Re: Need Advice Quickly, Please

[John Bolhuis <bolhuijo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, Seeker wrote:

> 	When presented with the bill for $1,010.00 for the clutch, I told
> the service rep with whom I was dealing that I had been chewing over the
> whole business of a quality, well-made, expensive German car requiring a
> clutch at only 33K and, while I recognized that according to the warranty
> on the car that items that wear out like brake pads and clutches were
> specifically not covered, it was fundamentally unfair and unreasonable to
> expect me to have to pay for a new clutch in a car which was, one year ago,
> designated by BMW as "Certified Pre-Owned".  Had I chosen a car off their
<snip>

 It sounds like the service manager may really want to help
you.  Let's hope he has some wiggle room with the dealership's
policies.
 I'm sure that a Certified Pre-Owned BMW does not have its
transmission removed during inspection to test clutch wear -
especially one with 33k.  AFAIK, the only non-intrusive test you can
do is to see if there is still a bare minimum of clutch left.  
Involves probing some gage in a slot in the bell housing I think.
 As for your questions about track/autocross use, I doubt it.  Neither
track nor autocross should present much clutch wear.  Track use
emphasizes smoothness in driving - I can't think of any reason a
clutch would be abused there.  Autocross often involves only a single
1-2 shift.  Tire wear, definitely.  Clutch wear, doubt it.
 A far more likely scenario as I see it is this: Previous owner drove
the crap out of that car, with many smoky burnouts and/or high RPM
launches.  After 10k miles of this, he rotated the tires front to back
and finished off the tread there too by 20k.
 You're not alone.  Though my certified pre-owned BMW still had OE
rubber at 33k miles, the clutch went bad soon after I bought it.  
When they replaced it, they noticed that it *already* had aftermarket
clutch parts in it.  In my case, I theorized that the lessee who drove
it was *really* untalented with a clutch to have killed 2 of 'em in
33k miles. But I still had to eat the $750 for a new clutch.  Sad but
true.

- --
  John Bolhuis  | "After 5:00 PM,
 bolhuijo       |   Slip brains through slot in door."
  @domain.elided |

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