So I've owned my 2013 MCS since May and has been trouble free for the past 13K miles. Drove across country from NC to SoCal and was a blast. Living and working in Irvine, I only drive the car 10miles each weekday, and the clutch has been flawless.

2 weeks ago, I had a business meeting in Torrance, and driving back in stop an go traffic on surface streets, I noticed a howell when I released the clutch, WTF! I did notice that I was on a slight incline and the howell went ways as soon as I got to level ground again. Made a mental note to mention it at my upcoming oil change. Fast forward to last week, when I had to take my wife to UCI Medical and driving up the parking structure, that same howell returns! It's a nasty howell, but no clutch slippage, clutch engaged and released fine. parked it and was not a happy camper thinking about it.

Next day I take it to the dealer, and say that the clutches working fine, but has a howell only on an incline. Later that day they call me and tell me that they were able to reproduce the noise, so they were going to drop the tranny and look at the clutch and if it was burnt that it would NOT be covered under warranty. I assured them that it was not driver error, my last 3(including the MCS) have had DMF clutches (2012 GTI, 2011 A4), no issues and I know not to slip them at a start. So today they finished the tear down, and confirmed the clutch did have premature failure, of the clutch springs causing the throw out bearing to go. So it WILL be repaired under warranty with new clutch kit.

I'm glad i'm getting a new clutch, but man, only 13K miles, hopefully this won't be the case again with this new one. I flip cars almost every year and this one has me wanting to get out now with a repair that might not have been covered. That's why I buy new or certified pre-owned with warranty. This one has me wishing i would have bought the auto tranny now.

Just thought I'd share. I still love my MCS!

 

Clutch spring failures are pretty rare but they do happen. Just like failed pressure plate straps. I wouldn't worry about it happening again any time soon.

 

Had my clutch replaced @ maybe 16K. The clutch pedal would be a ratching noise, they said the clutch fork somehow damaged my flywheel. So they replaced the entire assembly. Been great since.

 

Cool, thanks for comments! The service guy did say that it was rare for these to fail. My only gripe is that they start throwing out that the repair may not be covered while not even sure what the problem is.

 

2013 cooper S, failed tranny at 3k miles right here. No joke. I call a total fluke. Dealer said it's the first they'd ever seen. Thank god for warranty. 4500 for tranny alone!

 

2009 factory JCW clutch replaced at 3 years with 28k miles. Known issue with early factory JCWs.

I had no clutch left at all. I put the car in gear, no gas, stepped of the clutch and the engine continued to run.

Just be happy your dealer is cool and fixed it under warranty. Tons of posts here on NAM where the dealer stated its was user error.

 

Picked up the car this morning. The clutch feels different, feels shorter and more sporty. The old clutch seemed to have a much longer "throw ?" This one when the distance used to press down is so much shorter, I'm assuming that was due to the worn clutch springs?

End result is the car feels much more sporty with the new clutch.