Hi Guys,

New to the community and have only have my 09 MCS since the end of November 09. I have a question concerning the clutch feel. I've been driving manual car for 20 years now and have a good sense on what a clutch should feel like. In my mini, I find the clutch usually pretty good but sometime it just seems the clutch doesn't release fast enough to keep up with my right foot and it's as if my timing is off for shifting. This happens more so when "having some fun" with the car.

I had a 2003 Hyundai Tiburon (Yes a Hyundai but it was a great car and I had a blast modifying it!) with the same initial problem. The wise folks on that forum, found that the slave cylinder on that getrag tranny, has a small spring mounted restrictor plate with a pin hole, that "slowed down" the fluid when releasing the clutch. It made for generally smoother engagement during normal driving especially for people that weren't very experienced with a stick. But for most people and made for sloppy shifting and some extrapolated that it even caused premature wear of the clutch because of the slower disengagement which let the clutch slip.

I've pasted the link to a long DIY on that mod from that community. It does a much better job than me at explaining things and has a comment that BMWs have this restrictor (post #26 of the thread (I think)).

Does any one know if the Mini manual has this?

http://www.newtiburon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1962

 

I dunno, but BMWs do have a "clutch delay valve", the removal of which is a very popular mod. It's to prevent abrupt clutch engagement, presumably to minimize driveline shock, and warranty repairs. But it also makes for crappy clutch feel. BMW=Mini so not hard to imagine that we have 'em too.

 

I remember someone posting about this earlier, but I guess no one ever confirmed this, or tried to see if there was a mod we could do. I concur with OP, I don't like the lag either, and it can make for some fumbled gear changes. I'd like to know if there is a for-real answer that we could do.
Fig

 

Just bumping this up....

I've looked on real OEM and found (I think) that the slave cylinder is called the master cylinder (pn# 21526774078). I looked to buy the part from bimmerspecialist.com but the whole part looks like it's plastic and you can't take it apart...I'm stumped...and I still don't like the way the clutch feels.

Any smart folks can comment?

 

There are two components -- a master cylinder (near the pedal) and a slave cylinder (near the clutch).

 

I fully understand the Master cylinder / slave cylinder placement. I was on Real OEM and they call the slave cylinder....master. It looks like a slave cylinder and is located (bolted) to the tranny. The thing I really want to know is can this plastic part come apart and is there in fact a delay valve inside.