Brecht Mini in San Diego just called...

Apparently our clutch is worn right through to the rivets and the flywheel has burned out with it. They say they'll cover the labor under warranty but the damage they've repeatedly missed will cost $1500 in parts.

It's an 18 month old MCS at 33,000 miles.

It's been in to Brecht for every single service, both the regularly scheduled and the many various issues that have come up along the way.

My question is: In a year and a half and over thirty thousand miles worth of regular services - shouldn't they have, you know, actually looked at the clutch once or twice by now?

I'll grant that the occasional subtle issue might slip by but I'd have thought something as simple as checking the clutch wasn't completely burned through fell under basic due dilligence?

If I can't rely on the service department for anything other than trying to upsell me new $1400 tires/$340 wheel alignments/$240 fuel intake services, does anyone have any advice on either:

Where I can go so someone competent can perform basic checks that easily preventable damage isn't being done?

or

A list of the checks those checks that I guess I have to do myself if I can't trust the dealer?

 

I don't think there is any way to inspect the clutch in any car without tearing everything apart and incurring tons of labor costs (and at that point you may as well do the whole job). I've never heard of this included as part of any inspection service.

That said, 33k sounds like a really short lifespan. Are Mini clutches normally that weak? I would appeal up the food chain to see if they will take care of you since you've been going there the whole time you had the car.

Anyway, sorry to hear it and I hope you get a good resolution. BTW, $1500 for just parts (clutch, flywheel, springs, etc.) seems pretty steep to me. For comparison purposes, a Mazda clutch for a Miata is $225. For $600, you can get a really good aftermarket kit (including flywheel, etc.) good for 318 lb-ft of torque! Here is an aftermarket "high performance" MCS clutch for $419: http://www.mini-madness.com/index.as...PROD&ProdID=45

If the typical clutch life for a Mini is only 33k, I'm not sure I want one anymore! How long have you been driving a stick and what kind of driving do you do?

 

Wow. What, exactly, does that dealer not understand about "4 year / 50,000 miles"?
You shouldn't be paying for a thing!

Nope. no way to inspect it without disassembling an awful lot of drive train and suspension to get to it.

Good luck.

 

Clutches are generally not covered under warranties or maintenance plans from what I've heard (I would guess this includes MINI).

But it sounds like there is some discretion on the dealer's part. Read here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-warranty.html

 

Don't have the dealer install it,

like ROJA mentioned, get a high performace clutch for a fraction of the OEM cost then install yourself or pay a reputable local mechanic to do the work. You'll save a lot of money and have a better than stock clutch that will last a lot longer than the original did.

Warranties, ...they are usually fairly useless selling points. They are good for a few oil changes and air filters. Anything serious and they try to exclude from the warranty.

(My wife's Toyota's tires and wheel bearings went bad after 8 months of use, they said it was due to not rotating the tires often. The car was only 8 months old, how many times did we have to have them rotated. Anyway, we had to pay the entire cost... no warranty, put us out over a grand). The warranty was useless.

 

My Mini dealer outlined to us when we bought mine mcs that the warranty didnt cover the clutch due to wear, but if you bought the extended warranty it would be covered

 

name one car brand where the clutch is covered under the regular warranty. There aren't any.

not quite true either.



MINI does cover the clutch under the 3yr/36k miles maintenance program but not if it's due to "abuse" (they define 'abuse' - not you). Some people have had better luck than others getting it replaced for free.

I'm not sure if the extended maintenance program covers the clutch the same way as the original one.

 

Mato,

Your dealer did the responsible thing by telling you that the clutch is not covered under warranty. Most people think that if the vehicle has a warranty everything is covered.

Unfortunately, you cannot tell if a clutch is worn unless you take the gearbox down. Unless, you have a f1 style gearbox. Then just hook the factory scan tool up to the car and read away. (not on a mini though)

 

englishguy, kind of off topic, but can't wait for mini of san diego in 2010 . at least us so cal mini owners will have options now.

 

18 months old and 33k thats a lot of miles. If it is stop and go traffic I could probably see it wearing out. There is no scan to see if the clutch is burned out. You have to look at it. And if you are going to look at it you might as well change it cause it is a PITA to do a clutch. I did one and it took me all of 20+ hours on a weekend. Don't go OEM again either upgrade to a stage oem weighted flywheel for everyday driving or a stage 3 lightned flywheel for performance oriented driving.

 

If your clutch is that badly worn out you should have been experiencing major slippage, smells like burning brakes and ungodly noises and vibration assuming it was down in the rivets. I have not been under my MINI yet but every manual tranny car I have had has a inspection plate to remove so you can see the clutch plate. I would want to see those parts. The clutch should not wear out at 33k miles under normal use. I dont care if you were in stop and go traffic.

 

^^ +1

Well said and I could not agree more!