Let's talk clutches
 

Ok Gang -
My 07 MCS with 32000 miles seems to have some clutch wear. It is not slipping, but it does not engage until about I'm about 75-80% up on the pedal. Is there a mechanical adjustment? I note that one of the "improvements" coming out later this year is automatic clutch adjustment. This begs the question whether the previous generations have a manual adjustment??:confused:

Thanks in advance for your help -

HIBSFAN

No, you cannot change the clutch engagement point on your 2007.

Thanks
 

Thanks for the reply:thumbsup: ...too bad, though.

Yup, you just gotta Nascar it: run it 'til it blows up, then replace it. It's not worth any preemptive fixing.

Bummer:sad:

One of the changes upcoming in March is a new self-adjusting clutch. I'm generally suspicious of such things, but from all the problems I've read about the current clutches, I doubt it can be any worse.

Agree. There are aftermarket clutches for the R56 MCS available now. I'm hoping for aftermarket solutions for the MC soon.

I'll talk clutches. My dealer has my MINI right now because my clutch was beginning to slip under higher acceleration. Car had 6948 miles when I handed them the keys.

That level of engagement is actually quite normal for the R56. May be no problem.

That'll be covered under warranty right?

Jeremy 1026 - Sorry to hear of your ridiculously early clutch issues. Hopefully, they get it all sorted under warranty.

Glangford - Thanks for the comment...it may be that I am concerned about nothing after all. I have had a couple of manual Civics in the past, and they had knobs you could turn to adjust the cable. Oh well.

Cheers,
HIBSFAN

Covered under warranty. My receipt said something to the effect of 'Clutch burned, shows signs of heat cracks. 1 time good will replacement performed.' If it has heat cracks again (especially in 6 months time) they WILL be paying for it again. There is no excuse for a clutch going in 7,000 miles. Even if I were the worst driver ever, it should still make it past that.

I'd like to add in my .02 cents to see if anyone has/had similar issues. Our 2009 JCW has 13,3XX miles on it currently. We purchased it with ~7000 miles on the clock. What I've noticed that in 4th gear, and only in 4th gear I can produce what in my experiences is clutch slippage. If cruising along at relative highway speeds, spinning at around 1500 - 2000 rpms, if I get on the gas to accelerate or a speed up, the engine will rev, the tach will spin around the dial while at the sametime the car takes a couple of seconds to actual produce any significant forward thrust. So in other words it reacts like am pulling away from a stop or from a static speed while SLOWLY letting the clutch out. From higher engine speeds and in other gears everything seems to be working properly. In those instances I get solid, sustained forward acceleration. To me it seems like clutch slippage. Anyone else have anything similar occuring?

Not sure markr, but if you are cruising at only 1500 - 2000 rpm, you are pretty low at that point. Probably close to lugging the engine as it is. So stomping on it at that point probably would cause what feels like some hesitation while everything tries to get back up to speed.

I tend to agree with you. That said, I'm not quite to the point of lugging down low. But there is certainly a pronounced hesitation. I initially thought to myself, could that be turbo lag? But I'm sitting here talking myself out of that idea since the rpms jump up and the noise emitting from the car does not "ramp up" slowly as opposed them jumping up fairly quickly. The rpms/engine "take off" as if to leave the rest of the car behind. Only then do the rpms/engine sound/and motivation of car fall in line with each other. All that said, I cannot recreate this situation in 3rd, 5th and 6th gears. One thing I should mention, if I row through each gear bringing up the rpms and speed in each gear as you would normally (even when accelerating hard) the car simply pulls ahead as it should.

Thanks for the reply by the way. I'll certainly have it checked next time service is do or if it gets progressively worse.

That's classic early clutch slippage. That will continue to get worse until you no longer can get up a hill.

I'll be calling the dealership today then. I want it noted with ASAP. Our car was a BMW NA car prior to us buying and I certainly know that we have not caused the cluthc to go bad in the 6k miles we've had it.

Markr -

Could well be the beginnings of clutch slippage, especially if you cannot attribute this to turbo lag.

FWIW, I had my car at the dealer this past week, and one of the things they checked was my complaint about "very high clutch engagement." Supposedly, the checked it out and came up with "could not duplicate customer's concerns." So, I will drive it as is - I have not had any slippage as you describe, though.

If it was a BMWNA car, it may have been in the press pool. And if so, it was DEFINITELY abused. Those guys beat the dog crap out of cars when they "test" them. They tend to be particularly abusive on timed runs, like 0-60 and 1/4 mile. That's why you typically see magazine times so much better than what the mfr is quoting.

It's disconcerting that the clutches in our cars are so problematic. No excuse to cut corners and save pennies by using inferior materials here.. especially when a replacement is so labor-intensive.

My thoughts exactly as to how it was used for the first 7k miles of it's life. The salesman wasn't sure if it was press car or driven by an employee. Either way I wasn't that nervous about buying as it seems to be in pretty good shape. It's scheduled to go into tonight for service. Depending on what they find and say will determine how I react. Certainly some if not all of the clutch wear was done prior to us buying it. I'll cross that bridge if need be.

Thanks for replies.

I've also had a few cars with a manual clutch cable adjustment. This only alters the engagement point of the clutch pedal. It does not provide any more useful life for the clutch. It was still a useful feature, as I also prefer a clutch pedal that engages sooner than the R56 clutch. My Clubman with 17k miles also engages at about 70%, although when new it also engaged fairly high. I hope that last 30% lasts a while...

I've been having a pretty annoying squeak on my clutch and it only has around 5,000 miles on it. No squeak for around the first 5-10 minutes of driving, but then it always pops up. After I turn the car off, the squeak is still there. Anybody have any thoughts?

ash,

There are at least a couple different sources for a squeaky clutch pedal. In my case, it only started squeaking when it got warm inside the car. I could definitely tell it was something with the pedal itself. When I had it in for another service, they put some lube on it and that fixed the problem. They indicated they were going to order some bushings to replace, but since I've never had the problem again, I never bothered taking it back in.

I've also read about a problem with some linkage causing a squeaking sound. Not sure on that one as I could tell mine was definitely something about the pedal itself.

Trouble is, the MINI clutch setup is hydraulic and doesn't use a cable. Under normal circumstances, this would compensate for clutch wear. But if you're getting slippage, the plate may well be overworn, glazed, whatever. The car may well have been flogged before you bought it, as was suggested.

Spridget

Hey Ash,
I dunno exactly what your "squeaking" sounds like but I had a similar sound that I would describe as a "squeak/groan" as I eased off the clutch in 1st (happens in reverse too). I took it to the dealer and they went on a drive with me and said the sound was coming from glazing on the clutch. He explained that when the car is warmed up and we are using the clutch it gets warm and produces "glazing". He said it was normal though, and while the sound is annoying, nothing is wrong with the car...:confused:

I still am perturbed by the sound, but alas, they wouldn't do anything more than that. It could be the same sound/problem you're experiencing?
hope that helps.

Took my car to MINI of Mountain View in the California Bay Area if that matters to anyone..