Is it common for a clutch to fail with no prior issues with slipping? My clutch has been fine however when leaving the house this morning everything was normal until I stopped at the first corner. When I started to let the clutch out it just didn't feel right, the pedal was mushy. I put the car in neutral and pumped the clutch a few times but it still felt odd. Put the car in gear, eased the clutch out and it just barely engaged with it all the way out, just barely enough to get the car to move. Luckily it is all downhill back to the house, just coasted home. If the clutch was going bad I would have expected some slippage sooner than just going all at once. If is was a hydraulic problem i would expect to not be able to disengage the clutch.

Has anyone else experienced this? I am about 600 miles short of 200K miles.

 

Classic... You need a new clutch. They do sometimes go out quickly..

 

Original clutch? Surprised you made it to 200k.
If I’m not mistaken the clutch pedal should still feel normal if the clutch goes out it’s just the car won’t move forward when in gear. Maybe the slave cylinder is bad. Easy fix if it is the slave.
Check ur brake fluid level first. Any change in the brake pedal feel? If that is spongy as well it may help solve this problem. Pump the clutch and see if any fluid leaks out of the slave. The slave is mounted on the bottom of the trans and on the right side when looking from the front of the car. If the pedal feels soft and the slave is not engaging the clutch fork then you will never get in gear. Under $100 for a new Slave.
Take a look at let us know.

 

Wow. If you got nearly 200k out of the original clutch, that may be a new record. Someone should do a poll to see who's gotten the most miles from the original clutch in a BWM-MINI.

 

The clutch disk wearing out usually starts by slippage in the highest gear usually followed by slippage in the next highest gear and so on until the car will slip even in first... this can be tested easily by getting up to speed and mashing the gas in high gear.... if the engine revs higher but the speedometer does not increase... you are slipping. Other types of failure are the throw out bearing/pressure plate failing - symptoms lots of squealing noise and difficulty activating clutch petal. When slave or master cylinder go bad.... you press pedal... and it either does not disengage clutch pressure plate or.... the pressure leaks out and plate is re-engaged before you want... when cylinder is going bad pumping the clutch may create enough pressure to disengage plate for a short time before total failure.

IMO... like the others said... 200K on a Mini clutch is fantastic! Hold onto your wallet and sit down before you find out what a clutch cost!!

 

Sounds like a clutch slave cylinder. That is easily replaced and shares your brake fluid system.

 

OP....you there? Did you find the problem?

 

second that, sounds like a hydraulic problem

 

When you replace the slave cylinder, make sure to get the plastic spacer tool that will ensure proper fluid passage during brake fluid flushing and bleeding. It simply holds the plunger open so the replacement remains a " one man job". If you use Ate Super Blue or similar, you just keep bleeding system until the new color brake fluid comes out of the calipers.

 

Just had my clutch and DM flywheel replaced this week. Symptoms were: clutch would slip under load when cold, when warm, the clutch would act normally, the clutch was biting at almost all the way at the top of the travel, and compared to now it is fixed, the clutch pedal used to be significantly heavier. I have 63k miles on mine. The mini dealer said the old clutch was at .3 when it was taken off and the flywheel was cracked and had heat marks all over it.

Total cost of replacement for clutch and flywheel by mini was about $3000.

Good luck with it....