Finally got my M.......

[Ramzi]

When i first started this thread my purpose was for me to share with my fellow bimmer fans the experience of owning an M3 but unfortunately its not happening yet.

First i have the water pipe problem which took 3 days to fix, so tonight i take the car out to finally have a proper cruise and as i suddenly accelerate on 3rd gear i got a very high revving rpm while the car is not accelerating much.....I know right away the clutch was gone. I tried it on every other gear and the clutch was slipping veryy badly and increasingly and the smell came out....I had to take the car back home very slowly on 1st gear until the car was almost struggling to take any hill even at slow speed and 1st gear witout having the engine rev as if the clutch pedal is pressed to the floor while its not. I just have a couple of questions hoping some of the experts here can shed a light on:

Can a clutch go out like that. The clutch wasnt slipping a couple of days before but my mechanic did warn me that the pedal is too high and the clutch will give away at any time...still, shouldnt it start slipping gradually over the days unlike how it gave away with me in 5 mins?

How complicated is a clutch change? Does it have to be done by a pocket emptying Mpower mechanic or is it a job any good mechanc can do?

Hope this Sh$$ gets sorted soon cos I'm starting to dislike the car already.

[Ayham]

Sorry to hear that...You're going through the phase of completely servicing your car, which you should do without getting into these situations from the beginning.

Yes the clutch could just give up like that, we've seen it happen (Rifo's clutch broke into 3 pieces while on track). The good news is that the E36 M3 parts are practically life-long, so after you replace it it's at least 80,000km hassle-free. You sure your mechanic didn't take the car on a "spirited" test drive when he was done with fixing the coolant issue? This might have sped up the failure since your clutch was already on its way out.

While you're at it, and avoid another unnecessary mishap, change the flywheel too. A new clutch kit retails at around $300, and a new flywheel would be around the same. One-day job. Make sure you bed-in the clutch when you change it for about 1,000km before you start doing redline sprints.

[Ramzi]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8520/4.6.1.272 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/212)

Ayham,I was actually thinking the same about my mechanic driving the car after fixing it but still I was just surprised how the clutch just seemed to have melted in no time. I agree with u about the fly wheel issue and I also know that I have a minor oil leak somewhere in the connection between the engine and gearbox caused by a worn out seal which I will surely change.I hope I find the parts easily this time.
Thanks for the feedback.