N55 Spec Stage 2+ / MFactory SMFW install

[i_love_cars]

9/23/2015 UPDATE :
MFactory has confirmed that they have remedied the discrepancy in manufacturing that I have illustrated in all the information below. So to anyone looking to outfit their N55 with an MFactory flywheel to go along with your Spec clutch or any other brand, it sounds like there is no longer any issue. Specifically, no more modification of flywheel should be necessary.

That said, again I would highly recommend this flywheel.

END OF 9/23/2015 UPDATE

Original post preserved below for posterity:

Yesterday I finished installing my steel SMFW from MFactory and a Spec Stage 2+ that I picked up from TGS.

There are some important things that N55 guys need to know because MFactory flywheel offerings are designed for N54, not N55. They technically work, however, you need to both modify the clutch alignment tool that you get with Spec clutch kits, and if you get a SMFW like I did from MFactory, be prepared to hammer out the center shaft in the flywheel (n54 design) so you can put the pilot bearing into the new flywheel. When the N55 was released, BMW changed the transmission layout to flip-flop the position of the pilot bearing. In the N54 it was always in the input shaft, but on N55 it's in the flywheel itself.

I chronicled the install and have a bunch of photos and stuff explaining the N54/N55 differences and what had to be done to get it all to work. Nothing super complicated, but MFactory confirmed my concerns and said they would talk to their manufacturer about at least including some instruction piece that says for N55 you need to hammer out the center shaft and press in your pilot bearing.

Figured it couldn't hurt to document a bit of this here. There is limited N55 clutch install info online, most of it is around the N54. I studied up on the utterly awesome DIY video that HPF put out on doing an n54 135i clutch a few years back. There's nothing tricky but they just provide a great order of operations for removal of parts that speeds things along. It helps when you don't need to do much assessment while you're under the car to take stock of what bolts and pieces need to come off.

6/8/2015:



First thing I noticed was that getting the cowl off for the N55 to get back by the firewall for the top bellhousing bolt is easier than the N54. There are a couple of harnesses that have to be detached on the N54 and those harnesses are not in the way on the N55. Just popped the outer plastic covers, remove 2 bolts and plastic clips from the cabin filter, 6 bolts for the cowl underneath and you're done.

Second thing is on the N54 you need to unclip/label the o2 sensors as they are mounted to the transmission housing. This is not so on the N55. There are fewer things in the way on the N55 just in general from what I'm seeing.

So I got the exhaust/cross member, heatshields, drive shaft, and cowls hiding the firewall out of the way:



Took about 1.5 hours on the floor but with air tools, and by the time I got to the guibo bolts for the driveshaft it was too late to use the air gun as my daughter sleeps in the room above the garage, so I spent 15 minutes getting those out with hand tools. So it woulda been faster if I could grabbed an air gun. Oh well. My point is, I love working on a car that hasn't been molested by Wisconsin winters. Everything came off very easily.

Tonight I just need to remove the shift linkage and unmount the slave cylinder and then the transmission can be dropped out. A friend graciously let me borrow his E18 socket last night which apparently is needed for the bell housing bolts. Hopefully I'll have the trans, clutch, flywheel, pilot bearing, and rear main seal out tonight. More updates to come. There may be comical photos of me trying to get the trans housing out given that I don't have a lift (yet....)

6/9/2015 Update:

So I was completely on target tonight until......the transmission is currently only held on by 4 remaining bell housing bolts. I had to put the jack under it for support and call it an early night. Why? Well, TJ is awesome and loaned me that E18 socket but it's too fat. The heads of the bell housing bolts are too fucking close to the housing itself so I don't have enough clearance to get the socket over the head. God dammit.

I will be stopping at Northern Tool tomorrow morning, and failing that, Harbor Freight down the road in Dirty Stallis. As long as I can get a thinner profile E18 socket I'll have the trans dropped momentarily after work tomorrow and am expecting everything to be back together and on the road again sometime on Thursday.

6/10/2015 Update:

The E18 I got from Harbor Freight worked and was able to lower the transmission. Not quite enough clearance to get it out from the car so I just shoved it off to the side. Still have plenty of room for the new throwout. Currently taking a break with the clutch now off, the flywheel bolts are being a pita. Going at them with a 20" breaker bar and they aren't budging. I don't have a good way to lock the crank in place from the back so I was trying to use my hand to stabilize the flywheel. I'm currently waiting for my air compressor to fill up so I can just get them with the impact driver. Usually it's just faster to use my breaker bar rather than waiting on the compressor but for FW bolts it seems like air is probably the best answer.









6/11/2015 Update:

So there is a minor problem. I am waiting on a call back from MFactory to explain to them that their SMFW for supposedly "09+" 135/335 does NOT work on the N55 without modification. I have deduced this after looking at Suspenceful's thread for the pics of his transmission and OEM clutch on his older N54, and talking with someone I know on N54tech who has a 2011 135i like me and installed the same parts I am - he actually had to modify his flywheel from MFactory to get it to work.

So, here is a picture of the flywheel that MFactory sent me next to my stock N55 flywheel. Notice that the MFactory flywheel has a shaft sticking out of it, compared to the N55 flywheel which has the pilot bearing in it:




Here is what my N55 input shaft looks like (notice the small shaft - this is something BMW flip-flopped when they went from the N54 to the N55 design):




Now, compare to an N54 stock flywheel and transmission:





MFactory sells 2 different part numbers of SMFW for the 135i/335i, the first one is for 06-08 because that era of the N54 used an 8-bolt pattern for the flywheel. In 2009, BMW changed this to a 6 bolt pattern, which prompted MFactory to update their design and add a new part number for "09+" which has the 6 bolt pattern.

This bolt pattern is the same as the N55, but remember N55 came along in 2011, and BMW changed the design of both the flywheel and the transmission because they basically reversed the pilot bearing and the input shaft.

Look at this DIY video on installing a pilot bearing on an N54 and you will see it goes in the shaft, as opposed to in the N55 where it sits in the actual flywheel itself (as you can see in my photos above):

So, the guy I talked to on N54 tech who has a 2011 135i like me, he actually had to hammer out the shaft that came attached to the flywheel from MFactory, in order to be able to insert his new pilot bearing and connect the trans back into the flywheel. So I'm going to end up having to do the same thing, and pray I don't warp the material.

EDIT: I talked to MFactory and confirmed the inconsistency. They are going to go back to the manufacturer and probably at the very least include some sort of documentation with the product saying that if you have a 2011+ model year, then you'll have to punch out the included shaft that's attached to their FW.

So I definitely busted a pilot bearing getting it into the flywheel. I was in an impatient mood given the day's events so far. LUckily my Spec clutch kit came with a pilot bearing so I had a spare to use and got that one in no problem.

The flywheel mounted fine, clutch is all torqued down now, but I had to do a makeshift alignment job because the clutch alignment tool that Spec gives you is for the N54 i.e. there is a hole in the end of the alignment tool for the input shaft stub to go into (from the flywheel). Obviously because the pilot bearing is in the flywheel on the N55 I couldn't do that. I contemplated cutting off the shaft stub from the piece I hammered out of the MFactory flywheel, but I thought it'd be easier if I just measured the diameter of the hole and got a deep socket to match. So that's what i did and just fed the socket into the pilot bearing to balance the alignment tool as I lined up the clutch disc.

All 3 slots on the edge of the flywheel where you can see the clutch disc mating to the clutch look and feel flush, it looks good in the center, and the alignment tool is freely moving in and out with the socket to the pilot bearing. So I'm feeling pretty good about lining up the transmission tomorrow morning.




6/12/2015 Update:

The car is put back together and I took it for a 10 mile test drive. Pedal travel is same as it was for stock, feels a bit more solid, but not tougher to push really, just...solid. I really like the feel. Obviously I'm babying the hell out of it right now but everything seems to be as expected.

Gear rattle is a bitch but I really don't care. I bought my car for performance, not to say "Hi I'm a faggoteer who spends a lot of money and drives a bmw, luxury this, luxury that where's my grey poupon" type bullshit.

[PeteA]

This sort of thing is very valuable to the community. Thank you.

[MFactory]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention the other day. Yes, we will include a note with the current batch of the flywheels to inform N55 owners of this.

For subsequent batches, we may just keep the alignment pin separate, and the customer can press it in if required.

[lowbudgethero]

Why do these cars have a lot of gear rattle with smfw, is it the low idle? On my saab I have a 7.5lb flywheel and solid mounts and don't even notice any rattle in neutral.

[i_love_cars]

Originally Posted by lowbudgethero

Why do these cars have a lot of gear rattle with smfw, is it the low idle? On my saab I have a 7.5lb flywheel and solid mounts and don't even notice any rattle in neutral.

the amount of gear rattle for any given car running a SMFW will have several variables from the way the pistons fire and send vibrations through the drivetrain to how much built-in gap/play the manufacturer put in the gears. All gear sets have a certain amount of play built in to them for obvious reasons (gears can't be fully mated to each other for friction reasons).

I do know of some people who have tuned their cars for higher idle to accommodate because at 800-900 rpm, there is no gear rattle. At 670-ish where the n55 idles, there is. As soon as the clutch is depressed or you are at least 800 rpm, it goes away.

[lowbudgethero]

got it, I think I should have went with smfw if for nothing else but to not have to pay an arm and an leg for a dual mass unit

[loesch]

This is great information. Thank you for taking the time, even when frustrated, to write this up.

[ghtyr]

Hey guys, sorry if this is reviving an old thread! I just upgraded the clutch and flywheel on my N55 and got the spec 2+ and spec steel SMFW. When I pulled the flywheel out of the box it did not have the input shaft on it like the N54 design, and it came with a pilot bearing ready to be punched in.

Just wanted to make sure people knew and weren't being scared away from the install due to the input shaft issue outlined in this thread!

Sorry I can't find my pictures

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Edit-

Thanks for the review, feedback and write ups guys.

For clarification, this is no longer an issue with Mfactory flywheels or Spec Flywheels as confirmed by a customer recently.

[MFactory]

There is no discrepancy any longer, as all 2011+ flywheels no longer have the alignment pin pre-installed (we include it in a separate bag with the flywheel, just incase the owner decides to sell the flywheel to a 2009-2011 owner. You can't do this with the SPEC). This was confirmed back in June, as shown in the post above, and hence why no one has posted in this thread since June.

No discrepancy, no confusion, no one being scared. Plus this is a thread reviewing the MFactory Flywheel, not the SPEC flywheel

[ghtyr]

Looks a lot like a write up on an install to me There is also the issue of the OP stating "all of these aftermarket clutch/flywheel offerings are designed for N54, not N55". I think its good to clear these things up, and I'm very glad that vendors have chimed in to let us know that this issue has been resolved. I wish someone would have responded sooner, it would have made my research and decision much easier.

As someone who recently purchased a n55, and have not been around the forums long, my google search lead me here, and definitely delayed my purchase as I did not want to deal with these issues. This is also a frequently referenced post for people looking for a good install guide for DIY.

[lazer]

Why you need to change the flywheel? I plan to buy spec 2+ or stage 3 but i dont know if i keep oem flywheel

[MFactory]

I have no problem with your post, and welcome it

Originally Posted by ghtyr

Looks a lot like a write up on an install to me There is also the issue of the OP stating "all of these aftermarket clutch/flywheel offerings are designed for N54, not N55". I think its good to clear these things up, and I'm very glad that vendors have chimed in to let us know that this issue has been resolved. I wish someone would have responded sooner, it would have made my research and decision much easier.

As someone who recently purchased a n55, and have not been around the forums long, my google search lead me here, and definitely delayed my purchase as I did not want to deal with these issues. This is also a frequently referenced post for people looking for a good install guide for DIY.

[i_love_cars]

Originally Posted by lazer

Why you need to change the flywheel? I plan to buy spec 2+ or stage 3 but i dont know if i keep oem flywheel

I only changed my flywheel to the single mass because I plan to upgrade to Pure Stage 2 turbo which will require a strong single-mass flywheel. At 500+ wtq, the OEM flywheel will vibrate out and throw the car into limp mode.

Originally Posted by MFactory

I have no problem with your post, and welcome it.

However, for another vendor to post up about an "issue" that is no longer an issue and was resolved/updated in this thread itself, shows they did not read the thread and only had one intention.

Do you feel that my original post is worth updating? If none of the information I posted is relevant anymore because your manufacturing has been updated to provide a ready-to-go solution out of the box, then I can ax most of the content in my original post.

I don't want people coming to my post and getting confused because it's a personal pet peeve of mine to surf forums for info (as i often do) and find out-dated stuff that could be misleading.

Please advise if you have an adjustment that is appropriate.

[MFactory]

You don't need to delete any details, but you could update/add a note to the original post

[i_love_cars]

I have updated the original post accordingly.

[One4Fun]

Heads up to anyone ordering a Mfactory SMFW for the N55. I just received mine and it does have the shaft pressed in. Be prepared to press it out if you order one. They only have 2 part numbers: MF-TRS-09E92(8 bolt) and MF-TRS-09E92A(6 bolt) for the 135i and 335i.

MF-TRS-09E92 for 2006-2008 135i and 335i

MF-TRS-09E92A for 2009+ 135i and 335i

They don't have a part number to fix the problem mentioned in this thread.

I ordered the MF-TRS-09E92A for my 2011 135i based on the confirmation from MFactory that the issue has been resolved and it showed up with the shaft pressed in. I was very careful to select the correct one for my car.

Not a huge deal but I figured I'd let people know so that they can plan around it. I have to go chase down a press before i can finish my clutch job.

[houtan]

Originally Posted by One4Fun

Heads up to anyone ordering a Mfactory SMFW for the N55. I just received mine and it does have the shaft pressed in. Be prepared to press it out if you order one. They only have 2 part numbers: MF-TRS-09E92(8 bolt) and MF-TRS-09E92A(6 bolt) for the 135i and 335i.

MF-TRS-09E92 for 2006-2008 135i and 335i

MF-TRS-09E92A for 2009+ 135i and 335i

They don't have a part number to fix the problem mentioned in this thread.

I ordered the MF-TRS-09E92A for my 2011 135i based on the confirmation from MFactory that the issue has been resolved and it showed up with the shaft pressed in. I was very careful to select the correct one for my car.

Not a huge deal but I figured I'd let people know so that they can plan around it. I have to go chase down a press before i can finish my clutch job.

Why don’t you contact m Factory? They even say earlier in the thread that the shaft should come in a bag.

[One4Fun]

I did contact MFactory


The response I got was:

"Please accept my apologies. For the 6-bolt flywheels, these should have been supplied with the pin in a separate bag, and not already pressed in.

Thanks."

An apology is great and all but it doesn't really fix the problem.

I'm still working on finding a press that this flywheel will fit in so I can continue my install. I'm not about to go pound on the thing to get it out and risk damaging the flywheel.

I'll deal with it and find a solution. I'm just letting the community know that the issue still exists and to be prepared for the situation. Do with the information what you will.

[houtan]

Agree, that sucks and thanks for sharing. They wouldn’t send you a replacement?

[Six Pot]

I really wish they would include the proper clutch alignment tool. We just did my 1M with a SPEC twin disk. Had to hammer out the center on the flywheel which was no big deal but couldn't get the alignment tool to work no matter how much we hacked it up

[lazer]

Sorry to bumb this thread but my 2nd synchro has gone. I cant find an n55 transmission 6speeds manual and n54 one are cheap.

So do you think if i remove the input shaft in my mfactory flywheel i can install an n54 tranny with his driveshaft from an 135i its all i need?