Timm's BMW E31
THROTTLE PEDAL REPLACEMENT
They say that you can tell a cars mileage by the wear on the pedals, well, the 140,000 miles on my car
isn't reflected in the condition of these two:
The pedal itself has a central clip that is used to pull the unit down onto the blade, as this is pushed
upwards it enters the central aperture and lowers the pedal into position and helps lock it in place:
I though that was the entire locking system and then struggled to lift the pedal from the blade until it became clear that there was
two other clips - and they have to be pretty mangled for removal
:
And then use a thin screwdriver to lever it downwards until it is flat on the carpet, that's the central one released. Now use
a fat screwdriver to push the carpet downwards to get access to the two other clips between the pairs of slots:
So, with a bit of fiddling, rotate the pedal around the linkage until it slides off:
Slide the new pedal onto the linkage:
And push the bottom of the pedal firmly over the blade:
By the condition of the pedals below, my car has been zero miles rather than 140k!
Time for a cup of tea!
The brake pedal rubber is easy enough to change, just peel the old one off and then struggle to twist the thick rubber over the flat plate, a
bit frustrating but easy enough. Part number is 35211160421, around £4.
A quick look at Repair Manual No 6 implied that replacing the throttle pedal (35411154936, around £20) was a five-minute job. Well, it
seemed easy, and it probably is if you know the trick to it, but I struggled for around 30 minutes until I worked out how it was held in place.
Right, here goes then.
The most important point is that the pedal is held in place at the lower fixing by THREE clips on the pedal, only one of which is immediately
obvious. The fixing point on the car is a metal blade with three apertures:
The main catch can be shown above, it is shown in the un-locked position, below the mangled remains show the
catch close to the fully locked position where it grabs the metal blade:
Above you can see there are (apart from the central catch) four slots, and between each pair of slots is a plastic tang. Behind both tangs is
a shaped catch holds the pedal to the blade - you can pull as much as you like. those two catches hold onto the blade as if they were made
of steel - and only a complete mangling of the plastic between each pair of slots will remove the pedal - here's how it's done.
First, get a feel of where the central clasp is:
It is just a case of using a small screwdriver to remove the plastic between the slots (by removal I really mean butchering) - once those
are mangled use the same screwdriver to poke the central catch through the central aperture in the blade to fully release it - and then lift
the pedal away from the blade:
It would be reasonably easy to do this as long as you are aware it needs to be done, if you don't (like me) it takes a little while
longer. Where the pedal connects to the linkage above, it is held in place with a protrusion on the shaft - and that needs to be
aligned with the slot in the pedal:
Finally, lift the central catch upwards until it clicks against the back of the pedal:
