DIY - Accelerator pedal click noise damping

[Texan Engineer]

First I'd like to apologize for the vagueness of the title. The purpose of this DIY is to show you guys how to dampen the clicky noise BMW gas pedals/accelerator pedals make when you're stepping on the gas and then suddenly let off all the way so that it slaps the backstop. Chances are your car does this - whether it bothers you will depend on whether you drive with music on often/all the time, whether you're able to hear it in the first place, and probably most importantly how OCD you are.

Trivial fix, and it's not complicated but I thought I'd share how I fixed mine.

Disclaimer: I do not endorse, nor recommend doing anything stated below. Working on your car is 100% your responsibility - so don't blame me if you bugger up your car. Proceed at your own risk.

Tools needed:
- T30 torx screwdriver
- thin flat-head screwdriver
- pry tools
- foam tape
- flashlight (handy)

1. Go ahead and scoot the driver seat back to give yourself room. Peel back the floormat and pry off the black little cap at the base of the gas pedal. You can either use your fingers or a thin screwdriver - either one will work just fine, as it's not really secured on other than by gravity.



2. Unscrew the screw using the the T30 torx screwdriver. In my case, I also used a ratchet w/ a T30 bit since it was too tight from the factory to loosen using the screwdriver.



3. Unhook the cable connecting the throttle sensor. It's a bit hard to see if you've never done it before, but it will make sense once it's out.



Here's a zoom-in of where exactly the cable hooks around.



4. Unplug the sensor. The plug has two tabs on the top and bottom, as shown below. It should come off pretty easy, so just wiggle it off using as little force as possible (something you should do at all times anyways).



5. Here's the tricky part. There are seven (7) tabs holding the right plate of the housing as circled below. You'll want to start with number 1 and work roughly in the order shown. Be very gentle and patient working the tabs loose. Use pry tools in lieu of screwdrivers to avoid leveraging too hard. Again, take your time on this step. I actually still broke one of the top tabs, so be gentle and don't use excessive force.



Work these two loose first (top most tabs).



Then the two on the bottom.



The top two are bit trickier due to the lack of access. You can kind of see that the left tab is missing, as I broke it in the process of opening the cover.



The front tab (#7) is a real pain, but if you look from the bottom of the pedal housing, you can actually see where the tab is and pry it up to unlock it from there (not shown, sorry).

6. Cut yourself some cushioning material and place it like shown. Be careful not to put too thick of a cushion, as this may affect your zero position. I just used some thin double-side foam tape, which I proceeded to un-double-side by touching the outside enough times til it lost its adhesion. It should go in the location I am pointing to in the pictures below.





Once the tape is in, work the pedal by hand, letting it slap up so the tape is fully seated. You can use a screwdriver as well to seat the tape.

7. Reassembly is just the reverse, taking care to easy all the clips together.

8. Turn on the car, make sure it idles ok. For my N52 powered 128i, that's right around 600rpm. YMMV. Also check that the throttle works like it should.

That's it - like I said, just a simple fix for a problem for the OCD. Let me know if I missed anything.

So far (15 miles later), it appears to have helped, although it's still an audible click. Don't think it can be completely quiet anyways, due to the design, but because it's impinging on foam instead of plastic, the sound is a lot more muted.

[Dackelone]

Nice job!

[johngrossi]

Holy OCD! Love it! Great diy sir

[bmw1racer]

Can't say that I have or noticed that clicking.

Nonetheless, the modification is very well documented... As I'd expect from a (fellow) engineer.

[Chandon]

Never noticed the clicking at all, until i went to put performance pedal covers on. But nonetheless, a terrific DIY.. Very in depth and detailed.