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| Message: | Background info: 21,021 miles as of yesterday morning when I dropped-off my car for Inspection 1 which took them 5 hours to do. Took it back late yesterday and drove it for around 20 miles and it was perfectly fine. I was headed to an SCCA autocross this morning in Englishtown, NJ around 7 AM which is about 35 miles away from my home. About 7 miles away I stopped-by a McDonald's drive-thru to go grab breakfast and coffee. When I slowed-down to about 2 mph just before to a complete stop the car suddenly stalled. I restarted it back up and immediately I hear the death rattle coming from what I thought was the engine compartment. I turned it off and restarted it again but this time it made a clunking noise except it was continous and coming from the clutch area. If I depress the clutch, the noise goes away. So I drive away thinking that there's a very real possibility that I just blew my engine going thru a McDonald's drive-thru at 2 mph! Came out of the parking lot and started merging into traffic and into the highway. I immediately noticed the LACK OF POWER. I mean it really felt like I had a 100 hp engine all of a sudden. Check engine light came on. I pulled over and started it back up. Check engine light was still on. So since Englishtown was so close I decided to continue on especially since I knew some of the guys were going there, namely 2002M3Drew, CG, AC and njracer. I figured I could show it to them and get an opinion. After all, there's jacks and tools all over the place and maybe it could just be a simple fix if they know about it. At the parking lot early in the day, even if I depress the clutch, the engine would just stall after about 10 seconds. Around lunch time I came back to it again and we looked at it again and the only time it would stall is if I release the clutch. And now the clutch area has a distinct, loud ticking sound. I got home perfectly fine but I really needed to rev that engine all the way to 5,000 RPM in first gear and second gear just to get the car moving! The engine just would not rev as fast as before too. In the lower RPMs, it would buck and lurch until it gets higher than 3,000 RPM. It felt like something was holding it back. Like I said, a 100 hp 2003 E46 M3. After I got home, I revved the engine without load and it would rev almost as quickly as normal but it doesn't have that nice roar sound to it. It sounded strained. And the clutch area ticking sound is loud enough that even someone who's completely clueless about even changing the oil could tell something's not right. Anyway, bringing it in on Monday. Any thoughts what it could be? Thanks in advance. P.S. Once again, thanks a lot 2002M3Drew and njracer for offering me to co-drive your cars. I appreciate it. I would've loved to drive that Boxster S with Hoosiers! But I was too distracted and all I could think of was my baby. Sigh.  | ||||
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