E36 M3 3.2- Maintainance Questions

[Fly537]

I have a 97 Aqua Blue M3, bought the car for a bargain ( or so I thought) cos it needed some tlc. I just want some advice on getting it healthy again;

1. 3rd Gear grates if changed hard at high rpm, guessing it's a syncro, who does M3 g/boxes and roughly what am I looking at?

2. Gear shift is very hard, tight and sticky, but all gears take, what causes this and how do i fix it?

3. Clutch is very heavy, I replaced the clutch, master and slave cylinder with all agents parts, have driven other m's and their clutch pedals feel much softer.

4.Lastly performance wise, the car feels strong and on the street I have beaten e46 m3, c32, crysler 300c srt8 but I ran the car at odi acheiving a dismal 15.1 @ 161km, car makes 213hp @ kar, Is the cars performance right? What should i check, if it isn't?

All info will be much appreciated

 

[zaleonardz]

Speak to streetracer... he is your man on the E36 M3

 

[STREETRACER]

hey bud power seems normal actually about 9kw stronger than stock! but that can be KAR's correctional factor!
15.1 with slow gear shifts sounds normal! your exit speed is stronger than stock so i would not worry about performance!

times can also be due to too happy launching or tires!

your gearbox sounds like you have bent your selector shaft! 6peed getrag box is not keen on snap changing as i have broken my box 3 times in 3 years! syncros go for R2500 piece and selector shaft is R6000 so i will not recon but replace! if you want to race the car rater get a 5speed ZF box which loves flat foot shifting and snap changing!
If all your gear changes are hard its definitely your selector shaft! what oil are you running in the gearbox?? that is also 90% the reason why GETRAG boxes pack up.. they are the vegetarians of gearboxes and freaks out if wrong oil is used..
BOT130M castrol or if you can get the life time oil from agents! same reason all the opel TS's grind their Gboxes every where.. GETRAG can handle 1000kw but can brake from one happy shift!

 

[rodga]

.. they are the vegetarians of gearboxes and freaks out if wrong oil is used..

haha

 

[328ii]

I also had the same problem...suggestions in order

1. Bleed the total hydraulic system - doing the clutch last, rear wheels first. Fluid will be dark if old.
2. I lengthened my 1997 M3 clutch actuator push-rod by 5mm.
3. Double check gearbox mountings, drive rubbers and selector shaft seal while your are at it.

On Youtube there is a wheeler dealers video with BMW M3 with a similar problem.

May be worth watching - they replaced the gearbox with 2nd hand one as it was cheaper than fixing...

8?>

 

[M3_devil]

hard clutch can also be the swirl pipe from the clutch slave cylinder. caused a blockage resulting in hard clutch pedal.

stiff gears with my car was due to old oil. my car had 172000km's and gears was stiff when oil was cold. this changed when oil was changed with castrol.

what refs do you launch your M3?

 

[Fly537]

Thanks for all the replies.

Where can I find a good second hand m3 6speed box, and what is the going price? As for the clutch pipe, my car doesn't have the original swirl pipe, it has a copy made at a hydraulics shop, could this be the problem? I launch the car at 4500rpm and shift at 7350.

 

[M3_devil]

from my experience I have found that launching car at higher revs results in slower times if you running road tires.

try following and see if it works for you. Pull handbrake up and keep revs at 1500rpm while releasing clutch until it bites. When ready release handbrake drop clutch and accelerate. The road surface will determine how fast you must accelerate. The 3.2 produce more than enough torque in 1st gear and this can result in to much wheel spin when launching with to high revz. If you running semi's I'm sure then you can increase revz to launch.

My fastest time using this method with road tires was 13.5 1/4 mile and exit speed of 167km/h at the coast. Worst time on the day was 14.6 due to excessive wheel spin from line.

As for the pipe, double check to make sure fluid flows freely through pipe.