Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum with a question. Does anyone have experience with the McLeod Street Tuner line of clutches? Forum searches and google searches have not yielded me any reviews so I thought I would ask here.

Some background, I have a 2006 Cooper S that I bought last year. Found an input shaft seal leak so I pulled the transmission last weekend. Car only has 65k on it, but the clutch seems to be pretty well worn so I am looking for a new clutch. Clutch was not oily, just worn pretty close to the rivets on their stamped ends (head ends of the rivets still have a lot of material, maybe the rivet tails are designed to wear with the clutch?).
I would like to upgrade to a better clutch, but everything I saw was way out of price for me until I decided to give Summit a shot and found a McLeod kit. Claims to be a mild step up from stock, but I have not been able to find very much information on them. McLeod is a name I have heard in the domestic cars a lot, but information on their MCS clutches is almost non-existent. I am hesitant to buy anything I don't have a second opinion on. I would likely pair the McLeod with a LUK DMF089, I did confirm that it is designed to work with the dual mass flywheel.

Other options I am considering are the VALEO 52151203 single mass kit or maybe LUK DMF089 + LUK 03050 RepSet. These are both similarly priced (sub $400) and have good reviews as far as I can tell. The McLeod is about $150 more. My car is stock power now, but I am hoping to bump that up into the 220hp range at some point. Also I would like a clutch to last me another 100k+ with aggressive street driving. McLeod claims power up to 25% higher than stock, with 10% higher pedal effort. Here is their product page:

https://www.mcleodracing.com/street-tuner/p24

Does anyone have experiance with this specific clutch or the McLeod Street Tuner line generally?
Is the LUK dual mass flywheel any good?
Think the upgrade to the McLeod is worth it for an additional $150?
Thoughts on the LUK vs the Valeo kit? All the arguments for the Valeo i have seen is it is cheaper, but that is not really the case any more. LUK seems to be popular in Europe and was supposedly the OEM for BMW/Mini for a bit.

I posted this here in the general forum because I am looking for feedback on the Street Tuner line of clutches generally, not just specific feedback for the R53 cars. Although specific feedback would be apricated if anyone has it.

Thanks,
PTTM

 

No one response to my post, but I did purchase the McLeod clutch so I will post my own experiance.

McLeod Clutch Review:
I used a McLeod 673-770005 Street Tuner Clutch and LUK DMF089 flywheel (which is the OEM flywheel as I understand it. McLeod also makes a version of this clutch for the non-S Cooper.
In emailing with McLeod sales team, they claim they have sold hundreds of these specifically for Minis although I couldn't find any specific reviews; only reviews of this line on other cars and not many of that either. The line has been out since 2016. McLeod is a well known name in clutches, particularly for muscle cars and drag racing.
I purchased it because it was much cheaper than any of the typical upgrade clutches for R53s. It seems to me the factory clutches go pretty fast, so I didnt want one of them. My factory clutch was on track to be worn out well before 100k despite the fact that my car has no power upgrades (unless you count a CAI or Cat-back which I dont). My car had 58k when I bought it (65k at this job), so I cant vouch for it's use during it's early life, but reading online clutches going before 100k seems pretty common for these cars. Reason for changing the clutch was a input shaft seal leak, not the wear of the clutch. My goal was to never remove the transmission again. Hopefully that will be the case.
Another selling point for me was that this product line designed to be a mild performance upgrade intended mostly for street driving, not a full race clutch. They advertise them as rated for up to 25% higher than factory power, and spirited street driving with occasional track use. That describes exactly my intentions for the car. It is a solid hub clutch, intended to use with the factory style dual mass flywheel.
I purchased the clutch for around $250 and the flywheel was also around $250. This was around $150 more than the well known Valeo kit with a single mass flywheel. A full OEM style clutch from LUK was around $400 if I recall correctly. What I understand about the Valeo kit is that while people have used it with mild upgrades, it is very similar to an OEM clutch, just modified for a single mass flywheel.
Typical Stage-1 performance clutchs start around $500 for the clutch alone, and then an additional $300-500 for a flywheel, so this was a much cheaper route.

McLeod told me that the clutch would have around 10% heavier engagement than the factory clutch and that seems to be accurate. My memories of the factory clutch are fading as I last drove the car with it in September, so disclaimer: my comparisons are based on that memory.

The McLeod is noticeably heavier, however it is by no means a heavy clutch all things considered. I think it fits the driving experience quite well because the Mini already has a quite heavy steering and a "thunky" shifter feel compared to most other compact cars. The McLeod also has a much more progressive feel. The clutch is heavy at the engagement point, but noticeably lighter at full release. In traffic I do notice a little more fatigue compared to the OEM clutch, but compared to muscle cars or vintage cars with mechanical clutches, it is quite light.

It also grabs noticeably harder. You have to transition though the engagement point a little slower, or use more RPM to get a smooth launch without bogging the engine. I am quite glad I didn't spring for an aluminum flywheel as I think this would make the car much easier to stall. I did install a LSD during this project, so part of the difference could be the additional traction. I am still experimenting with the right way to launch this during normal driving, my goal there is a smooth start off with as little RPM as possible and no bogging.

I have not done any really aggressive driving with it yet, but if anyone is interested I can report back my findings once I do. I gave it a good 1500mi break in, so I have only had it for about 500mi in good working order. McLeod calls for 1000mi city driving or 600 clutch engagements, if memory serves. I had a few road trips in there so I gave it 1500mi. Only time will tell if this clutch proves durable. I drive between 8k and 10k a year with the car, so it should get lots of use.

I will also say about McLeod as a company, I was quite annoyed with them throughout this process as they couldn't give me the information I needed. However, objectively they were quite responsive and helpful. The customer service agent got engineers involved and tried to get answers from them. Unsurprisingly, they didnt have an R53 Mini just sitting around with a new clutch installed to compare measurements to mine. Also, most of this happened over the winter holidays and they responded to my emails throughout that time. Much better customer service than you get most places these days.

Overall, this was an extremely expensive project (Clutch, LSD, all new PS hoses, new poly engine mounts, oil pan and timing cover gaskets, new balancer, and more I'm forgetting) so I definitely need to get some use out of the car. Ideally I would like to get it up to 200-220hp which would be the advertised rating for this clutch, but I've had my fill of throwing money at it for a while. I havn't decided if I will do a full writeup on the other parts of the job, but give me a like or reply if you would be interested or let me know what specific parts you want details on. Hopefully my experiences will be helpful to someone so they don't go through the same struggles as I did. I think altogether I took the transmission out 8 times. Maybe 6? Either way, it was much to many.

Thanks,
PTTM