Ok so i was driving home from the movies last nite and figured i would meet up with some of my friends that own V dub's. As i leave from a red light under normal driving with the AC on, i go to shift into 3rd and i hear this loud pop and the clutch pedal goes straight to the floor and doesnt come back up. So at this time i thought the clutch finally gave out (car has lil over 43,000). So i coast into a empty parking lot down the street from my buddys work and lock the car up and walk up to his work to start making phone calls. I didnt even bother at the time to even see what the problem might have been. Although i did check for fluid leaking and there was none. So as i called Mini Road side help i was sitting around waiting for a tow truck, i jacked the car up and saw the part just hanging there. I dont know the technical name for it but its the part that push's the clutch in and out and its bolted to the tranny by a bracket. Well the bracket for this thing snaped completely in half and is the reason why the pedal went straight to the floor. Now i really didnt get a really good look since it was dark, but I could deffenately tell that its sheared off. So i ended up waiting with my car in this parking lot til about 2:15am before a freakin tow truck showed up and this all happened a little after 9pm. The car is at the dealer and theres no way im paying for this since that is some kind of defect or something. But i figured i would share my story and spread the word of what happened so that you all were aware of it. And i plan on contacting the dealer today and ill will keep you posted on what i hear.

Matt

 

That sucks man. Do you think they will give you a hard time for your mods?

 

If they try to ill just fight back, theres no mods done to the clutch what so ever and from what i can tell its clearly some kind of defect on this part because its solid metal and it just broke for no aparent reason? And even if they tried to give me a hard time they have to prove my mods did that to that part. But We will see, im gonna call during my break around 9 so hopefuly i can get some kind of answer then?

 

I just called the dealer and spoke with the Mini service rep. It was the ear on the tranny that broke that hold the part of the slave cylinder. And he said it had a crack in it for sometime because it had corrosion on it. So i asked if he thought it was from back when i had my accident when the car hit a high curb on a median. And he said it might be but i dont wanna say yes. So it sounds to me like someone over looked something when fixing it after the accident and they dont wanna admit to it. So now im stuck with no car cause of someones mistake. So now they have some kind of service rep that suppose to look at the car either late today or tomorrow morning. And it is also part of the tranny casing so it sounds like i might be getting a new tranny outta all this.

 

DrkSilvr--

I just saw you a few weeks ago at the Pulley party. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I hope it gets cleared up and you don't owe a dime.

--golden_child

 

DrkSilvrMini, sorry to hear about this and it doesn't turn into to much of a hassle. Sounds like all the damage from the accident wasn't discovered at the time of repair.
We met at the pulley party,Van's place.

 

norm03s--

I met you there as well, am I correct? Sorry, watching my engine pop out of the bonnet may have taken all of my attention when I met you.

--golden_child

 

Yeah i remeber meeting you. Thanks for your input and all, i hope i hear some more by this afternoon.


Norm,

Yeah your are more then likely right about that, now its just gettin the dealer to admit what they missed. Using Tate mini of annapolis

 

hearing the Supercharger bearings popping out of the blower when pulling off the OEM pulley? Just kidding, Randys joke!

DrkSilvrMini,

It appears the corrosion evidence is clear, it may have been easy to miss/over look during damage inspection. Make it easy for them to say yeah we made a mistake rather than getting upset about it. They will get the work (MINI), the insurance company may want more proof and you have it. Any metallurgist can tell if it broke due to a load or stress fracture or manufacturing fault.

 

Well they just called me, said it was deffenately from impact. Gave me 2 choices 1. New trans 2. they weld it back on. So im getting ready to call the insurance company of the person who hit me in that accident and try to get them to pay for it. And the Main service Advisor said it was deffenately broke from Impact.

 

DrkSilvr--
Good luck with the the insurance.

Norm--
Lucky for me and unlucky for Randy my bearing didn't pop.

I was waiting for it though.