No clutch + Jack Question

[Nic_s]

:bawling:

First the rust now this... :hammerhead:

I parked the 540 last night when I got home from work. Got in this morning and there's no clutch. It's like the nuts and bolts just got up and walked away as the clutch pedal has no pressure.

I got out and took a look under the bonnet and found that there's no fluid in the clutch reservoir. I'm like WTF??!! It was fine when I checked everything about 2 weeks ago.

I'm guessing I will need to bleed it now?? What steps do I need to take and where is the bleed screw located??

 

[P1000]

Unfortunately, your going to have to do more that just bleed it if it is leaking. My guess is slave cylinder...

 

[Nic_s]

I figured it must be leaking, but haven't had the time to crawl under the car to take a look. Will see what I can find this evening, but the car is currently standing on a Visitors parking and it's not easy to work there.

For now I just want to get it moving again.

 

[clutchplate]

jack the car up on the left passanger side .. crawl under the car, you will see your slave cylinder on the left side of the gearbox
open the bleed screw, get someone to tramp the clutch and hold it, close the screw on or before the get to the bottom of the clutch pedal ..
then let them depress .. then open the bleed screw, let them press the clutch, and close again ... etc... until the clutch feels nice

I hope u come right guy just check maybe you have pipe thats leaking ... bleh.

 

[Nic_s]

jack the car up on the left passanger side .. crawl under the car, you will see your slave cylinder on the left side of the gearbox
open the bleed screw, get someone to tramp the clutch and hold it, close the screw on or before the get to the bottom of the clutch pedal ..
then let them depress .. then open the bleed screw, let them press the clutch, and close again ... etc... until the clutch feels nice

I hope u come right guy just check maybe you have pipe thats leaking ... bleh.

Thanks clutchplate. How long would this take more or less?? I'm asking as it get's dark much earlier these days and without descent light it could become pretty difficult.

 

[zaleonardz]

I can bleed a 540 slave in under 10 minutes. If you cant see any fluid, check inside the car by the peddle as well, your master is located there.

I am sure you would have noticed, but its possible its leaking inside of the car.

 

[Ralf*]

my E36 325i had similar problem, once the clutch pedal went slack due to no more fluid, all I would do is fill up the reservoir under the bonnet, and then vigourously pump the clutch pedal, pressure soon returned and all was normal for a month or so until it was once again out of fluid....never physically had to bleed it though.

changed the clutch slave cyclinder under the car twice during its history...seems to have been a common and recurring fault on my car

 

[Nic_s]

I can bleed a 540 slave in under 10 minutes. If you cant see any fluid, check inside the car by the peddle as well, your master is located there.

I am sure you would have noticed, but its possible its leaking inside of the car.

I unscrewed the penal in the food well and didn't notice anything there. I didn't remove it completely though, just enough to have a quick look. Will take a closer look when I get home.

I was hoping not have to spend money on the car right now as I've been wanting to get new PC for while now, but my wheels come first.

 

[Nic_s]

So I bled my first clutch last night. What a mess. I had a bucket to catch anything that came out, but most of it ran down my arm. I thought I should have connected a little pipe to it, but I didn't have any. :hammerhead:

Anyway, I got it working again. Then I wipes everything clean as much as I could and then pumped the clutch for while. Then got back under the car to try and see where it's leaking. I can't find it. I even checked the master cylinder with no sign of leaking. :dunno:
I'll have to keep checking it until I can see where it's leaking.

Something else I've noticed is the poor design of the jack. I started to jack up the car and then noticed it was pressing against the side skirt. To be honest, I have the same issue with the 318i's jack. So I was kinda expecting the 540's to suck as well. I tried changing the angle, but in the end I just used my brother's jack from his car as I normally do. The 318i once came off the jack just as I started lifting it. Haven't used it since.

Is it just me being stupid or does anyone else have issues with their jacks??

 

[zaleonardz]

Nic,

It could be leaking into the bellhousing as well..

As for the bleeding, best is a 500ml coke bottle with a hole in th top, and a small pipe that you can get from a petshop, used in fish tanks air systems...

As for the jack point... yehp its lame....

Save up for a 3 ton jack, best piece of equipment you can have in the garage...

Congrats to your first clutch bleed :thumbsup: :thumbsup: DIY FTW... a mechanic would have charged you R300 for that...

 

[Nic_s]

I'm just wondering what I'm going to do if I get a flat next to the road somewhere...

With the 318 I found that I could jack up the car, but then the car would move and when I tried to jack it back down the top part of the jack will push into the door. I had to use another jack to get the BMW jack out under the car. And when I tried it with a bit more of an angle it came off as I started lifting the car. So I can't use the jack in the 318i at all.

And like I said, with the 540 the jack pressed against the side skirt. It looks like it pressed against it before as there are tiny cracks in the paint at the bottom if the skirt where the jack goes.

I get what BMW tried to do with the jack design, but it doesn't work. I'm gonna have to get something different for when I get a flat on the side of the road (For the 318 and 540). I just can't help but wonder if I'm not doing it wrong somehow as I can't believe that BMW would have designed something that doesn't work.

 

[zaleonardz]

Nic,

Keep in mind that the component that has failed in your master or slave is typically a small rubber like component which may be anything from 3 to 14 years old.

Hydrualic's are very funny, and the reliability of the system is directly coupled to the cheapest component in the part.

You can get full rebuild kits for both master and slave from BMW for like R450 a piece. Its not difficualt to rebuild them at all, but at a proper hydraulic shop, they can check if your piston cavity is oval due to wear.

Those are all FAG components, so new ones are freely available as the part was used on a number of cars, not just BMW....

 

[Budleigh]

The BMW jack is a POS. Foolish design.

 

[Sankekur]

All I can say here is that BMW jacks are just dangerous, they are only meant to lift just off the ground for you to change it, for anything more than that do what leonard says and get a proper 3 ton trolley jack, or depending how low the car is you might rather want to get a racing jack, I know I need to get one, since my car is too low for my trolley jack to fit under it so I first jack it up a but with the BMW on and then further with the trolley