Hello All

I just got my first Mini its an 04 5spd R50 I'm new to the forum but have been working on things for a long time. I picked it up with a clutch issue and before swallowing the elephant of pulling the trans I wanted to do some of my own diagnostics and research.

So this is a high mile car the clutch was last done at 112k miles so about 70k ago the throw out bearing is screeching when you put in the clutch. I was able to put it in gear and roll it with the clutch in. I then decided to see if it was slipping so I pulled the ebrake and attempted to load it up and ended up stalling it. After this the clutch pedal would just go to the floor. I did some digging and some things pointed to the slave. I picked up a slave built a compression tool compressed it sapped it then used a DIY power bleeder to bleed it. After releasing the compression tool I went into the cab to find the pedal resting on the floor. I pumped it up a bunch and got some feeling back into it. but I could no longer roll the car in gear. I had good pedal so I put a 2x4 and left it pressed in over night. This morning it was just on the floor. I attempted re bleeding but did not get additional air bubbles. I then started pumping the pedal and got up enough pressure I think I forced fluid past the seals of the slave because I heard a pop under the hood and lost all pedal and now have fluid coming out of the slave.

So this is where I am at. I'm not sure if the pressure plate is blown and it was a fluke it was working for a test. Or if the MC is bad or the slave or now both. With the bad sounding throw out bearing I just wanted to ask for some other opinions.

Here is a clip of the Slave before I started

Here is a clip of the new one after everything went boom.

 

Looks like a bent fork and shredded throw out bearing

 

Is it just me or is there a hell of amlot of movement in the slave cylinder bracket in the second video?

The slave I find is best filled with dot4 on the bench, then connect to the hydraulic line on the car and left hanging so bleed valve is on top, fit something on the piston end that compresses and holds the slave closed, then pressure bleed and finally refit to car. Should be some guides on here and youtube vids.

 

Yeah the bracket wasn't torqued i was mostly just trying to skirt the inevitable transmission pull. Parts are ordered hopefully it will be on the road next weekend.

 

*Update*: New clutch it now drives fine.

 

I'm sure that you already know this but if you have the Getrag 5speed you are fine, but if you have the Midlands/Rover 5speed, you are on borrowed time; it will fail.

 

its a Midlands sounds and shifts fine. My hope is that most people are killing them with the extra 50hp in the S or by driving too aggressively. Car has 180k on it if it goes it goes and i have an excuse to drop a getrag in it.

 

I was not too kind to mine and it lasted about 90K. It made a lot of really cool straight cut gear noises but shifted smooth as butter when it was going out. It didn't completely fail on me but the clutch wore out which probably gave me extra time. The transmission oil was full of glitter. The tech said that it looked cool but it was just a matter of time before it ground itself to death. I should have gone with the 6speed swap when all the work was being done.