I figured it would be informative to share with you guys on what the DCT can handle and it would be wise to play close attention as this information can easily expand the life of your dual clutch pack.
The super charger was introduced to the car with 1,100 miles on the odometer , it actually went in for its first service with the blower on the car along with a BBK kit and dropped, when I pulled in most of the tech had a WTF look on their face and all were skeptical of the life of the motor and tranny/clutch considering the new 600whp power level.
Side Note : it's pretty funny looking at their questionable faces wondering if the car can hold such power and for how long, now me ..... I'm confident it can considering this was my 3rd supercharged E9x M3
.
Now the juicy stuff:
The car now currently has 23k on the clock
yes I drive the car on a daily basis and I drive it HARD
as most of you who know me personally already know. Now don't get me wrong this doesn't mean you can jump in your M and beat the shit out of it and not have to worry about anything, it all boils down to this ........ The way you treat your car your car will treat you! It doesn't get simpler than that so with that being said here are the key ingredient's to success.
Engine/blower/DCT precautionary measures:
-I always warm up the car to normal operating temps before I do any spirited driving.
DCT:
The do's
- always start your races or hard driving on up shifts ! What I mean by this is always be in your take off gear and in S mode, This is the key ingredient to smooth shifting and long clutch life.
The don'ts
- never punch your car in D mode as it calls for the tranny to down shift which causes the clutch to semi slip before it clamps/grips , now given the added power, that slip cause major heat on the clutch pack and as most of you with bowers on their M's that do this have gotten a warning or in some cases caused the car Togo into limp mode until the clutches cooled down
this type of driving method will cause rough shift points.
- never punch your car from a dead stop !! This will cause a semi launch and not to mention it will cause a glaze spot in all your odd gears!
Who ever has done this will notice that every time you shift into 3rd 5th and 7th you will get a jerky shift
. Well that's from punching it in 1st at a dead stop.
Always use launch control ! Or.... Take off from a roll while the clutch is engaged.
Follow these steps and you will experience long clutch life
I personally put 22k miles on my clutch and over 100 launch controls at the drag strip and all was fine until my last drag strip event
.....
I couldn't use launch control cause I couldn't hook for shit due to the cold weather so I would punch it off the line ( failed to take my own advice ) which caused this glazed spot in all my odd gears. The clutch never slipped even after all this but it did make my shifting jerky which drove me crazy
so I ended up putting a new clutch in and now the problem is solved and my shifts are smooth as butter
.
Overall I'm impressed with these cars on the amount of abuse they can take and it would have lasted a lot longer if I had only declined to punch it off the line or....... Had purchased a set of MT's which I then would have been able to utilize launch control and would have avoided this problem but hey .... Lesson learned !
I hope this will be helpful for you guys and gals!
