I drove an 07s today. manual trans, about 30,000 miles on it. Car drove and shifted freaking great!!!!!!!!

However one possible issue (you guys tell me if its an issue). After the test drive I left the car idling in neutral with the parking brake on. I heard/felt a bit of a vibrating/ticking noise. For the heck of it I depressed the clutch pedal and the noise instantly went away....it reappeared when I removed my foot. The noise seemed to get a bit quieter after 5/6 presses of the clutch.

Is this cause for alarm?

 

Well a bad throwout bearing makes noise when you depress the clutch, so I'd guess it may be the dual mass flywheel. If that were the case and it's under warranty like it should be, you could get that replaced under warranty and get a new clutch out of it.

Could also be the input shaft maybe? Also covered under warranty... If you buy it, just try to reproduce at the dealer and you should be fine.

 

My '07 Just-a-Cooper does something very similar, and always has - a slight "whirring" sound with the clutch out, and if I just barely depress the pedal, it instantly goes away.

I mentioned it to the dealer when I had it in for the first scheduled maintenance, and I think they put it down as "checked clutch alignment" or some such non-specific anomaly.

It's never gotten worse, so I've just learned to accept it as normal Mini behavior.

 

Mine does the same thing... I'll occasionally slightly touch the clutch while driving just so I can hear it go away for once

But now it makes a strange noise when the engine is cold between shifts :(. Bringing it to the dealer soon

 

Sounds to me like all these are related to the throw-out bearing. I think the noise is related to the clearances in the bearing. When you touch the pedal, I think you are putting sufficient load on the bearing to close up the clearances. However, I don't know enough to say when it becomes serious.

 

I'm pretty sure that T.O. Bearing noise is almost always the opposite of the problem he stated. It usually happens when you depress the clutch.

 

Are you sure it's not just the direct injection making that noise ? If you have direct injection the engine will make some noise...