Sounds like another class action law suit is the only way BMW/Mini Cooper is going to address their defective parts failure issue.
Looks like all the pre 2013 Countryman and Clubman owners with standard transmissions need to band together in a lawsuit requiring the replacement of the old defective clutch assemblies with the newer heavier built one.
Sad that BMW/Mini Cooper has chosen to take a stance that does not serve their customers well.

 

Harrison's is saving parts for me. I want to see them for myself. I will also have evidence should I decide to pursue legal action or take another stab at convincing Mini USA to honor their warranty.

 

MacMitch, I know I'm repeating myself, but I really do hope you take legal action and don't let them get away with this.

Obviously they let you "hang" for two to three weeks hoping you would become so desperate to get your car working again, that you would just go away.

We had repeated major electrical problems with our 2011 and we got no where until we commenced legal action. The last thing they want to do is to go to court on this because they are well aware it's likely you will prevail, they will end up paying for the repairs anyway, and run the risk of bad publicity as well as increasing the the potential of a class action on the matter. They are well aware that the fact that they upgraded the parts in 2013 is strong evidence (that can be introduced in court) that the original parts were defective in design.

Unfortunately it's just another example of them trying to get away with what we let them.

The first generation Mini hardtop has a well known issue of power steering pump failures, and the same thing happened...after a couple of years they redesigned the part, but never addressed the hundreds of thousands of cars they sold with the defective pumps. For years the owners of the older ones paid in excess of $1000 to have them replaced, and BMW did NOTHING for the owners despite complaint after complaint after complaint. It's all documented on this forum.

Only when it became clear years later that NHTSA was scrutinizing the situation (after the Canadian government forced a recall) did they extend the warranty and reimburse the owners for the repair costs.

 

BMW needs to be exposed for the untrustworthy company that they are and how they treat their customers. We need to get the news media to jump on this. I can see the political reaction when it's shown how a foreign company is cheating American consumers. Can't wait to see them get theirs. This has been coming for a long time and they need to be taught a lesson. McMitch, please continue to keep us updated with your progress.

 

MacMitch, just curious if you have a resolution here. Are you pursuing legal action? Needless to say, the rest of us here are very interesting in the result, thanks.

 

I have been watching this thread for a while and was worried, not about if, but when, the clutch on my 2012 All4 would go out. Got the slip and smell a few times and even took it in to the dealer but they said it was the faulty alternator they replaced causing the smell.

I moved Winston this summer from Washington, DC, to Monterey, California, with no issues (great drive, 31mpg/avg 70mph). But Labor Day weekend the clutch went out on my wife 2.5 hrs away from home with 18,000 miles. She limped home, got Mini Roadside to tow it 76 miles to Mini of Stevens Creek, and by the end of the week she had a new clutch, no questions asked.

I have seen that others have had issues with their dealers (and Mini of Stevens Creek) saying it was driver error. My wife has had a 2+ year relationship with Stevens Creek since buying her 2012 Countryman from them. She sold it back to them this summer with 21,000 miles and no clutch or other issues (I’m overseas and she wanted to keep my All4 instead of her base model). So “driver error” never came up. Could also be this issue has been going on so long they just replace the clutch.

Whatever the case, very pleased with the service and I’m looking forward to giving the new clutch a spin when I visit in October. These are the parts they put in:

21-20-8-606-067 set clutch parts
35-31-1-165-566 compression spring
21-20-7-595-577 twin mass flywheel
11-22-7-524-711 isa screw
3-10-7-603-859 exchange clutch emcd

 

I think I was the first to get a warranty clutch replacement for my 2011 at MoSC, and it took the dealer's help to get MINI USA to do it - it looks like the issue is now resolved, at least for their customers.

 

Do you know if these parts are the same parts that are used in the JCW? I just had my clutch replaced on my 2014 and they told me that it was uprated parts but they have the same part numbers for JCW and S models (which to me must mean they are now using the same parts for JCW and S in 2014).

My part #'s match yours above for the clutch set parts and the twin mass flywheel and the screw. I didn't need the compression spring but did have a new clamp...

It works well now on flat starts, I am afraid to use it on my steep driveway. I did start once from the bottom at a full stop and did get a little smell.

I would be interested to see if you get the smell again with these new parts.

Mike

 

From what I can tell the clutch parts, compression spring and isa screw are the same as go in a JCW. The Twin Mass Flywheel is a different part number than JCW.


I will post if we get the smell again.

 

I just took my 2014 CM in routine oil change service and also had them check out the clutch since I have a steep driveway and recently noticed that it was a little soft on starts and had difficulty if I stopped midway up my driveway and tried to start from a stop. The MA said that he only had two other CM ALL4 both with automatics that had issues with the ALL4 not syncing with the transmission, he mentioned I was the first manual with the N18 engines reporting an issue. They checked for any faults and found no recorded faults and they also took it on I a test drive to a hill and reported it was fine. Surprisingly, they said it was time to replace my spark plugs (they said 30,000 is scheduled for JCW but they said the computer was calling for them--I am only at 24,000) and WOW! I got the pep back in the engine and no more mushy clutch. My wife even said, it was like new again! I live in a hilly area and today I ended up on one of the steepest incline streets and really thought I would have issues but it was fine. I was really surprised that new spark plugs made such a huge difference.

 

I have been complaining about my clutch since I picked up my 2012 Countryman S in March 2012. Each time my dealership indicated that all was normal upon inspection. Guess what- at 49,000 the clutch failed and my dealership (Prestige in Ramsey) fixed it under warranty about 6 weeks ago. Yeah I thought. Until I got home and backed it into my driveway- all 5 degrees of incline. Greeted with the smell of burning clutch.


3 weeks ago I was heading home from Rhode Island and the car went into limp mode 180 miles away. Wasn't the clutch- ignition coil and needed 3 new spark plugs. At this point I was approaching 50,000 and was wondering about how much it would cost to continue to fix this car. It has spent at least 6 weeks in the shop getting non scheduled repairs since I bought it. My folder of repair invoices is 3 inches thick.

As much as I loved the car- it was time to go. I picked up my new 2015 Mazda 6 last week and am thrilled. First road trip on I95 to DC and I got 37 mpg, and as I am a long time Mazda owner- I know it is bullet proof.

I am now trying to get some type of prorated refund back for the extended service plan that I bought. Not looking good at this point.

 

We had the smelly issue once or twice in the early days - I thought I was hitting a tree root in my dirt driveway upstate. Heading from NJ to NOLA the clutch failed just outside of Knoxville. The Mini dealer there was great and we had the clutch and flywheel replaced without charge - but had to spend 5 days waiting in Knoxville for the parts to arrive and work to be done. We have an extended service contract so no charge. Car seems fine now. Have to drive it 1300 miles to get back home next week but it's been OK locally.

While there they found a coolant leak and charged us almost $400 to replace the hose and sensor. (Part 82 14 1 467 704). Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks!

 

All of this is so familar... Back when the M42 4 cyl. engine was introduced into the E-30 body at the start of the 90's, clutches were falling apart at an alarming rate. BMW refused to admit that anything was wrong since the previous 4 cyl. M10 and 6 cyl.M20 engined cars in the same body style had no real clutch issues . and BMW sold a lot of manual transmission equipped cars back then.
The M42 had the newer flywheel design that BMW was so proud of.
New Sales Customers were killing clutches right as they pulled back into our dealership off the main street since the ramp into the service dept. was a slight uphill climb[ and I mean slight...]
It got to be comical at that point........Will they make it up the ramp, ohhhh, nooooo, smell that clutch.......
Finally BMW relented, and new updated parts were issued. Wowwwww, no more clutch problems.
I'd never seen clutches literally be in pieces when you took the trans down to inspect...: lol:

 

2015 CM All4 just had it's first rough drive into the snowy Colorado mountains.
Stop and go (0-5mph) tight traffic (no option to really be in second for starts) up a steep (5-9%) grade in the snow.

Guess what, clutch gives up the smell after 40 minutes of this.

3K miles on the thing.

We'll see how the dealership honors this...

Wasn't riding or holding with the clutch, driven manual for almost 10 years now. Seems strange. Mine needs about 2-3k to get into gear...

Sucks.

 

You should be covered under the maintenance program - I received a new clutch at 3K as well, at no cost. Still on the same clutch at 12K...

I don't think the clutch is any better, I have been avoiding starting off on inclines when possible. I used to get the mail at the bottom of the driveway (which is pretty steep), now I let someone else get it...

 

Simple fix, install a clutchstop. Makes the clutch engagement point from a vague long travel to almost perfect. Costs $15 including shipping and takes 2 minutes to install no tools. Transforms the Countryman and stops smelly clutches.

 

Clutchstop ordered.

The dealer has determined that it indeed needs a new clutch, I have a request in to them to see what they think about the flywheel and pressure plate...

2015 clutch was quoted at $1990 and then with flywheel $3100.

Hopefully they can do it all under warranty, not trying to spend that kind of money on a brand new unregistered car. They seem to be leaning towards customer pay, I'm pushing back.

I was told that the car wasn't meant to handle that kind of driving, which is a little disappointing to be honest. I have driven WRX's and STI's up in similar conditions without issue, not to mention all of the offroading I've done on a manual.

Fingers crossed.

 

There is no way you pay for that, not meant to be driven in the snow or not meant to be driven up a hill? Are you kidding me? Tell them they have one opportunity to do the right thing or you are taking them to court!

They need to come up with a clutch that works!

 

Great news, they have cleared the clutch under warranty with the caution that this will only happen once.

Heartache gone, now let's just cross our fingers that it doesn't go again before my extended kicks in!

Something is definitely fishy though, looks like a sign of a much larger issue.

Thanks for the backing.

 

The Clutchstop you ordered will help 100% to keep new clutch good. Please report back here when you get clutchstop installed. One note, It comes with a few layers of soft "washers", you'll need to take 1-2 of them off and trim the post a bit so it sits flush in the hole otherwise you won't be able to push clutch in far enough to disengage clutch and change gears. You''ll see, its very easy.

 

Awesome, I will grab some photo's along the way.

Cheers

 

URL for clutchstop device? Any issue with dealer on warranty claims if using this device?

 

I just ordered this one...

http://www.burgertuning.com/clutch_s...ni_cooper.html

I think I saw that it fits r60 somewhere on the forum, but they list only r56.

 

How is it that a clutchstop is suppose to prevent clutch wear? All is does is remove the excess pedal travel that's unneeded.

 

Exactly! you nailed it...its the vague clutch engagement point that causes the driver to "slip" the clutch in normal everyday driving, especially on hills. Remove the excess pedal travel, bring a more precise predicatBle engagement point and no more slipping = no more clutch wear