Here's the story:
Yesterday I was driving down the road in absolutely miserable stop and go traffic. And, by stop and go, I mean it was more like stop, go 7 feet, stop, go 7 feet, etc etc. over and over again. There was hardly any waiting, either, in between stop and go's. All of this was occuring on a pretty miserable incline as well. Now, I'm pretty confident with my clutchwork, so this isn't a big deal at all to me. That is, until after a little while, every time I go to start moving again, there's this terrible vibration from the drivetrain, but it stops once the clutch stops spinning (e.g. the transmission is fully engaged or I push the clutch pedal back in). The problem stays pretty bad in traffic but once I get to my destination and leave again, I have no problem anymore.
Clutch chatter?
My explanation: The quick repeated stops and starts overheated the clutch disc and, unlike brakes, the clutch has the option to "reject" the pressure plate (due to the friction surface becoming "sticky" instead of its normal "scratchyness"), having it bounce against the springy-ness of the "fingers" of the pressure plate, thus causing clutch chatter. (Wasn't that a heap of good technical terms there?)
The car drives beautifully again, so that's why I'm guessing it's some sort of a clutch overheating problem. Is this a fairly common problem in BMW's? I've never had the problem before in any of my other 5 speed's. My fiancee', driving right behind me in my 5sp VW had no problems either.
Anyone buy (or not buy) this explanation? If so (or if not), why?
Yesterday I was driving down the road in absolutely miserable stop and go traffic. And, by stop and go, I mean it was more like stop, go 7 feet, stop, go 7 feet, etc etc. over and over again. There was hardly any waiting, either, in between stop and go's. All of this was occuring on a pretty miserable incline as well. Now, I'm pretty confident with my clutchwork, so this isn't a big deal at all to me. That is, until after a little while, every time I go to start moving again, there's this terrible vibration from the drivetrain, but it stops once the clutch stops spinning (e.g. the transmission is fully engaged or I push the clutch pedal back in). The problem stays pretty bad in traffic but once I get to my destination and leave again, I have no problem anymore.
Clutch chatter?
My explanation: The quick repeated stops and starts overheated the clutch disc and, unlike brakes, the clutch has the option to "reject" the pressure plate (due to the friction surface becoming "sticky" instead of its normal "scratchyness"), having it bounce against the springy-ness of the "fingers" of the pressure plate, thus causing clutch chatter. (Wasn't that a heap of good technical terms there?)
The car drives beautifully again, so that's why I'm guessing it's some sort of a clutch overheating problem. Is this a fairly common problem in BMW's? I've never had the problem before in any of my other 5 speed's. My fiancee', driving right behind me in my 5sp VW had no problems either.
Anyone buy (or not buy) this explanation? If so (or if not), why?
