[npr]

Hi, took car (320i manual) for end of warranty check at weekend. I said it occasionally had clutch judder. On reviewing after check they confirmed but said I would need to pay for labour (4-5 hors I. E. Approx £400-500) to check if wear and tear or if manufacturers fault. If the latter they would replace under warranty, if not I would foot the bill.

I see some other threads on this and other websites about clutch judder being common. The service guy asked if I could not just live with it. I probably will but what are people's thoughts? The car has a 5 year service pack and 2 mot protection (taking in for an mot in couple of weeks before 1 year AUC warranty runs out.
Not planning on taking out extended warranty - quote with 250 xs is £440

Thanks

[Kendo67]

Mileage and age of the car would be handy to know but :

If the car is still covered under the used car warranty , which it is , and they agree that there is a genuine fault , which they do, then why should you need to pay for anything ??

K

[Hooded]

Originally Posted by Kendo67

Mileage and age of the car would be handy to know but :

If the car is still covered under the used car warranty , which it is , and they agree that there is a genuine fault , which they do, then why should you need to pay for anything ??

K

because clutch wear and tear isn't covered?

[npr]

Hi it is 3 years old and 29k miles

[Kendo67]

Originally Posted by npr

Hi it is 3 years old and 29k miles

Based on that then i would think it is still their problem.

K

[B58 parts]

Give it more gas and feather it back in a bit .. if you lug it too much it will slip real fast at engagement, hence the chatter.

I think it's kinda normal .. I've had it here and there in every car including this one when I bog it real bad. I had a heavy clutch and light flywheel in my Honda, that setup even brand new would easily chatter unless I bounced around 3k and feathered in. It was such a nice setup though.

This car is great, cdv delete, and I am really really liking the ultimate clutch pedal. It's fantastic would recommend 10/10.

[robbiep]

The problem is that it's entirely possible to wreck a clutch in weeks (watch virtually any OAP manoeuvring around a car park) , or just as possible to make a clutch last 100k+ miles (if driven by someone with a lot of mechanical sympathy, a lot of motorway miles, etc).
That is why clutch wear, rather than faults, are not covered by the warranty.

[Harryg]

I have always bought automatics but, my son in law bought his 3 Series used around 35000 on the clock but came with a 12 month warranty. After around 7 months I felt a slight clutch judder when driving and a slight difficulty to engage gear.
Told him to take to BMW for warranty repairs as BMW were having a problem with clutches.

Clutch wear causes slipping not vibration or complete disengagement. After speaking with BMW they do state if its worn then he would have to pay however my argument was that the clutch was distorted not worn causing the clutch to engage/disengage unevenly which resulted in the problem.

They checked the clutch and changed it FOC. When he put his car in for a 4 Series I drove the car and even on that I could feel a slight vibration and this was logged and mentioned to BMW and they changed that one also without any problems FOC.

I know BMW were having problems with clutches and were changing them when needed under warranty, don't put this off as it will eventually get so bad it cant be driven when pulling away then you wont get any help from BMW.

[ES-Jet]

My 320i is 5/1/2 years old and just coming up to 39,000 miles. I took the car over from my wife, 2 years ago, and the judder has been there occasionally, often most noticeable when I have passengers. In the 2 years I've been driving the car, though, it hasn't got worse. I find it's better giving the car more revs, than I'd normally feel happier with, if I have a heavier load than normal.

[Harryg]

Originally Posted by ES-Jet

My 320i is 5/1/2 years old and just coming up to 39,000 miles. I took the car over from my wife, 2 years ago, and the judder has been there occasionally, often most noticeable when I have passengers. In the 2 years I've been driving the car, though, it hasn't got worse. I find it's better giving the car more revs, than I'd normally feel happier with, if I have a heavier load than normal.

By doing this you are going to wear the clutch out prematurely as all you are doing is slipping the clutch at higher revs just to solve the problem it has. A lot of people do this but it doesn't solve the problem it only adds to it.

[1966-TR4]

Originally Posted by Harryg

I have always bought automatics but, my son in law bought his 3 Series used around 35000 on the clock but came with a 12 month warranty. After around 7 months I felt a slight clutch judder when driving and a slight difficulty to engage gear.
Told him to take to BMW for warranty repairs as BMW were having a problem with clutches.

Clutch wear causes slipping not vibration or complete disengagement. After speaking with BMW they do state if its worn then he would have to pay however my argument was that the clutch was distorted not worn causing the clutch to engage/disengage unevenly which resulted in the problem.

They checked the clutch and changed it FOC. When he put his car in for a 4 Series I drove the car and even on that I could feel a slight vibration and this was logged and mentioned to BMW and they changed that one also without any problems FOC.

I know BMW were having problems with clutches and were changing them when needed under warranty, don't put this off as it will eventually get so bad it cant be driven when pulling away then you wont get any help from BMW.

Agree, I would not associate judder with wear. OP has not described it as slip, which would indicate they understand the difference.

[PX3]

Do you experience the clutch judder primarily when pulling away in 1st gear?

I have had two BMW manuals in the past and both have had this issue. I just lived with it (although it was a nightmare in slow moving traffic), although I heard that the bmw clutch delay valve was the reason behind this and some people have had it removed completely to solve the issue. I never went down this route, but I guess you could see if they would replace the valve as a starting point.

[Hooded]

Originally Posted by PX3

Do you experience the clutch judder primarily when pulling away in 1st gear?

I have had two BMW manuals in the past and both have had this issue. I just lived with it (although it was a nightmare in slow moving traffic), although I heard that the bmw clutch delay valve was the reason behind this and some people have had it removed completely to solve the issue. I never went down this route, but I guess you could see if they would replace the valve as a starting point.

Same here, I've had two manual BMW's in the past that both occasionally suffered slight clutch judder when pulling away. It wasn't that bad or all of the time and never got any worse over years of ownership so I lived with it.

[npr]

Thanks for all your responses. Yes it occurs pulling away in 1st gear - it sonetime occurs when cold sometimes when warmed up, sometimes in comfort and sometimes in sport.

[ossi1]

Originally Posted by npr

Thanks for all your responses. Yes it occurs pulling away in 1st gear - it sonetime occurs when cold sometimes when warmed up, sometimes in comfort and sometimes in sport.

It could well be the dual mass flywheel . A quick search will link you to a couple of similar threads with the F30. I suffered this in two other cars both with Identical symptoms to yours. The Lexus IS200 suffered from it but they tried to fob it off as a characteristic of the car. They eventually changed the DMF and clutch under warranty and all was well. The same with a Vectra I had, both low mileage, same symptoms that would manifest itself on a bit of road close to my house. It was a slight uphill to a roundabout with queuing traffic, so stop/ start and that bloody judder.

Clutch wear just feels different and tends to be more consistent, a faulty DMF can be intermittent like yours.

[npr]

Thanks. If it is the DMF would that be a smaller job? Reason I ask is when I googled it as suggested one poster said they had paid £79 upfront for an inspection (that would be reimbursed if within the warranty ) and this is a lot less than the insection I was quoted of 4-5 hours to remove the gearbox

Is it possible to check the DMF first, and then if it isn't that only then check clutch ?(apologies I am not mechanically minded).

I'm torn with the replies above as some recommend living with it, others to get it seen to. I plan to keep the car for a while but don't want to fork out tons of money if it can be avoided.
Thanks
Nick

[kierownik]

Hi everyone.
I don't want to start a new post so I will try to describe my problem here.

I currently own a 2016 F30 320i with B48 engine and 29k miles on the clock. I'm the second owner and I've only had it for 2 weeks now. I previously owned a 2014 F20 116d with just 40k miles on it. My F20 had a really bad judder when cold and sometimes it wouldn't go away for days. I had to rev it higher to get smooth take off. Car went to we buy any car because I just didn't want to spend a grand to fix it, plus I wanted to change for a petrol anyway.
I got this F30 and it being a petrol I thought that it would be a lot better. During the test drive everything was perfect. 2 days later, early in the morning setting off to work, the clutch judders, not as bad as my f20 but judders on take off in 1st gear. I genuinely felt like someone just kicked me in the balls.
I've been driving it for 2 weeks now, took it to a dealer on monday for diagnostics but unfortunately this judder comes and goes and it doesn't happen when car is warmed up. So they said they couldn't feel anything. I would have to leave it with them overnight but even then there's no guarantee it would judder the next day.
The other worrying symptom is that when I press the engine start button and the engine is starting, the gearstick shakes a lot (a lot more than on my f20 diesel) and it is rather loud and it sounds and feels like something is knocking underneath. Once the engine is running it's quiet and ok although the gear stick seems to be shaking a bit (a bit more than my f20 again).

I have 3 months warranty on this car and I don't know what to do. I am worried that this could be the DMF and if they don't diagnose it and fix it before my warranty ends I will be in shit.

Any suggestions or ideas???
Thanks!

[MH94]

This is one of the reasons I was pushed towards automatics and now I wouldn't look back as two BMWs I had before both experienced this and I felt on a "luxury" car brand it should be a smooth and nice experience driving but in stop start traffic it was a nightmare as the clutch got hotter it got worse I hated it so I feel your pain

Matt.

[Eddamoo]

My Z4 used to have judder when cold. BMW fit a "clutch delay valve" to them to prevent the drive-train shock (i presume). After removing the valve it was night and day better. I would suggest looking into removing it.

Mr's has a F20 1-Series manual and is just the same. Virtually impossible to set off and do a 1-2 shift without judder and bouncing.

[kierownik]

Originally Posted by MH94

This is one of the reasons I was pushed towards automatics and now I wouldn't look back as two BMWs I had before both experienced this and I felt on a "luxury" car brand it should be a smooth and nice experience driving but in stop start traffic it was a nightmare as the clutch got hotter it got worse I hated it so I feel your pain

Matt.

Yeah, the automatic was a dream but unfortunately outside my budget.

It just shocks me because I've been doing a lot of reading for the past couple of days and a lot of people say that this is quite normal. I find it hard to accept that this is normal. I've only ever had manual cars and the only time I came across this kind of problem was when I got my first bmw f20.

[kierownik]

Originally Posted by Eddamoo

My Z4 used to have judder when cold. BMW fit a "clutch delay valve" to them to prevent the drive-train shock (i presume). After removing the valve it was night and day better. I would suggest looking into removing it.

Mr's has a F20 1-Series manual and is just the same. Virtually impossible to set off and do a 1-2 shift without judder and bouncing.

Yeah I read about the CDV but apparently on newer bmw's like mine it isn't an easy diy job at all. Plus I don't have tools for such job.

[Jim23k]

Just to chime in that my E91 320d juddered when setting off from cold. I learned to live with it. Didn't get any better or worse over 4-5 years of ownership but outside temperature/moisture seemed to affect it.