Mike's Cosmos Black 1998 M3 Sedan (M3/4/5) - Project Concord

[iXBeater]

Those really are pretty wheels...

[mike.bmw]

Earlier this week I replaced the idler pulley and tensioner pulley assemblies. The tensioner pulley shock actually broke during removal, preventing me from removing the pulley while it was still on the car. Fortunately, I was able to get a socket behind the pulley to remove the blocked bolt and remove/replace the entire assembly. It's much smoother/quieter with the new pulleys installed.

Here's a short YouTube video of the process: https://youtube.com/shorts/MF-mPHhQQ...pWry2IzYQyBOSs


PXL_20251015_010101710 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

PXL_20251015_104935009~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

PXL_20251015_010144468~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[mike.bmw]

It's never ending with this car...

After some odd clutch pedal/engagement behavior, I decided to inspect and bleed the clutch slave cylinder. I've found that removing it from the transmission and pushing the rod into the clutch slave while opening the bleed screw (pointed upward) works well. However, when I removed the clutch slave cylinder from the transmission, the rod fell out and onto the floor. I've seen people make the mistake of applying pressure or pumping the clutch pedal with the clutch slave removed, which will force the rod out, but that wasn't the case here. It just fell out!

Given the odd clutch engagement behavior and the fact the rod fell out (which can be reinserted easily, but I didn't trust it), I decided to order a new FTE unit as it was only $54 shipped. I left the car on jack stands for the better part of the week and installed the new clutch slave cylinder when it arrived in the mail yesterday. The clutch pedal/engagement feels much better/smoother now.

PXL_20251022_164423538~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

PXL_20251022_164405281~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

PXL_20251022_165011672~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

PXL_20251022_164728359~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

PXL_20251022_182125645~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr