Hi,
I've got a '97 z3 2.8l with 120k miles, and it's great. I changed the gearbox oil a while ago and it made it a hell of a lot smoother.
Now then, my girlfriend's just bought a '95 VW corrado 2.9l vr6 storm with 115k miles, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Apparently they only made 500 storms! Dark green (almost black) with full cream leather. Very quick and the sound of that vr6 is pure sex. “Too fast for a girl”, I tell her ha ha! I say she can get away with it though coz it's only a pussy FWD so it's not a proper sports car. This causes lots of the “you drive a hairdresser’s car” comments, to which I reply “yeah but you can only do doughnuts in reverse”, etc etc. All good fun.
Anyway, I had a go in it last night and the gearbox is SO light, ridiculously light. Like if you just sneeze in the general direction of the gearstick it’ll slip into first. Fart hard and you’re into second. Anyway, yeah, ridiculously smooth. When I say I couldn’t believe it, I mean it literally.
Now before my Z I’ve only had Peugeots, and they have some of the worst gearboxes on the planet. I heard they make their synchros out of camembert, and use garlic bulbs for the bearings. Because of this I don’t have much to compare with mine. I do get to drive a lot of different cars through my job, but they’re all brand new or nearly new, so that doesn’t count. Basically what it comes down to is the only comparison I have for my gearbox is my gf’s new corrado.
When driving my Z the gearbox isn’t a problem, but comparing it to that corrado it’s absolutely awful. Mine will sometimes not go into first very easy, so I just come off the clutch in neutral to spin the box up, then clutch down again and it goes straight in. There’s always a bit of resistance though, I can feel the synchros making contact before it’ll actually slip into gear. It does this between every gear, and it’s especially noticeable going third to fourth. In that corrado you can’t feel a thing, every gear change you can use your baby finger. Even slipping into first gear while you’re moving at speed, say about 15-20mph, it still just slides straight in. I’d have to whack mine in pretty hard if I wanted to go into first while I was moving at that kinda speed, and to be honest it’s something I avoid doing.
So then, what are your gearboxes like? Can you feel a slight resistance between each gear as the synchros make contact? Does it ever not want to go into first gear?
People with cars that are less than, say, 6 or 7 years old need not reply. Also, people with less than about 60-70k miles, you don’t really count either. It’s the older, higher mileage cars I’m interested in.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with my gearbox, I just wonder how it compares to other BMW’s of similar age/mileage, seeing as though that corrado’s box is in another league completely.
Cheers for reading,
Leon
I've got a '97 z3 2.8l with 120k miles, and it's great. I changed the gearbox oil a while ago and it made it a hell of a lot smoother.
Now then, my girlfriend's just bought a '95 VW corrado 2.9l vr6 storm with 115k miles, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Apparently they only made 500 storms! Dark green (almost black) with full cream leather. Very quick and the sound of that vr6 is pure sex. “Too fast for a girl”, I tell her ha ha! I say she can get away with it though coz it's only a pussy FWD so it's not a proper sports car. This causes lots of the “you drive a hairdresser’s car” comments, to which I reply “yeah but you can only do doughnuts in reverse”, etc etc. All good fun.
Anyway, I had a go in it last night and the gearbox is SO light, ridiculously light. Like if you just sneeze in the general direction of the gearstick it’ll slip into first. Fart hard and you’re into second. Anyway, yeah, ridiculously smooth. When I say I couldn’t believe it, I mean it literally.
Now before my Z I’ve only had Peugeots, and they have some of the worst gearboxes on the planet. I heard they make their synchros out of camembert, and use garlic bulbs for the bearings. Because of this I don’t have much to compare with mine. I do get to drive a lot of different cars through my job, but they’re all brand new or nearly new, so that doesn’t count. Basically what it comes down to is the only comparison I have for my gearbox is my gf’s new corrado.
When driving my Z the gearbox isn’t a problem, but comparing it to that corrado it’s absolutely awful. Mine will sometimes not go into first very easy, so I just come off the clutch in neutral to spin the box up, then clutch down again and it goes straight in. There’s always a bit of resistance though, I can feel the synchros making contact before it’ll actually slip into gear. It does this between every gear, and it’s especially noticeable going third to fourth. In that corrado you can’t feel a thing, every gear change you can use your baby finger. Even slipping into first gear while you’re moving at speed, say about 15-20mph, it still just slides straight in. I’d have to whack mine in pretty hard if I wanted to go into first while I was moving at that kinda speed, and to be honest it’s something I avoid doing.
So then, what are your gearboxes like? Can you feel a slight resistance between each gear as the synchros make contact? Does it ever not want to go into first gear?
People with cars that are less than, say, 6 or 7 years old need not reply. Also, people with less than about 60-70k miles, you don’t really count either. It’s the older, higher mileage cars I’m interested in.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with my gearbox, I just wonder how it compares to other BMW’s of similar age/mileage, seeing as though that corrado’s box is in another league completely.
Cheers for reading,
Leon