[zcoombs4]

Posted this in the E46 forum as well, but to those that may not have seen it there:

After much anticipation, and waiting on the rain to clear here in Middle Tennessee, I was finally able to replace my pesky compression spring.

For those of you that may not be aware of the symptoms, I experienced severe lag in upshifts (typically at or over 4k) and would coast for 4-5 seconds before it would either catch the gear, or throw the SMG cog light and skip said gear entirely. For instance, accelerating hard in second gear, upshift to third would blink 3 on the dash, and would eventually catch when the revs came down, or would skip third with SMG light on. So far, have had no issues after the spring was replaced, although I've only had about 45 minutes on it thus far.

Sorry for the lack of pictures at this point, I had a third person specifically to take photos, put in SD card--windows wants to format and says the drive is corrupt. Bye-bye photos.

Anyway, things you will need:

-Standard mechanic's tool set (I use the Craftsman 255 piece)
-Standard torx set (you'll need T25 and T30 to do the job)
-Craftsman universal socket set (maybe not necessary, but it made separating section 1 from the headers much easier)
-Magnetic pickup tool
-Jack stands
-Jack (We used two, I'll explain shortly)
-Ramps (in lieu of two extra stands, I use the 56'' two piece Race Ramps)
-32mm wrench and pulley holder
-A buddy to help (no really, this is almost impossible alone)
-Plenty of PB Blaster (life-saver for me)
-I strongly recommend a cordless impact (I use the Dewalt 20v Max, good for this job, but couldn't get some bolts loose on its own)
-A good set of nitrile gloves to save your hands

I think that covers some of the oddities, I'm going by memory here, and still sore and sweaty and covered in grease and pavement nastiness.

I may have done some extraneous steps, but I did a few other maintenance items while we were at it.

Start by putting the car up on your ramps, or jack stands if you're using them. If you aren't comfortable with this, stop now and head to your local independent shop. I mean it. I'd rate this job about a 7 out of 10, but I'm a fairly novice mechanic. Mostly for the time and strain of being on your back for several hours.

We then raised the back of the car by jacking up one side on the subframe bolts, then use your second jack to reach the jack point in front of the differential, remember to NOT USE THE DIFFERENTIAL ITSELF. No really, it could get real, real quick if you do. Once you have the car off the ground to your desired height put stands under the rear stand points (about a foot in front of the rear wheels).

With the car safely up, go ahead and open the hood and make sure you left the car in neutral, DO NOT FORGET THAT STEP. You won't be able to get the driveshaft out, and you'll hate yourself for forgetting.

I removed the negative battery terminal at this point, some have said it's not necessary, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Move under the car and remove the transmission shields, not sure if that's the correct terminology, but there are six or seven 8mm bolts holding them in, you'll know when you see them. I found it easiest to remove them both TOGETHER. It can be tricky to separate them, as they lock together using some semi-circular tabs, do whichever you prefer. Taking these sorts of bolts out is where that cordless impact comes in handy.

With the two shields removed, take the time to hose down every exhaust bolt that needs to be removed with PB Blaster. We hit the section 1 nuts, the braces under the exhaust, as well as the nuts on the hangers for the muffler. You'll be removing the exhaust in one piece, so don't worry about section 1 to section 2, or section 2 to the muffler section (though if you bought an exhaust, no time like the present!).

Crawl out from under the car and let the PB Blaster soak in for a few minutes. We took this opportunity to remove the engine components that need to be out of the way.

I started with the cabin filter housing (one step that may not be necessary, but I replaced my filter while I had everything undone). Undo the three spring clips and lift the cover off, followed by the filter. Then use your T30 torx socket to remove the 4 bolts holding the housing in place. Unclip the wiring loom holder from the front, and be sure to clear all of the wires from within. With some effort, the housing will lift out, pull toward you and up simultaneously, mine took a bit of wiggling.

Remove your strut brace, if equipped, by using a 13mm socket. I reinstalled the nuts onto their threads, after my buddy dropped his two deep into the engine bay .

Remove the left and right engine shrouds at this point, my right one was absent but the left one is held in place by the same pin-thingies as the snorkel. Remove the one on top, and the one right in front of the VANOS unit. Be careful with this one, it's easy to let fly out accidentally, and there's no magnetic pick up tool for plastic.

With that out of the way, move to the intake. Remove the four pin-thingies holding the snorkel to the front of the car with a flat head screwdriver, then use pliers to pull them out. It simply lifts out, pull the small piece that connects the snorkel to the airbox out as well. Now using your flat head screwdriver loosen the clamp behind the MAF (may want to take the opportunity to clean it as well, I did with some CRC MAF cleaner). Unlatch the right side of the box and carefully twist until it separates from the hose, mine took quite a bit of effort, but eventually gave way. Set it up and out of the way, or if you removed the MAF, put it somewhere safe. Remember to use EXTREME CAUTION when handling the MAF, it's delicate, not to mention expensive in the event something happens.

With that out of the way, you may want to lift out the lower section of the intake (that goes down to the bumper). To do so, lift your xenon ballast cover out of the way and take out the two 10mm bolts holding it in place, this will allow you to rotate the bottom section out.

This should give you lots more room to work. Crawl back under the car and remove the engine shroud (not sure if that's the correct term) but this will give you access to the bottom of the engine. In my case there were only 5 8mm bolts here; I'm certain there should be more.

Go ahead and remove the T25 bolts holding the oil cooler in place, this is necessary to remove the clutch fan. Some say it's not necessary to support it, but we used a box to hold it up to prevent stressing the oil lines too much. Remove the two T25 bolts holding the bottom of the radiator shroud in while you're here. There are two more accessible from the top of the engine bay, the left one is right in front of the VANOS unit, while the right is actually on the side of the radiator, and is impossible to reach without removing the lower intake section, it is also helpful to remove the headlight in your way.

With the shroud completely unbolted have your buddy get under the car and weave the pulley holder up to the water pump, we found this to be easier--it's very difficult to use it in conjunction with the 32mm wrench from the top. With the holder fitted, start turning the fan not to the RIGHT to loosen it. It took us a good couple of minutes to remove it completely, but it eventually gave up. Some have noted that theirs was essentially frozen to the water pump, you may want to give your wrench with a rubber mallet if you have one handy if it refuses to budge; I was fortunate. Have your friend pull downward on the shroud, and you should be able to wedge the fan out between it and the radiator. It took us some gyrations, but it finally worked.

With everything out of the way, move to the bottom of the car again. Use a 10mm open ended wrench on the external torx holding section 1 to the headers and break the 14mm nut free with a box end. I fitted my impact once they were free and zipped them out pretty quickly. You'll need various extensions and a swivel socket to make this happen.

Move to the muffler and begin to loosen the 13mm nuts holding the hangers to the body. A deep-well socket is necessary here. Make sure to support the exhaust with a jack (and in our case a 2' piece of 2x4 to support the load evenly) or risk it dropping on to your chest. Ask me how I know.

With both ends free, you'll need to remove the two braces under the exhaust, it's four bolts in total, and I'm a terrible person for not remembering sizes from here on out. Just keep your socket tray handy like I did. With all this removed, have your friend lower the jack under the muffler while supporting section 1. It will all come out as a unit here.

Now you will want to remove the shields covering the driveshaft, again I'm sorry for not remembering the sizes, but there's several; are you missing that impact yet?

With the shields removed, most of the hard work is out of the way--on to the frustrating bits!

You'll now see where the SMG gearbox connects with the drive shaft, mark its position in some way. Whether it be with a metallic sharpie, or the years of grime, make sure to do it. Necessary or not, you won't be pleased if it becomes unbalanced and have to redo all these step. That being said, drop the three bolts (did you remember to leave it in neutral? You will need to rotate the shaft to reach all the bolts), remembering to soak them with PB Blaster if necessary (this will likely damage your flex disc, but I replaced mine anyway, I recommend doing the same if it hasn't been done. I'm over 135k, and mine was thrashed).

You will also need to lower the center support, it is not necessary to remove the driveshaft from the differential. We simply used some strong wire to tie it up out of our way.

Almost there! If you're of legal drinking age (I'm not quite ) then now is the time to grab a brew. My friend slapped in a dip (ew) while I enjoy a Drew Estates Acid. You'll likely be sore by this point, go ahead and pop a couple Tylenol or Aleve. You'll need it.

After your intermission, move back under the transmission and support it with your jack. You'll then remove the bolts from the crossmember. This will allow you to pivot the transmission down. Lower the jack SLOWLY. It will move some, but taking it slow is key here, it'd be a shame to get this far and break a hydraulic line or something dangerous.

Have your friend support the transmission and pivot it down while you locate the blind plug. It is up near the top of the box, very near a nut. You're not hunting the nut, simply the plug. I hit mine with some, you guessed it, PB Blaster, resupported the transmission with the jack, and finished my cigar.

Now, take your long flat head and head back under the car. While your friend holds the gearbox down, make your hands super skinny and pry that plug out. It sucks. It takes time. There's no easy way about it. Just keep prying and it will eventually relinquish its grip. Congratulations, you've reached the spring!

I inserted my pickup tool and pulled out the locking pin and compression spring together. Quickly grabbed the new parts: 23311228397 (spring) and 23311282539 (locking pin) inserted the new spring into the locking pin, and put the roller side in first. This will be apparent when you are looking at the parts, it is kind of confusing looking at the diagrams. Check out the diagram here if you get confused.

With the new pin and spring in, replace the blind plug and thank your friend for holding the transmission forever while you fiddled with that stupid plug.

Installation is simply reverse of the removal. You should have a pretty good idea of what's going on now.

Some tips:

-Removing section 1 proved to suck really bad. Three bolts were easy to remove, while we had to use a Craftsman universal socket to break free the top bolt on the passenger side pipe. Not sure why it was installed backward from the rest, but it is dang near impossible without such a socket (dedicated torx socket is probably best here, but the universal worked great).

-Make sure to torque section 1 back to spec, can't remember it off the top of my head, but it's pretty tight. You'll hate yourself for the leak you create if you don't. I know I did.

-When reinstalling your cabin filter housing, don't overtighten the T30 bolts. I mistakenly used my impact to reinstall them, and got a horrible vibration in the car after the fact. Easy fix, but best to do it right the first time.

-Reinstalling the fan sucks pretty bad too, repeat the same process as above in reverse, with your friend underneath. It took us quite a bit of force to get the threads started. E.g, he supported and pushed the fan while I used the 32mm wrench to tighten, remember it is reverse threaded. Lefty tighty in this case.

Those are really the only issues I ran into. Before bolting everything back up though, check to make sure that your transmission will still engage gears, I've read some posts where people have installed the pin backwards, et cetera. If it doesn't move to 1 then you've done something wrong. I didn't have this issue, so I am unaware of what to diagnose.

This really would be much easier with a lift, but my mechanic was out of town so I did it in my driveway. I still have a fault coming from the Gear Position Sensor, so when the time comes, I'll let him do it. This requires reteaching SMG adaptations, so make sure he has an Autologic system, or equivalent. This can also be done in INPA, but I haven't received my cable yet, so I can't comment on this functionality.

That's it! If you've made it this far, I appreciate your reading. Sincerely. I will do everything I can to recover all my photos, as some are very very helpful if you've never gone that deep under the car before. Remember that this is just for reference and I am not responsible for any damage to your car or yourself from using unsafe techniques.

If I missed anything, or you have any questions, please comment; feedback is much appreciated.

Zach

[cell21633]

Originally Posted by zcoombs4

Sorry for the lack of pictures at this point, I had a third person specifically to take photos, put in SD card--windows wants to format and says the drive is corrupt. Bye-bye photos.
Zach

don't touch the drive.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
use that to recover said photos! and reupdate your thread

[zcoombs4]

I've been on it for the last few days, and still no success, even with the recovery methods.

My third set of hands did snap some film photos on his Leica, will see if he's willing to have them developed. It is wedding season, and he's super busy. But he's an auto enthusiast at heart Stupid school and work getting in the way of the important things!

Will keep this thread updated with photos, even if it means re-snapping them. I'll be doing the gear position sensor when it's time for the next oil change, anyway; which is very soon!

[sambona]

Will be doing this soon. Thanks for the DIY!! Definitely will help with pics.

[cell21633]

Originally Posted by zcoombs4

I've been on it for the last few days, and still no success, even with the recovery methods.

ah well.. good luck, had good success using that program to recover data from a failed flash drive (corrupt file partition), and a failing hdd (failing hardware).

without going too OT, what's the fault?

[zcoombs4]

Tried the above method to no avail. Indie Film Labs should have the prints back next week if they're worth scanning in, I'll post them up!

[zcoombs4]

Another random update:

Before I got around to the DIY I also used my INPA setup to pull the fault code. The only way to do it was to shift through second, get near redline and try for third. Then when it skipped the gear and the SMG cog light came on I literally pulled over, with the car running to pull the codes. Here's what came back:

48 - Gear Not Selectable

So for anyone who has access to INPA, a GT1, Autologic etc, this was the only way I found to get the code. Usually opening the hood and closing, along with a restart cleared the fault. There's been some discussion about the fault on the m3cutters forum with mixed success. Some swapped the spring and were good to go, while other members ultimately wound up swapping out the gear position sensor.

Hope that helps!

[JasnM]

Been having the same issues for awhile. Just ordered the parts and I'll be tackling this soon.

[JasnM]

Couple of notes from my experience doing this...

It's not necessary to take that much off before accessing it.

Under the hood, literally all I did was unhook the air box (only the tube from MAF to intake really) and loosened the fan shroud.

I did it mostly by myself and it took my about 9 hours start to finish over two days. My brother helped me lower the transmission down watching the fan to make sure it didn't hit the radiator and it had plenty of room. The engine hit the firewall before it would contact the radiator. Really in truly, fiddling with the plug was the hardest and took about 3 of the 9 hours alone.