I have taken my 2009 R57 to several track days. Monday, while driving on a track my clutch went out completely -- destroyed my flywheel too. The instructor in the car said that I did not do anything to cause this. He was surprised when it happened.

I am 5 hours away from home. Nearest Mini/BMW dealer is 100 miles away. I am having a local shop replace the clutch and flywheel and I purchased the parts on my credit card from a BMW dealer who overnighted the parts to the shop. My first priority has been to fix the car so that I can get home. It looks like I will finally get home on Thursday (what a nightmare)

Parts were around $1400 and labor will be over $800. I have been assuming that this is all on my dime because it happened on the track.

In the 19 months they we have had the car we have smelled a strong clutch/brakes smell occasionally during normal street driving. I now believe it was always the clutch and the clutch probably would have gone out soon anyway on the street. (although maybe it would have been a more gradual demise)

I have been reluctant to tell my dealership about this because I have heard rumors about BMW voiding warantees of people who track their cars. I bought the parts from a different dealership without giving them the VIN. (although they do have my name from the CC purchase).

Would it have been reasonable to level with BMW and expect them to contribute part of the cost of parts?

Since I did buy the parts from BMW, should I try to make a claim for partial reimbursement now?

I would not expect BMW to pay for the non-BMW labor, but it sure would be nice to offset this tremendous cost of the parts a little.

BTW, I would have opted to replace the clutch and flywheel with OS Giken or similar but I was unable to find any with a reasonable lead time for my situation. Then at least I would have seen this as a performance upgrade and of course the cost would be mine.

What do you guys think? What should I have done in the first place? And given what I have already done do you see any options for me now?


--BobG

 

Does the car have any mods? Better if there are no mods.

If the car is stock, I believe that running HPDE may not generally void your warranty if there is no abuse of the car. Do you have the original clutch? If you do, have them take a look at it to determine if they think the failure is quality related.

If it was my car, I would taken it to the dealer and have them look at it when it first broke down.

PS: I have a 2008 R56 MCS that has been running in the advance HPDE group 33 days so far and the dealer has replaced some things on warranty but not others. Kind of hit or miss.

 

No mods on my mini. (its a S R57, BTW)

Thanks for the advise.

Now I am thinking of something else that I did not consider when I made the initial decision to have the local shop fix it instead of towing to a dealer. By having a non-bmw shop install my new OEM clutch/flywheel, did I void all or part of my warranty? I feel sick about this whole mess. (still want to do more HPDE, though

BTW, it would have been around $1000 to transport my Mini back to home dealer.

--BobG

 

Within the hearts of man always beats that thought that when I tear it up maybe---just maybe---I can find someone else to pay the price!

You really had to realize it was somewhat risky when you got through signing all those releases absolving everyone in a hundred miles from blame before they would let you run.

As far as voiding the warranty---not a chance. The only thing they could void would be the clutch if you tore it out again and if they figured out it had been changed. Just don't tell them you did it on the track.

 

Would not worry about the new clutch voiding any warranty. It is afterall Mini OEM.

If it was me, I would just move on.

BTW, if you are in the NE USA running HPDE, come along with us.

 

I don't see why it's surprising to expect MINI to cover part failure on a car that's advertised as a performance car. Assuming the car is stock and not bring abused (redlining, gear grinding, etc), a car advertised as a performance car should be able to be used as such without breaking.

Regarding waivers, those are for crashes, which aren't relevant to this topic.

 

I may be of a slightly different opinion on the definition of abuse. I do not think red lining a car is abuse. I think riding on the clutch or brakes is. And I think that a money shift is as well. Perhaps sematics ...

You are correct about the waivers being to protect those operating the event and nothing to do with Mini.

 

Yeah, money shift is more what I meant. If the car wasn't meant to rev up to the redline or rev limiter, they should have made the redline lower.

 

slinger688, what HPDE group are you referring to? I am in the NYC area. So far the only club that I have found that lets me track my convertible is PDA. They are a nice group, but I don't see other minis on the track.

--BobG

 

Take a look at this thread:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3276652

FYI, very few of us run PDA (except for VV) as we feel there is not enough track time and many times they have drivers with only a few years on the road and driving soaped up racers.

 

Forgot to mention, Ian or Elivan from SCDA (see www.scda1.com) should let you run your cabrio if you pass the broomstick test. Bmwcca, Trackmasters and a number of others will likely not.

 

Really! The expectation of coverage probably ends with the disclaimer in the Warranty that deals with racing and track use. It is advertised as a passenger vehicle for on road use, not a race car.

 

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Its hard to pass the broomstick test with a popup roll bar. They don't make an allowance for the amount that the bar rises. I called sdca last fall and was told that they will not allow cabrio's with popups so I have never tried.

So PDA seems to be the only game in town for me.

At PDA, I have had 3 very good and experienced instructors so far.

Interesting that you get more track time with other clubs.

--BobG

 

HPDE is not racing, for one.

Secondly, MINI itself allowed MINI owners to drive hot laps at Road Atlanta during the MINI vs. Porsche event. There's no way they would do that if it voided the cars' warranties.

 

You need to put on a roll bar. I would be very weary of pop ups if it was me on the track.

 

I have read this whole thread TWICE and you are all for getting a few things.

1 how many miles does the car have on it? As the car is less than 4 years old MINI Roadside Assistance is still in affect.

2. If it is HDPE then there should be no problem in covering it under warranty but dealers my have a problem. so Push the car outside the gates and have it picked up by roadside assistance and then the dealer will cover it.

Yes you probably did not do anything to cause the problem.

Bad choice as your car is less than 4 years old. MINI Roadside Assistance will pick up the car bring it to the nearest dealer. Pay for you to get home to your house and then bring your car back to you when it is fixed.

There is no way that BMW/MINI is going to pay for any of this becuase the proper procedure were not followed to get the car fixed. I.E. MINI Roadside assistance was not called.

you can try but they will not do anything because MINI Roadside Assistance was not called.

Sorry to say but it is very doubtfull that you will get any help from MINI and now even though OEM parts were used ANY problem with the Clutch will be made the fault of the non dealer repair