I'm on my way up to the dealership today to check out my CELs (my dad also drove his audi so I could get home) and get caught in slow stop/go traffic right outside of Pittsburgh. The car start smoking in the engine bay. I make it across the lanes to the curb let it cool down. The smoke was coming up underneath the engine, so I figured it was the clutch. It wasn't slipping though before or anything the car only has around 2100 miles on it. We let it cool down as I said then continue to the dealership. We get there no other problems what so ever. The head of service said it smelled like the clutch was burning and it's not covered under warranty. Now I don't do aggressive driving, I see no reason on how it was burning other than the traffic moving considering I was going up hill and had to balance the clutch everytime it moved so I didnt roll back into the car behind me that was riding my tail. As I'm getting into my dad's car I say to myself this is going to be fun because they are going to open my hood to see the aftermarket stuff. I won't find out until next week what the deal is on this.

 

....drawing a blank?

 

Sorry to hear about your clutch .

If you had not edited the original post, we could have had a lot of fun with that, filling in the words after "I'm"! At least I got a shot!

I see you have an '07, were you aware that it has hill-start assist? You can just hold on the brake until you are ready to go, then take off like normal, without rolling back. The brake will hold the car in position until you release the clutch, or about 2 seconds, whichever comes sooner. There should be no need to hold the car in place with the clutch, that is extremely hard on one.

 

I thought was only with DSC. Because I only have asc

 

You have probably burned off some clutch liner and you might be fine depending on how much you burned off. You should have been able to smell a strong odor also. The downside would be that you have shortened the clutch life. It is a good idea to get in the habit in stop and go driving to put the car in neutral and let out the clutch when stopped until you are ready to take off. This will extend your clutch life. Using the clutch and gas to hold the car in place is a good skill to have but not one that should be done for a long period of time, as you found out today. I have never had a car with hill assist but you can do something similar by pulling up the emergency brake to hold the car until you engage the clutch and lower the e-brake handle at the same time. Let us know what they find out.

 

Yea there was def. an odor to it. I know the techniques your talking about. I was putting it in neutral with the e-brake, but as soon as I did traffic would be moving again. I will let everyone know what happens. I highly doubt the clutch is out though. I probably burned some of the liner though. Thanks for the support.

 

You are exactly correct! My bad . That is a good reason to get the DSC. I like the hill-start assist. My MA didn't tell me about it, I didn't know I had it, and the first day I stopped at a stoplight that was on an almost non-existant grade. The car sat still, and I was paying attention to something else, when my passenger noticed we were rolling backwards! I almost rolled into the car behind me! I was like... WTF ! When I got home and read the OM, I found out about this feature.

Your clutch may have just overheated, and be glazed a little. You did the right thing by stopping and letting it cool off. It may be ok from here on out. You may want to try using the park brake to hold the car in the same situation, if it arises again. I wouldn't want to pay for a new clutch install.

 

Yea. The guy said it's $1900 for a new clutch.

 

^^ As you said, I highly doubt it's out though, so you should be fine.

Best of luck with everything, especially those aftermarket parts, and keep us updated.

 

The problem was the guy that installed the stuff didn't reconnect the diverter valve and something with the engine coolant sensor . The second code was taken care of by a software update. Nothing is wrong with the clutch just overheated it in traffic that day.