I've noticed this a few times now. When I'm on a slip road entering the freeway and I decide to have a little fun with some extra-spirited motoring, it seems like I get engine revving with no torque, almost as if it's not in gear, but it is. Mostly happens through 2nd and 3rd gear. Then, if I lay off the throttle and ease it in again, it seems to "catch" and I get the expected acceleration.

It just occurred to me tonight that perhaps I'm not shifting into the appropriate gear. For instance, perhaps I get to a speed whilst in 1st that by the time I shift into 2nd, I really ought to have shifted into 3rd and skipped 2nd, and perhaps that would explain the rev with no apparent acceleration. Then, when I ease off, I slow down a bit, and then when I ease on, I accelerate as expected.

Or, is something like that indicative of a clutch or gearbox issue?

This is the 2nd manual I've driven, but I've never experienced any problems with a manual...so I'm not sure how to distinguish a symptom of a problem with the gearbox from a problem with the driver. LOL.

 

when you're getting engine revs with no movement, are you loosing speed as well?

honestly sounds like a slipping clutch. how many miles?

 

I'm not sure whether I'm losing speed as well. I'd have to check when it happens again.

52K. I've had the car since 40K.

 

If its working properly, you should be shifting through all the gears for maximum performance. What you're describing sounds more like skipping a gear or two. For absolute best performance you'd be shifting somewhere around 6k revs, and the revs shouldn't drop much below 4.5k. That keeps it in the power band.

If you skipped a gear or two the revs would fall down to 2-3k and you'd feel a lack of power.

 

I think if I did that, I'd end up on the freeway at about 100 mph.

I'll have to pay closer attention tomorrow whilst I'm out, though, to see exactly what I'm doing.

 

You have to be careful when trying to elicit the maximum performance out of an S (or JCW). It gets illegal in a hurry and you can be doing nearly 90 by the time you change up from 3rd.

 

Yeah...that is exactly what I was talking about.

 

Both of those are exactly symptoms of a slipping clutch. It will gradually get worse over time. MINI clutches are not durable and it is quite common for them to last less than 50K miles, depending on the amount of stop-and-go driving.

 

funny question but do you hear your turbo spooling up when this is occurring?

 

slipping clutch...
Remember, in a stick a change in the motor'd RPM results in a change in roadspeed if in gear.....if the motor "revs up" and there is not a change in roadspeed, and you are in gear, the clutch is slipping...or the tires are spinning.....since you are apparently not spinning your tires....sounds like it is time for a clutch.

 

To check for clutch slipping, you should apply load in top gear.

Ok, that sounds weird. Go find a hill or as close to a hill as you can in LV...lol
Go up the hill, shift into 6th with about 2500 rpms, then floor it. If the clucth is slipping, the revs will go up and the car will not accelerate.

Replace clutch, pressure plate, and probably flywheel... About $2000...

 

Question for the OP: where in the band are you shifting? ie. 3500rpm, 4000rpm?

 

So I was out today and tried to replicate the problem. I could not. Everything seemed A-OK.

However, I did a Seafoam treatment this evening and took the MINI for a spirited drive afterwards to clear it out, and the problem came back with a vengeance. I believe without a doubt that it's the clutch. I now have obvious slippage in every gear. :(

What I thought was strange was that this was VERY intermittent up until my most recent drive.

How much can I expect to pay to have this fixed?

 

Sounds about right depending on the shop and labor rates....

 

Srsly, what RPM where you doing your shifting? Just curious

 

Usually around 3K-4K, I'd say.

 

If you are indeed shifting at 3-4K, then I agree, sure sounds like your clutch has gone south. If, however, an engine is rev'd over redline, it's quiet probable that the power is "falling off" as it's rev'ing above the max output on the power band.

 

If OP is shifting up at 3000RPM, they're probably dropping to 1800-2K which would explain the feeling of no torque.