I was driving along to work today, and I heard this loud pop on top of my left foot, above the clutch. I pulled over and saw that the little silver spring attached to the clutch has broken off. It's still attached to the clutch, but it's not attached to whatever else it's supposed to be attached to.

I'm pretty worried about it, although it doesn't seem like something that will affect the use of the clutch, and the clutch doesn't feel any different.

Has this happened to anyone else before? Is my car safe to drive until it goes to the dealer for scheduled maintenance this week?

Thanks.

 

I would not take the chance in driving it. Have it Flat Bedded to your Local Dealer, they should take responsible for fixing what ever happened under Warranty.

Good Luck, let us know what they find and how everything turns out!!

 

That happen to my brake pedal, its quite disconcerting. As far as I can see the spring just takes up the slack in the pedal so is not absolutely necessary so the car could be driven (but I'm not an expert). However, I took him straight to the dealer and they fixed it.

 

Thanks guys, I'm pretty sure my dealer (Keeler) isn't even open until Monday. I was thinking the spring is just there to hold the pedal in place better but I'm by far not an expert either.

I will call the dealer as soon as I get a chance to, but like I said I don't think anything will happen until Monday.

 

Took your advice. Called the roadside service and it's going to be towed in the next half hour. You're right, definitely not worth breaking something else.

 

I'm glad I could help.

 

I just got my car back from the dealer. I'm a little worried that the spring has been stretching for a long time until it just popped. The car drives like a completely different car now. I'm hoping the clutch hasn't been wearing out this whole year because of a spring on the pedal...

 

What, you think it is like a rubber band? If a steel spring were to stretch, it would probably mean it wasn't tempered sufficiently and was too soft. If so, it would just stretch until straight and not break. Steel is more likely to have a sudden failure.

The most likely causes for a steel spring to break are:
1. A weak point due to impurities in the steel, or damage.
2. Tempered too hard that it is brittle.
3. Received a shearing force on some part of the spring due to improper installation.
4. Something rubbed on the spring, wearing a thin point that gave out.

 

Took our car to the dealer in Atlanta today for the Vehicle Check at around 30000 miles and a Scan I think they called it. On the way home (2 hours) I was shifting and felt that same Pop and Snap while pushing the clutch. Nothing felt or acted differently afterwards but I knew it was clutch pedal related, I could feel it when it happened. About a half hour further down the road I feel something touching my clutch foot down there so I pull over and find the OBD port hanging dow by its wires. I fugure when they did the scan they either pulled it loose or something so I'm looking to put it back from wherever it came from and I notice the broken spring above the clutch pedal! Aha that noise I heard and felt earlier. So I call the service dept and tell them what happened and he told me the OBD port just tucks up behind the kick panel or something (does anybody know where it really goes) and we didn't get to talk much about the spring because my cell phone battery went dead. But I will call back tomorrow. I'm not worried that the clutch spring is making any difference. The clutch feels EXACTLY like it did before it broke. So I'm not sure if the breaking spring boinged out and pulled the OBD port wires and pulled it loose , but it seemed pretty coincidental. Interesting sidenote though, The loaner they gave me was an 08 S model and the clutch pedal was WAY stiffer than our non S pedal. Oh and those S models are pretty damn quick!

 

kinda fun arent they

i gave up all kinds of options just for the S

 

On mine, the OBD Port was hanging down upon inital delivery.

It does not "tuck behind" anything, but rather has a slot at base of panel, next to the kick panel that it slips into and should have a little plug cover that goes over it.

Can't see where OBD Port would have anything to do with a clutch spring, but;

Could the difference you felt with that 'S' Model Clutch have to do with that spring?

 

Ok actually I figured out it's not the OBD port, that is safely in place. What was hanging down was some sort of long relay unit about 1" square and 2.5" long plugged into a multi-wire plugin port. Not sure what it is, it says BMW and has a bunch of numbers on it. My spring wasn't broken until well after I returned the loaner S model. My clutch feels no different at all after the spring broke. My Mini parts guy says the S models have a stronger clutch, hence the heavier clutch feel. I suppose stronger springs in the pressure plate may be required to handle the extra horsepower.