I have been driving a stick shift for 15 years and NEVER has any problems with clutches. The car only has 1600m iles on it. Anyelse experience a clutch going down half of the way without reacting at all. Its like the spring is not even there. It grabs all the way at the bottom for a brief second. Anyone had anything like that happen to them? What was the course of action taken?
Anyone has any idea how to bleed the clutch maybe?

 

Warranty, warranty, warranty. That's the course of action to take...

 

Yep. We had our clutch completely fail at 8000 miles, but it was going bad long before that.

 

My clutch failed at around 3000 or so miles. Just gave out all of a sudden and I found myself stranded at a gas station.

After flatbedding the car to the dealer, they had no problem repairing the clutch under warranty as long as BMWNA would pay or cover them for the fee. I remember my SA calling me and telling me that I was "lucky" that BMWNA would cover this and if it were to happen again, I might not be so lucky.

When the parts arrived, the clutch went in rather quick, but I was delayed in picking up the car due to troubles with a software update.

 

To SMG owners, do our cars use a conventional clutch, and will they need to be replaced as regular wear maintenance items? I'm assuming yes, since it is basically the same manual trans, albeit with a reduced chance for abuse given there isn't as much manual control (except for launch assist, which I understand is recorded). That said, sometimes when I start moving from a dead stop it feels like the clutch is being ridden.

 

My transmission failed after 1100 miles, so I am not surprised.
The SMG is a regular gearbox with hydraulics added to it.

Jochen

 

As soon as E60 owners start to get hit for $2-$3k for basic repairs, there will be a bunch of used cars hist the market.

BMW should step up and admit the 1st year E60's are a piece of junk.

 

Hope I don't jinx myself. 6000 miles and no problems.

 

ive got 7000 and have been experiencing a slip and judder. Of course it works fine at the dealer.

 

I know you have a traditional manual but the judder you experienced reminded me of something bizarre that happened to me once.

I wanted to see exactly how launch control worked but didn't have the room to do a full launch to the shift points so I did a launch that, as soon as the clutch was dropped, I got off the gas and drove normally. Right after that, I experienced a judder when coasting -- especially in the lower gears. I thought "holy sh**" I just fu**ed-up" the car big time" and drove all the way home thinking I was going to have to live with that for a while.

Guess what? I turned the car off when I got home and the next time I got in it, no juddering! I think something either in the software or the hydraulics was screwed up and once the car sat, everything was fine again!

Whew! I was truly relieved!!