I have been trying to figure out why it is so hard to drive my MINI smoothly. I had thought it was the gas pedal, but have since come to feel it was the clutch pedal. To try and diagnose the reason, I handed the car to a friend who dailies a 5 speed E30 to get his impression. He came to the same conclusion I did that the clutch has a very low bite point compared to other manual vehicles we both drive. It almost feels like an on/off switch and is difficult to drive slowly at low speeds and does not seem to fully disengage when shifting rapidly. The car has a new Valeo stock replacement clutch kit in it (disc, pressure plate and clutch) as well as a new OEM sleeve for the throwout bearing to ride on. I can see no leaks in the clutch hydraulics and the car has had a recent brake fluid change (within 2 years, if memory serves. It was done by the previous owner.) Is there a way to adjust the clutch pedal height? Should I just replace the hydraulics? It fully engages maybe 2 inches off the floor.

 

That's normal.

 

So there's no way to adjust it? It's the polar opposite of my truck where you can just rest your foot on the clutch and it will begin to disengage. I may also do the brake fluid change because, despite service records stating it was done recently, it looks black.

 

No way to adjust it that I'm familiar with. But, you'll get used to it pretty quickly. I recently changed my clutch to a Valeo single-mass unit and was surprised how easy the pedal was to push - almost as if it wasn't correct. But, again that's normal for the Valeo.