Re: E36: Gear Popping Problem

[Neil Maller <neilmaller@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 9/14/98 8:27 AM bmw-digest owner-bmw-digest@domain.elided wrote:

>Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 05:27:17 -0400
>From: "Christensen, Guillermo S" <ChristensenGS@domain.elided>
>Subject: E36: Gear Popping Problem
>
>Occasionally (1 time out of every 100 shifts maybe), my 5-speed
>transmission will "pop" out of gear when I engage 1st gear from a stop.
>Sometimes the noise/jarring that accompanies this popping is quite loud,
>other times not so bad.  I can sometimes tell that the gear is about to
>pop out and a swift clutch in action will prevent it, other times it
>happens too quickly for me to react.  This has not happened in any other
>gears.  The clutch is original with about 60K miles, and pedal effort
>while a bit higher than a new clutch is not too bad.
>
>Any advice on likely cause?
>
>Guillermo Christensen

Guillermo,

You don't say what model E36 you have or how old it is.

My 92 325i did this as delivered, but much more frequently than you 
report. The entire transmission was replaced under warranty without a 
quibble. While waiting for the new tranny to arrive I found there was 
nothing at all I could do in terms of careful 1st gear selection to avoid 
the problem.

However even on good cars the shift sometimes baulks when selecting 1st 
at a standstill, and you may believe the gear is fully engaged when it 
isn't. Try moving the lever back from neutral into 2nd before going 
forward into 1st, this usually ensures a clean engagement.

Neil
96 M3

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