For those of you that have had the "NEW" clutch put in after the old one failed, did you have a very strong burning clutch smell right away. I just picked up my car from the dealership this AM after they put in the new clutch. Right away I could tell it was different! The pedal as almost zero resistance to it. By the time I made it 3 miles I was already smelling burning clutch. When I got it home and got out, the smell was REALLY bad! It smelled like the car wanted to burn to the ground. I left it in the driveway for about an hour, then pulled it into the garage. That 15' made the burning smell all over again.

On top of that, my satalite radio is just, gone! Its like it was never an option in my car!
:sigh:


Back to the dealer I go...

 

Sorry about the trouble. Please update with outcome.

 

you may want to double check that they installed the new 2013 clutch... not a new pre-2013 clutch...

I forgot where I read this... but some countryman owner had a similar issue where he got his pre 2013 clutch replaced with a "new" 2013 clutch.

that "new" 2013 clutch ending up failing as well... it turns out that the guys at the dealership were instructed to replace the pre 2013 clutches with a "new" pre-2013 clutch and not the new 2013 clutch.

long story short, the owner complained to the dealer, then the dealer put in the correct 2013 clutch and now the owner's countryman doesn't have the pre-2013 clutch problems any more...

 

Your new clutch is probably cooked. Something is not allowing the clutch to fully release and the lining is burning away. Sorry, how irritating.

 

Yep, I had them pull the parts from the back, and show me the part number on the box. It was indeed the new clutch numbers. When they pulled it apart, they also found the fly wheel was toast as well. Something didn't go back together right!
Also, I found that my NAV is gone too! The SA said they had to update the car after the new clutch went in, and it was probably specific to a car that had no NAV or SAT radio.

She goes back to the dealer in the AM! I told them they better give me the GP sitting on the floor as my loaner this time around!

 

i saw a gp at the dealership... maybe you should just do a trade-in for it?

 

It is normal that the new clutch smells for the first days and miles.
You will see, that in a few days and round about 100 Kilometers everything is fine with the new 2013 clutch.

 

For us, zero smelly clutch with new improved design. So far.

 

I had absolutely _no_ clutch smells with the '2013' clutch after installation in my 2011 - I'd like to disagree.

 

If you smell the clutch that bad, it is slipping, end of story. Something must not be engaging correctly, or they did not resurface the flywheel, which means it could be worn in an odd way from the previous clutch and is not meshing correctly with the new clutch disk. If this is the case, it will wear the new clutch extremely quickly in those low/ high spots. Not good!

 

They found that the old fly wheel was trashed as well, when they opened her up. So I was told there was a new fly wheel as well.

I took a new '13 for a trip around the block when I took my car back in on Saturday. I was not impressed with how the clutch felt in that car. I still could not take off from a start without "jerking" the car, or feeling like was was burning the clutch up!

Who knows...maybe I can't drive a manual after all!

 

No, issues on the new 2013 clutch so far

 

No burnt clutch smell either on mine since the day I picked it up new with < 100 kms on the odometer..

 

I had a new model clutch (at least according to the work order) and a new flywheel put in 10 days ago. The pedal is much better. There was a fairly strong smell on the first day. With 100 miles on the new clutch, I believe the smell is much fainter now, though not entirely gone. I have not reported this to the SA as I thought I would give it a few hundred miles.

I'm thinking that by now (6 months after the introduction of the new clutch), there would already be reported failures with the new clutch if it were no better than the old clutch.

 

I took my car back in on Saturday morning, to have them check it out again. I have not heard a word from them since, so I called for an update. The SA reports that they have to replace my entire radio due to the update not being reversible. That wont even be in for another day. They drove it around the block, got no clutch smell, and are calling it good! I really can't see how they were not able to get that clutch to smell. So now I will have to take them for a drive on Fri/Sat (when ever it will be ready) Get the clutch to stink for them, and then hand it back to them for another week!

 

I had the clutch replaced over the weekend with the new 2013 part but they did not replace the flywheel since they said it wasn't worn. They said the clutch had cracks with only 10k miles. The car is still shuddering when I'm shifting into 1st. Should the flywheel have been replaced even though it showed no wear? I've driven manual cars for twenty years and never had this shuddering problem when trying to get into first gear. Should the car go back to the dealer for more diagnosis or is this just the way it "drives"?

 

That isn't normal IMO at all... they should have at least resurfaced the flywheel.. If they didn't you will get the shuddering your talking about.. If you ever put a new clutch in you always resurface the flywheel.. Its like putting brakes on warp rotors...you just don't do it...lol

 

I had both the clutch and flywheel replaced and I now have a very smooth takeoff... huge difference from original clutch.

 

New clutch and flywheel replaced with mine, and it seems worse than before they replaced it. The dealership refuses to agree with me. Every time I drive it, I get a burning clutch smell. I've seriously about had it with this car!!

 

I just replaced the whole car because of this crappy clutch. Took huge hit on trade as expected but car was paid for so it was worth it to me.

 

At 9,950 miles, the new 2013 clutch is in, but they didn't replace the flywheel because they said there were no "heat spots" on it. They said the clutch had cracks in it so they replaced it under warranty. The MA stipulated that Mini will only cover 1 clutch replacement under the warranty. To me, this indicates they think I drove the clutch into the ground and this is why it cracked, although maybe I took the comment the wrong way. The car has low mileage for a car that is 2o months old. The car still shudders when I try to get out of 1st gear one day after the new clutch was put in. This is my 4th car with a manual transmission over the last 20 years, and the 3 others before this one always moved forward after I took my foot off the clutch and gave it a very small amount of gas, but this one shudders when I do that and needs me to rev the gas much more to get it into 1st gear without the car shuddering and sometimes stalling. When I'm on a hill, I have low confidence that I won't roll into the car behind me when trying to move forward. It's not fun driving this car, and I'm disappointed I'm no expert but this doesn't seem right. I called back today saying I am having the same shudder issue even with the new clutch, and the MA says its because the ALL4 requires more gas to engage 1st gear. He said he'll speak to the service technician and get back to me. I mentioned the known issues with the clutch I've discovered and asked why they didn't replace the flywheel with the clutch, and he said mini won't cover a replacement for a part that's not worn. Very frustrated here. I'm thinking about trading the car in and taking a loss because I'm afraid this is only going to get worse and I only have 15 months left on the 3/36.

 

My experience was that all the manual ALL4s I tried (2011, 2012) were very easy to stall out on starting up. As time went on it became unpredictable - very embarrassing at a signal with guests in the car.

When the car was apart for putting in the '13 clutch, the service group sent me a photo of my clutch - it was slightly worn with some burn marks (Duh!), but looked essentially like every other clutch I'd had with a manual and I didn't opt to pay for a new one to be inserted.

After the new clutch was installed, and until today, months later, I can reliably start out on the flat with the engine at idle and gentle clutch release. I could definitely not do that with the previous clutch.

Something about your experience doesn't sound right - wrong clutch part, more serious flywheel issues, I don't know. Your report is very different from my experience.

As to revving and using the clutch on the hill - the ALL4 is still a heavy car with a small engine and a manual transmission - it's sweaty palms in San Francisco on waiting for the light at the top of a hill, even with the new clutch. It's just less likely to stall out with the new clutch.

 

Im starting to think the MINI service people are nothing more then parts changers.. they have no clue thinking outside of the box so to speak.. In other words im having very little confidence in there mechanical skills to trouble shoot problems..to them the answer is lets just try to replace a part!! If it works it works..if it doesn't to bad to sad.. In your case a visual check on the flywheel it not enough.. You always at least resurface the flywheel to make sure it is true and not warp at all.. That way you have a good matting surface to the new clutch disc and pressure plate.. That is just like mechanics 101.. So what did they all replace when they put the new clutch in? What is the list of items?

 

Here's the part list from the service invoice:

1@ 23.11.7.545.084 pressure pin
1@ 23.11.7.568.467 clutch rel. fork lev
1@ 21.20.8.606.067 et clutch parts
1@ 35.31.1.165.566 compression spring
4@ 83.22.0.432.558 oil for manual tran
2@ 31.10.6.768.886 hexagon nut with co
2@ 31.10.6.773.005 hex nut with flange
2@ 37.10.6.789.678 hex nut with flange
1@ 18.30.2.756.352 clamp
2@ 31.35.6.757.707 hex nut with plate

Here is the commentary on the invoice from when they diagnosed the problem:

"Test drove vehicle and verified the clutch to slip and have excessive chatter during engagement. Inspected the clutch pedal travel, hydraulic components, and clutch releases fully. Removed clutch and inspected it, found it to show signs of heat cracks on the disc and glazing on the pressure plate. Installed new clutch with required hardware, filled trans fluid, and test drove. verified the clutch to engage smoothly and vehicle to now drive properly."

I don't even know what a slipping clutch feels like, but according to them, it was slipping. Does a slipping clutch cause the car to shudder and stall when you don't have enough forward motion to propel the car? i always thought that releasing the clutch provided a certain amount of forward motion and you give it an inordinate amount of gas to get it going, and then the gear engaged. At least this is how I've driven all my other cars, and how I learned to drive a manual. I've driven an automatic transmission that's slipping, and after the RPMS get too high then the transmission thuds when it finally gets into gear. I can tell you I wasn't experiencing anything remotely similar to this type of situation when trying to get into first gear. I'm still waiting for the service advisor to call me back to tell me when to bring the car back. I have no faith that this car will make it into a mid to high mileage age given these types of issues with only 10k miles on the car. I am wondering if the lemon law comes into play at a certain point if they can't fix the shuddering while shifting into 1st gear.

 

And for the record, I really like the car and am very disappointed at this situation. I had a 08 Cooper S hard top before this which I loved and upgraded to a countryman for the All4.