smg hydraulic pump e46 m3 free sample

Pentosin CHF 11S is a synthetic high performance hydraulic fluid for life-time application in modern vehicle aggregates. Pentosin CHF 11S is especially designed for hydraulics in the automotive industry with the highest technical requirements such as in: power steering, level control, shock absorber, hydro-pneumatic suspension, stability and traction control, hydraulics for convertible tops, central lock systems, etc.

Pentosin CHF 11S is a synthetic high performance hydraulic fluid for life-time application in modern vehicle aggregates. Pentosin CHF 11S is especially designed for hydraulics in the automotive industry with the highest technical requirements such as in: power steering, level control, shock absorber, hydro-pneumatic suspension, stability and traction control, hydraulics for convertible tops, central lock systems, etc.

Renew your worn or burn"t out SMG pump with our remanufactured units! Our remanufactured pumps are disassembled, thoroughly cleaned and reassembled with all new components.

Burkhart Engineering, based in southern Germany, is a BMW specialist renowned worldwide for its expertise with the E46 M3 SMG2 transmission system. Through countless repairs and a refreshing approach to the problems the SMG system can present, Burkhart has since developed a range of rebuild kits and upgrades to make SMG ownership a worry-free experience.

The Burkhart Engineering SMG Hydraulic Pump Repair Kit can not only repair your pump, but also improves it to be ready for high temperature track use, traffic jams and hot summer weather.

In most cases this is caused by a worn electric motor, which drives the hydraulic pump in the SMG unit. Further the gap leakage in the hydraulic system increase massively during high temperatures. If additionally many hydraulic consumers are working (clutch slave cylinder and gearbox actuator), the hydraulic unit no longer produces enough pressure – for this issue Burkhart Engineering High Performance Hydraulic Fluid offers a huge improvement.  The pump runs on pressure up to 25% fasterthan using the conventional Pentosin CHF 11s.

The old motor can be replaced by the new one as a plug and play swap. The replacement motor is equipped with the required pins and seals and can be directly installed with the original wiring loom. These are brand new spare parts in OEM quality –  the alternative to save you from buying a complete new SMG hydraulic unit.

This Repair Kit only works if the rest of the hydraulic unit is functional. The accumulator for example needs a defined preload pressure. Should this not be the case, the accumulator has to be replaced, too. In Burkhart Engineering’s SMG-Wiki you can find instructions about how to check the preload pressure in the accumulator.

The third generation of the M3 holds a special place in many BMW enthusiasts’ hearts. Widely considered to be the last raw M3 — the last true driver’s car in the series, the E46 M3 still gives much younger challengers a proper run for their money. That being said, as good as it was, it wasn’t perfect.

The car came with two transmission options — a 6-speed manual, and anSMG II gearbox. The latter turned out to be the cause of a serious issue that pulled many cars off the road. More specifically, the M3 E46 SMG pump issue is what caused all the ruckus, and today we’ll try to give you a brief rundown on what this issue means and how serious it is, or was.

Contrary to popular belief, the SMG II gearbox that BMW has installed in the E46 M3 isn’t an automatic gearbox, nor was it the first gearbox of its kind to be used ona BMW M3 car. Oh no, it was a fully manual setup with a clutch and everything, but no clutch pedal. Getrag and Sachs wanted to make something that is close to Getrag’s 6-speed manual in terms of build butwith a hint of Williams BMW F1 transmission mechanics.

Where most die-hard enthusiasts hit a divergence point with BMW as far as SMG transmission went, was the addition of the automatic mode. Despite this being a sequential box, this mode alone was enough for many to shun the SMG as inferior to the now legendary Getrag 6-speed manual.

Today, things are changing in favor of the SMG. However, some argue that such a change of heart was brought on by a severe lack of manual M3 E46s out there. That being said, there’s a reason why this is the case.

As it turns out, the manual gearbox elitists were correct to avoid the SMG II early on, but not because of their anti-anything-non-manual argument. No, they were right to avoid the sequential gearbox because it turned out to have a pretty serious Achilles’ heel.

If you own an M3 E46 with an SMG II gearbox, you’ve probably seen the dreaded cog wheel iconat least once during your time owning the car. On the odd chance that you’re among the lucky few who never had issues with their sequential transmissions, you either know someone who has had their car drop out of gear following the cog icon, or you’ve at least read one doom and gloom thread on your BMW enthusiasts forum of choice.

The sequential M gearbox is anything but simple. In essence, it’s ahydraulic-driven manual transmissionthat is packed full of extras and goodies such as an early version of a hill-assist, different shift programs, and more. To make all that happen, BMW had to use a fairly complex network of hydraulics, which were driven by the SMG hydraulic pump.

That pump is where most issues with this transmission start and end, at least the serious ones. Decades have passed since we first heard the horror stories of SMG II-equipped cars dropping out of gear while their owners were doing 70 MPH on the freeway, leaving them dead in the water with no real ability to limp the car to the nearest off-ramp.

Yet, despite so much time passing by, there are still conflicting reports of why these pumps, or more specifically the electric motors inside them, fail the way they do. The general consensus is that Bavarian engineers simply chose a bad spot to mount the pump, i.e. way too close to the engine block.

The heat from the engine would cut the lifetime of the electric motor short, causing it to grow weaker over time until it reaches a point where it can no longer deliver the necessary pressure to run the pump. Once the drop in pressure occurs, it usually renders the car unable to stay in gear. Most SMG pump issues of this nature manifest themselves well before the car has 100,000 miles on the odometer.

Another potential culprit that many feel affects the SMG II is the overly optimistic transmission fluid flush cycle. Many owners swear by doing a transmission fluid flush every 20,000 miles, using quality MTF-LT-2 fluids, thus keeping the fluid in a pretty good condition at all times.

So many SMG pumps were replaced within the first 10 years of the M3 E46 production that many owners contemplated a class action lawsuit against the German manufacturer.

The answer is that it depends. Back in the day, it was pretty much an unwritten rule to have a few grand stashed away somewhere just in case the hydraulic SMG pump decides to head for Valhalla.

BMW was pretty adamant about replacing the entire unit instead of just the electric motor inside the pump. Since there weren’t really any other options available, people did what they had to do, begrudgingly.

Now that we as a community have some hands-on experience with these pumps, their motors, and the SMG II as a whole, people have recognized that once you replace the motor, you should also replace the relay which tells the motor when to come online and when to turn off.

Faulty relays are right behind the SMG pump issue in terms of things that will leave you stranded on the side of the road. So much so that people often replace these relays as means of preemptive maintenance.

This is where things turn a little sour for most people. While the electric motor failure accounts for the majority of SMG pump issues, there are still the other 15-20% of cases where the motor could be fine. Well, you’re probably thinking, we can simply diagnose those other things and replace them as need be, right?

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. A failed pump results in a drop in oil pressure within the system, which triggers the SMG-specific codes. The trouble is that a failed solenoid or a relay will do the same. Many people have found themselves replacing the electric motor only to find out that it’s the solenoid that has triggered the code in the first place.

Like with most things in life, the answer to this question isn’t so simple. On one hand, the issues related to the SMG II gearboxes have made them somewhat notorious in the community. On the other hand, a byproduct of such a bad rap is a decent availability of fairly healthy cars that haven’t been ragged on all that much. You could find yourself an M3 with a decent amount of miles and a relatively fresh engine.

At the end of the day,it all comes down to your personal preference. That being said, if you’re in the market for an E46 M3 and you run into a well-maintained, clean car that just so happens to feature the sequential M gearbox, you might want to jump on it.

In most cases, the reason for this is the worn electric motor that drives the hydraulic pump in the hydraulic unit. In addition, the gap losses in the hydraulic system increase enormously at high temperatures .

The worn out original motor is exchanged for Burkhart Engineering"s "Plug & Play" replacement motor. The new motor is equipped with the required pins and seals and can be pinned directly into the original BMW wiring harness. This motor is OEM quality and help you to aviod the alternative of having to buy a new hydraulic unit worth thousands. The Burkhart Engineering SMG unlocking tool greatly simplifies the replacement of the electric motor of the SMG II hydraulic unit and allows pins can be pushed out to the rear without damaging the connector or pins.

Further to this, the hydraulic unit may no longer be able to keep up with the pressure build-up. Burkhart Engineering have developed their own high performance hydraulic oil which will keep the pressure built up and react as much as 25% faster than with normal Pentosin CHF 11s.

Do not operate the motor outside the hydraulic unit. Furthermore, the engine should not be dismantled again after it has been installed. The tight fit of the motor can damage it when it is removed.

The repair kit can only achieve the desired improvement in an otherwise fully functional unit. If, for example, the piston accumulator has a defect or no longer has the required preload pressure, this must also be replaced. The "salmon" SMG relay (BMW part number 12631742690) is also highly recommended to be replaced.

In most cases the reason for this is because of worn electric motor, which drives the hydraulic pump in the hydraulic unit. In addition, the gap losses in the hydraulic system increase enormously at high temperatures. If many hydraulic consumers are now active (clutch slave cylinder and transmission actuator), the hydraulic unit can no longer keep up with the pressure build-up. We have ours for that Burkhart Engineering High performance hydraulic oil developed. The required system pressure we up to 25% faster built up than is the case with the normal pentosine CHF 11s.

The worn original engine can "Plug & Play" exchanged for our repair engine. The replacement engine is equipped with the required pins and seals and can be pinned directly into the original BMW wiring harness. It is a replacement part OEM quality. The alternative to avoid having to buy a new hydraulic unit.

I"m assuming your SMG system was in good health at the time of relocation. Relocating your pump won"t fix any existing problems you may have. If your pump is dropping out of gear before relocation there is a good chance it will after relocation. If you also did a pump rebuild the potential number of places where an issue can arise increases. Mainly because you didn"t reassemble the pump correctly, your new seals/o-rings have failed/slipped, you over/under tightened the bolts holding the pump together introducing gear bind (5nm), or one of your new sensors isn"t working (my new oil pressure sensor was defective out of the box, read -1 pressure in INPA).

You will likely have a buzzing noise (loud to really loud) emanating from the engine bay. This is air passing through the hydraulic lines. The buzzing in my case was even present during the clutch slave cylinder bleed process (oddly enough not during the actuator bleed). You can grab the yellow hydraulic line and feel the vibrations easily (you won"t have to wonder if these are the vibrations I"m referencing here should this occur to you as they are very apparent).

FYI: There should be pump motor and mechanical noises during the bleed process otherwise the process should be fairly quiet, i.e no buzzing, whistling, or excessive vibrations in the lines.

If the pump"s accumulator is vertical then orientate the pump so that the accumulator is horizontal with the pump"s red snap ring (where the CSL reservoir connects) pointing upwards. Disconnect the reservoir hose from the pump. When I disconnected the hose I saw three large air bubbles exit from the pump within a few seconds. At that point I had the bled the system approximately 10 times. Reconnect the CSL hose and bleed again. After successfully bleeding you can orientate the accumulator back to the vertical position.

In my case air was entering where the CSL hose connects but it was fully seated. There are two o-rings just below the red snap ring (called a collet) inside the housing on the pump. You can"t readily see these but if you take a flashlight and peer down the hole one is green and the other brown/black. The o-rings were not properly sealing, I guess due to age/use, and when pressurizing air was being sucked in and once pressure was built there was a very slight weeping around the red snap ring. Fortunately I had another plastic housing piece with the collet and o-rings so I replaced the one on the pump with this and my problem was resolved. I"m going to see if I can find the o-rings that reside inside the housing so that they can be replaced. You might ask why did your o-rings go bad during the relocation? I broke my original pump"s black plastic housing (that contains the collet and o-rings) on disassembly thus I was using an unknown piece from a second pump I bought. Way it goes sometimes.

Air is in your system (see above fixes) or your clutch slave cylinder has gone bad. You can see my pump pressure rising and falling in thisvideo. You might ask why did your clutch slave cylinder fail? My guess is that air in the lines caused a problem or just a coincidence. Crap happens.

Check your extended SMG wiring harness continuity. I received a defective wiring harness but fortunately I was able to fix myself. In my case the ground wire wasn"t seated in the harness housing properly.

The Schwaben and Foxwell tools are good but I found INPA (with the full suite of SMG utilities) to be infinitely more useful as you can watch hydraulic pressure and temperature live (plus many other SMG and gearbox related items). INPA is very quick and easy to navigate as well. DIS is good but isn"t required if you have the full suite of SMG utilities in INPA. INPA can do the accumulator test with the full suite. If you can"t find a version of INPA with the full suite then get DIS mainly for the accumulator test but Schwaben offers this test as well.

As cars get more technologically complex, the only option for manufacturers is to take the driver out of the equation, making for a driving experience that’s getting more numb by the second. That’s why cars like this thankfully autonomous-tech free masterpiece E46 BMW M3 are becoming the go-to car for enthusiast collectors and drivers alike. Here’s how you can own one for used Honda Civic money.

The 2001-2006 BMW M3 is one of the best driver’s cars ever made. That is a declaration made not only by me, but by countless commenters, journalists, and automotive wannabes.

The flappy paddle SMG transmission option on the BMW M3 was the needy oops-baby of the platform for a few arguably good reasons. Unlike the phenomenal DCT or DSG double-clutch gearboxes used in performance cars of late, the SMG was a single clutch setup that took away the third pedal and replaced it with computers.

As if BMW simply wanted to spit in the faces of their collective owners, they inadvertently made the SMG the most failure-prone component on the M3—and on a German car made in the early aught, that’s saying a hell of a lot. The hydraulic and electric SMG pump that regulated the gear changes was prone to leaking and outright seizure over time, making the car completely undrivable when this one expensive component went on the fritz, as it often did.

What these combined issues did was make the SMG variant of the car less desirable to the real drivers in the crowd that would accept no less than gears they could row on their own.

Changing from the slop fest SMG to a rifle-action manual requires the purchase of parts, either from a dealer or from a reputable online used parts dealer. Unlike BMW’s E60 M5 and E92 M3, the E46’s SMG and manual options use the same gearbox, allowing for cheap conversion from one to the other - a process made simple less daunting by

While the required parts list can be quite extensive, the grand total for every part, new from the manufacturer, is only around $1200 - a bargain when you consider a good condition manual car will set you back four or five grand more than a comparable SMG model in today’s market.

First, you need to take out the SMG pump and transmission, which includes removing the exhaust, plastic underbody, and unbolting the driveshaft from its rubber coupling, called the guibo. Remove 11 bolts and yank it off the engine. On second thought, don’t yank.

You should end up with an SMG transmission that looks more machine than man. Now’s the point where you give it a heart, or brain, or any other arbitrary trait that makes a human a human.

A shop shouldn’t charge you more than a few hundred bucks at the most for this service, and when it’s done, the car will be, for all intents and purposes, a stock BMW M3 with a manual transmission.

You’ll now be able to sell it for more money, you’ll have peace of mind that there will be no more costly SMG pump rebuilds, and your left foot will finally have something to do other than develop an annoying itch.