Well, prior to this evening I’d had a good week using the M3 as my daily driver. The rear bearing is still a bit noisy but the car starts okay and is epic, epic fun.

However, I filled the car up tonight, and since then there has been a strong smell of fuel from the rear right wheel arch. There’s plenty on the internet about this: s14.net thread

So there’s one job for tomorrow. Secondly though, as coming through Bracknell I noted that the clutch didn’t feel right. The next time I changed gear the clutch felt very wrong – a huge dead zone had appeared, so much so that the clutch wouldn’t really disengage.

Somehow I managed to limp the ten miles or so home without using the clutch, as the pedal had sunk to the floor. By timing my changes correctly with engine speed and really allowing time and space for traffic lights to change I rolled up to the garage to swap into the 330d. Pretty pleased with myself for that!

Anyway, s14.net has provided a number of possible situations – from master/slave cylinder failures to the master bracket failing. I haven’t looked yet – I’ve slung it in the garage in disgrace and come home to watch Top Gear. At some point this week I’ll get the driver’s seat out and have a good gander – until then it’s off the road.