E46: Clutch + Pressure Plate + Flywheel = $1500.00

["Andrew BW Colfelt" <abwc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Over the last few weeks I've noticed that my clutch was acting a little
funny. This is a 328i manufactured in 10/98, which currently has 29,000
miles on it.
In general, it has been harder for me to find the ideal release technique
when launching from a stop. (By "launch" I do not mean lunge; rather I use
that term generically, to mean "start going from a stop.")
Also, when it's cold in the morning or at night on the way home from work,
it's been feeling like the clutch slips about 1 revolution when hooking up
during the launch. I'll be just starting the launch and the car will begin
to roll, but then I can feel the amount of "drive" being transmitted to the
wheels lessen, and there's occassionally a little thunk which can only be
felt as the amount of "drive" returns to normal. You cannot hear the thunk.
It's been really kinda random and hard to reproduce, but it finally got to
the stage where I wasn't imagining things and it was time to have the dealer
look into it.
Diagnoses:
1. Clutch disc within <1mm of minimum spec (time to replace)
2. Pressure plate and flywheel have "hotspots" (little spots of
discoloration on the metal surfaces (blueing), caused by excessive heat
build-up, usually associated with abuse)
3. Soft-engage mechanism springs on flywheel have collapsed (these are what
makes shifts in this car so smooth, and what was causing the "thunk.")
Bottom line: none of this is covered under warranty, and is costing me $1500
to fix (new clutch disc, new pressure plate, new flywheel with springy
mechanism thingo).
Now here's the part I don't understand:
All of these symptoms point to abuse, yet that word is not even in my
vocabulary. I discussed what follows with the tech(s), but no one has an
answer, it seems.
Here are the kinds of things that we all agree might contribute to
blueing/hot spotting/etc:
- - - excessive slipping of the clutch
  - like 0-60 launches (here, I'm talking LUNGE!)
  - like holding on a hill at a stop light
  - like when downshifting without rev matching
  - like generally slipping more than necessary
As far as clutch work goes, folks, I don't think it's even possible to do it
any better than I already do it. I double-de-clutch every downshift, and
never slip it more than I have to, and I never hold myself up on a hill by
using the clutch.
The things I *AM* guilty of are these:
- - - 2 instances of 0-60 launches, bad enough so that the clutch smoked and I
could smell it inside the cabin. This ocurred at around the 3000 mile mark,
during the early E46-list threads concerning speedshifting and 0-60 times. I
never did try the speedshifting thing because of something someone said
about the abuse factor, and my 0-60 times sucked anyway :(. (I've since
learned that the altitude here has a LOT to do with the discrepency I
observed, and that the 328 motor is WAY more powerful at Sea Level.)
- - - 2 full days at the track at driving school
- - - 5-10 instances of a not-quite-fully-engaged shift into 2nd gear,
followed
by full throttle, resulting in the largest WHAM of a pop-out you've ever
heard or felt.
- - - countless spirited drives, accounting for a small portion of the 29,000
miles I've logged so far. I drive 60 miles round trip to work every day, and
I use my car for sales calls, etc. The vast majority of those miles are on
the highway.
It is my belief (and perhaps this is the other part of the "system" that
needs adjustment) that, no matter how spirited the drive, it is the smooth,
deliberate control over throttle, clutch, brake, and steering wheel that
prevent "abuse" from happening. In other words, my belief is that one can
drive hard without causing undue wear and tear.
Be careful about how you read that.
If we were looking at simply a worn-out clutch after 29,000 hard-chargin'
miles, I wouldn't be surprised in the least.
But what we're looking at here is a pair of very durable, expensive parts
(flywheel and pressure plate) that should NEVER need replacement EXCEPT in
cases of clear abuse.
Is it possible that 2 incidents of smoking the clutch might have caused the
hotspotting? Does anyone really care if the spots are there or not. I mean,
do those spots change the performance of the friction surfaces?
And what about the soft-engage mechanism going to pot? Nobody seems to be
able to tell me what might cause this to go bad, except to say that "abuse
would do it."
Hey! Pay attention, folks, I DO NOT ABUSE THIS CAR!
So, there are a few unanswered questions out there somewhere (the truth is
out there).
- - - is there a engineering weakness here?
- - - is there a relationship between the timing of this problem and my last
visit to the dealer two weeks ago for the steering vibration TSB? (i.e. did
the tech who worked on my car last have a little fun at my expense??)
- - - is there an attitude adjustment necessary on my part? do I need to
redefine "abuse?"
- - - is it just as simple as 2 smoked launches and yer done, pal?
- - - is driving school THAT hard on the clutch?
- - - is it possible that stop/go traffic jams are to blame?
- - - is it "the groan" that did it, back in the early days, when I wasn't
familiar with the car?
- - - are those 2nd gear pop-outs responsible for collapsing the soft-engage
springs on the flywheel?
Needless to say, I'm not convinced that it's my fault that this has
happened, but at the same time I am unable to prove that it's not. So, I've
asked the dealer to return all the bad parts to me, on the off chance that,
as the rest of the local fleet of 328i's reach 30K miles, other cars might
begin to exhibit the same problem and BMW might issue a TSB on it.
I'm still not opposed to demanding some representation from the local BMW
folks, because I believe these cars to be far more robust than this. I've
driven many track miles in my SAAB and NEVER had clutch difficulties, and
I've never heard anything about BMWs being weak in this area.
I DO NOT ABUSE THIS CAR, so how can this be happening, unless there is an
under-engineering problem or a problem with one of the techs at the local
dealer?...
Do you have any thoughts about this?
________________________________________
Andrew BW Colfelt

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I had a similar problem on my E36.  It could have been the flywheel springs.
I don't know if the clutch design is the same as on the E46.  Here is a copy
of my earlier post on the subject.

Marvin
====================================================
I had a clutch shudder (judder?) problem similar to what others have been
describing.  (1993 325i).  It occurred in hot weather and got worse when
the clutch was used a lot, as in stop & go traffic.  It was really bad in
city traffic in
Las Vegas at 90 deg, but almost non-existant below 65 deg.  So, I had to
wait for a warm day and warm the engine and clutch up well before going to
the dealer.  This was a problem, because my warranty was about to end and
the weather was still too cold in the San Francisco area.  I logged my
complaint with the dealer's service writer just to get it on record.  They
were very skeptical that BMW would pay for it and said I would probably
have to get a new clutch.  Finally the weather was warm enough to take it
in.  The shop foreman drove the car for about 5 minutes and agreed that it
was a bad flywheel (something to do with the dual-mass design).  So, they
replaced the flywheel and clutch under warranty.  The clutch was OK, but
the flywheel kit comes with a new clutch.  Problem solved.  My thanks to
Weatherford BMW, Berkeley CA.  They couldn't explain exactly happened, and
didn't do an analysis because they said all defective parts replaced under
warranty were sent to Germany for autopsy.  The new clutch had a little bit
of shudder at first, but it went away; possibly due to oil on the surface
during assembly.  It has been fine for several months.
Marvin
1993 325i w/ factory sports package

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