new one of these as well.

The MOT threw up borderline high emissions, which was waved, and both front lower ball-joints were knackered. These are usually replaced as a whole control-arm, so that's what was done and finally the Clubsport is back on the road, looking and sounding as it should with better pull and a really raspy vanos exhaust note. Next up comes replacing the lower bumper splitter sorely missing from the front end.

E60: New engine Tune Up Part 3 - Glow-plugs / EGR / more vacuum hoses...

• Blank off swirl-flap vac-hose.
• Replace EGR vac-hose with one that came with new engine.
• Check wiring to GP module. (No replacement.)
• Remove and clean EGR.

Boost was lacking and noisy again so I figured there was more vacuum-leak. Assuming the redundant swirl-flap diaphragm was to blame I set about removing that hose completely from the servo-hose T-piece and fitting a blank stopper from the new engine. While doing this I found the vac-hose to the EGR was snapped off at the nozzle. Classic.

Trouble codes:

• All 6 glow-plugs no activation. Intermittent, but happened 31 times out of 40, all at the same times. I intended to swap the module for the one from my replacement engine, but couldn't find it amongst the parts so it mustn't have been included.
• [3FF0] Air mass meter failure.
• [4507] MAF controlled EGR flow too low. Both of these happened once around the same time as each other and have not happened since. Perhaps the snapped EGR vac-line could explain this.
• [4B10] Smooth running controller, correction quantity too high. This was the most intriguing of the codes as it had registered 9 times. 

Smooth running controller measurement:

This measures the amount each injector has to provide each time it is fired and how much the ECU needs to meter them. The ideal correctional values are between -2.5mg and 100mg per stroke, so as you can see my measurement is indeed showing very high amounts of correction. [NOTE: The reading is in kJ, not mg as displayed! Autocom GDP just does this. I get a proper reading in this post with INPA - http://beemerlab.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/e60-new-engine-tune-up-part-5-injectors.html]. The reasons for this are faulty injectors, lack of cylinder compression and lack of flow to the EGR. At first glance it would appear injector 5 is giving no reading as there should be a correction value there, but the engine is running on all six cylinders therefore number 5 is firing. So what gives here? I started a thread on BMW Land [BMW Land is down for now sadly :(] with some damning results on injector 5, which I will have to investigate, play with the wiring etc. 

Another cause of low compression is a cracked / leaky exhaust-to-turbo manifold. This would also cause low gas flow to the EGR and stifle the amount of exhaust gas powering the turbo, explaining the boost problem. I will get someone to rev the engine as I feel round for a leak of hot gases, but if this turns out not to be the case then the only things left to do will be replace the waste-gate and/or pressure-convverter.

• Check for pressure leak from exhaust-manifold.
• Add injector cleaner and cataclean.
• Investigate boost actuator / pressure converter and waste-gate.

E60: Split Vac-line, some boost, weird noises.

The turbo whine and lack of boost has persisted, so I took off the inlet-manifold again to check the vacuum-lines and found one has snapped off. Luckily, there was plenty of hose left to cut it down and push it back onto the T-piece. I re-checked every line twice against the diagrams on RealOEM.com and refitted the manifold, making sure the seals were super flush. Now when I fired up the turbo started making a ridiculous whoosh and dump-valve style hiss, as in the vid below. Some boost had returned too, though not as much as there should be and certainly nothing like the turbo sounded. Still, the vac-line repair did get a result, so it looks there could be life in the turbo yet.

There was nothing else I could do other than pore over the vac-line configuration, so I made this quick one-piece diagram to show the route of the four coming off the servo-pipe to save switching between several diagrams on RealOEM. I then started pulling vac-lines off in order to find the faulty area and, amazingly, managed to get rid of the whoosh/hiss and still have some boost. The turbo is still whistling though and there is not enough pull as you get over 2k rpm, so something is still amiss.

• Split vac-line to swirl-flaps - Low boost, quiet turbo-whistle higher up.
• Repaired vac-line - Some boost low down, cuts out higher up. Loud whoosh and hiss noise, turbo-whistle constantly.
• Vac-hose removed from wastegate - Low boost, quiet turbo-whistle higher up.
• Swirl-flaps and engine-mount vac-lines switched round - Some boost, no whoosh/hiss, constant turbo whistle, less engine vibration.

The diagrams do not make clear the route of the red/black striped hose on the right of mine. This turned out to be the N/S engine-mount and another scan of RealOEM.com revealed how they work in the pic below. I had wondered about a problem with the engine-mounts anyway, as there seems to be a lot more engine vibration than before, especially on tickover, so my next job will be to find the pipes that link the mounts together and check their condition. They all run through the subframe next to the steering-rack. M57N is a complicated vacuum arrangement.