My warranty is up on the 28th of this month. This has been a great car with only a few minor issues since day 1, however, there is a clutch noise when you start out in first gear (oooooort) only when the car is cold. I've done a search and learned much. I have an appointment tomorrow after work to argue my case for the last time. I told them to plan on keeping the car overnight since it will be fully warmed up when I get there. I read about service campaign # 200507600043. What exactly is that. Has anyone sucessfully had this problem solved under warranty? The dealer has brushed me off for 4 years because I can't reproduce the noise. This is my last chance to have this done before the warranty expires. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Any other "last appointment under warranty" tips also appreciated.

 

Hrmmm, I do think one person had their whole clutch replaced, but I have the same problem. The service manager told me it was because of the clutch was getting to the "wear" point in it's life. Look forward to replacing it later. I seriously doubt they will do anything about it, even though MANY MANY MANY people are having the SAME exact problem. I have an 03' MCS with 48k miles on it BTW.

Stupid Dealers...
-Cody

 

oooooort, boy you nailed that sound. Some car with low milage do it also. Good try by the service rep. Do they attend special classes for that? The only way they will admit duplicating the oooooort is by you being in the car to glare at them as it does it. ( I went to a special class for that!)

 

Now, if you start the car, drive it for.... 30 seconds, turn it off then restart it, could you reproduce that same sound?
I'm just thinking, if you could park the car, next to the dealership at night, drive it into the servce center in the morning, get the rep out and show him yourself... Then he couldn't deny that the car does have a problem...
I know it's kind of a pain to go through all that but, your car is going out of warranty... May be worth the effort...

 

The clutch plate is blue-burnt (maybe even heat fractured) and causing a high frequency chatter during take-off. (Those 4000 rpm launches will indeed take their toll) Clutch temperature will affect how audible the noise will be. If you're past the 36 month full service warranty, your out of luck. The 48 month defect warranty does not cover clutch and brakes. Since the clutch plate is already fried, you might as well keep using it until the clutch starts slipping under high toque conditions. Mine has had the noise for the last 8000 miles and still pulling strong. On my other cars, the clutch chatter was at a much lower frequency and you could actually feel the vibration when releasing the clutch pedal. The MINI is much more forgiving.

 

That's why I told them to plan on keeping it overnight. After doing the search, I realize a lot of people have this problem. It's been doing it for about 3 1/2 years. I sure would like to have it fixed with no cost to me. Otherwise, this has been a great car. I knew I was taking a chance on the 1st year production run, but I seem to have had less problems than most. The build date was 1-16-2002 so the plant had very little MCS experience at that point. Could have been much worse. Thanks for the replies.

 

If you have documentation that you have been questioning the noise for 3+ years. It should be treated as a warranty issue. Especially if documented multiple times.

I have had this success before with my VW's, but haven't had to try with Mini yet.

 

Write them a business letter, hand it to them, and then take off a day of work and camp out at the dealership. That's what I did, and it tells them that you mean business. Also, if they find anything weird they can tell you if you're waiting. I was also able to watch for when they took my car in, what they were doing to it when it was on the lift, etc.

All told, they fixed 15 things on my car that they would have blown me off on had I let them. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Take a day off of work and camp out there. You'll get results.