E30 Zone

When the car is started on Idle, in Neutrol, with the clutch released there is a rattle from around the gearbox area. It just sits there making this god awful hollow rattle.

When you depress the clutch the rattle dissappeares immediately.

Is this a rattle from the Input shaft? I had the same sort of problem on my M30 530ise a while back but never diagonsed it.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Cheers, Jim

Most probably will be the input shaft and a common thing on these old BMW's.
I wouldn't worry about it it'll go on forever like that.

Cheers mate, I'm sure I heard someone say that about my 530i when I had it and it went from 200k up to 270k like it. Its just damn annoying when I stop having this rattle going on. IS there anything I can do about it, short of taking off the gearbox and having it reconned?

binxy69 wrote:Cheers mate, I'm sure I heard someone say that about my 530i when I had it and it went from 200k up to 270k like it. Its just damn annoying when I stop having this rattle going on. IS there anything I can do about it, short of taking off the gearbox and having it reconned?

If it is that mate then the simple answer is no!
Turn the stereo up no one will notice it then

This is the point where I claim that I'm not some boy racer bum and likes to be able to hear the subtle whispers of a nicely running M20. But hey its a 20yr old rocket ship and it cost me £500, but seems to leave everything else standing for some reason.

Ah well. I suppose it'll have to wait until an m70 conversion seems viable

Mine does it too, Has done since I have had it.

SPADGE wrote: Turn the stereo up

Exactly my fix

To solve any thing your gonna have to remove the gear box, could be release bearing, spigot bearing, input shaft etc etc - Fit all new parts on the rebuild.

It was described to me as "Gearbox Chatter" I like this term as it sounds personal so I dont mind it

lol. cool

I will bet my house on it being the layshaft. All e30s have it. Just forget about it.

but it rattles

Nelly wrote:To solve any thing your gonna have to remove the gear box, could be release bearing, spigot bearing, input shaft etc etc - Fit all new parts on the rebuild.

My Dad had a brand new gearbox from BMW, still had the chatter.

I agree with Dan, got to be layshaft bearing!

Mine does it and my car has only done 45000 mile, 13k with me and the rest by a pensioner!

On mine you can mainly hear it when starting or switching off the engine without depressing the clutch so i just hold the clutch down when doing this. Other than this the gearbox is tight.

there is another post on this.

Does it do it on start up?

does it do it when engine is warm after having been running for 10 mins?

if the answer to both the above questions is no then its an oil thinning issue.

one with layshaft problems will do it after 10 mins where as wrong oil takes 30-40 mins or so to thin

It depends what oil you currently have in there.

Manual boxes on beemers used to all use 75/90 oil, but changed to ATF (v.thin) at some point around the launch of the E36.

It was considered acceptable to retro-fill any manual box with ATF, as it helped to prevent "baulking" when cold. It greatly improves cold gearchanges, but at the expense of gear noise/chatter.

there are different thickness of ATF. as i specify in my other post dexronIII atf made by amsoil is what you need. ATF reduces chatter. BMW Service used it on chattering boxes to stop chatter. ATF thins less with heat.

My box oil was changed to ATF for the reason Heyho mentioned. Can't remember what type was used though.