A new and odd thing has started happening with my 2011 R55 Clubman. It's a manual transmission, and when I shift into a new gear, the revs spike up a few thousand RPM's before dropping back to a normal range. This is after completely releasing the clutch pedal and with steady pressure in the accelerator pedal. Shift into gear, get back on the gas, revs shoot up briefly before evening back out to a normal level.

I wasn't able to describe is succinctly enough to search it but has anyone else experienced this issue? Any googling of the matter leads me to auto trans issues.

Maybe something with the throttle?

 

Could be a few things... Clutch is starting to slip, release lever is bending and catching on the housing, or the slave cylinder is holding pressure for some reason.

Once it "catches", will it feel like its holding when you get on the gas?

 

Thanks for your quick response! Yes, if I understand your question... if you get back on it after it's caught it's almost a bit dead for a bit until and doesn't have the throttle response it normally would for a bit. I don't do this much as I try to let it level out before getting back on it.

You mentioned the slave cylinder... I did have a braking issue a few months back which I think is related. I was in stop and go traffic for an hour and completely lost brakes. When I parked, the reservoir was bone dry. I filled it up and burped it, and has been fine for awhile, until this more recent issue which I'm now guessing is slave cylinder related.

I just checked the reservoir and it needed about 8-10 oz, so there must be some sort of leak somewhere in the system. Possibly the cylinder itself?

 

If the slave cylinder had air in it, I would expect the clutch to not disengage. I wouldn't expect it to hang up like that. It could be related, but the behavior isn't what I would expect.

Try this... Find a long stretch of road where you don't have to worry about intersections and traffic signals - a highway would be best. Get the car up to cruising speed in 5th gear. Make sure the clutch pedal is released and the car is traveling steady. Keeping your foot clearly off the clutch pedal, give the car full gas. If the clutch is holding, the car will begin to accelerate. If the clutch is beginning to go out, the engine will rev up with little to no change in acceleration or speed.

 

 

Could the clutch hanging up be related to the cylinder failing or leaking? Seems like it could maybe related to the low fluid and brake fluid issue.

I'll try it and report back, thanks for the tip! Perhaps I will try it on the highway on the way to the mechanic lol, am starting to sense this one is over my head

 

If the leaked clutch/brake fluid somehow made its way to the flywheel and/or clutch disk, this could certainly explain the clutch slippage.

 

Also possible is if the slave wasn’t allowing the clutch to fully disengage, and the friction surface has worn down enough to cause slipping…

 

Both sound plausible to me! Thanks for the help. Just dropped it off a local shop, the owner is fond of mini's and has a few himself so it should be in good hands. Might not find out what happened specifically, but will report back as to what's wrong

 

Well, unsurprisingly the mechanic said it needs a new clutch. They said the job is over their heads, and haven't given me a price yet, but did say they would budget around 11 hours of labor for it.

I'll wait for an estimate from the place down the road they recommended, but how doable is this job? I have access to a halfway decent shop, but would definitely be the biggest job I've undertaken so far. The most involved thing I've done so far is replace the supercharger on my R53, doing the alternator, damper, smaller sc pulley, belt tensioner, thermostat and gaskets etc while I was in there. Time consuming in aggregate, but nothing too challenging.

Is the clutch replacement on an R55 non-S doable? I remember watching the Mod Mini video for the R53 clutch replacement when I was considering an LSD and being quite intimidated.

 

Mod Mini also has an R55/R56 clutch replacement video. It's clearly a big job.

 

Yep thanks, just watched that... doesn't jump at me out as a fun weekend. Also a bit concerned that even I did swap the clutch, it could still have the issue which caused it to slip in the first place, which may or may not be related to the slave cylinder/fluid leak

 

How many miles do you have on the clutch?

Remove and inspect the slave cylinder. I wonder if you also could use an inspection camera to view the condition of the release lever, clutch and flywheel and signs of leaked clutch fluid through the hole where the slave cylinder inserts?

 

125k on the clutch, mostly highway miles. Looking around the forum, it does seem that these can go around this mark, but I think it's probably related to the slave cylinder or something along those lines, as it went from totally fine, to a bit odd, to undriveable very quickly. I imagine they usually fail much more slowly over time? First time I've had a clutch go.

 

I replaced the clutch on my Honda at 130K miles due to some clutch chatter and a squeaking release bearing. My clutches have never slipped. My Mini has the auto trans.

Your Mini clearly lost clutch fluid. Was the leak from the slave cylinder?

You may want to investigate the inspection camera idea as your only other option is to drop the subframe and transmission.

 

Alas, it does indeed have a bad clutch which needs replacing. Shop quoted $3k for parts and labor. Parts look to be about $1k, if I were to do it, and still not sure what caused the leak in the first place. Given it has 125k miles on it and seems to be worth about $5k if it had a working clutch, I think I may just try my hand at selling it for $2k as needing a clutch etc. Hate to see it go, but can't justify spending the $3k and the work is over my head I'm afraid.