I'm throwing this out there without having done much research on it because I'm at work and I hope that your expertise can help me know where to start when I get home. Here goes:
Got in the car, pushed in the clutch, started the car. I sat with clutch pushed in while I called my wife to tell her I was coming home. In the middle of my phone call car moved forward into curb as if the clutch had been engaged. I couldn't pull it out of gear and couldn't depress the clutch any further. It continued trying to drive itself into the curb. I shut it off and I was able then to pull it out of gear. I reached down and pulled on the clutch pedal that was now sitting on the floor as if my foot were still pressing it down. It came up and stayed up. I pumped it a few times and shifted through the gears and it worked as if nothing had happened. I drove it home and when I shut it down there the clutch stayed partly depressed until I reached down and pulled it again. Today I drove it back to work with no further problems. I want to figure out what it is that caused it as it would be very bad if it did this while I was driving. The other day I changed the Oil Pan Gasket, is there anything down there that I may have knocked loose? I didn't see any fluids on the ground under the car and didn't see any hanging hardware. Any thoughts?
sounds like it could be the slave cylinder.. they seem like the weakest link in BMWs.. but either way, you are losing fluid pressure somewhere.. are you losing fluid?
Check master, slave and clutch lines... sounds like a leak somewhere.
Under the clutch pedal is a small master cylinder, and it connects to slave mounted on the trans. The slaves can go bad, and Ive seen the rubber line to the slave get a "bubble" (think Tom and Gerry and garden hose). Also, the master is fed from a hose to the brake master reservoir. If it came off under the dash the cylinder could be gulping air.
The slave is the easiest to change and bleed so start there unless there is fluid on the drivers side carpet. I have a used master in my garage if you are ina pinch but all of the above are pretty affordable new and given the PIA it is to change out the master... I wouldn't put a used one in if I could avoid it.
My guess is the master cylinder, but it could be either one. The slaves usually leak when they go bad, so look for a puddle on the garage floor. The masters can fail internally so you won't see any leaks.
My e28 is starting to do the same thing recently - it still works fine 98% of the time but every so often I push the pedal down and it stays there without disengaging the clutch.
I didn't notice any fluid leaks in the garage, but I'll check again. Thanks for the quick response.
I bet there's an internal leak in either the mc or sc.
