Hi there,

I commute to work regularly in the morning traffic with my e34 and usually after an hour or sometimes 2hrs of traffic jam driving my clutch starts to shudder. First slightly, then violently every time I try to leave from standstill. The only way to get going is to leave like a madman, revving high and dumping the clutch which only makes the problem worse. It seems like the clutch doesn't get adequately cooled. If I leave the car for half an hour it's over and I can drive normal again. I know you guys don't have a lot of experience with the diesels which are more popular in Europe but my neighbour who used to drive an E36 petrol had exactly the same problem.

I'm kind of looking for advice on what to do, I would like to have this fixed, but there seems to be nothing wrong with the clutch itself despite it having almost 140k miles on it. It still catches on very good and I don't feel like fixing it if it's not going to make any difference.

Thanks a lot in advance for any reply.

Your clutch can't dissipate heat as well when it's wearing thin. Not that it doesn't work normally, but under extreme usage, it just can't handle the heat - no pun intended. Your clutch disc is getting to the point that it can't stand up to repeated usage.

It certainly sounds like a heat problem. Do you sit in traffic with your foot on the clutch or do you put the car in neutral and release the clutch. If your clutch needs adjustment when you fully depress it the pressure plate may not retract far enough, so even through you are not transmitting enough force to move the car your clutch is still slightly applied and constantly slipping even though the pedal is all the way in.