Hey everyone, I have a 2012 Cooper S Manual which I purchased early this year from a local MINI dealership. It's had quite a few problems already, which had fortunately all been dealt with under the factory warranty. However, there is just one niggly little issue which persists...

Basically once the car is warmed up the clutch pedal starts to feel rough/grinding whenever the pedal is pushed down or released. At first it was just the actual feel of the pedal which I noticed felt odd when the car was warm, but recently the rough feel has gotten noticeably worse and there is also a creaking sound accompanying depression and release of the clutch pedal, this sound can also be heard outside of the car.

It is a strange issue because the clutch otherwise operates completely fine and shows no signs of slippage etc. It may however be worth noting that one of the previous issues I had with the car was the ABS light failed going off which was fixed under warranty (was apparently down to faulty sensor).

I mentioned the weird feeling clutch when the ABS issue was being dealt with and the dealership could not find anything, and put it all down to the ABS issue which I was told could have caused a rough feeling clutch.

I would appreciate it if anyone has any idea what this problem might be with my clutch pedal and if this is a common issue at all with these cars.

Sorry for the long post !

 

I had a similar sound and feeling which led to burnt clutch on my 2009. The sound got worse as I drove it. I hope you aren't as misfortunate.

 

I just had a new clutch components replaced along with a new flywheel and I can also hear a creaking sound accompanying depression and release of the clutch pedal. Want to know something else strange, it did not make the creaking sound before I replaced my worn out clutch and flywheel that I drove for over a year with no sounds coming from the slave cylinder and no clutch problems at all. I would first look at your main and slave cylinders before touching the clutch! The main cylinder is attached to your clutch pedal, slave cylinder is mounted on the outside of the bottom of the transmission case, since there made of plastic......

 

The clutch pedal also has shims on it that wear out. Dealer replaced my assembly behind the pedal and the creaking stopped.

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I replaced both of those bushing myself, hardest part was compressing the return spring and getting it install. By accident I found out how to get the return spring back in, it took me all day while upside down to stumble on how to get it back in. If the OP requests the trick of how to reinstall the return spring in minutes I'd be glad to help out, I was cursing all day trying to get it in.

If your slave cylinder isn't operating properly it will cause stress on your clutch parts, a bad slave cylinder has been the cause for early clutch failures! If you're thinking about replacing the slave cylinder it a good idea to replace the main cylinder (attached to clutch pedal) as well because they exert great hydraulic force on one another, you then need to pressure fill and bleed your clutch/braking system. My advice pay the dealer to do it because it's a pain in the ***!

 

For the OP: any other dealers nearby to take a look at it? Mine was swapped out under warranty.

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Thanks for your input nine5raptor. I am hoping my issue is something similar to this, it would be very misfortunate if I were to have to fork out for a whole a new clutch at just 12k, since it would be classed as a wear and tear item. Did your clutch pedal also give you a grinding/rusty feel to it when pushing it down once the car is warmed up? If anything this is more of a nuisance to me than the little squeak since it affects my enjoyment of driving the car.

I highly appreciate your offer to try and help me figure out how to replace the bushings on the clutch pedal. Unfortunately, I'm most likely nowhere near as mechanically inclined as you are with these cars, and since the car is still under factory warranty, I will try and recreate the issue in front of a mechanic at the MINI dealership.

I am just hoping to god they don't just give me the usual 'they all do that' line, only to have the clutch give out on me a few months down the road, in turn forcing me to pick up the bill for a brand new clutch

There are conveniently quite a few other MINI dealers very close to me, I will have one of the other dealers look at the problem since I have already mentioned the issue to my current dealership who seem a little bit incompetent at identifying clear issues with my car. I'm hoping this will be fixed under warranty as well, I will let everyone know what the dealers say next week.

Anyone else feel free to add to this discussion, the more information I can get here, the better position I might be in not to get ripped off by the stealers!

 

I also have a 6-year warranty on my MCS but felt I could do the job for a lot less than the cost of my deductible of $200, I almost regretted doing it myself. Had I not figured out how to get the return spring back on I'd be head buttung myself!

 

Mine was more of a click than a grind or squeak. New assembly was much smoother and felt like a brand new clutch even though it was only the pedal assembly.

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Just to update this thread unfortunately Im still having problems with my clutch! :(

If any of you technical gurus could offer some expertise on my latest issue I would be forever grateful.

I'm now getting a whirring/droning sound coming from the front of the car which can be felt through the clutch pedal. Here are the symptoms:

1. The noise only appears upwards of 3k RPM's
2. Noise can be heard when the clutch is DEPRESSED (whether in neutral or in gear), and the noise can also be heard when the clutch is RELEASED but only in gear.
3. No noise at any RPM when freely revving in neutral. But as soon as clutch is depressed (still in neutral), noise comes back.

Does this sound like a bad throw out bearing?

 

The throw out bearing is only engaged when the clutch is depressed as far as I know - I could be totally wrong.

Wild guess - Could be a thrust bearing in the motor. Clutch depressed pushes axially on the flywheel and crankshaft. I have heard of crank walk issues on these motors though. Dunno, I'm stumped.

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Classic symptoms of your clutch components like I stated earlier in my post, it sounds like the dealer isn't accommodating you well at all. You need to go back to the dealer and let them know you're not backing down, they sold this Mini to you, you have a warranty. Why haven't you gone back to the dealer? You need to talk with someone with a bit more authority, otherwise you're going to be paying $3500 for a new clutch and flywheel! Don't allow the dealer to blow you off.