Hi All, Just had an odd thing happen twice yesterday. First off I have a 95 M3 that was just serviced (did not notice this happening before the service). I was at a stop and then made a left hand turn, on acceleration the drive mechanism seem to slip and the wheels lost power. The engine revs were around 4k and the clutch seemed to have been engaged... Odd. Then later I was on a straight in second gear cruising around 30mph then I decided to see what would happen if I tried to accelerate hard. Same thing... although this time the rear of the car started to push out to the right, and I know for sure that the tires were planted and not spinning freely. My thoughts are clutch, or diff... but I am no mechanic by any stretch so I am a bit baffled. Any thoughts? Thanks for the help! Dan
Does your car have DSC? What do you mean the drive mechanism slipped? It sounds like the second time you spun your tires because you got on the gas too hard if the car started to come around. The car would not normally try to come around if the tires were firmly planted and not spinning. Might have been the same the first time. Maybe your tires got some oil on them or something.
Hmm, let me see if I can put into words what I am noticing. Im in second gear going about 30 mph and then I push the pedal down about half way, the car starts to accelerate and then something seems slip (not sure what) as the car then slows but the engine is reving higher. I am pretty sure the tires are not spinning, as it seems to be to easy. The road is dry and I was driving straight. Plus, wouldn't I hear that? I didn't hear any tire noise. As for the DSC I don't believe it has that, but again I am not sure as I just purchased the car 2 months ago.
You can spin tires on dry pavement. Seems like it is not traction control if the engine revs higher. Either you are spinning the tires or the clutch is slipping. You will need someone that knows more about cars than you to help you figure out which (no offense meant at all, just I cannot be there to see and hear what is going on so you need a car guy to help.) If it is the tires spinning, you need better ones. If it is the clutch, you need a new clutch for sure. How many miles are on the car? If the car needs a clutch and has less than 150k miles on it, then chances are either you or the previous owner have abused it and caused the problem, so once again, having a professional or skilled ameture around to help would be ideal.
The '95 doesn't have any kind of traction control (unless it was added very late in the model year) so I would think it's more likely to be clutch. If you try and take off from a dead stop fairly aggressively, does it "hook up" and go or do you notice the same 'slipping' effect? Also, does it only happen in second gear or does it also happen in the others? Like MooseheadM5 said, in order to be absolutely sure, you will probably have to have it looked at. One thing you will notice on the E36 chassis is when the rear trailing arm bushings are shot and you accelerate hard, the back end of the car will feel like it shifts to the side and if you lift off the gas abruptly, it will shift back the other way. It can be very distracting when that happens mid-corner !
I'm thinking clutch. Have you checked your differential to see if it is vomiting large quantities of fluids?