PART 1, BMW Z3 Won't Shift Into Gear

Well, the first issue I had was an easy one, ALSO it is one that could have been expected since the car is 15 years old. Old dry seals and gaskets are something to CHECK and be wary of because of AGE and sitting for a while. Here is what happened with me. Driving on a Saturday I noticed sitting at a Light that the CAR was hard to go into First Gear. I pumped the clutch a few times and it went in. Sunday I didn't drive the car. Monday I drove it to work and went to lunch I again experienced the same thing this time downshifting the car was HARD to go into First Gear. Later that after noon drove it homw didn't think much of it and attributed it to not pushing the clutch in all the way. parked the car int he garage and had no noticable spots on the floor. My wife drove it the next day and when she pulled into the parking lot she could'nt get the car into gear at all She had someone push her into a parking spot and called me. SO I immediately started looking online for "BMW Won't go into gear". What I found was a bunch of responses and some forum entries at Bimmerfest Forums these at least got me thinking and I finally called a local place in Tampa that was very helpful. Preferred Auto The guys that I talked to were more than helpful they KNEW the car KNEW exactly what I was talking about and gave me information that helped me fix this problem myself. I told them the symptoms: 1. Car wouldn't go into gear. 2. Clutch was flopping around under the dash NO Firmness at all. 3. Large puddle of fluid under the car where my wife parked. SO with all of these symptoms, I deduced that the seal finally blew out SOMEWHERE in the Clutch line and all the fluid leaked out leaving the clutch unable to disengage and shift into gear.
The guys at Preferred Auto told me that the Brake Fluid resevoir that is on top of the master cylinder is a two chamber resevoir, it contains the brake fluid and in another connected chamber the clutch fluid since the clutch is hydraulic. If I looked at the resvoir I would see that the fluid is empty. I looked at the resvoir and sure enough it was empty. SO I topped it off with regular DOT4 Brake Fluid and then pumped on the clutch, this was challenging because it was leakign out very good now. BUT I was able to get the clutch to disengage and shift into first. I drove it home and put it in the garage. I went back to work and decided to look into it a little more. NEXT POST is the troubleshooting to fix Post.