Hi,

I am a MINI newbie and I so was excited to get my Countryman S All4 manual two weeks ago...

But last week the car was stuck in snow, so I put in Gear 1 and gave it a high rev and slowly released the clutch. There was a stinky burnt smell and smoke coming out from the driver side of the engine and the smell was strong in the cabin too.

I waited till it cooled down. The car drove well afterwards and smelt much less in a few days. Did I burn the clutch, or was it just the wax coating burning off? The dealer said it was just wax, but I was told that dealers wouldn't want to open and look at the clutch as long as it is still working...

Thank you for your help!

 

Probably glazed it some but doubt you have permanent damage.

But you are correct that one should never high rev and then slowly release the clutch.....

 

Slow and gentle for starting out on snow. May even want second gear. Still get the clutch out asap. It is the high torque that spins the wheels. Your traction is not near as much with a spinning wheel as one that is gripping the road. If you are stuck most of the time you can free yourself with gentle rocking. Forward - reverse - forward and so on.

Bill

 

You have spent a pretty penny on that car, spend a bit more and take a course on winter driving... It will do you good.

 

You might want to think about a Winter Tire set, I'm sure your All4 came with all seasons. If you live in an area with frequent winter snows you won't beat a dedicated set of snows. I live in the mountains of Colorado and never, never slip around. I do have a Jeep Wrangler also with all season tires and there just isn't a comparison.

 

And folks wonder why 65% of new MINIs are sold with an auto transmission.

I'm beginning to wonder if people even know what the clutch does anymore, and if so, should they be driving a car with one?

Seriously, learn to drive your car.....

 

MiniDave, alittle harsh don't ya think!!!! We don't know the exact circumstances. I've seen all kinds of cars with all kinds of drivers get stuck in the snow. And with ice underneath its even worse.

 

Because over 60% MINIs sold are women buyers...especially my wife who contributed to 2% since 2007.

 

It could be worse... 100% of new Ferraris are sold with an auto transmission.

At least we have the option.

-Tad

 

Not to hijack this thread, but I despise this line of reasoning. I'm a woman who prefers a manual and I know many others who do as well. Please don't make it a foregone conclusion that women do not nor cannot drive manuals.

 

Hey, be nice. Some snowy situations have weird traction issues that can be hard to handle on your first try with a new car.

 

Yeah, I'm a guy, but it's utter baloney to suggest that being a poor manual driver correlates with being a woman. One of the best, most knowledgable drivers I know is a woman.

 

To address the OP more directly, when I went to my MINI dealership, I saw a CM up on the lift, and I asked my MA what it was in for. The new owner (a guy, for the record), within a matter of weeks had totally fried the clutch. The main event that trashed it was waiting in traffic uphill and balancing the car on the clutch. Maybe the clutch isn't designed quite right for the weight of the car? Or the guy was just a ****-poor driver.

On the flipside, just because you smell the clutch doesn't mean you've trashed it. I burned the clutch on my 2002 Jeep badly enough that I smelled it (trying to back up a really narrow driveway on a steep hill). That was like 120,000 miles ago and the Jeep's still on the same clutch.

 

Is it even a question the GUY was a PPD? You NEVER hold a car on a hill using the clutch.

 

You're preaching to the choir on that one.

I'm glad you bumped the thread, though. I got my Countryman, and I've been driving it around, and it has a 2 second hill assist. That is, if you put it in first on a hill and let go of the brake, it holds itself in place for two full seconds before rolling back.

I don't know if that's standard on all Countryman, and it confused the holy hell out of me when it happened. I actually almost stalled because I tried to get into first as if the car was going to roll back, and when it didn't, it felt to me like the car was going into gear, so I didn't give it enough gas to actually get into gear once the hill assist let me go.

But yeah, it's obviously not correct driving to balance the car on the clutch like that, but I was speculating as to whether the CM was particularly easy to burn out because of the relatively high rev of the engine and the relatively high weight of the car.

 

I'd be disappointed if your clutch was fried after that, OP.

An Exedy replacement clutch on my '92 AWD Talon TSi lasted through 25,000 miles of street driving, two dozen+ autocrosses (using the feather-til-boost-then-floor-it technique on launch), half a dozen HPDEs and two newbies (my brother who I taught how to drive and an ex-g/f) learning to drive. Even then, it drove perfectly fine, it wasn't 'til I had the motor apart that I saw the clutch disk was starting to show some backing material.

But hey, that's what warranties are for. :3

 

apropos nothing - both my mini's are how god intended, manual gearboxes..

 

 

I agree!

 

Hill Assist is standard across the current generation of the MINI brand, on both 6MT and automatic, BMW's too.

Note, it does not function when the shifter is in neutral, only when you depress the clutch while holding the brake pedal down on a hill, then release the brake.