'85 535i clutch hose failure

[Jerry Dormaier <jerryd@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy fellow auto obsessed,

I thought it worth a post to share something that happened on my son's
535 that could have been avoided with a few minutes of attention.  It
seems, despite the fine engineering of this car, that the rubber
hydraulic hose that connects the clutch slave cylinder to the steel line
coming down from the master cylinder was positioned on this car in such
a manner as to have it contact the head of a small screw that holds what
I would guess is soundproofing material to the lower side of the left
front fender.  The end result-fourteen years later the hose ruptures and
renders the clutch inoperable.  I don't know if this could be the same
on all such vehicles or whether ours is an anomaly, but if you have a
similar beast (or have a similar aged manual shift car,) it would be
worth your while to jack it up, support it well and climb under for a
look.  Five minutes could save you $40 in parts and a kinda nasty to do
repair (you have to remove the slave cylinder to get to where the hose
attaches to it.)  If you have a similar situation, you will probably be
able to feel the back side of the hose where it contacts the screw head
and feel the wear.  If you are a dumb farm boy like me, you would
probably find a short piece of rubber hose (fuel line works good), slice
it lengthwise, put some silicone rubber on the inside, clean the place
of interest on the clutch hose and then slip the short piece of hose
over the clutch hose and position it so that it is between the screw
head and the clutch hose.  That would end the possibility of failure for
a long, long time.  If your hose has severe scoring, you should probably
consider replacement first.

Hope this saves someone a hassle somewhere down the line.

JD	
'85 BMW 530i 195K miles
'85 SAAB 900S 300K miles
'86 SAAB 9000T 160K miles
'83 Mercedes Benz 300SD 155K miles
'85 Ford F250 6.9 Diesel 115K miles

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