Leaving a concert a couple of weeks ago, we were creeping in heavy traffic. I had to move the car forward 5-10 feet a couple of times a minute. After a few minutes of this, the clutch started to stink. Badly.

We got moving shortly after that, and I haven't seen any ill effects since, but that clutch certainly was hot for a short time.

I'm not a newbie in terms of manual-trans driving. I've been driving manuals for over 20 years. I road race. I've probably owned a dozen manual trans cars.

Anyone else overheat the clutch on an '07 MCS?

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

There's one torn apart in the shop right now, with about 2,000 miles on it needing a clutch and flywheel.
I don't know all the specifics, but the clutch was definitely burnt up.

Yea, I was on a very steep driveway and couldn't get in sync with the hill assist (used to using the parking brake in other cars) and in only a few seconds of too much throttle, and not enough clutch, it smelled like roast MINI. That was early in the car's history. 2,000 miles later and I don't notice any problems with the clutch.

I make it a point not to move ahead any more often than necessary--when there's a gap of 20 feet or so, I'll go.

I'm hoping that will extend clutch life. I got 190,000 out of my BMW's.

Some PUMA reports say that the 3-2 squeal is from the clutch glazing under "normal" driving conditions. I just had the shop manager ride along with me to listen to the squeal, and he seems to think that MINI needs to change the clutch material.

I got a new clutch at 107 miles... now I have 3800 miles and no problems since

Stop 'n go should not cause clutch overheating unless you are on a very steep uphill. You may be allowing to much slippage. Almost no throttle is needed when inching along as the car has a relatively high torque to weight ratio, especially the 2nd gen S.

Hi Dan - Sorry to hear about your clutch. What month build is your MINI?

A friend of mine use to autocross a Honda S2000 including Prosolo which requires dump the clutch launches. He and his codrivers regularly smelled the clutch but it always worked fine. Of course they wore through all that friction material in one season. When test driving a Mazdaspeed 3 I toasted the clutch. I didn't realize how big of a drop off there was in the parking lot and had one of the tires start to roll down that dropoff. Since i wasn't familiar with the friction point I really smoked the clutch, but it still grabbed fine for the remainder of the test drive where I continued to scare the **** out of the salesman.

if you can still get the car rolling in 3rd, your clutch is perfect. When i will only rollforward in 2nd or lower, i start saving.

In stop-and-go driving I find that Sport mode and hardly any accelerator gives that little movement with less clutch-slipping; then disengaging the clutch and coasting. I also do as daffodildeb suggests, letting a gap develop before moving ahead, reducing clutch use and, thereby, wear.

I just came back from Ocean city today in a bit of stop and go traffic, no issues w/ my clutch. I did find that I absolutely love this engine, 20mph in 4th, accelerating it pulls forever!

First batch -- we got it in February.

I drove by the same spot recently and realized it's on a pretty decent incline. It was probably just the combination of having to start frequently AND being on a hill...

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

you sure you weren't driving the LGT by mistake??

PS - did you get my PM?

What is the hill assist? having grown up with only driving manuals, and hill starts being part of passing your exam - I am thinking I just need to use the hand brake (emergency brake) ease off the clutch, ease on to the gas... as I would have always done... curious as to the hill assist while I am waiting..ta

I was driving tonight and when I dropped it into 2nd gear, there was some crunching! Yikes. I went from stopped to 1st then 2nd like a normal person and it crunched everytime into 2nd, and 2nd only, not into any other gears. But then once the car "warmed" up a bit it didn't make any other noise.
Any thoughts? I am bringing my MINI in on thursday for the 16000kms/10000ish miles tune up. I would hate to have to buy a new clutch this early in the game!

It's under warranty, right? No reason to pay for it!

true, unless they think its from wear/tear, aka tons of spirited MINI driving!

If it is happening in 2nd only, perhaps it is a problem with the 2nd gear synchromesh, rather than the clutch.

Have you done anything to abuse the clutch/transmission?

Mine has been doing this since the first 500 miles - almost exactly same behavior - crunch from first to 2nd but only a few times until it warms up. I took it in right after break in, and they said everything was within spec and that sometimes it takes up to 5000 miles to break in a transmission (!!).

Oddly, it seems to happen less if I don't park it in gear (which I will only do if I'm not parked on an incline). I'm planning on taking it in again after 5000 miles if it's still happening then (4200 right now).

Hey Dan, maybe you should do what Kurt did, and trade it in for a later production model. They seemed to have fixed the clutch problem

Keep an eye on it though. That doesn't sound normal.

Definitely not normal behaviour for the clutch - mine was replaced twice so I went through three clutches in 6k miles - I hope Tate gave that car a good once over before they resell.

I have driven my MINI pretty racey and spirited. I have "grinded" the gears a few times, usually 5th gear was the one getting ground. In my "Montana Dragon" video on youtube since I am from Canada, I switched my stuff into Miles. So I was downshifting quite a few times, because I thougth I was going 60 kms but I was going 60mls, so I thought I was in 3rd and not 5th. hehe Oops.

There it is, that's all that I have really done to my MINI.

So, I got my MINI back from servicing today and my syncro in my tranny is not working. So a new 6-spd OD manual tranny has been ordered!

Wow. I am in a bit surprises, and they told me to keep my fun driving to the safer limit. Or no more tranny's for me!