PART 2, BMW Z3 Won't Shift Into Gear

So I reserached the clutch problem and found that it is probably a few different things. 1. Master Cylinder is leaking and needs replaced. 2. Fluid lines are leaking and need replaced. 3. Slave Cylinder is leaking and needs replaced. All three of these should be easy to do UNLESS it is just one of the things wrong. First thing to do is narrow down the leak. SO I needed to look under the car. If your like me you don't have a lift in your garage SO I needed to get my floor jack under the car and since it is so low I had to improvise. I had to drive the FRONT wheels onto two-by-fours to get it up that extra inch. Once jacked up I was able to look under it and see if I could find the leak. Immediately I could see the dripping onto the crossmember.

1. Main Drip Point. 2. Crossmember

SO I wiped it down, refilled the fluid and drove it again to really pin point WHERE it was coming from and I found that is was coming from the Bellhousing where the transmission bolts up to the engine.

As you can see from the WHITE Arrow this is where the leak originates and then goes to the Main Drip Point #1 then onto the cross member in the right side of the picture. SO with this info I immediately thought I would check the Slave Cylinder which is the small actuating cylinder bolted onto the transmission itself. The Master cylinder pushes fluid to the brakes and down to the Slave Cylinder to presurize the clutch.

1. Bolt to the transmission housing. 2. Fluid Line. 3. Bleeder screw.

So NONE fo the connections were leaking everything on the slave cylinder was dry. SO this to me meant a bad thing, since the fluid was coming out of the bell housing and not around the slave cylinder I immediately thought the worst. I thought that something internal to the clutch or transmission was bad and then leaking out the bell housing. BUT a call to preferred auto guys told me differently. They said NO it is still the slave cylinder BECAUSE the seal on the inside where the plunger is, is broken and leaking in the inside and then going down and the only place to come out is the bell housing. SO this was actually good news. I won't quote their price here because ALTHOUGH very fair and reasonable It may change over time and I'm sure this post will be out in cyberspace for awhile. However I will tell you as of this date of this post the new part at Advanced Auto (which was in stock) was $62.19 with Tax. Look for POST 3 for the Removal and Install of the Slave Cylinder.