Looks like a great project. About a decade ago, I swapped out a 5speed manual for a 6 speed manual from a 330. What a difference on road trips. RPM's dropped by about 450 at 60mph to 2350. I now get 30+ MPG on the highway and a much less buzzy engine. Think about it for your next build or when you find the S54 engine to swap in.
2002 325i Wagon in Japan Red - Now with S54 Swap!
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Can't help on the pedals, but I used a flexible stainless steel line for the clutch hydraulics (from master cylinder to slave) and worked out great...No fiddling with the stock steel rubber line.
I think somebody (ECS, Turner ) sells a pre-fabbed stainless steel line for E46. But you can also have them made at G&J Aviation in Ontario, CA. They can also sell you the quick-connect hydraulic fittings used in E46 that are a bit unusual and hard to fine. With the fittings, any local hydraulic shop can make you a line...
There’s also this line from Chase Bays. Anybody have any experience with this little guy?
Chase Bays Clutch Line - 99-06 BMW E46 with BMW Trans
This product is designed for those who want to eliminate engine bay clutter, improve engine bay aesthetics, improve pedal feel, and/or adapt a new transmission (if applicable). This a FULL replacement one-piece line from clutch master cylinder to slave cylinder. Other lines offered just replace...
www.chasebays.com
I have there power steering kit, and i like there quality, Im sure there clutch lines are great.There’s also this line from Chase Bays. Anybody have any experience with this little guy?
Chase Bays Clutch Line - 99-06 BMW E46 with BMW Trans
This product is designed for those who want to eliminate engine bay clutter, improve engine bay aesthetics, improve pedal feel, and/or adapt a new transmission (if applicable). This a FULL replacement one-piece line from clutch master cylinder to slave cylinder. Other lines offered just replace...www.chasebays.com
CondorSpeedShop is another great place for brake, clutch lines. Super high quality from what I have heard.
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Damn I have a ton of people I should reply to.. Thanks everyone for all the positive feedback!
Funny you posted a link to that line @vtwagon, because I ordered it for my touring last Monday lol. Though it's been 9 days now and it still hasn't shipped.. I emailed them asking to cancel the order. I really wanted to try it out but the fact is I can get a stock one the same day from the dealership and if it's going to take another week shipping to send it to me..
So to update everyone, I got everything back together on the car including the wiring over the weekend.
On top of all this.. I purchased a new project on Saturday.. Yet another e30. Sadly it appears the cylinder head or head gasket at a minimum failed because of the milky oil. I plan to pull the engine sometime in the next few weeks. It was listed on CL as a "part out" 4 months ago, the guy finally responded to my email.. I plan to save it, would be stupid to part out such an original e30.
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Funny you posted a link to that line @vtwagon, because I ordered it for my touring last Monday lol. Though it's been 9 days now and it still hasn't shipped.. I emailed them asking to cancel the order. I really wanted to try it out but the fact is I can get a stock one the same day from the dealership and if it's going to take another week shipping to send it to me..
So to update everyone, I got everything back together on the car including the wiring over the weekend.
On top of all this.. I purchased a new project on Saturday.. Yet another e30. Sadly it appears the cylinder head or head gasket at a minimum failed because of the milky oil. I plan to pull the engine sometime in the next few weeks. It was listed on CL as a "part out" 4 months ago, the guy finally responded to my email.. I plan to save it, would be stupid to part out such an original e30.
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856 Posts
The wiring took a longggg time to complete on the wagon. I did things the "right way" and you'll see what I mean in the pics.
Last week at work I searched around the shop for used BMW wiring harness's, wires's ect. I finally found a nice harness and took it home. I looked up the wiring diagrams on BMW AIR and wrote down all the wire colors from the diagrams, ect.
For example, a factory 5 speed car use's a Blue/Brown wire from Pin # 2 on the clutch switch, to Pin # 23 on the X6004 connector at the Engine DME. I think you can guess the wire color I used.. Lol. Finding a good harness at work helped out a lot because now all the wire colors under the dash are correct per wiring diagram..
I even took things a step further, and ran ALL the wires inside the existing harness's in the car. The factory body harness is taped around in multiple loops but with patience you can easily add wires inside the harness, without modifying anything. A lot of guys will use butt splices from Home Depot, all the same wire colors.. but just take the extra hour of work do it right.. Take pride in your work!
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I purchased the clutch switch, and clutch switch harness brand new from BMW. (Thank you George for the trade offer though!! 😃)
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And the harness I found at work..
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Here's a pic of the Blue/Brown wire I gave as a random example earlier, it goes from the clutch switch to the DME. It's already inside the E-Box at this point and almost at the DME. You can see how I added it inside the existing body harness that BMW taped together.
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The first thing I did was wire the reverse light wiring. I spliced into the reverse relay like everyone does but did things a bit differently and crimped on a quick disconnect connector. This way my modified reverse harness (you saw in the pic's earlier on Page 2) can easily be "disconnected" at any time because it now has a quick disconnect electrical connector.
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The final repair.
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Last week at work I searched around the shop for used BMW wiring harness's, wires's ect. I finally found a nice harness and took it home. I looked up the wiring diagrams on BMW AIR and wrote down all the wire colors from the diagrams, ect.
For example, a factory 5 speed car use's a Blue/Brown wire from Pin # 2 on the clutch switch, to Pin # 23 on the X6004 connector at the Engine DME. I think you can guess the wire color I used.. Lol. Finding a good harness at work helped out a lot because now all the wire colors under the dash are correct per wiring diagram..
I even took things a step further, and ran ALL the wires inside the existing harness's in the car. The factory body harness is taped around in multiple loops but with patience you can easily add wires inside the harness, without modifying anything. A lot of guys will use butt splices from Home Depot, all the same wire colors.. but just take the extra hour of work do it right.. Take pride in your work!
I purchased the clutch switch, and clutch switch harness brand new from BMW. (Thank you George for the trade offer though!! 😃)
And the harness I found at work..
Here's a pic of the Blue/Brown wire I gave as a random example earlier, it goes from the clutch switch to the DME. It's already inside the E-Box at this point and almost at the DME. You can see how I added it inside the existing body harness that BMW taped together.
The first thing I did was wire the reverse light wiring. I spliced into the reverse relay like everyone does but did things a bit differently and crimped on a quick disconnect connector. This way my modified reverse harness (you saw in the pic's earlier on Page 2) can easily be "disconnected" at any time because it now has a quick disconnect electrical connector.
The final repair.
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856 Posts
Next came the clutch switch wiring. The Blue/Brown wire was the biggest pain in the ass because of the length. All the other wires you need to add for the 5 speed swap can be done under the dash
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It's final resting place.. Inside the connector at the DME like BMW would have done it..
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This pic show's pretty well the process of adding the wires inside the harness. It's not really "hard" but just requires a tone of patience.
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The clutch switch get's it's power from fuse #9... Which coincidentally the brake switch also gets it's power from (along with a ton of other things).
I decided to best way to get power would be splicing power from the existing wire. I crimped and shrink wrapped it water tight using the "e90 blower motor recall" heat shrink's BMW would give us a few years back..
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And the final repair.. All that work for this little harness you see here. 😃
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I also purchased a brand new door sill from the dealership since the original one was damaged.
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It's final resting place.. Inside the connector at the DME like BMW would have done it..
This pic show's pretty well the process of adding the wires inside the harness. It's not really "hard" but just requires a tone of patience.
The clutch switch get's it's power from fuse #9... Which coincidentally the brake switch also gets it's power from (along with a ton of other things).
I decided to best way to get power would be splicing power from the existing wire. I crimped and shrink wrapped it water tight using the "e90 blower motor recall" heat shrink's BMW would give us a few years back..
And the final repair.. All that work for this little harness you see here. 😃
I also purchased a brand new door sill from the dealership since the original one was damaged.
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856 Posts
Man the clips that hold the door sills in are no joke.. stronger then the actual door sill!
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I admire your drive and dedication. If I don't need to fix it to drive it to work tomorrow, I'm not crawling under it after I get home from work.![]()
Well… Looks like the last piece of the puzzle came in the mail today. I just got home from work 6.15pm.. time to crawl under the car and bleed the clutch for the first test drive!
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As someone planning to go through this in the near future, I appreciate your attention to detail and documentation. Just to be clear, that chase bay line is a complete master to slave live, deleting the hardline you installed on page 1? If so that is very tempting for the price.
Already is ✌
Have picked up on a few things already. Like how I completely missed and didn't order the stupid rubber grommet for the clutch hard line, part number 21521163894 😄
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856 Posts
Yup, the chase bay hose is designed to completely delete all the hardlines, including the line's under the carpet that I installed.. However, you'll see how I used it bellow.. Worked great! 😃
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The car runs and drives great! I installed the clutch line, reverse bleed the system, and off I went for a test drive. Everything feels great, though a 3.2L engine may need to be under the hood at some point.. no complaints for now! 😃
So the chase bay clutch line is supposed to be used from under the dash, all the way to the clutch slave cylinder. It deletes all the hard lines under the dash/ carpets, actually very handy if you don't have the stock BMW hydraulic lines for the clutch.
Rather then that, I ended up using the chase bay line from where the firewall line exit's, strait to the clutch slave cylinder. (So all the stock BMW hydraulic lines under the dash that I installed earlier are still in the car). I was a bit concerned it might be too long.. But it actually worked out great. Perfect length for no bends/ kinks in the line.
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Then I started to reverse bleed the clutch system. Honestly, this is the only way I found possible without a helper. Make sure the brake reservoir is low on fluid, fill your sucker tool up with brake fluid, and pump fluid right into the clutch slave nipple. It'll push the air bubbles strait up and bleed it quickly... takes about 3min to fully bleed 😃 .
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I'm not sure if I've ever seen a e46 with the oil drain flap installed.. but this car still has it!
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So the chase bay clutch line is supposed to be used from under the dash, all the way to the clutch slave cylinder. It deletes all the hard lines under the dash/ carpets, actually very handy if you don't have the stock BMW hydraulic lines for the clutch.
Rather then that, I ended up using the chase bay line from where the firewall line exit's, strait to the clutch slave cylinder. (So all the stock BMW hydraulic lines under the dash that I installed earlier are still in the car). I was a bit concerned it might be too long.. But it actually worked out great. Perfect length for no bends/ kinks in the line.
Then I started to reverse bleed the clutch system. Honestly, this is the only way I found possible without a helper. Make sure the brake reservoir is low on fluid, fill your sucker tool up with brake fluid, and pump fluid right into the clutch slave nipple. It'll push the air bubbles strait up and bleed it quickly... takes about 3min to fully bleed 😃 .
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a e46 with the oil drain flap installed.. but this car still has it!
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856 Posts
After all this I went on a test drive over to my dads house.. And decided to get him involved helping me replace the head light len's. It's not even worth sanding and polishing them, I got brand new OE len's and brand new gaskets for around $160 bucks.. Not bad at all! Magneti Marelli len's and Genuine BMW gaskets.
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The wagon is pretty highly optioned and even has these "pointless" headlight squirters.. which made the job a ton more challenging. I was so careful.. Didn't break one clip or tab. Long skinny screw driver and pick tools are your friend here, you don't want to break any tabs and not have it sit flush again.
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Before.....
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After! 😃
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The wagon is pretty highly optioned and even has these "pointless" headlight squirters.. which made the job a ton more challenging. I was so careful.. Didn't break one clip or tab. Long skinny screw driver and pick tools are your friend here, you don't want to break any tabs and not have it sit flush again.
Before.....
After! 😃
My wagon doesn't have CDV, but my vert does. The difference is quite noticeable. I definitely need to delete it on my vert once I do gearbox refresh.
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856 Posts
Exactly! I definitely didn't want the CDV valve installed so this worked out perfectly.. And cheaper! 😃
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