I've had my 04 Mini Cooper (Justa) for about a month now and it's been making a whirling sounds when I let off the acceleration and coast. If I step on the gas or push the clutch in the sounds goes away. It's not an extremely loud or annoying sounds. It just sounds like a remote control RC car almost. One could even describe it as a "puttering" sound maybe. It's almost as audible as the humming of the car as I gear down when engine breaking. It is coming from the driver's side front area. Any ideas? I thought it was just a normal noise until my brother, who has more experience driving a manual, commented on it. And I want to make sure something isn't messing up.

 

Ok I payed particularly close attention today when I drove. The sound doesn't occur in 5th gear at all that I've noticed. I'm not in 1st gear long enough to notice it, but the other gears all have this sound. I said previously that you couldn't hear it when you press the gas, but that isn't fully true. Instead hitting the gas only masks the sound a bit; however, a light tap of the gas will make the car almost silent.The sound is very rhythmic and repetitively, almost like turning on and off an electric razer very quickly. If I turn up the radio a bit I can't hear it, though. Is this just the sound of the engine/tranny? Sorry, I'm a mini newbie.

 

Kind of hard to tell by the description , could be a number of little things or 1 major issue.. 5th gear might not have that heavy a load on bad gears ...and only under acceleration stress you hear bad gears. Or throw out bearing is going , maybe a bad crank pully ,but that wouldnt explain the push in clutch and it goes away part........pressure plate might be damaged though.......not exactly sure......

 

What would you say a bad gear sounds like?