Your BMW Pressure Plate is what makes it all happen. The pressure plate is one of the three main friction components in your clutch, and it’s responsible for clamping the clutch disc to the engine flywheel, transferring torque. As you might imagine, to do all that clamping the pressure plate relies on some heavy-duty springs. Long finger-type springs are used on most modern BMW pressure plates, but some older ones may still use coil springs to supply the clamping force necessary to drive your car.

When you step on the clutch pedal, the resistance you feel is the resistance of the springs in the BMW pressure plate. They may not feel so tough to your foot, but keep in mind that you have the advantages of hydraulic pressure working to help you counteract the springs. When you let off the clutch pedal, the pressure plate sandwiches the clutch disc between itself and the flywheel, and power gets sent to the transmission. A clutch pressure plate rarely goes bad on its own, but it’s nearly always replaced when you change a clutch. That’s to ensure that the new clutch disc mates smoothly with the pressure plate surface.