So my car has been acting up, when I go to accelerate when my tach is around 3200 RPM the car will jump to around 4000 then drop back down to 3200-3300 RPM then "catch" and start accelerating, this will also happen around 2200rpm and sometimes when I shift and the engine is around that speed (when I shift and it happens the car kind of takes a second to accelerate). Prior to this about 3 weeks earlier my clutch overheated while on the hill that takes you into the Greek Theater in LA (if you have never been there it is a very steep incline with bumper to bumper traffic which seems to move as soon as you try to take your foot off the clutch, allowing little to no rest in between pedal depression, not very manual tranny friendly). This is odd because my car has only 51,000 miles on it and I have been driving manual for over 10 years. Also a women owned the car before me and I am afraid it might have been her first manual tran car. When the first problem i mentioned occurred I took the car in and they said I needed a new clutch, however my car has no trouble shifting/going into gear, nor does it ever slip out of gear. The clutch on my old vw went out around 150,000 miles and it was nothing like this. Are they BS'ing me so that I will drop $1300 on a new clutch, or could this actually be whats causing it. If it is a clutch problem thats fine, I want to buy the UUC lightweight flywheel/M5 clutch combo that is on modbargains.com and that would be a great excuse to do so (its only $960 or so). I'm planning on talking to them further about how that could be the clutch but figured I would see if anyone was well versed in this type of thing on here, I am also posting this on the e46fanatics.com site (hope thats not a forum faux pas haha).
The engine revving up like that sounds like clutch slippage. How badly did it overheat? How long were you on that hill?
the hill was about 10-15 minutes and the clutch smelled up the whole car and the pedal was extremely hard to push in by the time i got up the hill, i thought it was gonna go out on the hill (how embarrassing would that have been haha), and that was close to a month before any of the engine rev started.
so i coasted at about 10-15mph and then put it in 3rd and slammed on the gas, it barely went but the tach shot up really quickly but the speed didnt match the tach. I was told to do that by a couple people I know form the forum and from a friend that owns a shop back home in Cincinnati, they all said that if what I said happened happened, it is indeed the clutch, as the person above stated as well. Looks like I am going to get the UUC light weight flywheel/M5 clutch (w/pressure plate), I am also going to add a stainless braided clutch line and change the trans fluid to Redline ML-90 w/ a little bit of ML-80 as well. Unfortunately I am going on vacation for 3 weeks and will not be able to do this until I return, I've always wanted a light weight flywheel and performance clutch, it should make my car a lot more enjoyable to drive and a bit quicker. This problem has gotten progressively worse the past couple of days to the point where my car is not very enjoyable to drive and in my opinion sounds embarrassing (thats if someone who knows cars hears my engine when I accelerate) oh yeah random situation that has nothing to do with this...I have the BMW CCA window decal in the lower corner of the driver side of my windshield and some jackass in a new 328ci, who was returning to his car the same time I was in a parking lot, called me a f*got for having the sticker on my car. I asked what his reasoning behind that was and he just shook his head and got in his car, he was in his mid 30's it looked like, I am in my mid-late 20's. First off, not very appropriate language for anyone let alone a 30+ year old (sound more like something a 17 year old would say) and how in the hell does having pride in my car and the BMW CCA make me a F*g. Don't see the logic and if I was a lesser person I probably would have hit him or done something to his car, which he apparently has no appreciation for (nor the heritage of). This blew my mind, he does not deserve a new BMW he deserves a Hyundai for a comment like that.
I think a lightweight flywheel would make driving in traffic harder. I hear a lightweight flywheel does allow the engine to rev up quicker, but it would also make the vehicle that much easier to stall, which would be a pain in traffic. Hopefully that traffic incident you had going up a hill was a one-time thing... Dude, there are all kinds of strange people out there. I've even gotten disapproving stares from people in junker Civics with chrome wheels and fart cans on the back when they're the ones to talk. I don't see why he made that comment either. Maybe he was just driving his friend's/relative's car and he was jealous he didn't have one, or perhaps he doesn't like modified cars. I don't like heavily modified Bimmers either, but I have to admit, yours is one swa-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet lookin' E46. I would kill to have one of those... or an E46 at all. lol
yeah that was at a concert I dont wind up in traffic that often, Santa Barbara is relatively small so I dont get caught up that ofter, I didnt know that about lightweights though thats something to consider before I buy one thanks for the advice on that. people in civics love to try and race me, I never give them the opportunity nor give them the satisfaction of looking at them or their car, it usually makes them angry, I love it haha. I dont like heavily or tacky modified bimmers either, I tried to go for more of an incognito clean look, I would have left it stock but there are soooo many in SB that I had to do something, thanks for the compliment!! If theres one thing I hate, its when people put carbon fiber on E46's haha so tacky. I put an exhaust on but the tips were bigger than they looked in the picture when I bought it and I am kind of regretting that now, but I spent the money on it so I don't wanna just take it off and buy another so soon, so I might ride that out a bit longer.
It isn't much work to replace that bit on the exhaust, so you could just do that if you want. My brother custom tuned my exhaust. Sometimes it sounds great, other times it's way too loud. I don't know how, but my exhaust has automatic (and uncontrollable) volume changing! You should've seen this guy the other day. I was driving down the street and this sick lookin' silver E46 comes down the opposite direction. It's got the Umnitza white angel eyes and the flared fenders, the works, and then I see the PURPLE RIMS. *ack* What I would give to completely stealth my car out like yours and get some not-so-pathetic angel eyes on em'... (sorry to hijack the thread a bit )
i dont care if you hijacked we are the only two on this thread anyway haha i want to buy smaller tips and have them welded on, my exhaust is the same though it sounds amazing then I'll get back in the car and it sounds way too loud, I can't believe someone would throw purple wheels on a bimmer, that makes me weep . I had an old VW jette before this car and wanted an e46 ever since my dad bought a 330i convertible, then somone T-boned the jetta and I got a little injured (nothing too serious) but I was able to get some insurance money as well as a little settlement money from the injury (the guy was drunk), so I was able to buy my dream car, well that would have been an M3 but that wasnt in my price range, so next best thing I guess. It was either that or buy an e36 M3. While its not very fast its faster than my 2.0l jetta so Im content, I just have to know who not to flex against cus I dont wanna give a faster japanese car the joy of saying they beat out a bimmer hahaha. I bought the yellow angel eyes but returned them and got the 6000k. wow did this go off topic, oh well.
ah see if this had happened on e46fanatics.com there would be two pages of people breathing down our necks about how this was against forum rules and how lame we are, I'm glad there aren't as many jackasses on this site haha.
Well, 85% of the posts here were actually topic-related posts and had some bits and pieces of useable advice... not including this one though. lol Anyway, let me know how it turns out. I might consider a lighter flywheel as well when my clutch is due in a million years. Have you looked around for pricing yet?
Sure thing! I just started, I have my eye set on the UUC Stage Two Lightweight/M5 Clutch ($973) http://www.modbargains.com/product.aspx?pf_id=UUC_E46_LightClutch_CS they have quite a few clutch options but I dont have a turbo or track my car so I will go with the cheapest and the one that makes the most sense, which would be the M5 combo. I am also going to switch to Red Line Manual Trans Fluid (great stuff I am told) which is also on modbargains.com I have found other sites but they mostly have race clutches and they are all more than what the dealer quoted. I found someone on e46fanatics.com that said they have a friend Orange County who runs a trans shop who will do it for me for $140 flat, which is better than the $125/hr for 3 hours that the shop here in Santa Barbara quoted. I am still looking for non performance applications but since I already have some mods and am considering supercharging eventually (when I have money for another car and extra for the charger so I am not always driving a blown 325i) I think I should buy a performance application.
You've really sparked my curiousity here. I looked into clutch/flywheel combos for my car and found the price to be close to your price (around $750-800 total, not including shipping and labor). You got a killer deal on labor, I'll tell you that. I didn't think it was such a short job; I thought just a clutch job was almost a whole day. Do you know what the difference is between a Stage 1 and Stage 2 clutch? I have no idea which clutch I am going to use when the time comes...
I think you are right on with the labor, I probably was a bit short on the estimate of the place here in SB, I talked to them over a week agao and am just going off the top o my head. but the person I talked to said his friend would do that flat rate for me if I called him when its time. As for the Stage 1 and Stage 2, that is in reference to the flywheel, the clutch is just an OEM M5 clutch (or their other choices are the multi-pucks ceramics, etc.). I am not quite sure what the Stage 2 means, I am assuming it means to be a little more aggressive than Stage 1, because I have seen up to Stage 6 applications but those are for straight race/drag cars.
