BMW 120d Sport Manual - easy to stall?

[RichBurley]

Please don't scoff, I've driven lots of cars, some small, many big. Mostly manual, plus a few automatic boxes. It's a car for the wife. She likes "easy to drive" cars; many women do.

She took one out last weekend and stalled it quite a few times on the test drive. I swapped over and stalled it once, too! Slightly embarassing but made me wonder about the clutch? It was an 05 plate car on around 70,000 miles. Jumped into another 120d Sport this lunch time. Manual once again. Stalled it again. This once had done 46,000 miles and is on a 55 plate.

With a clutch like that, I don't think it ticks the "easy to drive" box. Is this typical for the 120d ?

The guys at the garage all say "it's a diesel, you'll have to get used to depressing the accelerator for longer, to build up engine speed, before dropping the clutch. Lyn used to have a Punto with a 1.9td engine and it didn't seem to stall ; quite the opposite; I always thoughts diesels were harder to stall?

I'd hate Lyn to stall whilst pulling out at a junction; is it just a question of putting a new clutch on it?

I think that Lyn shouldn't HAVE to "get used to it". Is the 120 petrol manual much better i.e. much harder to stall? Are we just too used to petrol engines?

Can anyone help before I hand over £10,000 and then find Lyn hates the way the car drives and never "gets used to it"?

Edited by RichBurley on Thursday 26th March 10:50

[rm163603]

Sounds like the clutch delay valve is causing the issue. This is basically a restrictor valve in the clutch line that means you can't drop the clutch faster than a preset speed.

This is designed to minimise wear on the drivetrain but in reality makes the clutch a lot harder to judge.

I removed the valve on my 1 series (it's easy) and the clutch is a lot more predicatble now and the biting point easier to judge.

[RichBurley]

rm163603 said:

Sounds like the clutch delay valve is causing the issue. This is basically a restrictor valve in the clutch line that means you can't drop the clutch faster than a preset speed.

This is designed to minimise wear on the drivetrain but in reality makes the clutch a lot harder to judge.

I removed the valve on my 1 series (it's easy) and the clutch is a lot more predicatble now and the biting point easier to judge.

Won't this cause the clutch to drop faster and in fact INCREASE the risk of stalling?

[rm163603]

I see what you mean but not really.

The valve makes the biting point a bit harder to judge instinctively.

[Deano_BMW]

its a god awful thing! Its the single most annoying thing about my car and will be being removed when i change the clutch soon.

[wobert]

My 2005 120d Sport has done 72k miles (owned it since 7k miles) and even I occassionally stall it.

For a diesel it has very little flywheel inertia, hence it revs quite easily, but the downside is it stalls quite easily too.

It only tends to happen when I pull away at minimal revs over tickover speed, the engine bogs slightly, then stalls. Easily fixed by just increasing the "pull away" engine speed.

HTH

Robert

[LocoBlade]

Ive got a 123d and thats not great either. I stalled it a couple of times when I first had it, haven't done it recently but its certainly not as foolproof as the majority of diesels Ive driven in the past, all of which you'd struggle to stall if you tried.

[RichBurley]

Now Lyn is wondering if the 120i is going to be easier to drive with the petrol engine being freer revving? She's looking out for a 120i instead - can any of the guys who have a petrol 1 series comment on whether stalling has ever been a problem before we travel miles for what we think is the right one?

Cheers,

Rich