7 year review of my SMG (from clunk to no clunk)

[Sid_E46]

Hi There - From my experience you need to run it a few times (assuming you dont have the relocation kit and its in its stock location) to take out all the air, one time will not fully bleed the system. The system (if operating normally) is designed to bleed multiple times without issues. If you have a weak pump it will fail to bleed.

Guess I'll try the procedure a few more times. It definitely looks like my old pump was pretty weak. And my pump is still in the stock location.

[Irhase46m3]

I recently used a LAUNCH X431 tablet to bleed my SMG system after doing a clutch job. The first time around it kept on failing the accumulator pressure test even though the pump was originally working. I replaced it with a slightly newer pump and it passed ass the tests and bled properly. I only did it once and it seems to have worked well, is it still recommended to run it more than once.

Hi There - From my experience you need to run it a few times (assuming you dont have the relocation kit and its in its stock location) to take out all the air, one time will not fully bleed the system. The system (if operating normally) is designed to bleed multiple times without issues. If you have a weak pump it will fail to bleed.

[Sid_E46]

I recently used a LAUNCH X431 tablet to bleed my SMG system after doing a clutch job. The first time around it kept on failing the accumulator pressure test even though the pump was originally working. I replaced it with a slightly newer pump and it passed the tests and bled properly. I only did it once and it seems to have worked well, is it still recommended to run it more than once.

[Irhase46m3]

Thank you so much Oceansize and Irhase46m3 for your responses. I'm almost slightly relieved that I'm not the only one to experience this. Indeed a part of me thinks that there is just more noise now b/c of how close the pump is to the firewall. The buzz though is really distracting for both myself and passengers. I hate having a car that sound "broke" ...even though i'm not experiencing any driving or shifting issues. I'm going to bleed and bleed again and see if it makes a difference. Will report back if it gets better or not.

Not a problem, please follow up as it helps others in need. Also, check the lines not touching plastic firewall and tryin to position them so that they are not too stressed. Good Luck!

[humarahumara]

Thank you so much Oceansize and Irhase46m3 for your responses. I'm almost slightly relieved that I'm not the only one to experience this. Indeed a part of me thinks that there is just more noise now b/c of how close the pump is to the firewall. The buzz though is really distracting for both myself and passengers. I hate having a car that sound "broke" ...even though i'm not experiencing any driving or shifting issues. I'm going to bleed and bleed again and see if it makes a difference. Will report back if it gets better or not.

[Irhase46m3]

Hi There - I used to have the buzz specially when it starts heating up in CA, i dont have this buzz anymore, from my experience the buzz is coming from the transmission gear actuator (which is the longest line) - I had to bleed probably around 12 - 16 times to get all the air out (just at this step and nothing else) - Additionally, what helped me in the end, was how the lines got routed to the pump, if you are bending a line too much, the sound will be more pronounced. As of right now i do not have any issues with the pump, no strange noises.

Hope this info helps!

Just to add a bit more info, i always bleed it with a battery charger attached, chf11s or burkhart fluid at around 20C and with the pump in its horizontal position, in CA weather its pretty easy to achieve on a summer morning and of course using INPA.

[Irhase46m3]

KInda at my wits end.... are folks really bleeding 24-30 times to get all the air out when relocating?

I relocated the pump about a year ago. I bleed the system and have driven without issue. But after about 30 miles I get a buzz coming from the pump when slowing down to a light and gear shifts from 2 to 1.
I bleed the system now a total of 5 times. Each time the same. No cog, no shifting issues...just this "buzz". Again, only when the car shifts from 2 -1 when stopping at a light. No buzzing when I shift.
Do I just keep bleeding actuator and clutch over and over and over...??
I have not seen any leaks.

Hi There - I used to have the buzz specially when it starts heating up in CA, i dont have this buzz anymore, from my experience the buzz is coming from the transmission gear actuator (which is the longest line) - I had to bleed probably around 12 - 16 times to get all the air out (just at this step and nothing else) - Additionally, what helped me in the end, was how the lines got routed to the pump, if you are bending a line too much, the sound will be more pronounced. As of right now i do not have any issues with the pump, no strange noises.

Hope this info helps!

[oceansize]

KInda at my wits end.... are folks really bleeding 24-30 times to get all the air out when relocating?

I relocated the pump about a year ago. I bleed the system and have driven without issue. But after about 30 miles I get a buzz coming from the pump when slowing down to a light and gear shifts from 2 to 1.
I bleed the system now a total of 5 times. Each time the same. No cog, no shifting issues...just this "buzz". Again, only when the car shifts from 2 -1 when stopping at a light. No buzzing when I shift.
Do I just keep bleeding actuator and clutch over and over and over...??
I have not seen any leaks.

I have the same buzz from time to time since my relocation. It doesn't seem to cause any issues and this has been going on for thousands of miles. I can only figure that after the relocation noises that were at one time hidden by engine noise are more pronounced, or there is some very small amount of air trapped in the system which is certainly possible as buzzing can be symptom of air. FYI, when bleeding I typically orientate the pump in its original position for better results.

[humarahumara]

KInda at my wits end.... are folks really bleeding 24-30 times to get all the air out when relocating?

I relocated the pump about a year ago. I bleed the system and have driven without issue. But after about 30 miles I get a buzz coming from the pump when slowing down to a light and gear shifts from 2 to 1.
I bleed the system now a total of 5 times. Each time the same. No cog, no shifting issues...just this "buzz". Again, only when the car shifts from 2 -1 when stopping at a light. No buzzing when I shift.
Do I just keep bleeding actuator and clutch over and over and over...??
I have not seen any leaks.

[maw1124]

Good feedback guys. I'm committed to the SMG and this is a recreational car for me so I'm just going to keep adjusting/replacing until it's completely sorted and reliable. Next steps:

• Run another INPA bleed with pump in original position.
• If issues continue, replace fluid with OE
• If issues continue, replace clutch slave
• If issues continue, replace pump...

I’d replace the fluid first... old fluid is public enemy #1 in these systems... the pumps get blamed, but I’m convinced it’s the fluid... similar cars with similar fluid and pumps see the same thing... pumps, lines and accumulators fail when the fluid hasn’t been changed and no one thinks hard enough about the fluid... hydraulic fluid doesn’t last forever, especially in heat cycling, or let alone extreme heat cycling (cold starts, hot summer runs)... change that fluid first... it’ll be instructive I think... the hardware on these cars is fairly robust... for my part, I changed the fluid before I ever saw any problems as a matter of good maintenance... and I’ve yet to see any problems... I can’t claim causation yet, but...

maw

[Hotchkess]

I figure I might add something to this thread regarding editing your inpa.ini file if you have a newer version of INPA (version 5.06). If you downloaded your INPA program through BimmerGeeks (at least from my experience), then in order to modify your inpa.ini file so that you can access the SMG clutch adaptation option, instead of going to "C:\EC-APPS\INPA\CFGDAT", you need to go to "C:\EC-APPS\INPA\PRT\ENGLISCH" and then click on the "E3PROTOK" file and edit this one.

I tried doing it the way that Irhase46m3 did it but to no avail it wasn't changing anything, so after doing some digging around the files I found out that you need to edit the E3PROTOK file for it to work. I might add I am using windows 10 as well.

Hopefully this helps if anyone was trying to access the clutch adaptation option before but had no luck.

[robgill]

Good feedback guys. I'm committed to the SMG and this is a recreational car for me so I'm just going to keep adjusting/replacing until it's completely sorted and reliable. Next steps:

• Run another INPA bleed with pump in original position.
• If issues continue, replace fluid with OE
• If issues continue, replace clutch slave
• If issues continue, replace pump...

[oceansize]

I emailed them a couple of weeks ago and this was their response. I have a rebuilt pump and did the relocation at the same time. I just did a fluid flush back to CHF11 with a slave cylinder replacement. Will see how it goes and hopefully no further error codes.

——

Hello Zivago,

thank you for your message.

In few cases we had same problems when customers relocated the unit and used our performance oil during cold weather.

Please use the genuine Pentosin oil. When the hydraulic unit is relocated the regular hydraulic oil.

Regards, Johannes

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
kind regards

Ihr Burkhart Engineering-Team

Thanks and that definitely lets me know that my rebuilt pump is working great lol.

[oceansize]

👍

Please see the bottom of this page for their relocation kit:

https://burkhart-engineering.com/en/...6-m3-inkl-csl/

Solves that. I'll be the experiment to see how long I go without issues.

[zivagolee]

This is why I think something isn't optimal since I rebuilt my pump at the time of my relocation. This is the first I've heard of Burkhart not recommending there fluid for relocations and yes I talked directly to them two years ago. Not saying things don't change but I will talk to them again this week and see what they tell me.

I emailed them a couple of weeks ago and this was their response. I have a rebuilt pump and did the relocation at the same time. I just did a fluid flush back to CHF11 with a slave cylinder replacement. Will see how it goes and hopefully no further error codes.

——

Hello Zivago,

thank you for your message.

In few cases we had same problems when customers relocated the unit and used our performance oil during cold weather.

Please use the genuine Pentosin oil. When the hydraulic unit is relocated the regular hydraulic oil.

Regards, Johannes

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
kind regards

Ihr Burkhart Engineering-Team