After 45 minutes of stop and go traffic, my mini was smelling bad.. really bad.. so bad that I stopped and got out to find the smell... to my shock smoke was coming out of my hood, I opened her up and watched smoke all coming out.


Did I just overheat my clutch or burn lining off? what the heck. Drives fine after it cooled off for an hour. no slipping. no problems. the smell lingered for a week. now gone.

Should I be worried?

 

Your video is set to private.

 

apologies, fixed!

 

What did it smell like...
A burnt clutch smells kinda like overheated brakes....
Look for oil residue?

 

What kind of smell were you getting? Oil smell? sweet smell? I would pull the air filter assembly out and look under it. I would also jack it up and look under it.

 

It had a very bitter kind of smell, kind of like burnt brakes. yes. No oil residue. No leaks either.

Not oil smell. I know what that smells like. Not coolant either.

 

Since it lingered, bet it was your clutch....
be prepared for an $$$ bill soon.

 

PS
if you ever wondered why trucks creep ahead in low gear, rather than stop and go...you just found out...
Clutches are expensive, and get overheated and get hot from lots of rapid use...impropper use can cause wear/overheating...letting it slip on purpose....

 

^^^^^^this, I just replaced mine on my own.....if you do it yourself be prepared for a weekend project

 

I understand now and have been perfecting my slow creep in traffic to avoid slipping the clutch. I am new to driving stick 1 year so I am learning lessons everyday. Still shifts and doesn't slip though so I hope I didn't hurt it too much.

 

At first I was thinking of an antifreeze leak from the video, but If it smells a bit like brakes, sounds like a clutch :s You would've seen antifreeze on the ground if it was that bad anyway.

 

A clutch smokes when if you slip it too much? How much do you have to slip it before it starts smoking?

 

Never had one smoking like that unless I was racing or trying to yank somebody out of a hole with my jeep

 

My car just had the same problem yesterday. It drive fine shift fine, if it Is the clutch I guess need to put one on order then. Wish the smell will go away.

 

I suggest that you repeat that 'stop and go' route, driving and shifting just as you did before, but this time with an experienced manual transmission driver in the passenger seat, and let him/her comment on the likelihood that you damaged your clutch.

 

+1
Especially since a cluch job on a gen1 is such a pain....
Folks usually pay around $2000 depending on their choices of parts and shops..more for a dealer.....so free dinner to the person teching you is a good deal, and a $$ saver!!!

 

Well I know my clutch is going when I bout the car last year because when I get on it you can smell it when you lift the hood. But I haven't gotten on it since then (but who knows what the wife does) so I cant remember the smell but my other car buddy said it smelled like a clutch, ill just keep and eye on it from here on out.

 

I see some severe traffic on my commute and one thing I discovered by accident is that if you left off the gas very slowy until your foot is completely off while in first gear your car will pull itself along at idle speed without any gas pedal input. It takes a little practice to do it smoothly but it works like a charm in my '02. I'm not sure if this is by design or not but it saves me a lot of clutch play and works on slight inclines too.

 

That's kinda just how a manual transmission works. At idle the car is producing power because it needs air/fuel to stay at idle so it's enough power to pull the car along in 1st gear. You can also get the car going in first with just clutch slip without touching the gas pedal if you're good. Whenever I teach people to drive stick I teach them to do this even though it takes a lot of time and practice as it teaches good clutch control.

 

Well, here's to "learning by doing". I suspected as much but never really inquired or searched on it. This is only the third stick I've owned and well, the others were pieces of crap that never did it this well.

Cheers.

 

Dad made me to learn to do this in a parking lot with a styrofoam cup on the dash with a quarter in it. I had to be able to get the car rolling from stopped without slipping the clutch, and without revving the engine (on level ground) quickly and smoothly, get up to 4000 rpm, then gently decelerate to rolling idle, then gently accelerate again without touching the clutch, and without the cup on the dash tipping over. 25 years later I do this in traffic all the time. Clutches and transmissions seem to last me forever. 225k on the original clutch in my Honda, still holds strong. Hoping the first owner of my MINI was a good driver

Another thing that shortens the life of a clutch is when people shift to a lower gear, then hold the clutch half in, half out, waiting for the engine to speed up and the car to slow down. I see this as very bad. By The Way, thats what the other two pedals are for, Lol.

I learned a method called double clutching. For example approaching a turn at 50mph in 3rd or 4th gear (or any gear). I know I want to be in 2nd when I exit the corner, depress the clutch pedal, push the lever into neutral, release the clutch pedal and give the throttle a sharp stab (our target in this case is to match the revs for MINI's 2nd gear and we're going 50mph) so about 5000rpm. At this point it isn't really required to push in the clutch again -technically it should just go into 2nd without grinding, but I always use the clutch again (hence DOUBLE clutching) and it shifts smooth as glass. Once in 2nd you can immediately release the clutch, and there's no jerking at all. For me it comes down to a rhythm, going up hill, down hill, skipping 2 gears whatever changes the amount of time in neutral-on the gas to bring the revs up.

I have noticed with MINI a problem I found in Dad's 2000 BMW 330i, and that is, sometimes when slowly approaching a signal or yield sign, 2nd gear, clutch out near idle -and making the decision I want to go NOW, and I need 1st gear- when I go into neutral and blip the throttle, nothing happens -very frustrating result of this drive by wire electronic gas pedal. Maybe a sprint booster will help me.

Guys that are real good can have half their foot on the brake, and half on the throttle "heel & toe". I never practiced that enough, but who knows if I may get some track days in my future.