I am hoping that some of you great people can advise me on if I am being incredibly nitpicking or if this is a legitimate issue. I have noticed in the last couple weeks I have noticed what I would consider to be a very minor shudder coming from the transmission right when the clutch pedal is about to be released into first gear. By this point the clutch is almost completely engaged and the car is moving. I would note that I do not remember this happening prior to a couple weeks ago.

i have driven manual transmissions over a decade so I am not a complete novice, but I may just be overthinking things. For background I own a 2014 Mini Cooper 1.5t manual with 27k. Thanks for any help and/or insight.

 

Has your car been check for incorrect main thrust bearings? It was originally the first couple of years of the B46, but I've read of some of the same issues and solutions concerning the B38. I got a new engine in my F56 because of this, some got new bearings.
Worth asking/checking about though.

 

I would like to think it has since I bought it off the lot about two months ago, but I am unaware. I had been reading on that campaign and starting to wonder as well. My mini dealer is right down the road, but they have so far been less than helpful in diagnosing or really answering any questions. If they do the key scan, it should show up if it was part of the campaign, right?

 

Possibly. I don't remember ever seeing anything on paper about the B38, just some anecdotal posts concerning problems that a few members had. For this problem there was never a recall per se, just a "Service enhancement" bulletin IIRC. Mini/BMW will twist themselves into pretzels to keep from labeling anything a recall.

 

Find another dealer to take the car to if you local one isn't accommodating and you are under warranty. Otherwise run it by a good indy mechanic for just a test drive.

 

i actually just went over to the mini dealership and read them the riot act. Made them give me all the maintenance records and schedule an appointment for all this crap. Upon looking at the records, they did preform the recall for the bearings on my car in January of this year, noting that there was Novak scoring and only replacing the bearings.

I told them the symptoms listed aboce above as well as a low speed creak from the right rear of the car. The appointment is on Tuesday so I will see what comes of it.

 

Keep us posted.

 

My 2014 S manual chatters as stated.
Newly acquired symptom.
Our bearing/bushing was replaced at the recall
currently we have 15k miles

 

One thing to consider is the clutch fluid. Often owners ignore the 2 year brake fluid flush/bleed and even if the brake fluid gets flushed/bled once in a while the clutch fluid is ignored.

I can tell you based on my experience with one of my other cars letting the brake/clutch fluid flush/bleed go -- just 2.5 years too -- can have the clutch and even the transmission acting up. (The brake system appears to be unaffected, at least on the surface, by letting the flush/bleed go.)

Before you throw any big money at the symptoms unless this was done within the last 2 years and I might consider having it done regardless my advice is to have the brake *and* clutch fluids flushed and bled. (The brake and clutch hydraulic systems share fluid.)

If this flush/bleed helps then win! If not at least you know the root cause of the behavior is at least not fue to past its change date fluid.

 

Good point Re: brake fluid.
YES
My fluid has been changed within the past year.

 

Well, unlikely another change with a flush/bleed would help.

 

My F54 Cooper S has been doing that for the entire almost 2 year experience with it. And I've been driving manual transmissions exclusively for over 30 years, and I'm an accomplished racing driver. So it's not me :-) I have had the dealer look at it twice.

There is a known issue with engine mounts, mostly on automatics though, that could lead to that symptom. They replaced mine and it made no difference.

The shop foreman told me though as we were test driving, trying to reproduce it, "if I have to hunt for the problem, then it's not a problem". I used to believe that it was a problem with the clutch disc, flywheel, or pressure plate. I was hoping for the engine mount, and even before he brought it up I was thinking that could be it. But now I just think it's a grabby clutch, combined with good low-end torque, and FWD.

It bugs me because as I told the foreman, the uncertainty takes some of the fun out of driving a stick. He told me that the fun left a long time ago when so many electronics were added, like the anti-stall system that attempts to "add throttle" (no actual throttles on these cars anymore) to prevent 1st gear stalls. That could be it. Who knows. I'm living with it but hoping it gets worse enough for it to be obvious and repeatable on every start ... then they'll put a new clutch in it and it'll probably fee exactly the same.

 

While I have no real track experience -- my track experience, such as it is, consists of having participating in a few auto-x's over the years but years and years ago. But like you I too have been driving manual equipped cars for decades, since the early '70's.

Not trying to "teach" you how to drive a manual, just throwing some things out there for you to consider, if you haven't already.

Prior to buying my 1st Porsche all my previous cars had a low clutch engagement point. Thus I could sit a bit closer to the wheel and still operate the clutch smoothly.

When I got my Boxster my preferred seating position didn't work. Because the clutch engagement point was higher up the pedal's travel I was just not very smooth with the clutch. I had almost resigned myself to believing this just an artifact of the car/the clutch. But for some reason I moved the seat back to where with the clutch pedal fully depressed my left leg was almost -- but not quite -- straight. I then developed a clutch technique that had some foot/ankle and some leg motion to release the clutch and smoothness prevailed.

As a result I covered 320K miles in this car and the clutch is original. Pretty much the same technique was used for my 996 Turbo. The transmission was out for a new rear main seal at around 120K miles and I used this opportunity to measure clutch disc wear. There was no measureable wear. The car is gone now, sold, with 160K miles on the odometer and I expect the new owner if he's able to arrive at the same clutch technique as I did should get the same long life out of the clutch.

For my JCW I have adopted the same relatively distant seating postion. Well not quite as distant as the engagement point is not as high as with my say Boxster but it is not in the basement either. Kind of in between.

But with my seating position taking off requires minimal throttle and minimal clutch slippage. Take offs are buttery smooth and I expect long clutch life from the JCW.

My point is with all the above you want to be sure your seating position is condusive to smooth -- as smooth as possible -- clutch action.

Pretty much the same seating position worked for all of my cars until the Porsche Boxster and then I found I had to adapt to what worked best for it.

I have not yet done this with my JCW but I did it early on with my Boxster and later with my Turbo (and other manual equipped cars I have owned since buying the Boxster back in 2002) and that is to with the engine warmed up and the car on level pavement with my foot off the gas pedal ease the clutch pedal out slow enough the car moves off from a dead stop with no throttle.

These modern engines with the engine controller have a desired idle RPM and the engine controller will with the electronic throttle make an effort to maintain the desired idle RPM. What I found is in all cases so far I can get the car moving from a dead stop with just some smooth and slow clutch action. Surprisingly after a bit of experience one finds very little clutch slippage is needed.

Now doing the above in real world driving is not practical but it gave me the confidence that barring me doing something clumsy with the clutch pedal the car would move off with minimal throttle.

Let me say here if you do the above and find you can't move the car off a stop smoothly, consider your seating position and perhaps your clutch/throttle technique. If you can't find a better seating position with a better clutch/throttle technique perhaps there is something "wrong" elsewhere.

As a result of my experimentation I modified my moving off from a stop technique to give the engine a bit of throttle -- just enough to bring RPMs up to 1K -- and concurrently with this smoothly releasing the clutch pedal. This takes advantage of the energy stored in the flywheel and the car moves off smartly from a dead stop with very little clutch slippage. Can't be much to have the clutch last 320K miles.

In practically no time the vehicle speed is sufficient I can release the clutch pedal. At this time then -- because the clutch is fully engaged -- I can give the engine as much throttle as I want with no concern about the clutch.

Really the above works so well for me that at a stoplight with other vehicles I can move off from a stop when the light changes with no drama and no holding up any vehicles behind me.

 

Rock C

This shudder upon clutch release is a recent development for the OP at 25k and for me at 15k.
For 15k, and 25k the clutches were smooth.
Technique doesn't seem to be the variable.
I drive a 911 as well and have no problem with a shudder.
My brake fluid change is within a year in the Mini.
It seems with fewer and fewer manuals on the road this problem will
not be as pronounced.

 

My JCW, as well as my boyfriends JCW both had the same exact issue you're describing. Since both cars have had it and I am very experienced in driving manual, I concluded that it was in fact the way this car works. I ran it to a different dealer two days ago and had shop foreman drive it. He immediately said it's the pressure plate failing. I am scheduled for a clutch job tomorrow.

Go to the dealer and have a shop foreman drive it. It's NOT normal.

 

Our S is 3.5 years old 2014. 15k miles
I believe the power train is warrantied for 5 years.
Will your clutch come under warranty?
will mine?

 

Yes, mine is covered under warranty. Yours should be too, but it sounds like you're six months away from your warranty expiring, so I'd hurry!

Powertrain is 4yrs 50k miles.