Like a lot of people, I've been through the chewbacca squeal and have had clutch work performed. Unfortunately, as I live in the Netherlands (Holland), the service department isn't real forthcoming with details about what actually failed or why. My original clutch was replaced at 35,660 miles, under warranty.

Now, only 14,790 miles later and I've had another replacement. Whether thats the clutch or the slave cylinder is unknown though the work was done by a German BMW shop this time. Whats bothersome is that this new failure is so soon after the first one.

I am assuming that the failure is the slave cylinder because the first time they replaced the "clutch", that involved draining the brake master cylinder.

So, my question for ya'll is this. Given that I do not race or abuse my car, that I do drive on the German A-bahns frequently, and that I perform all services and checks on schedule, any thoughts on what could be causing these failures? Thanks.

Cheers!!

 

That is a bummer poppa bear! Hope you get it sorted out!

 

How long did it take to fix the car? that may tell you what they fix. To put in a clutch takes some time. If it was the slave I would not worry about it I have heard a couple people that had to replace them (just got a bad one when made?) if it was the clutch I would have to ask what went wrong with it-seems odd if it was. good luck

 

I dropped Maggie off on Thursday morning and couldn't pick her up until yesterday afternoon, however, they were telling me that they were waiting on "a little part" to actually do the work. That part missed delivery for Friday and Monday, thus the delay.

Now, I have to give them some credit as their English is much, much better than my German. They just don't have the technical vocabulary to explain to me exactly what was wrong. Remember, the Germans love to take a bunch of little words and jam them together to make one big word. For example, instead of saying a jack for the car, it comes out to something like the little machine that goes under the car to lift it up in order to get the wheel off!!!

Regardless, I'm thinking/guessing that it was the slave cylinder for both occasions. I'll try to get a German co-worker to talk with the service guys and get the answers for me, which I'll pass along.

Cheers!!

 

Perhaps they did not bled the slave cylinder correctly....how did the pedal feel? if it felt normal, then it was probably ok, if it was a little soft then probably not and that would cause premature clutch wear as it would not be completely disengauging your clutch from the flywheel. It could be in the throwout bearing or in the pilot bearing as well. If for some reason they didnt replace the pilot bearing the 1st time you could run into premature clutch wear. I've had that happen in another vehicle....started to not want to go into gear very well.