Ok. Annoyed here. Had my clutch done awhile ago with a new Daiken kit and (i forget the brand-some japanese one) throwout bearing. Had the flywheel machined as well.

The 'mechanic' that worked on my was real sloppy in putting the car back together (ie forgot to reconnect my VSS for instance) and I never went back to that place again. Sloppy ****-s and not that much cheaper than dealer. This was before I found my current 'cheap but good' shop.

But I didn't think he could screw up the clutch install......??

Cliff notes:
115k: New clutch in. Everything seems normal. Normally when downshifting I rev-downshift.

145k: New clutch master & slave cylinder goes in. I start double-clutching 90% of the time as a good habit I learned from driving / getting educated on my M3.

155k: Started noticing TO bearing noise w/ motor running & clutch pedal up.

165k: Current miles - T/O bearing noise much more pronouced. Not BAAAAD....but noticable @ idle. Also.....lots of clutch shudder now-a-days on 1st gear starts. Really annoying b/k i have to rev a bit engaging first for smooth clutch engagment.

Any ideas on why this thing is going bad? ARGH!


ALSO: I saw all the old parts (ie clutch disk/old t/o bearing) after the clutch job was done.

 

I have the same problem in my car... sometimes the bearings just go bad when they are new and theres nothing you can do except for replace it... happens once in a while. i know what you mean... the noise is annoying as hell.

 

As long as the synchros in the tranny are good I don't see the point in double clutching. You will just get half the mileage out of the clutch. I have a '98 with almost 200K on the original clutch. As for t/o failure... not enough grease on assembly, maybe it got way to hot and all the grease burned off. Also if the clutch is to stiff that puts more stress on the t/o bearing.

 

resting your left foot on the clutch panel would be it.

btw how much free travel you still have?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by matt_in_sd &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As long as the synchros in the tranny are good I don't see the point in double clutching. You will just get half the mileage out of the clutch. I have a '98 with almost 200K on the original clutch. As for t/o failure... not enough grease on assembly, maybe it got way to hot and all the grease burned off. Also if the clutch is to stiff that puts more stress on the t/o bearing. </TD></TR></TABLE>

thanks for the info. I don't know enough about clutch-work but that all sounds like a possiblity.

re: double-clutching
I double-clutch + rev-match so clutch disc wear should be minimal. I still have the original clutch on the m3 still ; was mostly highway miles from the prev owner. Some guys on the bimmerboards are getting 200K+ on stock m3's clutchs with Track time and Autocrossing thrown-in. How?! Double-clutching....at least that seems to be the consensus.

(however, there's still plenty of smucks who only get 70k out of their clutch.)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by iam7head &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">resting your left foot on the clutch panel would be it.

btw how much free travel you still have?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Always off.

There's about 2 inches of free play at the top of the pedal when released.

Engagement height is alittle higher now i believe....maybe 1" higher?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RotaryBzzzz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... Some guys on the bimmerboards are getting 200K+ on stock m3's clutchs with Track time and Autocrossing thrown-in. How?! Double-clutching...</TD></TR></TABLE>Double-clutching saves wear on the synchros, at the expense of the clutch. Rev-matching saves wear on the clutch. Most people learn to rev-match soon after they've learned to shift. Most people who have learned how to double-clutch, they already have become pretty good at rev-matching. Sounds like there's some confusion about which is which.