Hey guys I'm new to the mini world and the forums. I was debating on buying my dads spotless mini that has been just sitting in the garage for a while now due to it possibly having a blown out clutch and he's kinda just given up on it. It's way to nice of a car to just be sitting in the garage like that I would like to fix her up and get her back on the road and make it mine. But before I do that I need to figure out the problem that it has. My dad was driving it a few months back and it started to get hard to go in gear and then one day it just was completely unable to get in gear so he got it towed home and I looked at it and started it up and as soon as you started it up it had this really high pitch chattering that was never there before and then you could smell a really fowl odor that seemed to smell like a burnt clutch. I was able to back it into the garage but it seemed like it just wanted to roll on its own almost like the clutch wasnt even fully engaged and it would just roll back. Also when you put you foot on the clutch it shakes quite a bit and you can really feel it. It was able to drive a very short distance but once it warmed up you could no longer get it in gear. Any help to a hopefully new mini owner would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys for any advice you may be able to give me.

 

If you are good at auto repairs, maybe you could replace the transmission with one from a junk yard or just get an independant transmission shop to rebuilt it.

 

Sounds like your clutch is not releasing, you might have a slave cylinder problem or master, the chatter or pulse is prob. From the dual flywheel. Doubt it is the tranny

 

My first thought would have been throwout bearing. Either way it sounds like you have some troubleshooting to do. If you have a place to work on it then get a Bentley and have at it.

 

I was feeling it through my clutch pedal when the T/O bearing finally let go. It literally threw my leg back at me and I could tell the bearing was gone and only the bracket was pushing the clutch in. Just speed shifted it 100 miles home. Changed it myself using the excellent step by step on Pelican Parts where I also got the parts. Original clutch was still decent but changed it while it was all apart. Be nice to your T/O bearing and it can last 295,000 miles like mine.