So the '05 MINI I just bought took a crap on me. It seems the clutch just went out. I've put a total of 60 miles on this car since I bought it. This is the third time I've taken it out.

My question is, when the dealer had it inspected is the clutch something they check? He seemed very eager to sell me the car. I've spent all my money on it expecting it to run with no problems for longer than 4 days.

If the clutch was going out is that something that would trigger a Check Engine light?

I'm just sitting here waiting for a tow truck 30 miles from Austin wondering what my recourse is with the car dealer.

 

hey there, hope your tow has arrived already. i'm no expert, but i don't think a clutch would trigger an engine light. it sounds like plain bad luck, but a 9 year old car with how many miles? would probably need a new clutch anyway. brakes too?

good luck out there on the road.

 

Well.... a couple of things. One, you purchased this from a dealer....ok

Have it towed to him if possible. Ask him to fix it since you JUST purchased it and motor on.

 

Well, the dealer is kinda shady. I think he's gonna screw me with the No Warranty clause. I'm going to do some research and probably hire a lawyer on Monday.

 

Sorry to read about bad experience. Pre purchase inspection is always money well spent on any used car, the failing clutch would have been identified by any MINI independent.

 

I had about 28 miles the weekend I took my MINI out and had just purchased from a new car import dealer. Since "they" couldn't diagnose, they sent to MINI. It took about 100 miles of driving and the light came back on, so back to "them" and back to MINI. Long story short, "they" reimbursed me the first month payment and covered half of the extended warranty I had purchased elsewhere, not to mention correcting the problem through MINI.
A reputable dealer will want to do what's right, people should take care of people like that, but doesn't always happen. It's hard to imagine a clutch just going out like a switch, I'm sure there was something there before...

 

I am not going to speculate on what your dealer will do. But I am guessing this is your first Mini. And it is an R53 which we have lots of experience with.

It is unlikely that the clutch went out without warning unless it blew a hose. Did the pedal go to the floor with no resistance? What are the real symptoms?

Here is a scenario that happened to me when Artoo was young as a surprise and “may” be something. If you were tooling along and decided to punch it, WOT as it’s referred to here. And it lurched, died and the dash lit up. And it would only move at 5 miles an hour. That is called limp mode and can be caused by a bunch of things but most probably a faulty by-pass valve. Did you try sitting for a minute on the side of that road and starting it again? What happened? If it seemed to be OK, then it might be this.

But of course clutches do fail but mostly they are slipping bad before they stop working and you couldn’t not notice that. That is unless one of the hoses or the slave simply went away.

Just my 2¢. And hopefully it is fixed by now.

///Rich

 

The clutch had (and still has) resistance. It was driving fine. I had it out one some back country roads zipping around corners, but nothing overly fierce. I stopped to yield to a car on a single lane bridge and I noticed it started revving too high for the gears I was in. I kept having to look to see what gear I was in because in 6th gear it was revving like it was in 3rd.

Found a place and pulled over let the car cool down and then put it into gear, let off the clutch and it wouldn't move. Not only that you could move through the gears without clutching and the motor kept on idling. It's basically in neutral no matter what gear you put it in.

I checked the master cylinder and the slave both look fine. No leakage at all.

As far as pre-purchase inspection, everything looked clean on the motor. I drove, and two of my friends drove, the dealer's mechanic drove it (not that he's a reliable source) and none of us noticed a problem with the clutch. It was working fine before i basically just quit. I mean there's no way to have a mechanic inspect the clutch unless he take the whole car apart.

I did go to speak to the dealer on Monday and he got defensive. He insisted that he drove it and it was fine, that I personally ruined the clutch by driving it improperly. I put less than 70 miles on that car. My mechanic ensures me that a clutch couldn't be ruined in that few of miles unless it was already screwed up.

In any case, he was being an a-hole. I tried to get him to refund some of the money to help with repairs he refused. He told me that I bought the parts his mechanic would do the repairs for $900. I've been to the mechanics shop. It's a crap-hole that I wouldn't bring my '78 F-250 to if I needed work done on it, let alone a MINI. I told him I didn't want to use his mechanic I wanted to use mine. He runs a clean shop and has worked on all of my cars. He's been voted the most honest mechanic in Austin for many years. He quoted me $1350 at the most. The dealer got mad because I didn't want to use his mechanic and started badmouthing me.

Here's where it gets nuts. He starts walking me to the exit. And I said, "that's how you treat customers? Sell them broke-@$$ cars and then tell them, 'too bad'?". He mumbled something and I said "F-you, you screwed me over" as I sat on my motorcycle. He said,"come say that to my face". So I got off the bike and repeated myself. He started fishing around in his pockets and pulled out his cell phone and a knife. I said "Do you think you're going to f'n STAB me?". The he messed with his phone and walked over and propped it up on a truck. I assume he was filming this. He walks back over and says, "what did you say to me?" and I said "F you." Then he says "Hit me, go ahead and hit me", to which I replied, "I didn't come here to fight you, but I guarantee you don't want to be hit by me, I will drop you and you will be hurt (I'm a former boxer, he's a short chubby old man), I'm not going to fight you." And he started calling me a ***** and daring me to hit him. His son and and another guy who had prison tattoos from his fingers to his neck started walking over and I hopped on my motorcycle, popped the clutch and sprayed rocks all over him and split.

Anyway, the car isn't fixed. I ordered a Valeo Clutch, which should arrive today and I'm having it towed to MY mechanic (Juke Automotive in Austin TX) to have it fixed. His guys are good and he knows the deal so hopefully he'll cut me a break.

Now the only issue I have is I'm still riding with dealer tags and the dealer will be getting my new tags and registration. I have no doubt they're going to screw with me over that. I'm going on tour in a few weeks and I do NOT want to go out of state with paper tags, not to mention I'll be gone at the time the tag expires.

 

WOW to this story and out come. Seems like you should have just walked from the lot to begin with.

Anyone that will start a camera then yell at you to hit him is just looking for a law suit. or a way out of one.

Do you have records of your payment and all the fees included in the transaction such as the registration and plates? if thats documented then you have proof and if they try to screw you on this you can turn them into dealer services and they will be in trouble.

 

Rule #1 - never buy a car from a used car dealership
Rule #2 - NEVER buy a car from a used car dealership
Rule #3 - if you absolutely have to buy a car from a used car dealership, make sure it comes with a warranty you can take to a court of law to enforce.

 

OP, you didn't say how many miles are on the clock. It's not uncommon for a clutch to be working fine, then a few miles later, toast. Have your mechanic replace the clutch and move on, life's too short to get into a hassle with less than honorable people..

 

The guy was really cool at first. I explained to him that I was being messed around at another lot and I wasn't going to stand for no BS. But, people are always cool when they're trying to get your money.

The camera thing was a shocker. In any case had it gone to court and the video been played it would have been thrown out. You can't incite someone to hit you and then sue them when you do. In any case, having recently been in a situation where I did hit someone for calling my girlfriend the big C word, he couldn't sue me anyway. He could get me into trouble. My guess is that he may have run a background check and knew I had been in trouble before.

I do have all the paperwork to back it up, but I'm sure they're going to wait until last minute to get it to me.

 

I've bought lots of cars from used car dealerships and never had a problem. I've bought classic muscle cars and had them run for 10 years without any problems other than the occasional starter or alternator.

I don't want to be locked into payments. I'm a freelance photographer and writer. I can't rely on a steady month to month income. I pay cash for everything.

Hell, I bought a used camera sight unseen for the same price as this car off of eBay and it's worked perfectly for a year now.

 

This exact same thing happen to a Sunshine Mini Club member here in Sarasota, FL. We all (3 or 4 of us in our Mini's) head up to Wesely Chapel, FL (about 1 hr drive north). We were running around 80mph.

We get to the Wesely Chapel Mini Dealership where they were holding their grand opening and pulled into the service bay and stopped. then we were told where to park. One of the guys Mini's wouldn't move. Put it in first let clutch out and nothing. Out of the blue it just died.

Come to find out it was a Hydraulic (something or other) that failed and they had to replace. It was not the clutch and I think the entire job was around $500. He ended up leaving it cause the service bay was closed.

Great Grand Opening though, but bad luck for the club member.

If you need to know exactly what it was, let me know and I'll contact him.

 

Sounds like your friend had a bad master cylinder or slave cylinder. The hydraulics basically replace the clutch cable of older cars. I checked the hydraulics and they're good. Thanks.

 

Well, the clutch came in today and I had it towed to my mechanic about an hour ago. He called and said that it may not be the clutch, but the axle might have popped out (how or why I don't know). He putting it on the lift to check it out. Hopefully soon (he's got a busy shop).

I'm crossing my fingers that this is the issue as it's a much easier (cheaper) fix. Send some good vibes over my way!

 

Ya, I don't think it's the clutch. I never heard of a clutch just failing like that without giving at least a small sign here or there first. I used to race for Honda/Acura all around the country, and we all knew when a clutch would start acting up. I even know now on my 06 MCS, I'm on borrowed time. Not slipping at all but pedal starting to get a little stiff and other oddies about it.

 

Yeah, that's what my mechanic said. Clutches show signs of slipping before they die.

Anyway, the bad new is that it's not the clutch. It the transmission. Estimated $3600 repair. He told me that he wouldn't put that kind of money into that car. So basically I have a $6000 piece of lawn art, or $9600 car that's really only worth about $5000 tops.

I could have bought a restored '68 Camaro for that kind of money. I honestly don't know what to do. Either way I'm taking a HUGE loss. What could I realistically recoup out of that car? Maybe $1500 at most?

I'm a freelance photographer. I don't make a lot of money. Regardless what people think Rolling Stone and SPIN pay peanuts. My agency takes 60% of my sales when I'm not on assignment for a magazine. It took me a lot of time to save up that money. I quit drinking and eating out. I used to live pretty well, but I cut back so much that I lived like a miser.

I feel ripped off. I'd rather have BURNED that money than given it to this shady car dealer.

This was my FIRST foreign car and it will definitely be my last. I will not buy anything but a pre-80's muscle car or pickup truck. Gas costs be damned. At least I know I can fix it myself.

 

I know you trust the mechanic but I would take it to a MINI or BMW independent for a second opinion and complete inspection so you know exactly what you bought. Not sure how many miles are on the car but I do not recall a lot of total failures on the 05 R53 manual transmissions. These cars have their problems, but the 05 and 06 models are fairly well sorted out and they typically go the distance, assuming they've been maintained properly.

 

Unfortunately a complete inspection of the transmission at the MINI dealer requires the same amount of labor as a clutch replacement. Whatever IS wrong with it is major. I can't even look at the car without getting angry. My thoughts range from taking a sledgehammer to it and beating it to a pulp to vent my frustrations on wasting so much money on a POS, or take it into the countryand invite all of my friends over to shoot it full of bullet holes. Another option that's been crossing my mind is to take it to the car dealership and stick a rag in that full tank of premium gasoline and light the damn thing up into a MINI Cooper Molotov and take out the whole damn lot.

The fact that you can't rebuild the transmission on a MINI is a crock of ****. The last transmission I had to replace was in a 30 year old '74 NOVA and it cost $400. I was ripped off by the dealer and ripped off by MINI/BMW by making the parts obnoxiously expensive and making you buy a whole tranny because they won't just sell the parts. Like I said, to even figure out what is wrong the whole thing has to be taken apart anyway.

 

Get another opinion, if u have to pay to have it looked at, do it. If it needs a tranny put a used one in and try to move on. You certainly don't want to give up so easy.

 

I don't want a $5000 car that cost me almost $10,000. Not to mention I'm basically broke because of this car. My mechanic has been working on my cars for a decade. I trust him. I'm not taking it to the MINI dealer to get raped even more just so they can tell me how much MORE they're gonna charge.

There are so many better things I could have spent my money on. A 76 Corvette Stingray. A Triumph Speed Triple. A Leica Monochrom camera and a 35mm Summilux FLE lens. A trip through Europe.

Instead I got a hunk of plastic and metal that's worth nothing.

 

It was his slave cylinder and it only cost him a hundred or 2 to get fixed. He was freaking out because he had just had a brand new clutch installed.

 

Wow! A hundred or two? That's a $30 part that's easily replaced. About a 20 minute install. Probably the biggest pain is bleeding the hydraulic lines.

 

Thanks for the update. I couldn't remember what it was, but knew it wasn't the clutch.