Yaaayyyyy sunnygirl! I'm really glad to hear MINI's doing the right thing and you'll stay mostly sunny!

For me it's a lot easier to support a company (and continue doing business with them) if they will stand behind their product. While I certainly acknowledge that operator error can lead / contribute to part failure, working with the customer who has invested in your product seems a much wiser business strategy than just hanging them out to dry.

And I wasn't kidding when I said I may have learned something. Maybe I've had it wrong all these years. But if so, I agree with the poster who said clutch operation technique should be clearly stated in the manual and all MAs should be taught and pass on that information to their customers.

HappyHeartMom, I hope your resolution is next!

 

Thank you for your time in helping us, Sunnygirl. What made them decide to replace it if it was a burned up pressure plate? How long did the negotiations take?

Perhaps your case will help ours.

We just gave the dealer the ok to open it up and have a look but have no qualms about contacting Mini - USA again. It would be natural for the dealer to want reimbursement for the replaced parts. I do not think they will replace it with an upgraded clutch and this concerns me also. I really get the feeling they do not care. We should hear from them soon.

 

These comments are valuable to me, thank you, z06invb. Sunnygirl included a pdf on luk clutch problems, looks like much can go wrong and that it doesn't take very much for it to go wrong. Thanks again.

 

Thank you Tedswoods for your kind and thoughtful comments here. I agree, and seem to remember going on a test drive with our sa when I picked up the car. No special instructions or comments about my shifting technique. They will probably call tomorrow and let me know what's up and then we can take it from there. Thanks again.

 

This is what Mini should do. Have a representative drive around all day with a with a bad clutch customer (in a loaner Mini) and see if the person can actually drive manual transmission. This will only solve the drive error problem not abuse.

 

Hey Happy Heart Mom,

I have an 07 MCS with less than 15,000 miles on it. On Sunday I took a nice ride up the Santa Monica coast then went to a mall. The mall parking lot was FULL so I had to do a lot of starting and stopping in the parking lot. All of the sudden my car started to smell REALLY bad, like something was burning. It was kind of like a burnt rubber smell. Anyway, I finally got a spot and opened the hood. I thought the car was just over heated or something but no signals came on my displays and my sport button kept disengaging. I didn't see any smoke when I popped the hood and the smell seemed to come from my exhaust.

What smell did you notice??

Could it be my turbo??

 

Chili Cart go look under your tailpipe. Since you were at the mall you might've just ran over a plastic shopping bag. I ran over a dry clean bag once.

 

burning clutch smells very similar to burning brakes. They are made of similar materials.

 

Hi Chili Cart,
Please keep us posted as to what you find out. The smelly smoke on my car seemed to come from under the hood and smelled almost rubber-like, I thought it might have been something electrical.

 

If anyone is curious as to what a toasted clutch smells like, just attend a MINI Autocross event, esp. one that has amateur drivers with sketchy shifting techniques. Last time I did, two MCSs (R53s) sat dead on the sidelines with burnt clutches, waiting for their tow trucks, the brake-pad-like smell wafting thick in the air, owners competely dejected. Ruh-Row, Scooby...

That's why many who regularly track their cars replace the OEM components with heavier duty clutches and flywheels; a friend of mine replaced his with a Clutchmasters setup (with a regular, not dual-mass FW) on his modded 03 S and couldnt be happier. 45,000 miles since replacement, with twice a month at the track, and all's still well!

 

Well, Happyheartmom, you started this thread almost a month ago, what's happened since?

Have you replaced your clutch?

Are you still driving your car?

What's up?

EDit: saw where you gave the dealer the OK to remove the clutch and check it out yesterday - have they done so yet?

 

Picked my MINI back up today!

An SA took us (my husband came along) out on a drive - we thought that MINI-USA had requested us to go with the SA, the SA thought we had requested to go out on a drive with him.

He wasn't really giving any shifting pointers, and said while I seemed a little nervous (which was true), I wasn't doing anything to hurt the clutch. After our drive back home, no clutch smell, all seems to be working OK for now.

sunnygirl

 

[quote=MINIdave;2839927]Well, Happyheartmom, you started this thread almost a month ago, what's happened since?

Well, the dealer was given the ok yesterday to take it apart and look. I thought we would have heard from them one way or another today, but nothing. Perhaps they will call tomorrow if it is convenient for them. No missed calls on the phone.

 

And not a peep from them today either.

 

Following thread with great interest and any motorcycle rider worth their salt will tell you, KEEP the tranny in gear when at a light etc...

In case some one forgets, that you are in front of them or does not notice the light. You can drop that clutch and get out of their way pronto!!

It is a safety issue, the same applies for Minis and other cars. Take her out of gear once you feel safe and are safe!

Throw out bearing can take it, they are roller ball thrust bearings, spinning at idle speeds with just the pressure plate force. This will not damage them unless they were incorrectly specified.

Pressure plate burning/glazing is can be caused by weak springs, the issue is a snowball one, because heat from a slipping clutch will weaken the springs further.

Unless you "ride the clutch" "revup turbo then slip to prevent wheel spin etc.. then damage to the system is not your fault!!

 

Congrats on a good outcome to a bad start. I don't know what a driver could possibly do to kill a clutch in such a short time unless the disc was never fully engaged (some slippage all the time) due to an improper factory set up.

Love to hear what that told you the cause was when you picked it up. You have a great attitude and I agree these verts are too much fun to let the corporate types ruin it for you. Glad they finally did the right thing!

 

I took my baby to Universal MINI because I'm a bit underwhelmed with the guys at Assael MINI Monrovia (where I bought her)... anyway, the guy working the desk was attentive and gave me some respect which is always nice as a broad going into a mechanics shop (you boys won't understand how that can feel). He took a ride with me and told me the clutch seemed okay.

I asked him why the clutches are so cheap (this is the second issue I've had with my clutch and you will remember that I've only put on less than 15, 000 spirited miles on her). He said, "they're not cheap. They are high performance. Like any quick cars and prone to this problem in stop & go traffic."

Hmmm. Well long story short, he said he didn't want to sell me anything I didn't need because my clutch didn't seem to have slipped. Admirable.

I'll keep you posted.

 

"...prone to problems in stop and go traffic?" Any mention in the manual about this? What a crock....

Three days after the dealer was given the ok to go in and have a look and still no phone call as to what they found. So much for living in Oregon. Needless to say, this does not sit well with my family.

For me, I just do not want anyone else to ever have to go through what we have gone through. You are not the only person who mentioned stop and go traffic. Duhh...it might be important for people to know this might not be the best choice of car for the city.

 

I'm sorry, but I have to take issue with your last statement. MINI recently built it's 1 millionth car, most of them are manual transmission cars, most of them live in a city.

Just because you or even 10 people are having clutch trouble does not mean that the car is no good. 10 out of a million? 100 out of a million? Do you really think it's the car's fault?

I think you may have had a bad clutch or a malfunction in the clutch - either the linkage or the hydraulics or something - or you burned it up. But it's not right to condem an entire line of cars because you've had trouble with yours, is it?

Same thing with the dealer. There are a few dealers who seem to have demonstrated an extreme lack of customer srevice, there are also a lot of them who go over and above to take good care of their MINI owners - you can't paint everyone with those broad strokes. if you're upset that your dealer hasn't called you, why not do something about it? Call them!

Help others to have good customer service from this dealer by pointing out to them how they've dropped the ball with you. Call the GM of the store, he'll listen to you, and he'll probably get to the bottom of your problem a lot quicker. Try being proactive, not whiney...............

Let us know what happens, I'm still curious to hear what caused your clutch to smoke...........

 

This is precisely why many opt for autos That, and maybe say having a disability.

 

He's right about one thing: they are not cheap, about $3K with a new DMF, which should be done with the new clutch.

and the thing about it, if you keep the car and get an xtended warranty that clutch and dmf arent covered.

So, would anyone on this forum balk at trading in a 2005 MCS with only 27K and more clutch problems you could throw sticks at, 60 days before the OEM warranty expired?

Didnt think so.

 

Well yeah, if you're driving mostly stop and go traffic then you lose absolutely all the benefits of a manual transmission while incessantly increasing wear and tear on your vehicle. Something basic to consider when you purchase a car I would assume.

As for the dealer not responding promptly, if they gave you a definite time frame to respond and they haven't within that period, time to call the GM. Whatever the issue is, poor service is something no one should stand for. Stay aggressive!

 

I was curious to know if the others on this blog who experienced clutch problems and problems with the dealers if they were also told it would cost them$700 just to go into the thing and determine if it was a defect or "user abuse"? I forgot to mention this in my opening post.

My husband had also asked about replacing the clutch with an upgrade and the assist. service manager didn't know anything about it. There are upgrades available, check this link:

http://tinyurl.com/pygnk8

Some of the second generation mini s models get approx only 45,000 miles on the clutch.

 

NOPE!

My SA at MOP went into the car, smelled the clutch burn smell, tried shifting gears, and asked me if I wanted to wait in the owners lounge or take a loaner and he would call.

He just said they would look at it and see what needed to be done.

Never mentioned money at all.

Didnt take him bout an hour or so to come over and let me know everything covered under warranty, the parts were ordered, they would be installed the next day, and oh, did I want to pick out a loaner? Even asked what color loaner I wanted!

Never mentioned anything about money or payment. Why would I want to pay them to tell me what is wrong if they are going to fix it under warranty?

 

Yikes. Hopefully the $700 will be fully refunded to you if they find the clutch is defective.