Got my car back from the dealer, my s52 swap is MESSED up

[equate975]

I am very dissapointed now, I got my e30 m3 with a s52 back from the dealer (blew the slave up in the tranny and I dont have time to fix it so they did)


Anyways heres a short list of the parts in it

s52 with original tranny
e36 m3 linkage and shifter (might have a z4 shifter I dont remember offhand)

This is the problem

First, the clutch is TERRIBLE, its like stepping on a big balloon, feels more like a brake pedal than clutch, I cant tell when its engauging or disengauging.

Now to driving, It goes through 1st ok, but once (while rolling) I try to go into second it has a BIG fuss, the shifter starts vibrating a LOT the whole car shakes feels like the tranny is trying to rip itsself off and the gear is just grinding. It seems to decrease a bit when I start slowing down, in neutral while rolling there are no shakes or anything.

Also, when I get up to speed in 3rd, the engine starts to lug even though I am fully in gear and my RPMs are up.

Now to what I think may be the problems

1. My shift linkage is kinda funny, when you look at your shifter from the top when it is in neutral, its not exactly in the center of the console, its a bit oriented twords the driver, mine however is oriented twords the passeneger. With the car off, it will go through all the gears, reverse and 5th takes a bit of cranking on to get it in, but it goes in. Its just a bit ackward.

2. Shrick cams anyone? I dont know the history of this engine, would this cause lugging in a higher speed?

3. Blown clutch, I dont know if it is ok not.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

[Addissimo]

some of those issues make me wonder if maybe they replaced your slave cylinder with a e30 m3 slave. Its just short enough to engage into gear if you're really careful, but makes youre pedal feel really funny and doesn't shift on the fly well.

shrick cams shouldn't make your car "luggy"

if your clutch were blown, or on its way out, your tachometer would travel faster than your speedometer. is that a problem?

did you have this car running before you took it into them?

-Addis

[Drew325is]

I don't know what the dealers are like in the USA, but here in Oz I could imagine a sequence of events like this:

1. Blown slave cylinder
2. Look up chassis number in the ETK
3. ETK says E30 M3 slave cylinder is part number ________
4. Fit part number ___________
5. Job done.

In my experience, dealers are trained to do things by the book...anything outside their BMW manual and forget about it.

[Rob]

Thats a possible consequence of taking a highly modified car to a dealership.

[SlowE30]

Damn that sucks. Take it back and tell them to fix it. This time tell them to use a 96 M3 slave. Hope it gets fixed.

[joshh]

They shouldn't argue much if it's that bad. Good luck.

[equate975]

No I told them to use an e30 slave, they got on from a e30 325 part number on my sheet was 21-25-1-116-300

The e30 m3 slave is the same as the 325i also.

I forgot all about this, but it could run rough because I have year old 87 gas in it with a 91 chip.

Do you think the tranny may be blown?

[equate975]

some of those issues make me wonder if maybe they replaced your slave cylinder with a e30 m3 slave. Its just short enough to engage into gear if you're really careful, but makes youre pedal feel really funny and doesn't shift on the fly well.

shrick cams shouldn't make your car "luggy"

if your clutch were blown, or on its way out, your tachometer would travel faster than your speedometer. is that a problem?

did you have this car running before you took it into them?

-Addis

I forgot to bring my 6 cyl tach encoding plug so the tach was all over, also the speedo wasnt working for some reason, I think I may have put the wires from the diff on backwards...

[Drew325is]

Ah...so by "original tranny" you mean the E30 M3 tranny. I think a few of us thought you meant the original E36 M3 tranny.

[equate975]

Damn that sucks. Take it back and tell them to fix it. This time tell them to use a 96 M3 slave. Hope it gets fixed.

96 m3 slave?? why

[Addissimo]

Are you using the m3 tranny from the s52, or the tranny from the s14?

If its the s52 tranny, you need to use that slave cylinder, same for the s14 tranny.

I'd get that 87 out of there asap. You'll have nothing but knock-sensors kicking in.

were you really using 87 with your s14?

[equate975]

s52 tranny, so I need a s52 slave?? Ive only heard to use the e30 slaves.

yeah I ran 87 on my s14, I put 92 in for about 2 weeks the tried 87, couldnt tell a difference at all.

[arsevader]

s52 tranny, so I need a s52 slave?? Ive only heard to use the e30 slaves.

yeah I ran 87 on my s14, I put 92 in for about 2 weeks the tried 87, couldnt tell a difference at all.

The slave should be whatever one goes with whatever tranny you have. I don't think it matters what swap you do as long as you follow this.

James

[Addissimo]

yeah- go back and have them put an s52 slave in- it'll fix your problems... i'm not sure about the shift linkage thing though- thats a strange one. pull the 87 out of your tank, and put 92 in- thats probably your rough running issue.

-Addis

[Beej '86 325es]

I'm surprised the dealership never said anything about it. They should fix a problem, then take it on a short test drive to make sure all is good. If not, they shouldn't just hand it over because they did what you asked. I'd think they should call you and be like "We installed the part you asked us to, but it's not working out well, maybe we should try something else."