Ok well let me start off by saying that I am 17 years old, and luckily my parents love cars so they got me a mini about a year ago. (Before I was driving an old (but awesome) 70s mercedez convertible. Apparently it wasnt safe so they wanted to get me something a bit safer).

They wanted me to learn stick, so they got me a manual. Took me a few weeks to really learn it well, but now I am doing fine.

One thing that sort of annoys me about the mini though is the very strange jerkiness of the car. For example:


When I speed up (in first gear for instance), and let go of the gas, the whole car jerks forward very strongly. Same thing happens in 2nd gear, 3rd, 4th.. but it gets a little bit weaker of a jerk when I let go of the gas. The result is that I cant really just speed up and let go of the gas, I have to slowly let go of it to stop it from jerking.

Also, when it jerks, it makes a sort of ratling sound sometimes. \

I also feel like the car is pretty jerky in general. It is extremely hard to make all the gear shifts smooth, I always feel the car jerk a little when I change a gear (especially 1st to 2nd). The car always gives a little lunge forward from that change in gear.


Now, I was concerned about this a few months ago so I had the car checked out. Apparently this is totally normal? Something about the engine makes it move forward suddenly or SOMETHING I have no idea. But the car guys werent worried about it.


I was wondering if any of you guys have these same sort of problems, and if it is anything to worry about. It is just very annoying, and makes the car very not smooth when I drive it.

 

From what is sounds like, you aren't pushing in the clutch soon enough. If you push in the clutch before you let off the gas, there should be virtually no jerkiness.

The MINI is a verrry torquey vehicle, so its takes some getting use to.

 

What kind of Mini is it? Big difference between an MC and an MCS, and yet more difference to the JCW. When you let off the gas, that jerk is probably engine braking, and the "rattling" sound might be the exhaust burble, and quite normal.

The car is responding to the input you're giving it, so perhaps work on your pedal coordination. I've found the Mini a bit more precise to drive then any other manual tranny car I've owned.

 

I think qwertymonkey hit the spot! I noticed the "jerkiness" too until I practice made my footwork smoother and now no jerkiness heree..

 

Here, try this. Get up to cruising speed in any gear, with your foot still on the gas. Now let off the gas completly, like dumping the clutch. You'll feel the jerkiness. Is this the same kind of jerkiness? You can also get the same results from hitting the gas down while you have the clutch fully out. Like...if your crusing down a road in second, and your foot's not on the clutch, mash the gas and it'll jerk. This is partly also due to the MINI's engine movement. To help this you can buy an Engine Damper.

If it is, you'll just have to get used to it. All of the MINI's do it, but like Qwert and Cold said, practice your foot work and you can make it all go away with timing.

-Cody

 

Pedal coordination = footwork

 

I missed you, my bad.

-Cody

 

im betting the rattling, is some flywheel/clutch rattle, from letting off the clutch to soon, when my mini is cold the clutch has a totally diff feel to it, so i end up having to burn it a bit, or listen to some clutch rattle, of course i could wait for it to warm up, and i try to, but hey im usually in a rush.

also i to find the car somewhat jerky, i mean i have pretty smooth fottwork (though i admit to f*cking up sometimes) but its just a car thats a little jerky between shifts (havent felt it starting off though really) like my friends never really noticed it until one of my other friends got a 5 speed v6 dakota, that jerks alot less, and all of a sudden there all like WTF, why is your mini so jerky compared to the dakota (i mean maybe my friend is driving stick a bit better than me, but im really convinced the gear ratios, clutch, etc, on a mini are more performance oriented on a mini than a dakota, which is the reason its a little jerky)

 

Driving clutch is tricky, In my old civic, it was extremely easy, but the MINI is wayy, not harder, but different, you are used to it, so there is not much I can tell you, but: try different amounts of gas when shifting. Or when downshifting give the gas a little blip, it all just takes a lot of time.

 

Since we're all on the topic...i just noticed a vibration from the clutch while taking off from 1st...what could that be, i'm hoping it's normal...my father had the same problem on the Porsche and he had to change the clutch...it was also after 55 000km...not 14 000km like my MINI...help...i'm afraid.

 

if its just some slight shutter, just give a little more gas when starting off, but if its still there with a solid amount of gas or shows through while just switching gears or cruising, maybe go and consult your dealer

 

Year and model?

 

Hate to say it, but I'd bet that 90% of the jerkiness is caused by your experience driving a stick shift. The Mini may be a bit harder than some cars to drive stick shift, but I didn't notice anything more difficult with mine compared to the 10-12 other stick shift cars I've owned. Try driving a half dozen other manual transmission cars of different types and see if they are the same way at all. Get someone who has been driving a manual transmission for 20+ years to drive your car and see if it does the same thing. Driving a stick is 2nd nature to me since I've been doing it before I got my license 20 years ago, practice....practice....practice, and you should get smoother with time, most people can't learn to drive a stick and immediately be smooth with it. It takes time, patience, and practice.

-Keith

 

Spot on Mineon,
It's a learning curve..
I to have over 20 years of Stick both left and right hand drive, some cars are more forgiving than others.
Every car has a diferent clutch/pedal feel...

 

I love my MC, but I think the getting used to comes from it being a verrry un-torquery vehicle.

 

Wow, I just caught that comment, I missed it before. The Mini torquey? Really? I love my Mini, but there are few vehicles I've owned with less torque than the Mini. 110 ft-lbs of torque for a Cooper, or even 155 ft-lbs for the S isn't what I (or most people) would call torquey. My Mustang on the other hand has 305 ft-lbs of torque at 4000 rpm, that's torquey (and more difficult to drive than my Mini, by far.

-Keith

 

1. you are not rollling off your throttle gently enough.

2. the car has a herky-jerky characteristic where you need to
have constant velocity on the flywheel in order to keep the
car from jerking when engaging the clutch on the next gear...

add those 2 together and you got your condition.

1. learn your throttle input. that is the first step in
smooth MT driving. it's not so much the clutch input
as it's really linear, just at different rates
through the gears. The throttle on the other hand
is an exponential input and takes practice.

2. always keep a little bit of throttle on the flywheel
when you engage your next gear to keep the flywheel
from spinning down. you need to keep constant power
on the drive train on this car so that the bobbly motor
mounts and tranny mounts do not bounce around from
a relaxed state to an active state. that's where you
get the herky-jerky.

your goal is a a seamless shift going up or down the
gates. MINI's have its own little quirks just like any other
MT car. goodluck.

 

^^^What he said. Sounds like your still learning/ getting used to driving a manual, practice smoothness and eventually you'll get it and your passengers won't have wiplash anymore.

Smooth is fast but fast isn't smooth, ease the clutch in find the right gear and then ease back into gear, a lot of this sounds like your just rrying to go through everything too fast and the pedals have become on-off buttons making things bouncy.

 

WOW thanks a lot guys. haha.. lots of advice to go practice. As for some of your questions.. I have a 2005 mini cooper S. I absolutely love the car . I HAVE driven two other cars in stick (a porsche boxter and a porsche 911.. yes I know my family is very into cars), and I definetly didnt notice the problem as much with those cars. I guess its just a different quirk of the mini.

Since I learned to drive stick smoothly about a month into learning, I basically have just glided through the driving without giving a second thought to making my technique any better. Now I am going to start giving thought to my footwork to keep the ride smoother.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm glad to know its a characteristic of all manual mini's.

 

What torque?

Maybe your confusing that word with another? As another person sad, a large V8 mustang or Vette makes torque. Hit the gas in any gear and away you go .... try that without downshifing in a MINI and nothing happens.

I think you got the terms confused?

 

actually i find the mini (s atleast) to be relatively torquey, i mean technically its not, yes 155 lb-ft of torque isnt much, but its really the torque curve that matters. unfortunately the mini doesnt make its full torque until i think 4500 rpm, which is pretty high for a car with forced induction, but it still makes a decent amount of torque around 3000 rpm, i mean try going 70 in 6th, and just hit the gas, and the car can still acelerate out of its own way pretty well, trust me i do this alot, cruise around at 70, and then i get near one of those big rigs (which in any car, yet a lone a tiny mini i hate being next to) and i just slam the gas to the ground, you can feel the torque pull you away form that big rig

i still dont think the amount of torque in the mini contributes to the jerkiness and all, but for its weight, the mini S at least has a solid torque band

 

But if you look at the amount of torque compared to HP and weight it is on the list of higher torque vehilces. And this is esp. true if you look at all cars, not everybody came from muscle cars or high performance vehicles; quite a few in the community come from driving eco cars with drastically less torque and many people use the MINI in the same manner as those cars during the week.

 

I think kenchan nailed it with his suggestion not to let completely off the gas between shifts. I have driven manuals for 25 years, and I had to develop that habit. Cruise steadily at the speed where you normally do the 1-2 shift. Note the rpms in 1st gear. Change to 2nd and after it stabalizes, note the rpms again. Next, stop and start over. When you do the 1-2 shift, try to have the engine at the proper rpms as you let out on the clutch. With a little practice, it'll become second nature.

Rawhyde

 

Solid forum for everything in stick shifting... http://www.standardshift.com/forum/

As far as the 1-2 shift, I've had problems with it too. It's streaky it seems. I'll go 2 weeks nice and smooth and then for 2 or 3 days I'm a mess. Probably from being tired or not paying attention enough. Practice, practice, practice.

Every now and then when I ring out first gear, I'll double clutch to let the revs drop to where I can catch second smoothly and in the middle of the torgue curve. This is kind of old school, pre-synchro, when you had to double clutch every shift. Gross.

It's all about rev management when shifting. The more you drive, the better you'll get. I'm sure that 911 is a helluva ride too.

 

Compared to many other FWD 4 cylinder vehicles, the S and even the Cooper, in some rpm's, is rather "torquey".

I have no problem blowing the tires off all the way thru second and I can still chirp third. It taked some torque to do that.