New car niggles

[Jess_Touring]

Hello. I have just purchased a 1993 316 LUX Touring and have a couple of issues/things I'm not sure of. Hopefully you lovely people might be able to help.

The previous owner told me that recently he found the clutch pedal went straight to the floor and wouldn't return. He replaced the clutch slave cylinder which apparently resolved the problem. However, I found this afternoon that if I pumped the clutch, the biting point got closer and closer to the floor, causing it to nearly stall when I pulled away. As soon as I drove a bit, it returned to normal until I had to balance the clutch again. I'm assuming this is a 'normal' clutch fluid leak problem but thought you guys might know of common places to look.

Also, there's an 'INSPECTION' light on on the dash along with a clock and 4 green lights beneath it. Do I need to do something about this?

Lastly, the odometer says it's only done 27,000 which is obviously unlikely, although the interior condition is excellent for a car you would assume might have covered 127,000+ miles, so I'm not sure! Any idea how I might track the history? MOT's going back to 2003 show the mileage as 4447.

Thanks

[dot]

Sounds like slave is leaking still! What is balancing the clutch?

[Brianmoooore]

If you read any thread on here about replacing a clutch cylinder, it will advise you to replace both slave and master at the same time, for precisely the reasons you have just discovered. Sadly, it doesn't look like the previous owner was familiar with the zone.
You need to replace the master cylinder, and hope that the new slave hasn't been damaged.
There should be another symbol lit beside the 'inspection' light. Probably a clock symbol in your case, since you have four green lights lit. This is a simple twelve month alarm clock, to indicate it's time for an annual inspection and time for or half way to a brake and clutch fluid and a coolant change. Look up 'inspection light' in the zone wiki to see how to reset it. If it was done by a BMW dealer, and you can identify that dealer, you might just be able to get some info. from them.
27,000 miles, 127,000 miles or even 227,000 miles; if an E30s been looked after, then there's no way you can tell the mileage from the interior or anything else. These things were engineered to last!

[Speedtouch]

It's a possibility that the problem may be cured by bleeding the clutch (at the slave cylinder); the previous owner may not have bothered after fitting a new one, and the residual air in the system is causing the issue.

However, I had the same problem with a 320iSE I bought, and a week or so after buying it, I had to replace the master cylinder.

[Jess_Touring]

Thanks guys.

I found the wiki shortly after making this post and saw the piece on the master and slave cylinders. I'll bleed the new slave and order a new master as well.

Emailed BMW to see if they can give me any history, i.e. the dealer and whether it was serviced by them in its warranty.