Expert: Josh Fields - 9/22/2006

Question
hi there, i have a 328i and recently the hangers for the muffler gave out. i managed to get it straped up but after that, my clutch has been acting-up. most of the time it will go into gear with a little effort, and some of the time i have to wait till the rpm drops to idle before i can get it into gear. is there any way that the hanging exhaust damaged something?

thanks
zed

Answer
Zed,
 I dont see how that would have done anything to the shifting.  The exhaust hangs below the driveshaft, and the driveshaft is below the shifting linkage, so you would really have to move the driveshaft in order to mess with the shifting.  I think it's two separate issues.

 I would change the tranny fluid.  I have read from several people that using Redline MTL makes shifting MUCH, MUCH better.  I haven't personally done it, so you might do some reading first.

 If you have problems getting into one gear, you can press the clutch, and shift into 3rd and then 4th gear (with the clutch in the whole time) and then it should slide into 1st or second gear easily.

 Good luck,
 Josh