My clutch gone?

[m3f_M3AutoXR]

Well , coming out of work today I see 3 mid 80's 911's crusing on the highway , so I step on it a bit to see if they want to play.. No go...to much traffic... I come to my exit and downshift into 3rd and the pedal is vibrating like crazy... I drive a bit more , keeps doing it. the clutch holds well enough to chirp into 2nd , but it seems like the throwout bearing is making a harsh grinding noise. Even at idle , if I put the pedal in the grinding noise comes out. the car shutters when you put it in gear..



Any ideas?



JM

[m3f_97BLKM3COU_0f375e15e2]

Is it slipping at all? Take it to about 30 MPH in second, then put it in neutral, get the revs really high and put it into 5th and floor it. The car should bog then slowly work its way back up. If you can rev it for more than half a second with your foot off of the clutch in 5th gear, then your clutch is on it's way out. A fresh cluch will bog immediately, and the older it gets the longer it will take to completely grab on.

[m3f_Sirius_880bd69485]

Man, hard on your engine though.....

[m3f_astan100_7ef66fbe89]

Yeah, sticking in 5th at 30 nicely, then revving hard will tell you too, but I think that 97blk's way can tell you more.



Your clutch is totallly done if you can't rev hard at 30.



So, 5th gear clutch drop at 30...interesting. I wonder if you could get good at evaluating clutches that way.

[m3f_M3AutoXR]

I ran it through the gears , 1st to 4th , hard shift in every gear..holds like a champ.. But the noise at idle is telling me otherwise. Perhaps the clutch is fine , but the throwout bearing is shot. Keep in mind it's got 80,000 miles on it.



Good think I have access to a BMW dealership



JM

[m3f_97BLKM3COU_0f375e15e2]

We did it in purple's car when he thought his clutch was slipping and he could free-rev it after the 2-5th shift at high RPM's. It was in 5th but the RPM's would go up and down with the gas until it eventually caught up.



If the clutch is really bad, you could go from 2nd to 5th nicely as astan said and it will free-rev for a bit.



It sounds like something else may be wrong with your car if the car bogs down quickly on this shift.