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Thread: E36 M3 RallyCross build!

  1. #351
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    The front of my sideskirts like to pop out like that, too. But there's literally nothing left of the horizontal surface of the fender, so there's nothing strong to hold onto. I see you have a little rust creeping up on the passenger side door sills, I have some of that, too.

  2. #352
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    Quote Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
    The front of my sideskirts like to pop out like that, too. But there's literally nothing left of the horizontal surface of the fender, so there's nothing strong to hold onto. I see you have a little rust creeping up on the passenger side door sills, I have some of that, too.
    Yeah, there's some rust in there. At some point I should completely remove both side skirts, grind off the rust, and put some POR15 down.

  3. #353
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    I've been trying to replace the spherical bearings at the bottom of my Bilstein rear shocks for a while now, and I'm having a hard time finding the correct replacement parts. I'm unable to get in contact with the guy who built these for me, and the two replacement bearings I've ordered have been slightly off. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate the help!

    I was pretty sure the second set I ordered were going to work, so I pressed out the originals:



    Here's what I'm working with. The original is on the left, the Bilstein bearing is in the middle, and the most recent one from RE Suspension is on the right.





    Unfortunately, when I went to press in the new ones, they just dropped right in the hole with no need for a press. Turns out 0.6 mm is a lot when it comes to this stuff! Also, the outer race is too wide, making it impossible to reinstall the second circlip.

    So here's my problem: the bearing dimensions for the bearing from Bilstein (center) are incorrect, and the outer race dimensions for the bearing from RE (on the right) are incorrect. Here's a chart summing up the problem areas:



    Making things more complicated are these spacers for each side of the bearing:





    I have no idea if these were custom made or if they're an off the shelf part, but I need to use them.

    I'm going to reach out to Bilstein and RE Suspension again tomorrow when they open, but I wanted to put this out here in case anyone knew of other places I should check. Please let me know if you have any advice on how to proceed. Thanks!

  4. #354
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    This looks close, but it would probably have the same loose fit as the Bilstein:

    http://cad.aurorabearing.com/item/pr...d/ge15et-2rs-2

    OD: 26mm
    Ball ID: 15mm
    Race width: 9mm
    Ball width: 12mm

    I wonder if you couldn't slip some 0.025mm shims around the outside of the bearing to get a tighter 26.05mm fit:

    https://www.mcmaster.com/9722k411

    Or maybe bore and sleeve the shock OD for a 26mm press fit?

  5. #355
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    Quote Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
    This looks close, but it would probably have the same loose fit as the Bilstein: http://cad.aurorabearing.com/item/pr...d/ge15et-2rs-2 OD: 26mm Ball ID: 15mm Race width: 9mm Ball width: 12mm I wonder if you couldn't slip some 0.025mm shims around the outside of the bearing to get a tighter 26.05mm fit: https://www.mcmaster.com/9722k411 Or maybe bore and sleeve the shock OD for a 26mm press fit?
    Woah, that has all the right specs! They say the OD is between 25.991 and 26 mm, which is far larger than the 25.39 mm of the RE part that was too loose. The Bilstein's problem was the wrong size bearing, not outer race. I can't believe you found it, thank you!!!

  6. #356
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    With the help of Laminar and Chris on GRM, I was able to locate the proper bearings for my rear shocks! The PTFE lined bearings were somehow over $100 each, so I settled for a non-PTFE lined version for about $30 each. The vendor I bought them from assured me all SKF stuff is made in the USA. Well, he was mistaken.



    Ok, fine, as long as it works I don't care. I then played with the bearing a bit and noticed how sloppy it felt in comparison to the other new bearings. It felt like there was as much play as the worn out ones! The finish was also completely different (on the right):



    Thankfully the dimensions were spot on and I installed them in short order. I lubed them with a new product I bought with the hopes they stay lubed but won't attract dirt:



    Removing the stupid circlips was made easy after I purchased a few different awls. These things are great!



    I was anticipating lots of noise from the new bearings given how much play was in them, but I was pleasantly surprised that they are perfectly silent! This eliminated the last rattle from the car, which not only makes daily driving much less grating, but should also mean I'm not constantly worrying about noises from the car when I race.

    In preparation for the start of the season, I reinstalled the skid plates and aftermarket muffler. The skid plates went on fine, but I snapped a bolt for one of the muffler hangers:



    I'm usually pretty good about applying anti-seize, so this was a bit of a surprise. Thankfully, it's not the first one that I've broken, so I had some spares lying around. I chased the threads, applied a bunch of anti-seize and put it all back together. Good as new!

    I also adjusted my wiper arms, since I got tired of the one on the DS hitting the A pillar every time it moved. Initially it seemed like I couldn't lower them any further, since they interfered when I lowered/raised the hood, but I decided to just press down and slightly bend the arms until they would clear the hood in their lowered position. Mission accomplished! The white dots represented the previous wiper locations.



    With that, the car is ready for the first race of the season next weekend. As always, there will be more and faster cars in the unlimited RWD (MR) class than last year, so I need to bring my A game if I want to stand a chance. Thankfully, my car is better than even too, so I'm getting excited! Woot!
    Last edited by 95maxrider; 07-04-2019 at 03:49 PM.

  7. #357
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    E36 M3 RallyCross build!

    Quote Originally Posted by 95maxrider View Post
    ....The vendor I bought them from assured me all SKF stuff is made in the USA.
    Now why would a Swedish company with manufacturing and operational sites in 32 countries around the world manufacture all their stuff in the US anything for a sale


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Last edited by KlausH79; 03-27-2019 at 07:03 PM.

  8. #358
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    WDCR SCCA Rally-x Event #1 recap!

    The 2019 rally-cross season started last week with our first event held at the awesome Panthera Training Center, out in the middle of nowhere in WV. Temperatures were in the low 40s and winds were blowing pretty good all day, but it was dry at least, so let's race! Many of my top competitors have done serious work to their cars in the off-season, while I had spent most of the time making my car nicer to be in. I won two of the eight races last season, did I still have a chance with all the faster competition? I normally start the day off slower than everyone and slowly catch back up, but I started off the race with the fastest first run of the MR group. Somehow, possibly for the first time ever, I stayed in first place from the first run through the entire day and was able to fend off Jeremy in his 328 E36 by 0.15 second! In a class with like 15 people, and nine people capable of winning the event, holding on to the win felt great! As usual, I didn't hit a single cone all day, but then again neither did Jeremy.

    The only real change I made to the car in the off-season was to reattach my FSB, and I think I'm going to leave it on the car as it keeps the car flatter and the steering more responsive without limiting droop travel. I still really need to re-do my entire steering system with a Z3 rack and a rebuilt column, but aside from that the car felt perfect. Good balance, good power, good brakes. Sure, it would be great if it weighed 500 pounds less, but I'm pretty confidant in saying that I have the nicest MR car to drive on the street, and there's real value in that. I'm really considering dropping the ride height a bit to improve handling further. Jeremy runs lowering springs in the back of his car (not sure about the fronts, may also be lowered), so if he can get away with it, well than so can I! Aside from that, I'm pretty much out of ideas on how to improve the car, aside from a 3.5" MAF and bigger injectors. As crazy as it sounds, I'm pretty sure I could use even more power!

    Here's my video of the event, showing my best AM and PM runs. It's kinda boring, since I don't slide around much, but at least I put the aftermarket muffler back on so it sounds good!


  9. #359
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    Nice! I ran H&R OE Sport springs before going with coilovers. They felt a bit low from the get go, so I swapped to the thicker 10mm Z3 spring pads to give me a little extra room.

  10. #360
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    Z3 rack FTW. Ditch that rubber giubo in there for a regular u-joint too. I had one blow apart at an event.

    The H&R sports are on the front too.

  11. #361
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    Quote Originally Posted by wheee36 View Post
    Z3 rack FTW. Ditch that rubber giubo in there for a regular u-joint too. I had one blow apart at an event.

    The H&R sports are on the front too.

    It took me way too long to realize that was you, Jeremy! I spoke with Rich (The Rack Doctor) and he recommended to not use the metal u-joint to replace the rubber guibo, since he says it will transfer too much vibrations to the input seal (IIRC) which can cause leaks down the road. I installed a new rubber one, which should be tough enough since my worn out rubber one made it through a few seasons on rally-x in pretty ratty shape without failing. But maybe I'm just not driving as hard as you

  12. #362
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    Something very awesome happened since the last time I updated this thread: my car was featured in Grassroots Motorsports magazine in the June 2019 edition! If you flip to the second to last page (153) you'll see a little summary of the car you've been reading about this whole thread! GRM is my absolute favorite magazine, and since I get something like 7 car magazines per month, that's saying something! So to be featured in my favorite magazine is just one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me. Here's an early markup of the page:



    It doesn't always show up in pictures, but I always run a GRM magnet on the back of my car whenever I race!



    Ok, now let's do a quick recap of rally-x event #2!

    We were back at Panthera Training Center (PTC) for event #2 due to some complications at our other venue, Summit Point. This suited me just fine, as PTC is way more fun to drive than SP, and is usually more friendly to my car. Unfortunately some unexpected rain rolled through the night before the event, so the course had to be re-made to avoid the worst areas, and things were still a little slick when we ran in the morning. Josh had started to get the hang of his M50 swapped E30 in the second half of the first event, and came out swinging at this event, quickly building up a huge lead. Jeremy in his 328 E36 was driving fast too, but 3 cones on his last run allowed me to beat him by 1.1 second. I laid down some reasonable times, but nothing fast. I think by lunch I was in fifth place or something. Not great, but considering the depth of talent in the class, nothing to be ashamed of. By the end of the day, I had squeaked into third due to faster drivers hitting cones. Honorable mention goes to TurboJosh who put down two smoking fast runs at the start of the PM session. Both myself and Neil (M20 E30) didn't hit a cone all day, and that got Neil into second. Josh won the event handily with an 8.5 second lead over Neil after 10 runs.

    As usual, my video is boring as chit and isn't worth watching.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuBcp6co6cM

  13. #363
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    Congrats on the article!!

  14. #364
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    For a very long time, I have wanted to install a Z3 rack in my car, but due to cost and my nervousness at never having done a rack swap before, I kept putting it off. Well, I happened upon a Z3 rack not too far from my house already pulled at a junkyard for $80, and that set off the rest of the job. I initially had planned to spend $500 on a re-manufactured rack by Rack Doctor. Rich was super helpful with advice, but an $80 rack was just too cheap to pass up. If I ever need to get mine rebuilt, I plan on sending it to Rack Doctor.

    Part of the job was originally going to include rebuilding the entire steering column and removing it from the car. To save some more time and money, I decided against this as well. I did however splurge on a new intermediate shaft/joint. They used to cost about $175, but now prices have risen to about $250. Oof! Here's the intermediate shaft with a new rubber guibo at the bottom. I have known for a few years that my guibo was worn out, which was part of the impetus behind the job.



    Thankfully, unlike one of my competitors (Hi, Jeremy!), my guibo never sheared at an event and left me without steering. But it was definitely at the end of its life:



    While draining the system, I came across this PS hose with a hose clamp around it. Hmm, that sure is weird, what's the clamp doing there in the middle of the hose? Turns out there's something inside that hose; all replacement hoses look exactly the same. I'm not sure what exactly is in there, but it seems like it's meant to be in there. Anyone know what's going on in there?



    Removing the guibo from the intermediate shaft was difficult, but I finally got it off. However, no matter how hard I tried, I just could not slide the intermediate shaft off the main column. As far as I can tell, the only way to get it off while the column is still in the car is to remove the engine. Otherwise, you just need to drop the column. CRAP! I tried so damn hard, sticking my hands in unimaginable positions, just to try to yank that thing off the main column, but it just would not come off. I could feel some play in it, which made me want to remove it even more, but NO! It was totally stuck. I'm kicking myself for not having done this when I had the motor out two years ago. So in the end, all the car got was a new guibo to go with the used rack. I re-used my tie rods since they only have like 5,000 miles on them and still felt tight.

    To reinstall everything in the car, I centered up the rack on my bench, measuring the length of each side with a digital caliper. The steering wheel was held at center position by the wife, and just like that the rack was back in the car! I bought new lock plates and locked the old tie rods to the rack, not making any adjustments. In the end, it seems the Z3 rack is ever so slightly wider than the original rack, as the car was toed out pretty good, but otherwise drove perfectly straight.

    I used a piece of PVC to act as a spacer for the cooler, as the Z3 rack is missing a bolt hole the original rack has.



    Old dusty rack is out!



    As usual, I took the car to RRT for an alignment. There's an improvement for sure, but if I'm honest, it's not as much of a difference as I was expecting after reading some reviews of the Z3 rack. I would like it to be even quicker, but what can you do? The car felt right at home doing 80+ on the highway, not nervous or twitchy, like some people theorized might happen. Maybe I'll think more of the rack when I finally get the snow tires off the car and put the summers back on, but for now, it's a bit of a letdown. I'm glad I did it, my guibo needed to be done either way, and for $80, I can't be too mad.

  15. #365
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    I'm pretty sure that clamp in the middle of that hose is holding a little restrictor in place. I've read what it's for, but can't remember.

  16. #366
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    I feel the same way about the Z3 rack. It wasn't a revelation and the steering still needs to be faster. I've looked at steering quickeners, maybe a 1.5:1 to see if I can spend less time with my arms all crossed up. I got my original rebuilt "Z3" rack from Detroit Axle on eBay. It was not a Z3 rack, which they refused to admit. It also started leaking within a year. My second one I bought off eBay and confirmed via photos that it had those plastic lines and the missing cooler mount, as a Z3 rack should.

  17. #367
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    Quote Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
    I feel the same way about the Z3 rack. It wasn't a revelation and the steering still needs to be faster. I've looked at steering quickeners, maybe a 1.5:1 to see if I can spend less time with my arms all crossed up. I got my original rebuilt "Z3" rack from Detroit Axle on eBay. It was not a Z3 rack, which they refused to admit. It also started leaking within a year. My second one I bought off eBay and confirmed via photos that it had those plastic lines and the missing cooler mount, as a Z3 rack should.
    I'd be very curious to see how you like a steering quickener, please be sure to post all about it if you do use one. My other car could use one even more than the M3! What's the safety and durability of these things like? Can they hold up to motorsport abuse?

  18. #368
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    Rally-x event #3 got postponed due to rain, but we did have event #4 last weekend, so let's do a recap!

    Event #4 was our annual two-day event, and we were back at Panthera Training Center. It was hot, over 90*, but we did get some good winds for most of the weekend. On Saturday we ran on the slower, more technical section of the hill, and on Sunday we moved to our normal side, which is usually a little more open and faster. This was my first event with the Z3 rack and new guibo, so I was hoping for good things.

    Stephen, with new tires and new coilover suspension on his M20 E30, jumped out into an early lead on the first run. They copied Josh Hickey's suspension setup that he's been using for years on his E30 with great success, so I was concerned about how much faster they were going to be (Stephen co-drives with Chris). At event #2, Chris went off course and shattered the oil pan on a rock, and apparently it sounds like the loss of oil pressure may have caused some damage to the engine, as three cylinders were low on compression. My guess is that they were down at least 20-30 HP from normal, which clearly worked in my favor. For the next four runs in a row, I put down the fast time, and by lunch I had built up something like a 5 second lead. I came back and ran more fast times in the afternoon, building up my lead to about 11 seconds. At the end of the day, I had the fastest runs of both the AM and PM sessions. The results were likely due to Josh Hickey using worn out tires and the power loss of Stephen and Chris's car.

    Sunday rolled around, and Josh put on some better tires. He immediately started putting down some very fast times, and was chipping away at my lead. I think by lunch my lead was down to like 8 seconds. With two very fast runs to start the PM session, Josh got even closer, and I was operating under a code brown! Ending the race in first is obviously great, but being in first for pretty much an entire weekend is quite stressful. Being in first and then losing it at the end of a race is a miserable feeling, and I wasn't looking to experience that again. For all of our other sessions, we got four runs. Well, for our final session (PM Sunday) they decided to give us five runs. Crap, that's one more opportunity for Josh to catch up to me! I matched him on the third run, and with that, Josh basically threw in the towel and berkeleyed around on his fourth run, hitting two cones, pretty much ensuring my victory. With an extended lead, I took it easy on my final run, and finished up some 8.5 seconds ahead of Josh. Once again, I didn't hit a single cone all weekend, and Josh hit four. Josh was 8.6 ahead of Jeremy (328i E36), who hit 7 cones. Stephen drove very clean with only one cone and took fourth. TurboJosh gets the Cone of Shame award for this event, having hit 12 cones (6th place), while Neil joined me for the second event in a row with no cones and finished eighth. Of our 17 runs over the weekend, I had the fast time in seven of them, while Josh and Jeremy each had four fastest runs.

    I was able to do a little picture-in-picture editing for my video this time, but the interior camera was too far forward to see much of my hands, so I'm not sure how useful it will be.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CeMNUZogF8

    That's all for now!

  19. #369
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    Quote Originally Posted by 95maxrider View Post
    It took me way too long to realize that was you, Jeremy! I spoke with Rich (The Rack Doctor) and he recommended to not use the metal u-joint to replace the rubber guibo, since he says it will transfer too much vibrations to the input seal (IIRC) which can cause leaks down the road. I installed a new rubber one, which should be tough enough since my worn out rubber one made it through a few seasons on rally-x in pretty ratty shape without failing. But maybe I'm just not driving as hard as you
    Harder, maybe, but not faster, lol.

  20. #370
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    Quote Originally Posted by 95maxrider View Post
    I'd be very curious to see how you like a steering quickener, please be sure to post all about it if you do use one. My other car could use one even more than the M3! What's the safety and durability of these things like? Can they hold up to motorsport abuse?
    Maybe instead of spending money and TIME installing a steering quickener, try the SLR Speed mini road racing kit that relocates the attachment of the tie rod end at the knuckle closer to the kingpin pivot. It makes the steering a bunch faster too. I'm running both the Z3 rack and the SLR Speed kit and my steering is about 1.9 turns "rub to rub" as opposed to lock to lock.


    https://slrspeed.com/products/bmw-mi...=6089480437790

  21. #371
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    Quote Originally Posted by jakermac View Post
    Maybe instead of spending money and TIME installing a steering quickener, try the SLR Speed mini road racing kit that relocates the attachment of the tie rod end at the knuckle closer to the kingpin pivot. It makes the steering a bunch faster too. I'm running both the Z3 rack and the SLR Speed kit and my steering is about 1.9 turns "rub to rub" as opposed to lock to lock.


    https://slrspeed.com/products/bmw-mi...=6089480437790
    Cool, thanks for the link! I've never seen that before. What are your thoughts on the kit? Do you DD your car or is it track-only?

  22. #372
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    We were supposed to have back to back events this weekend, but due to heavy rain on Friday, the Saturday #3 event got postponed (again). Event #5 on Sunday was still on though, so I headed out to Summit Point with a touch of anxiety thrown in for good measure. I've never won an event at Summit Point since it's smaller than Panthera and I can't use as much of my power, and Josh tends to do very well here, so I was concerned about how I would fair. There are two courses, Barn and Tree. Barn is harder packed and I can do okay there, and Tree can get messy and rough and so far I haven't done well there. Welp, we were racing on Tree. Crap.

    The course was pretty power friendly and was a bit of a point and shoot design. This was unlike anything I remember at Tree, and definitely played to my advantage. Things started out as I expected, with me about a second back from the fastest guys, but I started picking up the pace and got a couple fast runs in. With no cones hit I was in second place at lunch, something like 2 seconds behind Stephen in the M20 E30. Josh hit a bunch of cones and was out of contention after his third run of the day, so it was nice to not have to worry about him. After lunch however, I really turned things up, and I had the fastest times for 3 of the 4 runs. After my second run, I had passed Stephen and was in first. At one point he got called for a cone, and I thought it was over, but he got a re-run and didn't hit a cone, so things were still very tight.

    Going into the fourth and final run, I had a 0.3 second lead, after Stephen clawed back 0.2 on his third run. I knew I had to drive as hard as I could, and of course, not hit a cone. I knew Stephen would be doing the same. I came in with a 49.2, and Stephen came in with a 49.4. That time ended up being the fastest of anyone in my class, and fourth overall out of about 60 drivers. When the results came out, I couldn't believe my eyes, I had the overall combined FTD at 403.8! Adam, one of the organizers for the events, has probably won 90% of FTDs in the last 5+ years in his various Subarus, but I guess he hit more cones than usual and ended up at 411.5, which allowed me to sneak into FTD. This will probably never happen again, so I'm gonna savor it!

    I've now won three of our four events so far this year, so that's awesome. But what's more awesome is the car, it's fantastic. Not only does it do exactly what I want when I drive it, but it has been rock solid reliable after I installed the motor. Being able to drive this thing to events, enjoying myself along the way, and having trust in the car is such a huge deal, and something I'm really grateful to finally have. I feel totally comfortable just beating the ever loving sheets out of this thing, and that's just awesome. But I guess when you rebuild pretty much every system in the car, things should work!


  23. #373
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  24. #374
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    Hey everyone (all three of you!) I'm a little behind on race results, but before I post them up, my car broke and I need some help diagnosing it!

    To keep it short, at the race this weekend, I noticed the car was getting harder and harder to get into first gear. In the middle of the PM runs, all of a sudden the clutch pedal dropped to the floor. It came back up (due to the spring, I guess), but there was no resistance until the bottom 1" or so of the travel, and I couldn't get it into gear. After the day was done we towed it back to the parking lot and I discovered that the clutch fluid part of the brake fluid reservoir was empty! Thank god it's split off from the fluid for the brakes! But since the window into the clutch fluid section is so small, even doing a quick check of the brake fluid wouldn't raise any suspicions. So I start looking around for where it was all going. The slave cylinder was bone dry and showed no signs of leaking, and I pulled back the interior carpet and the firewall/carpet/clutch master cylinder were all dry too. Upon closer inspection, I found that the little plastic eyelet at the end of the clutch master cylinder (where it attaches to the clutch pedal) had split in two as well, likely from me pressing on the clutch pedal so hard trying to get it into gear. We did a temporary repair on the eyelet with a zip tie and some electrical tape, but there was still no resistance in the clutch pedal. By this point I had topped off the reservoir and tried to bleed the slave cylinder. A few drops came out of it, but after a bit it just stopped and nothing more would come out. I ended up driving the car home 120 miles with no clutch since a tow was going to cost like $700, and nobody who towed their car to the race had street tires to drive home on. Thankfully I didn't hit much traffic, and most of it was on the highway in 5th gear.

    I looked at the car some today, but am no closer to figuring out where all my clutch fluid went. I pulled the slave cylinder from the transmission and it appeared to be bone dry on the inside as well. I see no trace of brake fluid on the firewall or on the line leading down to the slave. When the new master arrives, I'm going to pressurize the whole system and see if a leak presents itself anywhere, but I'm really confused as to how I can lose all that fluid and not see a trace of it. Where could it have gone? The line going to the slave is a nice SS BimmerWorld part, and I replaced the slave two years ago when I replaced the motor. I always bleed the brakes and clutch with a Motive power bleeder, so I know the clutch portion of the reservoir was full two years ago.

    EDIT- To clarify, the E36's brake fluid reservoir has a separate chamber for the clutch fluid. When you pour brake fluid in, it first fills up the chamber for the brake fluid. When that chamber is full, it then starts overflowing into the little window that leads to the clutch chamber. I believe it's designed in a way so that if the clutch chamber loses all fluid, the brake chamber remains full. So that's how I was able to lose all fluid for the clutch without losing any for the brakes. It also makes it harder to know if your clutch chamber is topped off without pouring a little fluid in and seeing if it spills over into the clutch chamber.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!
    Last edited by 95maxrider; 10-29-2019 at 09:48 AM.

  25. #375
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Des Moines, IA
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    1,051
    My Cars
    '97 M3/4/5.0
    Super weird that there's no trace. You'd think if anything was wet, it'd attract dirt/dust and stick. The clutch line comes out below the booster and travels horizontally above the frame rail, then down and to the slave, right? Is there a drain hole on the frame rail that it's disappearing into? I should dig around and see if I still have my stock master and line on the shelf somewhere.

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