I had some trouble locating a good guide to do this, so I thought I would post my experience of the install. Not many pics, but the youtube link I found and the following checklist should make this an easy project for anyone else who has a squeaky clutch pedal!
First off, it is not very hard, and once you can make sense of what is on the pedal, it comes off rather easily. I used this video as a rough guide:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oFud4xKXIk
1. remove driver side kick panels (not sure the technical term, but the piece that touches your knees while driving. Should just be two pieces of plastic held on by 6 screws.)
2. underneath and by the pedals, remove the bracket referenced in the video. use a 10mm socket and just slide it out and shove up next to the brake pedal out of your way.
3. remove the circlip and pin for the clutch master cylinder.
4. at this point the pedal will probably pop out and the spring will come down. thats fine, just dont lose the pivot pieces at the top of the spring when it pops down.
5. remove the circlip at the very top, and slide the pedal off (the video says the pedal slides towards the passenger side, but maybe he has a RH drive car? mine slid to the LH side if you look at the pedal straight on)
6. remove the old bushings from the pedal, put in the new ones (I had to squeeze mine in pretty tightly, I do not think there will be any movement between the bushings and the pedal - only between the bushings and the pin)
7. the guy in the video suggested just propping up the spring and compressing it with your hand on the pedal...I don't know how he managed that, so I just used some zip-ties and a vice to compress the spring a little at a time, and got it snug.
8. Reassemble everything in reverse, and the compressed spring should give you no trouble at all. Once everything is clipped back in, cut the zip ties and put on the kick panels again. ALL DONE!
my bushings were the "oilite bronze" ones from Ireland Engineering. they have barely any side-to-side play, and absolutely NO squeaks (at least from a short drive around...who knows how they perform over the years to come...)
Pics of the new ones installed in the pedal vs the old ones in my hand: WP_000184.jpgWP_000185.jpg
Last edited by mangoose; 08-26-2013 at 11:26 PM. Reason: added pics
(Sold) 1997 2.8L Z3 Roadster (M52) - Atlanta Blue
2008 X3 M Sport AT (N52) - Black Sapphire
Cool, great DIY! I had a squeeky clutch pedal on my Z... just never got around to fixing it.
Maybe this will be Manifesto'd????
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I did this earlier in the Spring--love the olite bronze bushings. It's a little tight down there under the dash, but doable.
It's about time I get off my arse and tackle this in order to get rid of the annoying squeak. I have the R.E. replacement waiting to go in. Your guide will definitely help motivate, thanks!
Yeah, I did this on a rhd and had to loosen the brake pedal hosing to get it to slide out, or it hit up against it and wouldn't come off. Did it with the bronze too with the seat in is like z3 yoga.
ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐl ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ
Last edited by mangoose; 08-30-2013 at 12:24 PM.
(Sold) 1997 2.8L Z3 Roadster (M52) - Atlanta Blue
2008 X3 M Sport AT (N52) - Black Sapphire
Yup my ron stygar one is squeaking too.
Yeah I got a pic to help explain. which doean't show all but best I can do without pulling too much apart.
The red arrow indicates a fixed hump in the firewall that stopped the clutch sliding off, the green arrow indicates the direction of the clutch slide off towards the center console. It nearly slid off but not quite. You can see I cut away the sound deader foam to make a bit extra room as the red hump was covered but that didn't give me enough either. I can't remember what I loosened at the yellow arrow but I tried a few things there till one finally allowed me to get the angle to get past that red hump. Not much play in the brass brushes I used made me loosen whatever more to get it back in.
I didn't use anything to compress the spring, I just popped it in place pressed the pedal in and put in the pin, was pretty easy.
I used self oiling(impregnated with oil) brass brushes no squeaks here!
Last edited by lennium; 08-31-2013 at 08:55 AM.
ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐl ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ
For those who are still experiencing the squeak after replacement, were the new bushings coated with lube? A Teflon based lube (ex. Super Lube) is usually the way to go and what I was planning to use.
(Sold) 1997 2.8L Z3 Roadster (M52) - Atlanta Blue
2008 X3 M Sport AT (N52) - Black Sapphire
I did it with the seat in--I don't remember the seat being in the way--everything else was though.
+1 The spring went back in easily without any compression prep. It is tight up there and awkward to see the clips and pins etc but I had the most trouble with the overlap on the lower dash panels than anything else. Especially the overlap between the side panel (on the right) and the larger panel just under the steering wheel. The two tabs on the right were difficult to tuck back under the side panel without scratching it up. I suppose it would mhave been easier to just remove the side panel as well but that did not look easy. Glad I did this. Nice and tight now. Thanks for all the info guys!
Finally got around to replacing the bushings. It was rather straightforward and would have been much easier had it not been in such an awkward and confined area.
Surprisingly, the squeaking remained, perhaps even intensified after the swap and lubricating the new parts. So I took it upon myself to get to the bottom of this annoyance and disassembled everything once more. I cleaned all the dried grease off as many of the parts as possible, and did a thorough job of lubing all moving parts/ areas including the pin securing the pedal to the master cylinder and the pivoting arm from the master cylinder. I'm now happy to say that my pedal is dead silent. Lets hope it stays that way.
This was perfect timing!
My UUC clutch pedal bushings came in the mail yesterday (along with my shifter refresh bushing kit, weekend project, hopefully) and I had time to throw them on tonight.
Thanks for the step-by-step and the video link, great help! The UUC directions were long and convoluted, and the Bentley manual wasn't much help either. Had a little scare when the spring pin dropped down and I couldn't figure out exactly where it came from at first, but that's all part of the adventure, right?
Also took the knee bolster off to install a new headlight switch (and scout out access to the switch blanks on either side of the steering column for future use as fog light/driving light switch locations - it's gonna be a bitch running wires through the firewall down there...) which really opened up the space and made it a breeze to move things around down by the pedals. The UUC kit comes with 2 metal spacer washers that I managed to fit in too. So far so good, silence!
On a related note: I now have an OE headlight switch with a non-working dimmer (headlight switch works, but the dash lights are either on or off, black panel, Saab style) that is up for grabs if anyone wants it...?
My clutch pedal was getting really bad. Very sloppy with almost a grind to it and when outside temps were over 90, the squeaking was downright embarrassing. Considering I just relocated with the car to Georgia, I knew it was time to do something about it. Frankly I forgot I already bought the IE Oilite bushings over a year ago. I found them in my toolbox when I unpacked it.
First, I am really happy with the result. Zero squeaks and the pedal is very solid and very smooth now. I was smiling ear-to-ear on the test drive. The IE bushing are probably the best bang for the buck item I have done to the car. Well worth $14.
And to chime in on the spring discussion, No tricky stuff needed.
I simply installed the pedal on the top pin,
reinserted the bolts for the bracket/ master cylinder to hold the master cylinder loosely in place (and avoid having to put the bolts in with spring tension on everything) ,
pulled the clutch pedal up high,
pushed the reassembled spring into place,
pushed the clutch pedal down until I could reinsert the pin for the master cylinder rod end.
That held everything in place. Finishing up was a breeze thanks to the good info available here.
Hope this information helps someone else.
John
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