Lost all drive - isn't it ironic?
 

My car has no drive, wont go into gear.
Oh the irony :)
One of the major reasons I sold the automatic and bought a manual car was to avoid a gearbox failure.

I think I know roughly what it is, the clutch wont disengage. When engine is on gear lever wont go into any gear, when the engine is off it goes into all gears.
There appear to be no leaks between brake fluid reservoir, clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder. The slave cylinder is not loose. No drop in reservoir fluid level. Master cylinder is properly secured to pedal.
Looks like its the throw out bearing or the pressure plate.
This is going to be expensive.

Put in the gear and start it. It should start and move at the same time. Then you can change gears while rolling. Use to drive like that in Golf many years ago for couple of days when clutch cable broke. Real pain around the town but not too much of a problem on open road. I am not suggesting you keep driving like that but it will give more confirmation to you suspicions.

Gearbox out job to fix clutch. Gutted.

Shouldn't be that bad for a decent garage - I can ask my friend to quote for a cash job if you want to minimise the bill?

Good suggestion, thanks!
I was contemplating ordering a flat-bed truck, now I dont have to.

I'm already booked in at MRC for suspension replacement, so I will get this done there too. Shame its not until 1st March.

First time I had to get a car recovered. Had a nice drive to MRC in the recovery truck.
The clutch did semi-work in the end, with pedal all the way down it would not stall, but would not come out of gear. It was slipping all the time with pedal down. So in order to avoid wearing any parts I thought best just to book a truck.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1393769885

That will be straightforward to fix Goran. Not cheap though.
You won't need recovery truck on the way back I'm sure +++.

Its hard to believe that for someone who worked so hard to achieve a RHD manual gearbox and then bought a LHD manual version to achieve that aim has suffered a gearbox failure. Its a cruel world and it aint fair! :-(

So sorry for you mate! Hope its not too expensive. :(

Think it's just the clutch - just one of those wear and tear jobs with a high power manual car. Depends how it's been driven (urban or lots of slip to launch) but even careful driving a clutch won't last forever - even worse it it's left unused for a while as they really don't seem to like it.

My next car will probably be dual clutch, which brings its own potential ruinous bills!!

you'll loved the dual clutch once you've used it Adrian - it was awesome on the A7 I would have one again any day +++

Goran - gutted for you - I hope youre sorted and back on the road soon

In a way I'm glad it happened, its forced me to have the 0.56 6th gear installed. I have been putting it off for ages. That would have been a gearbox out job as well.

Loading that 75kg monster was no small task, I had to roll it Egyptian-style on 4 pieces of plastic pipe through the house and up to the boot, then do a singe lift into the boot.
I dont work out much so it was not easy. And I still have to put it back after they take its 6th gear out, I'm keeping it for spare parts.


http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1393799583

Great idea to have 0.56 6th gear transpanted from a donor gearbox.

The car will still pull like proper S8 on low gears, but will have a spare 6th cruising gear.

Do you think MRC can do the transpant job?

Edit: I noticed a small steering fluid can. You're removing the rear self levelling suspension :) +++

I second that, got one on my M3, and up to now (touch wood), I've not heard of any major failures in the ///M community

Yes they advertise the 6th gear swap on their website. Apparently its quite easy. I'm looking forward to good fuel economy on long trips.
Yes MRC are removing the self leveling suspension, at last this car will get the S8 suspension it should have come with from the factory.

Thanks Neil. I would love to have a DTC car. I was briefly considering the new 3.0 S4, but they still too expensive for me.

S4 is on our shopping list as is the 335i bmw - both have flappy paddle options which make economy and tax cheaper

the earlier 335is are a normal torque converter auto, DCT didn't come in until later, September 2008, coupe/convertible only, the saloon and estate never got the DCT box.

DCT is different gravy, if you can stretch to one, do it, well worth it

I would also agree w Adrian? Had identical symptoms to the on eu describe on our '98 Alfa Spider and we had to replace the slave cylinder .

Hope it's not too serious but a great excuse to make a few upgrades :)

Oli

Cheers for the info - we're looking at 2009-12 options but didn't realise the dct wasn't offered on the saloon, which is what we're after. Thought there were 3 diff transmission options. Post 12 model would be nice but serious money as most are in dealers and private sales are same money as nobody knows how to value a private sale! M3 saloon also an option....

Now you're talking, and is available with DCT or manual

This one has everything you need, is a facelift car and has the HDD iDrive rather than the earlier DVD based system. Just missing EDC but that is not a must-have.

http://www.approved.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/...price_ASC|list

If you go for an M3, not sure of your budget, but approved used cars are very much the preference, there is one common expensive failure with the throttle actuators, and an approved used warranty can be extended on a monthly payment, well worth the extra IMO.

PS Sorry for the thread hijack