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Phildo's Clutch/Flywheel Replacement Tracker

11K views 79 replies 8 participants last post by  Mariner05 
#1 ·
I purchased a 2001 325xi wagon a few days ago and will be putting the car up on jack stands this weekend to start a clutch and possibly flywheel replacement job.

I have never owned/worked on a bmw but it should be a fun learning experience. I'm assuming its going to be pretty close to the same as what I have seen online for a rwd 325 transmission removal with the exception of the shift linkage and the front output shaft removal process.

I want this car to be my daily driver but I do have a newer motorcycle as a backup as needed when its down for maintenance. Right now mechanically the car feels great with the exception the clutch will slip a bit then catch itself under moderate throttle in the torque band.

I have looked at numerous how to's and DIY's, it doesn't look that bad. To prep I'll aquire a trans jack and female torx sockets along with an electric impact gun to speed up the process of removing stubbon bolts and fasteners.

I want to take pictures, maybe some video of tricky spots or unique issues the xi transmission/transfer case has over the rwd transmissions. I will use this thread to track parts purchases, tool purchases and the overall process.

I'm exited to rip apart this new to me car.
 
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#29 ·
I also have acquired

mann filter (car came with a K&N i may clean and reuse it)

mann cabin filter

magnetic drain plug for the engine

2 quarts redline D4 ATF (trans and transfer case)

2 quarts redline 75w-90 (Diffs)

mann oil filter

10 (2x5qts) mobil 1 0w-40 euro for $40 on sale at walmart


With tools this is around $1300 total.
 
#30 ·
After all this i'll give it a month or so and start on the front end of the car, hoses, belts, all the normal e46 items i've read about. luckly most of all of the cooling system has been overhauled in the past couple years. My wife is at about her limit with my purchases lol. I figure at this point I have 5600 in the car including the car itself so its not too bad if I can get it all back together.
 
#31 ·
goals tonight:

reinstall driver side engine mount nut a thread or two just so I dont lose it
unbolt 02 bracket from bell housing
remove last 2 bell housing bolts
pry trans from engine rotate counter clockwise and clear input shaft, remove from under the car if clearance allows
cry a tear of joy
If I can get this far tonight I will remove the clutch assembly and flywheel and take some pics along the way
clean up and organize the 1000s of nuts and bolts under the car

My buddy is coming over tomorrow, at that point we can put in the rear main seal. Change out front and rear diff fluid, engine oil, transfer case and transmission fluid. clean up the underside of the car to help in revealing post repair oil leaks.

SO CLOSE.
 
#32 ·
CHECK: reinstall driver side engine mount nut a thread or two just so I dont lose it
CHECK: remove 02 wires from bell housing
CHECK: remove last 2 bell housing bolts
CHECK*:pry trans from engine rotate counter clockwise and clear input shaft, remove from under the car if clearance allows (just brought it out 1/2 an inch, just to separate it.
CHECK: cry a tear of joy
CHECK: pound, cut, tear, yell ball cup bushing out of shift arm, remove and clean shifter


Tonight went very well. I didnt move forward with the full trans removal since the wife came home and we decided to have dinner.

Tomorrow I will clean up the garage in prep for my buddy coming over to help with the removal.
 
#33 · (Edited)
around 2am I decided to go back out and get the tranny out. I have it separated at the bottom by an inch and I can rotate it an inch or so clockwise/counter clockwise but it does not go futher than an inch out. i checked all the bolts are either loose or hanging out and not threaded in.

My only guess is that i'm not making clearance but I can shove my phone up above the transmission and it looks like I have enough clearance to pull it out. Even with pry bars it will not budge and i end up tuggin the entire motor back and forth.

Since I can rotate it I wouldnt think the starter dowels are hanging me up. Maybe just an angle issue? any tips?

EDIT: I just thought, if just one of the very top bolts is a mm or two threaded on it would allow for this to happen, pull back an inch and rotate but not pull completely off. I will go back to square one with the very top bolts in the morning.

IT MUST COME OFF, I need some progress on this :)
 
#34 ·
THE TRANSMISSION IS OUT.

My buddy was a big help and was able to help me shimmy this thing free. You definitely have to get the right tilt and angle as well as rotate counter clock wise.

Just waiting on the rest of my parts, slap it together and hopefully the starter works as it should, the transmission works as it should and nothing falls apart.

Rear seal housing was leaking from bolts and through the bottom.
 

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#35 ·
tracking torque specs for later use:

Transmission
support
crossmember to
chassis 23 Nm (17 ft-lb)
Transmission to engine (Torx-head
with washer)
M8 21 Nm (15 ft-lb)
M10 42 Nm (31 ft-lb)
M12 72 Nm (53 ft-lb)

Rear driveshaft to final drive flange
With U-joint (M10
ribbed nut) 80 Nm (59 ft-lb)
With U-joint (M10
compressed nut) 64 Nm (47 ft-lb)
Flex-disc to driveshaft or transmission
flange
M10 (8.8 grade) 48 Nm (35 ft-lb)
M10 (10.9 grade 60 Nm (44 ft-lb)
M12 (10.9 grade) 100 Nm (74 ft-lb)
Front driveshaft to
final drive flange
(with U-joint) (M10) 70 Nm (52 ft-lb)
Transmission
crossmember to
body (M8) 21 Nm (15 ft-lb)

Engine mount to subframe
M10 self-locking
nut 45 Nm (33 ft-lb)
 
#37 ·
While waiting for my flywheel, pilot puller, clutch slave and mityvac to show up I decided to install my new rear main seal into the existing housing/cap.

I also started cleaning up the bell housing, lubed the shift arm and installed new washers. Installed new ball cup bushing.

Removing the existing rear seal from the housing was a little troublesome because I didnt want to ruin the seal suface area in the housing. this seal was brittle and the inner metal ring in the seal seemed fused to the housing. I generously applied penetrating oil and used side cutters to pry it away.
 

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#38 · (Edited)
I followed the normal guides around here.

I lubed the seal in new oil, cleaned the housing, sealed the bottom of the oil pan gasket with high temp gasket maker and the corners where the seal housing meets the block.

I will I could start the engine and verify the seal will not leak.

I got 2 impact sockets, lubed them with oil on the end and used those to gently tap the seal into place.

The housing bolts were tightened down from the bottom first then top then the 13mm bolts tightened hard. I will go back over them with a torque wrench later.

As I wrote the above sentence I have found torque specs and probably over torqued the housing some.

10 mm bolts - 7 ft-lbs
13 mm bolts - 16 ft-lbs

i"m probably closer to 15 and 26 ft lbs. I'll just leave it as is for now. If its gonna leak from being over torqued and ruining the gasket, damage is done and I wont know until the car is started.
 

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#39 ·
Cleaned up oil plug area to check for leaks later on.

Pic of burn crispies in the bell housing.

Pic of the flywheel surface (note: flywheel dual massness is still working, springs are tight even after 129k miles but for $320 for a Luk a new one is going in)

Pic of worn clutch surface, the pictures do not do it justice but many of fasteners for the friction surface have been ground down.

The rest of my parts should be here within 48 hours. I'm very excited at the possibility of getting this back on the road this weekend.
 

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#40 ·
No work on the car yesterday or today. Everyone around me has been very sick including myself. Although as of right now I feel like I could do work I will put it off until tomorrow or Friday.

At this point I have everything except for my new clutch slave which can be put on later after the transmission is reattached.
 
#41 ·
Still pretty sick but bored of sleeping and watching top gear. Removed my old pilot bearing, tapped in the new bearing. Installed new flywheel but only snugged down bolts. I will need a helper to hold the crank bolt.
 
#43 ·
I'm starting to feel well enough to mope around the house and do house work today. My wife has agreed to be my helper tomorrow and help my hold the crank bolt while I torque the flywheel etc... My packages keep getting lost so I'm going to move forward with the old clutch slave and replace/bleed the line in a few weeks when the replacement has arrived. If I can get the transmission back on without much fuss I should be driving the car tomorrow night. I'll report back tomorrow.
 
#45 ·
Yesterday was a disaster.

With my wife helping I got the flywheel torqued down, clutch aligned and flexplate on.

Here is where it broke down. I ordered flexplate bolts from azautohaus and they supplied me with standard / sae hex bolts. My 6mm metric hex appeared to fit perfectly but after snugging them all on and then giving the proper torque most of them stripped out. After 3 I knew it wasnt just me so I hammered on my 6mm and got all but 1 off.

I went to harbor freight and picked up an sae set and will hammer on the equivelent size in hopes there is enough still to bite onto. If not the head is small enough my bolt extractor sockets should be able to bite into it.

Luckily the old flexplate 6mm bolts are in good condition.

Now I have to reset the SAC, I figure i'll get the plate off and then put the locking plate back in using a breaker bar and a lot of body weight over it on the ground. I know I need to turn the adjuster plate counter clockwise. I found some instructions here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zT2mGAvT1M

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=629140

The other bad issue was after aligning the clutch disc and gently removing my alignment tool my pilot bearing decided to come out along with the tool leaving the bearing to flop around.

All in all this has been a complete failure, however, This just means I get to recheck that my rear main and rear most area of the oil pan are still not leaking, re-seat my pilot bearing and figure out how to reset the SAC. I feel as though everything that can go wrong has gone wrong and by the end of this journey I will be a fully fledged e46 clutch expert :)
 
#46 ·
good news. My flex plate came off with relatively little fuss. However my plans at compressing that spring were wayyyyyy out in fantasy land. That spring is stiffer than justin bieber at a george michale concert. I just ordered a replacement which is free, just need to ship back the old unit. With a project that has been delayed weeks whats another couple days right.

It also appears I definitely indeed have a leak at the rear main or rear side of the oil pan gasket. this gives me another opportunity to tear it out and re install it.
 
#47 ·
Now that whatever sickness I obtained is going away and my new clutch kit is coming in Thursday I am ready to knock out this project.

I will definitely have the leak fixed/starter plate/flywheel/pilot bearing/clutch and plate installed Thursday night. I may or may not attempt to install the transmission that night however my buddy may come over this weekend and we can finish it all out. Once the trans is on I can probably get car running in less than 2 hours.
 
#50 ·
Cleaned up all the loose tools under the car in prep for finishing this out Saturday with my buddy. Car has been sitting for about 10 days without being touched, Damn the illness that went around work.
 

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#52 ·
The entire car is nearly evenly lifted. The passenger side rear jack pad was missing so I am using a hockey puck. The front I would guess is 23.5" jacked and the rear is 22.5 jacked.
 

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#54 ·
That's actually a good tip though that I had not thought about. I'm thinking by now my batt is probably pretty low/dead/dying.

REMINDER TO PRIME FUEL PRIOR TO STARTING.
 
#56 ·
Decided to do some pre-work for the big push tomorrow to knock out this god forsaken project.

I put in my new slave clutch.

Used a fuel line clamp to close off the clutch line from leaking/air.

installed the new slave and bled until only new fluid was in the system.

The new slave piston came dislodged somehow. Fail. Put in the old slave after draining all the old fluid from it and put in the new slaved rod in place of the old ones beaten meat stick.

bled again to get any air out of the system.

I figured i'd knock out the 3 new secondary air pump mounts but looks like amazon failed me. These pump mounts are different. I'll just tape it down later, fudge it this is my beater car when I don't want to ride a crotch rocket.

I moved onto the Guibo on the tranfer case for the rear drive shaft. Oh no my 18mm wrench is only boxed. I lost some tools at my last apartment, some of them were stolen. My open ended 18mm wrench must have been one of them. Oh well I got the old one off and new one off just not torqued to spec.

THIS IS YOUR REMINDER TO CHECK THE TORQUE ON THE GUIBO.

I then looked at the transfer case mount. That is definitely not coming out without a press. I'll save that one for later.

I took another look at my oil leak. Looks like after I tighten up everything last time it has not leaked a drop. If it is leaking its extremely slow. I can live with this as long as when we fire up the car tomorrow its not leaking badly.

Fun stuff.
 
#57 ·
I'm so effin tired. here we go:

My buddy came over saturday, long story short we fitted the trans like 10 times, and could not get the starter to align on the dowel properly. 8 hours.

Sunday, I hired a professional mechanic to come out and help me. We got the starter on. $150 (3 hours of labor)

I starter to put the rest of this project together. get the trans bolts torqued. The top right transbolt is hidden until you re-tighten the motor mounts so it straightens out the trans.

I start trying to tighten the passenger top motor mount nut. it just spins and spins. i losen the other side up and go back to the pass side, still spinning. I take my impact to it and its spinnin like no tomorrow. So I back it out and it pulls out the stud. The stud had come lose in the old motor mount.

Ordered a set of motor mounts, 4 new m10 flange nuts for the mounts, new intake flex tubing since mine dry rotted and a couple other under hood hose related items.

This project is never ending. But at least I dont have to touch the car for a week while I wait on parts.

THE CLUTCH AND TRANSMISSION ARE IN THE CAR AND BOLTED TIGHT. I'm only missing the top right bell housing bolt, once that is in and the new motor mounts are torque'd which will align the godforsaken transmission I can end this madness and drive this piece of crap out of my garage :)

PS feels like my right shoulder has blown out.
 
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