Well, the good news is that every bolt under my MINI is tight, the bad news is that I had to take off my very pretty new CF TSW engine damper. I have had one of their older models for about a year on my 06' MCS and have had zero issues. After seeing and reading all about their new CF model I ordered one last week and installed same. Very pretty under the bonnet, but I started hearing a noise every time I let out the clutch in first gear.

Not thinking it was the engine damper, I searched the NAM database on noises under the car and set out to tighten everything people listed. I was busy! Off for a test and still the noise, then it dawned on me to take off the damper. Noise gone. Installed the old damper, no noise.

I spoke with the good folks at TSW and they were great. We walked through every thing it could possibly be and came to the conclusion that I was sending the new damper back and they were going to check for internal issues. Whatever the noise was, it was related to the damper not moving at all. It was a solid link causing the engine to not flex a bit, which threw something out of whack. Luckily I didn't drive a lot, nor do any fast starts so I don't think I did any damage.

Let me state again that the TSW folks were great and stood solidly (sorry couldn't resist) behind their product offering to fix it or refund my money. I just thought others might want to take note if they install one and starting hearing "clunking" noises at start-off in 1st.

Gene

 

Funny, i had it exactly the opposite. The earlier model made noises and I removed it. Just installed the new one and no noises.

You should be fine with a new one as soon as they replace it.

 

Maybe we can learn something from using dampeners

 

 

emsjr, are you going back to the new unit?

 

I have a TSW damper. It does cause a slight amount of noise to be relayed into the cabin because of the essentially solid metal-to-metal path from the motor to the body. I've learned to live with the slight noise, it comes across a a muted growl.

 

I had V1 and it was a little noisy...I have had V2 on now for about 3 or 4 weeks and it's very quiet and is smooth as silk...very happy with it...

 

Which version do you have?

 

where is the engine damper located? and kind of noise does it make?, because i have a clunk type of noise when i start moving in first gear.