So has anyone found anything that will make my dealer umm want to replace my faulty flywheel?

 

For a reluctant dealer I would take it to another dealer for a second opinion.

Also, take it to an independent MINI garage. Have them take a look at it. If they say the flywheel is indeed faulty, get them to write it up and take that to the dealer. Maybe then they will fix it.

You can also contact BMW MINI North America and talk to them. Often times the manufacturer will authorize the dealer to fix the problem, especially if they are getting complaints on the national or international level. I have seen that work.

You can use as leverage that people are talking about this on the Net so wouldn't they want to be posted that the dealer and manufacturer took care of the customer, instead of seeing plastered all over the Net that BMW MINI said to take a hike.

One bad post on the Net can cost them lots of sales.

If your car is out of warranty [can't recall your post] then I would say you are out of luck and at the mercy of the dealership or manufacturer.

Above all else, be respectful and don't lose your cool. If you get mad at them they will shut you out.

 

Yep im out on the warranty but i figure if this is having problems with the flywheel that they would fix it because its a faulty design and they should be responsible for it. its not like im demanding they replace my clutch disk thats worn out or something or i want new brake pads. i just want them to check it free of charge. or something.

 

Hi same here they sould fix it because the car was brought under warenty for that noise..

MC 2

 

Can someone explain to me how a flywheel is "faulty"? Most flywheels I've seen are just a big round lump of metal with teeth on the outside for the starter to engage. What exactly goes "wrong" with these? And BTW, my '03 MCS makes the Chewbacca noise once in a while too, but I don't see what it harms other than being annoying..............it's fairly infrequent.........can someone tell me exactly what's up with these?

Enquiring minds want to know!

 

You caught me early on a Sunday morning in a mood to warm up my writing engines and get the brain going, so here goes:

Well I can't figure out the dealership's thinking without knowing all that they know about the issue, your car, and you. I can say that going into a dealership and declaring something a "defective design" is the most difficult issue to argue because unless you have scientific data, service bulletin or recall to back you up, you might as well be talking to the family pet about the issue.

Also, from the surface, has yours been "souped up" and tinkered with by outsiders? If so, the dealer may be thinking that's the cause of the problem, so it's your problem. Even in this City [San Francisco] and surrounding area, the dealership guys know who the customers are, and more important which cars are which. The service dept. guys especially know who is who, which cars stand out and are in their database.

From a business standpoint, since there is not a Service Bulletin on your car, the "main office" and local dealership are not going to dig into their pockets other than to briefly talk to you for a few minutes when driving in. I suspect you have been branded "that guy [or MINI];" you are not going to get anywhere.

When I had my 740i and also handled some lawsuits against BMW [unrelated to my cars] I saw the inner workings of how dealerships and service departments work. So it is with this foundation I say:

They are there to make money [just as much as any business.] Part of the way they make money is by NOT doing free work. In contrast, they rake in big cash for supposed auto maintenance and non-warranty repairs.

In any event, understand you are not the only customer coming in with a suspected problem and making a demand for free parts and labor. They cannot afford to be looking at two or three cars a day for free, much less end up fixing things at their cost, that may not be paid for by BMW.

Free work two to three times a week adds up and could cost the dealership owner thousands in lost profits. The first line of defense on losing those profits is at the ramp, where people daily drive up with their problems and hoping the work can be done for free. The ramp guy's job is to sell, sell, sell. He gets a commission on all sales. He does not make any money on warranty work, secret or not.

So when you drive up in your out of warranty MINI in a sense you are the enemy. You are preventing him or her from making money on sales of parts and service to others.

The ramp guys start with the knowledge that your car is NOT covered by a warranty or service bulletin. It's up to you to prove otherwise. They also know your car is possibly modified [indicating you tinkered with it] and that you want something covered because in YOUR opinion there is something defective or flawed in design.

Those are difficult odds to overcome when going into a dealership where the ramp guy [the person you first see when dropping off a car] is a trained salesman, not an advocate for your side. At the end of the day he has to explain why he deemed the flywheel to be a faulty design or manufacturer defect [to the dealership owner and ultimately BMW.] If he did that on his own he would be deemed a renegade, moron, and incompetent. He might be fired.

No way you are going to get the ramp guy to cover it. And no way you are going to be able to go over his head and have the supervisor trump or override his decision.

As to the dynamics of the MINI dealership, understand that the MINI introduced new classes of owners lurking around BMW dealerships, the lower middle and middle classes. A BMW retailer is not used to that.

All the employees are used to dealing with people too busy to understand anything about their cars, don't flinch at $1500 maintenance bills [a rip-off] and who whip out the checkbook to pay $70,000+++ for a car. They don't ask "what will the payments be?"

When I went to the dealer Saturday to get a $25 part for the MINI nothing had changed from the last time I dealt with the place [when I had my $80,000 740i, in year 2000] Still the same snobs, the same salesmen looking at my shoes and clothes to size me up, same computer that had me in their database, etc. I hate the place.

Despite the flash and bling, BMW and Mercedes are still car lots, staffed with cheesy car lot people who happen to speak better English, and the guys have to wear ties. They just look better when robbing people. [I say "robbing" because I know exactly what it costs BMW to do their "50 point" maintenance, what they charge the customer, and how much of the supposed work is actually done.] I digress.

I guess this is a roundabout way of saying that you are a marked man. You are that guy with the souped up MINI that's out of warranty. You are not a customer BMW wants. When you pull up to MINI they probably know you by looks, even when walking around the service department.

You might also be perceived an alarmist. I don't know how many 2006 MINIs are out there, but to start a thread titled "2006 Tranny Recall" has probably upset and worried many members in here and viewers on the Net. I pity the unsophisticated 2006 MINI owners seeing a thread titled "2006 tranny recall."

Did you go into the dealer and say "I am here about the 2006 tranny recall." Those are alarming words to the dealer since you can bet they would know about it, if it existed. If you did say that, I think the dealership tuned you out before you took a free donut and coffee in preparation to sit down and talk about the issue [my dealership has donuts and coffee for the customers; throws them off and distracts while they are getting reamed.]

You might want to stay on top of things, on the Net, to see what develops. Do a Google search with quotes around the words so to get specific hits: "MINI recall"

For example, if you can avoid all the ads, take a look here:

http://www.allworldauto.com/comments...07-7688-1.html

Unless you can find hard data [not blog and forum posts] that there is a flywheel issue on the 2006 MINI S, I'd say you are out of luck. A big battle to fight. Good luck.

 

The faulty flywheel is due to warpage... or if im not mistaken the springs in the dual mass portion being broken...
F it im just gonna put a nice aftermarket beast in there.

 

That's a good call. On my Ducati bikes there were lots of fights forum members had about one defect or another.

On the more serious problems, where it was an across-the-model defect, Ducati continued to refuse to accept responsibility with model recalls or service bulletins. But they did perform repairs [some major] depending on how good a fight someone put up.

Many people did what you are going to do, say to heck with it and put a better quality after-market part on the bike.

If yours was an $8,000 repair [transmission replacement] I would sure as heck get my ducks in line and probably sue MINI in small claims court if they did not fix the problem. Trannies should not need replacement at 50k to 100k miles. I have seen Craig's List MINIs for sale where the ad says "transmission replaced at 50k miles," another that said "67k miles." That's frightening and actually stopped me from looking at buying a used MINI earlier than 2005. [I bought a 2006.]

But if it's a repair under $2000, I would not even bother. I would just take the pain.

Of course, all of the above pertains to MINIs that are out-of-warranty.

JMHO

 

Thats funny i own Two and a half ducatis. I have a 2005 Triple9R and i ordered a new 848. what do you have?

 

Thanks! I thought your comments were well said.

 

This is great advice. Going into a dealership...ANY dealership, and claiming to have an issue regarding a "recall" that does not exist destroys your credibility immediately and you will be branded nothing more than an ill-informed trouble maker.

Definitely have all of you feces in one sock before going to the dealer.

 

That Chewbacca sound is due to "glazing" of the DMF, according to my dealer, who replaced my DMF and clutch at 24K NQA. Very frequent, it is more an annoyance than anything else, but unlike R53 R56 can "self-fix" the glazing because it has more torque across the rpm spectrum (yes there is a way for the R56 owner to "de-glaze" thier DMF.)

but to me the DMF is like the window regulators and steering racks/pumps and all the other sketchy contracted-out CRAP installed on these cars. Roll the dice, MINI owner. I'm getting carpal tunnel from doing this. See my sig.

 

A glance at the benefits of the Luk dual mass flywheel

Top driving comfort
Absorbs vibrations
Prevents noise
Enables comfortable, low-revs driving
Saves fuel
Relieves crankshaft and gearbox

This all makes the LuK dual mass flywheel the ideal solution.
With one drawback: the higher the mass reactance of the vibrating masses, the more excessive the resonance increase and associated torque peaks. With the dual mass flywheel, this would be easily perceived when starting and stopping the engine; much more easily than with a conventional clutch system. Additionally: the smaller flymass of the engine has less of a stabilising effect on the speed fluctuation of the engine.

Thanks to decades of experience in clutch building, the LuK specialists were able to find an excellent solution to this problem. An additional damping device effectively prevents resonance overload. In normal operation, however, this additional damping device has no function and the torsional vibrations of the engine are filtered out by spring dampers.

Friction and spring rate – the correct ratio is important.
For optimal vibration isolation and soft resonance passage when starting and stopping the engine, the ratio between friction and spring rate must be optimal. The length of the springs is a key factor: The softer a spring, the more efficiently vibrations are isolated. The extra-long springs of the latest generation of dual mass flywheels significantly reduce the spring rate compared to a first generation dual mass flywheel. In routine driving operations, excessive resonance increases are kept almost completely away from the gearbox.


MC 2

 

Here is one more..picture


MC 2

 

Sequence:
"19.5 days in the shop in 3.5 years. $6,949 in warranty repairs. Why do I still love my 2005 S? Am I a fool?? "
No, you're not. But like the majority of us MINI owners, you have discovered that love is blind.

 

Just call to see if any decition where made and they toll me by the end of the week..That BMW LAVAL in montreal.just to lest you now..

MC 2

 

I talked to our mini dealer about my clutch, which occasionally moans a bit on initial take up as we get moving. They told me Mini had (past tense) been replacing the DMFs but then had to deal with the problem anyway since it's endemic to the DMF, and has now stopped replacing them. It's noise, not performance, per my service guy. Now I'm pretty well informed, read all the NAM posts... but I also know James is a straight shooter. Since it's not super embarassing, I'm living with it - it's occasional, it's glazing on the flywheel, and there's little I can do (I'm good about not slipping the clutch, take care of my cars, etc.). Once it wears out I'll get a new one, no problem. If it ceases to function because of this, I'll raise Cain. Untul then, it's a characteristic.

 

FYI - I just received this e-mail from MINI USA:

"Hi Shaun,

Thanks for writing MINI. I apologize to hear of your concerns.

At this time there are not any open recalls for your vehicle. I would suggest contacting the service manager at your dealer. If there is a defect with your vehicle, the warranty should cover the repair. However, this is contingent upon the service department's diagnosis. The service manager has the resources to answer your inquiry and address your issues. They also have access to MINI engineering and regional representatives who are in the best position to review your concerns. If you need it, you can find a list of our MINI dealers and their contact information on our website, http://www.miniusa.com/link/findadealer/dealerlocator.

If there are further questions I can assist with, please feel free to drop me an e-mail. I will be happy to lend a hand.

LET'S MOTOR.
Jen Edgin
MINI Customer Relations and Services
Representative
866.ASK.MINI (275.6464)"

 

The service teck call me back and gave me and apointement for the 25/06/08 they want to see the car... lest hope it for the flyweel
change.. sometime it hard to understand dealer...

MC 2

 

Hi to all the mini at BMW and they going to change the flyweel.. under warrenty

i just hope they make and nice job..no comme back..

MC 2

 

I'm glad you were able to get things resolved. I'm sure they will do a great job getting the flywheel changed out, the dealer I go to, Global Imports in Atlanta, did for me.

I think next time (after warranty) I will go with a single piece flywheel and after market clutch.

Let us know how it goes!

 

Same here for the clutch and flywheel.. anything in mind..

 

My '06 S was built in late January of '06. I also have the LSD. I was just in for the annual maintenance a few weeks ago and nothing came up for a recall for my MINI.

 

they wouldnt do mine, so i just got a fidanza flywheel , and clutchmasters stage 1

 

Just to clear a couple things up:

Technical Service Bulletins exist to inform technicians of "common" repair issues. The purpose of these bulletins is to keep dealers from making a failed repair attempt or sometimes an incomplete repair or to prevent replacement of good parts (over-repairing). They do not imply an extended, hidden, secret warranty or recall.

By law, the public is notified of recalls before the dealer. I will never understand why, but this is the way it goes. Nothing makes me feel smarter than when customers call me asking about a new recall that I have no knowledge of. "Secret Recalls" do not exist. Either your VIN has a recall associated with it or it doesn't.

With that said, all manufacturers want their customers to be happy. If a common problem starts affecting a vehicle line, often times the manufacturer will allow the dealership to extend a one time goodwill assistance for the repair. This can be anything from 50% to 100% of the repair or a small deductible, usually $50-$100.

The dealership pays nothing for warranty or goodwill repairs. There is no incentive to give bad service. For out of warranty repairs you do need to ask though, the dealership makes more money if you pay for the repair out of pocket since warranty times and labor rates aren't the same as customer pay.

It's not a bad idea to have your vehicle serviced at the dealership. Goodwill repairs are much easier to come by if you have an established relationship with the dealer already. It's much easier to got to bat for a "good" customer instead of someone that just picked up a used MINI from Joeshmoes budget lot.