’05 MCc with 7600 miles. Car is driven by both me and my wife. Both of us are experienced drivers with 24 and 16 years of driving manuals. Lately I have been smelling the clutch every now and then, but at weird times. Sometimes I will actually smell it while just cruising on a highway. Today my wife called and said that she smelled it going up hill on her way to work. Plus there have been numerous other times. While I do drive aggressively some of the time, most of the time I just sit in morning and afternoon commute. It just seems that 7600 miles is a little too early for the clutch to start giving out. Does any one have any ideas?

 

My '03 MCS was purchased by me with 19K miles on it. It's service history show's a clutch replacement at 17K miles. Seems like clutch problems are not terribly uncommon with these cars.

 

Any idea if it was replaced under warranty?

 

Take it back to the dealer. Don't wait for the clutch to die on you going up hill .

In the MINI TALK forum, someone with a '04 MCS MC40 experienced a totally burnt out clutch on a road trip from NJ to Chicago. Her clutch was found to be totally self destruct and was replaced under warranty. MINIUSA paid for her hotel room and meals while her MC40 was in for repairs.

I owned a 2004 MCS 6-speed and never had any issues with the transmission or clutch in 17K miles and 16 months of use. My new '05 MCS is flawless at 1400 miles and 2 months since I got it.

We don't have steep streets or hills in Miami. Our terrain is flat as a pancake but our traffic is horrendous and can put a toll on any clutch.

You could well have a defective unit. Take it, that's what the warranty is for.

 

I just had my clutch AND flywheel replaced under warranty after a breakdown on a long roadtrip (from NJ, brokedown in Chicago). Tech determined that it was a faulty clutch from the beginning. They showed me the replaced parts and they were SMOKED, cracked and warped. I had 18k on the car before this happened.

So if you have time, I would have it looked at before you find yourself in the middle of a busy highway on ramp, no shoulder, on a steep upslope, unable to get into gear (like I unfortunately was ).

Good luck to you - I hope your situation will be resolved soon! :smile:

 

Thanks for the input. I finally got to drive the car again today. Did the normal clutch troubleshooting. Started in 1st, 2nd, 3rd gears from dead stop and no gas, clutch pedal play, engagement point, etc. To my eye/feel everything seems normal. But I am coming up on service in the next month, or so and will have the dealer take a look at it then. Hopefully I will not suffer any failures on my scheduled road trip in two weeks.

 

...Well, if you do suffer an unfortunate breakdown on your road trip (over 100 miles from your home), MINIUSA will cover you up to $750 for lodging, meals, and transportation as part of the 'Trip Interruption' Protection.

MINI ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE would be the program that would take care of you regarding that. Keep the reciepts for any expenses incurred because of the trip interruption and send them for evaluation and your refund check would arrive within 5-10 business days after that evaluation is complete.

You're covered as long as the cause of the car trouble due to the failure of parts covered under the warranty.

Hopefully you wont have to go through this hassle, but if you do, just wanted you - and fellow NAMers - to know the options in case the need should ever arise :smile:

Have a safe trip!!!

 

Good to know. Thanks for the tip. Maybe I will break down near a 4 start resort?

 

I am really glad the MINIUSA road assistance program worked for you as advertaised

Ask how many Toyota, Honda, Scion, VW, Mazda, etc owners get this kind of "Luxury" treatment on their sub $20K machines