Perfect Clutch Stop in 30 seconds? Less then $5...

guys, u DONT need an elevator bolt.. just a regular hex bolt will do, thats how i did mine. with a smaller rubber "gripper". the clutch pedal goes down in one spot, a hex bolt is enough, u dont really need a 1.5 inch wide surface for this

^That worked most of the time but every once and a while you'll aggressively clutch and the pedal will slip to the side. Many of my friends who drove experienced that and thought the clutch gave out...LOL.

Bringing this thread back to life. Just did this on my 04 330xi and works beautifully. Shifting is delightful now Will be doing CDV delete next! Thanks!

just put two grippers on top of the stock clutch stop...such a huge difference wow

Originally Posted by MadLow

just put two grippers on top of the stock clutch stop...such a huge difference wow

thats all i used was two, thinking about going with one more but so far everything is on point!

next: cdv, tranny flush and new bushing with ssk.

So my car doesnt have a factory clutch stop - I looked down there and there is a small hole, I bought a 3/8 bolt but it seems -way- to big for the size of the hole. Any ideas?

Wow glad to see this thread is still live and well! You won't believe it as I haven't had a BMW in a few years but I just was looking for something in my tools and found ANOTHER brand new elevator bolt.... only problem is this is a 2" one instead of the 1 1/2" so you will have to cut it to length... but some lucky person who isn't lazy is gonna get this cheap because I don't wanna deal with the hassle of selling it for a profit... so whoever wants this AND a gripper for $5 SHIPPED its yours.... I don't get on this board anymore so just send me an email.... at my username on here AT yahoo.com (the 0 in my username is a zero not the letter o)... I take paypal and you can see by my rating on here and every other board that I'm legit... I ship stuff every day so if you get me the money before 10am central it will ship same day... question is who wants it?

Just popping in to say I finally got around to doing this today and holy crap does it ever make the car better. The stock plastic one snapped in half years ago and I had been too lazy to do anything about it until recently a few friends of mine drove my car and all were pretty bad with the clutch since it had so much useless travel. Now it's only a bit of movement before it starts to bite, exactly how I hoped.

I have to retrain myself a bit with fast shifts though since I was used to the long travel and had a habit of beginning to let the pedal back out as I'm still moving the stick. That doesn't work anymore.

The remnants of the plastic shaft were pretty stubborn and wouldn't come out even with a bolt remover. I ended up accidentally drilling right through it with the bolt remover and had to pull chunks out with pliers, but once that was out I didn't even have to shave down the gripper. I just screwed it in as much as I could by hand and it works perfectly. The car starts without complaint and cruise disengages as expected. At some point I might get a lock nut and see how much I can back the stopper out before it starts causing trouble, but for now this is a million times better than it was.

You guys were right about only being able to find the elevator bolt at Lowes. I spent about an hour at Home Depot and had two employees there wondering aloud why they didn't stock anything like this, plus tried the local Tractor Supply, before giving up and driving a few towns over to the Lowes and finding everything I needed in about five minutes.

Does this wear out your clutch quicker?

I have a 02 330XI and I find that my shifts at times are jerky. So I found this and this seems to climate that dead space in the clutch travel.

So I can get a plastic elevator bolt from canadian tire and use that? I am in Canada so there is no Lowes around..

Couldn't find elevator bolts.. Used a 3/8" x 1-1/2" carriage bolt. 3- 7/16s washers and then a nut to tighten the washers against the carriage bolt head.

Used another nut below to tighten the actual stopper in behind the clutch. Then used some velcro that was sticky on one site and put it on the carriage bolt head/washers as the felt not to hear the metal on metal tap when engaging clutch.

Works perfect! Night and day difference!!! Total cost $1.20 at home depot

Just did this today using same advice in original post. Literally took 5 minutes to get supplies from Lowes, and like he said about 30 seconds to remove old clutch stop and screw in the new one. Awesome, cheap, high impact mod!

I just want to say that I have had my E46 for a couple of weeks, and the clutch seriously annoyed me. I knew I would get to finding a solution sooner or later. I bought the hardware described by the original poster, and this is the BEST mod I have done to the car! I can't believe how many people waste money on a commercially made stop for the car. This DIY is amazing!

Just purchased my e46 2 days ago and this will be my first mod. I've read the entire thread and can't believe there was only one mention of McMaster Carr for the elevator bolt. You can get a metric elevator bolt. Only problem is they come in packs of 10. The correct tread is M10, which has a pitch of 1.5mm. In english its .394 -17/inch the 3/8 bolt is .375-16/inch. So the threaded hole in your floorboard is slightly larger and that is why it can be off by 1 thread/inch. I don't think it will make a big difference but it would be good to actually put the right tread in there. Here's the elevator bolt.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#cadinlnord/93226a360/=h5jx7n

I plan on making it adjustable so I would order the 35mm length (1.37 in length) and then add a m10 to lock it in place.

I'm going to swing by the hardware store tomorrow and if they don't have the 3/8 elevator I'll just order a pack from McMaster and update how it goes.

On my 99 328i I had to cut half an inch off to engage the switch, but other than that, good to go. Quicker shifting for this guy.

Originally Posted by jeepo23

Does this wear out your clutch quicker?

anyone got answer for this?

Originally Posted by evo7

anyone got answer for this?

Yes.

No it does not wear the clutch prematurely... humans do that.




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i need one so bad

I went to my local store and they only had 3/8 x1 and 2/8 x 2. I got both of them AKA either one would work. Did anyone tell me if either one could work? Or does it have to be exactly 1 1/2?

This will not interfere with the cruise control.

I have been using this clutch stop for 3 years now.

I did notice towards the end of the life of the clutch, I had to remove the clutch stop because the shifts became difficult, as the SAC adjusted too low, and prevented the clutch from disengaging.