new clutch possibly?

[Chewyjr15]

Last night i pull up to a light next to e63 amg. He got excited and we both go for it 2-3rd shift i let the clutch out and it didn't engage... it stayed let out and just slipped and spun. So advice on what to check this might be? I have to admit that when i first got the car I could not drive it well at all but im at 11k miles now. Im wondering if the oem clutch cant handle the nearly 400 whp that the car is producing.

thanks in advance for all of your help

[J x K]

:/ hard to say without a video w/ audio.. Can you be more specific? Did it smell like burnt clutch? Does the clutch still engage the same now?

[MadMan77]

Originally Posted by J x K

:/ hard to say without a video w/ audio.. Can you be more specific? Did it smell like burnt clutch? Does the clutch still engage the same now?

+1. I doubt he fried his clutch just because of the added power from a chip. It is hard to tell without more information.

On a side note, your avatar is VERY disturbing there J x K.

[momo style]

I busted 2 clutch now on my 135. My first was at 5000km.... Completely burned and destroy... while pulling off against a cayman..

My second was while doing a start... 1rst 2nd 3rd....

Both were smelling burn and the second time, the clutch stayed at the floor and would nt come up...

[Lester]

Originally Posted by momo style

I busted 2 clutch now on my 135. My first was at 5000km.... Completely burned and destroy... while pulling off against a cayman..

My second was while doing a start... 1rst 2nd 3rd....

Both were smelling burn and the second time, the clutch stayed at the floor and would nt come up...

Bad news, would you say you drive it harder than normal? I don't have any problems so far at 17,000 km. Was it covered under warranty?

[J x K]

Why is it disturbing? D: lol

[SPEZNAS92]

Does it engage fine now after the incident or is it consistent? Is it just that gear? How long ago did you do your CDV and did you bleed it properly?

[momo style]

ya but I had a hard time for the 2nd

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by Chewyjr15

Last night i pull up to a light next to e63 amg. He got excited and we both go for it 2-3rd shift i let the clutch out and it didn't engage... it stayed let out and just slipped and spun. So advice on what to check this might be? I have to admit that when i first got the car I could not drive it well at all but im at 11k miles now. Im wondering if the oem clutch cant handle the nearly 400 whp that the car is producing.

thanks in advance for all of your help

It's possible that you "glazed" your clutch prior to this AMG encounter.
Glazing can develop from too much clutch slippage causing the clutch material to glaze over and even stick some material to the flywheel.
This will result in less clamping force overall, and if you have a number of these events, you could build up a good amount of clutch material in the wrong places.

Do you notice any clutch chatter when engaging it normally?
You said that you didn't know how to drive the manual well, so it's possible that you glazed your clutch and only now noticed it with full power.

Short of taking the clutch out and having it deglazed, replaced, and cleaning the flywheel, you could try the cheap method to try and bring it back to life. Try starting out in 2nd gear, but don't ride or slip the clutch, use as little throttle/power as you can and release the pedal as quickly as you can. There is less power starting in 2nd than in 1st so it can help deglaze or clean the mating surface. Also, do some downshifts at slower speeds while rev matching as close as you can, but release the clutch pedal quickly, don't let it ride.

The point is to try and not engage the clutch too slowly with high rpm.
You're trying to get the clutch face and flywheel to mate as quickly as possible without a lot of power. There will always be friction whenever you engage the clutch, so you want to try and use that friction to help clean the surfaces, as well as wear away some of the glazed clutch material.

Glazing is similar to what can happen to brakes if they have been heated too much and the driver "rides" them too long. However, brakes are easier to clean off as you just remove the wheel and caliper and sand the rotors in a circular pattern, and the pads.

If you drive normally for a while and try some of the above, and AVOID hard launches, in time/miles the material will wear away and your clutch will come back. If it doesn't then take the opportunity to get a stronger clutch with greater clamping force or stronger friction material.
Check out some speed shops in your area for advice on what could work.
Given the power you're putting down that might be the best way to go.
Good luck.

[Chewyjr15]

thanks for all the advice. This is the 2nd time that this has happened. If i were to get a new clutch what would you recommend?

thanks

[Hans Delbruck]

So I guess the E63 won.

[Project1]

I had my first replaced at 4000 miles, slipped at any stab of the throttle when fully engaged...had it replaced free at the dealer. Then 3 days later ran a 12.7 at the strip...haha. I am getting an aftermarket for the inevitable next time it goes...

[Chewyjr15]

im gonna go aftermarket but what should i go with?

[Mark M]

Are you all that poor of a manual trans driver to be killing clutches so quickly?

I have been driving stick shift for 18 years and never had a clutch go out prematurely on me on any of the 12 BMWs I've owned. And yes....I drive em like I stole em from time to time and have racked up a lot of miles on em.

Sounds to me like you novices don't know how to rev-match and instead are just revving the engine then doing the equivalent of a 'neutral-drop' with your clutch pedal. As a result.....flywheel keeps spinning....clutch burns....but never fully engages......then whammo.....glazzing all over the place.

Maybe as a suggestion, go down to your local Vo-Tech center and have the high school driving instructor do a few miles with you to insure you are engaging gears correctly and learning to rev-match?

Crude example.....imagine back to when you were 10 years old. Remeber the playground wheel? If you spun it too fast...you could not manage to jump on and ride it. If you spun it too slow...as soon as you jumped on it would bog down and go really slow. Think of your clutch like that playground wheel. You have to find the sweet-spot.

And for God's sake.....stop with the amateur clutch burning alright!!

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by Mark M

Are you all that poor of a manual trans driver to be killing clutches so quickly?

I have been driving stick shift for 18 years and never had a clutch go out prematurely on me on any of the 12 BMWs I've owned. And yes....I drive em like I stole em from time to time and have racked up a lot of miles on em.

Sounds to me like you novices don't know how to rev-match and instead are just revving the engine then doing the equivalent of a 'neutral-drop' with your clutch pedal. As a result.....flywheel keeps spinning....clutch burns....but never fully engages......then whammo.....glazzing all over the place.



And for God's sake.....stop with the amateur clutch burning alright!!

Before this goes any farther, it's worth mentioning that there have been a few members here who had issues with the clutch, and it turned out to be a leaking seal that was allowing fluid to get onto the friction surface and allow it to slip, which then causes premature wear.

[InsaneSkippy]

Originally Posted by jeremyc74

Before this goes any farther, it's worth mentioning that there have been a few members here who had issues with the clutch, and it turned out to be a leaking seal that was allowing fluid to get onto the friction surface and allow it to slip, which then causes premature wear.

Ya but who cares about that when you can be on your high horse?

(not you, the person you quoted)

[Mark M]

Originally Posted by InsaneSkippy

Ya but who cares about that when you can be on your high horse?

(not you, the person you quoted)

I fail to see how I am on a high horse as you put it.

I am simply making a case for the above posters who arehaving VERY early premature clutch failures to look in the mirror and understand if they really do have the propper understanding and training to operate a manual transmission car.

Let's face it.....most people have no clue how to drive stick shift. Less than 10% of all cars sold in the U.S. are stick. Which means that some people who drive stick may not have ever learned how to correctly drive em without roasting their poor innocent clutch.

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by Mark M

I fail to see how I am on a high horse as you put it.

I am simply making a case for the above posters who arehaving VERY early premature clutch failures to look in the mirror and understand if they really do have the propper understanding and training to operate a manual transmission car.

Let's face it.....most people have no clue how to drive stick shift. Less than 10% of all cars sold in the U.S. are stick. Which means that some people who drive stick may not have ever learned how to correctly drive em without roasting their poor innocent clutch.

The fact of the matter is, it's not really all that hard to drive a car with a manual transmission, especially for someone who's making a reasonable effort, and if a clutch is failing at 4k miles there's probably something else going on that's causing it, other than driver error.

[onefastman]

I agree, my first car was a 1985 911, I was not perfect at first with driving and beleve me you I drive the piss out of that thing day in and day out. The clutch lasted 25K before it went and it had 20K on it when I got it. Now my clutch has gone out with 8K, I have never abused it and actually drive it very moderately on a daily basis, rarely going over 4500rpm. So there must be some sort of defect here. I am taking it in soon so only time will tell....

[cqq99]

For those of you with clutch failures what was the ultimate outcome?? I just had mine fail last night while doing 70 in Cruise Control on 95 South! I am at 20k miles and I drive the car "normally" as it is my daily driver. I have had multiple Hondas (S2000's, Acura TL) for years, a Mini Cooper S, and an older GM that were all manual and I have never burnt a clutch! Let me know the outcome of your experiences please as the dealer is now going to have BMW look at the clutch to see if it was a malfunction/premature, or if it has been "driver" related. Thanks in advance...