Yes. The long thin part is too long, trim about 1/3 off.

 

Installed the bump stop. Haven't tried it yet on an incline start. But it needs some getting used to :-)

 

Did you ever find out if this was covered by warranty or maintenance? I'm curious because my clutch is terrible in first gear, and I'm wondering if I have the "bad" model. Is there a way to tell what version of clutch one has without tearing stuff apart? I also have an extended warranty but I think it does not cover clutches as they're considered "wear and tear" parts like brakes I believe. I freaking love my new car but first gear is just embarassing, and I have a 2012 and I believe it's MFG date was 2/2012.

 

"Smelly clutch, smelly clutch what are they feeding you?
Smelly clutch, smelly clutch it's not your fault.

They won't take you for repair
You're obviously in despair
You may not be a bed of roses,
And you're no friend to those with noses."

I posted the following in the JCW CM area but I thought I would repost it here in Smelly Clutch. I had stopped by dealership at 38,000 (just outside or the original 36,000 maintenance warranty) for my original 2014 clutch sounding like a tired Chewbacca while downshifting from high into second but a a low speed (i.e. turning into a corner). They could not replicate any sound--but I left with new front brakes.

Fast forward three months, I stopped by dealership again this week to check my clutch which is now chattering/hesitating while trying to engage in first gear and occasionally slipping (revving and smelly) only at 45,000 miles. They were able to replicate the chatter and removed clutch to find it was worn to rivets and flywheel had a large burn spot and heat cracks (and no, I do not drive it hard but I live in a very hilly area where every start from a stop is either on an incline or decline) but they replaced clutch /flywheel/ oil/ micro filter /spark plugs/ rear brakes. The chattering/stuttering was the flywheel and slipping is the clutch. Good thing I had the Mini 100,000 extended maintenance warranty which now has more than paid for itself! The extended 100,000 maintenance warranty covered the clutch/ brakes / oil/ filter and the 50,000 MINI warranty covered the flywheel. My MINI shifts perfectly now and my clutch pedal engages smooth as butter!

I find it interesting that my Honda has 164,000 miles on the original clutch! Yet, my MINI did not make it to the Mini scheduled maintenance calling for a clutch at 60,000.

 

Hmmm. I will have to swing by the dealership. I have almost hit 50k. I don't think my warranty is the maintenance one, it's just the warranty part I believe. My biggest aim was covering the turbos (I've been burned - figuratively and literally) by turbos dying in the past. I just had them check the clutch though and they said it's in good condition.

 

6 months ago i replaced the clutch with a new one (at 50000 km).From the first days even when i tried to park the car over a side walk or when i step on full gas from 2,3,4,5th gear for 2-3 times in a row i can smell the clutch.I m very unhappy with that.Is there a reinforced after market clutch which somebody had tried?

 

I had the factory clutch in my 2012 CM S replaced under warranty in June with the newer "better" version. I did this because the engagement point was vague, it would slip and require excessive feathering to start up a hill with any additional loads in the car, and it smelled like a dead raccoon stuffed with asparagus.

I can report that the "upgraded" clutch is no better than the one it replaced. 15,000 miles on the original clutch, 6000 miles on the replacement. I have the maintenance warranty thankfully, and factory 4 year will be over this year.

This is pretty disappointing. I love the Countryman and expected the getrag to perform just like the one in my hardtop S. It does not. It's hard to describe, but if I am too careful with the clutch, it slips and stinks, and if I drive it like you are supposed to drive any other standard trans car, it has too great of a chance of stalling out or lurching. I've been driving for 25 years and have only driven sticks. I may live in a very hilly city, but I know how to drive. Hell, I never once doubted the original clutch with 125k on it that was in my Saab for 7 years of hilly San Francisco driving.... and that was a Saab..

It's just super embarrassing to have a newer "premium" car that can't get up a hill without stinking up the passenger compartment. Whenever I have more than 2 people in the car, or, God forbid, some groceries, I have to drive up hills in the most careful of manners. I wish there was some hope of this problem being fixed so I can keep this car for years to come and feel safe and confident about it.

 

My wife purchased a 2013 Mini Countryman S All4 about 1.5 weeks ago. Today, she called me while driving and said the car was having problems. I'm no expert on Minis but I have restored a few older American vehicles. Based on what she was describing, I told her it sounds like her clutch was shot.

I thought this was odd since the vehicle had just over 30k miles on it. I did an Internet search and found a number of issues with the Countryman clutch including the Car and Driver article and other posts on this forum.

My wife did not purchase the Mini through a dealership but we had it towed to Annapolis BMW/Mini last night (the closest dealership). The Mini still has the "new car" warranty but not the "maintenance warranty." I told the dealership that this issue was clearly a design problem. They said the best they can do is appeal to MiniUSA. I logged a complaint through the MiniUSA site and haven't heard anything yet.

I have unleashed the fury that is my wife on the dealership telling her she needs to lobby them to make this right. Unfortunately, it sounds like the clutch is a chronic weak point in the vehicle. I had a Toyota truck with over 150k before it needed clutch work. My daily driver for some years was a 1952 Chevy truck and it never needed a clutch.

There simply is no way a clutch should fail after 30k miles, although I really don't know how the previous owner drove the vehicle. It was in the DC area, however, not exactly the hills of San Francisco. When I swapped in a new clutch for my Toyota years ago, there were aftermarket options. Maybe our only hope is another manufacturer building a better clutch? In any event, I wanted to post on this thread simply to add to the list of folks who have experienced this issue.


Update: MiniUSA is offering to pay 2/3s of the cost of the new clutch. My wife said our share is about $1200. I'm getting a bag of popcorn and a good seat to watch.

 

sounds to me like you are fighting the "hill start assist" you did read about this feature in the owner's manual?

 

Ha, thanks for the super basic synopsis/insult. I am well aware of how to use hill assist. I am very thankful the car has it, or else the clutch would barely survive more than a few months on San Francisco hilly stop & go traffic.

Even with the upgraded post 2012 clutch, it's still pretty weak. The dealer mechanics will tell you it is barely a solution. Just hope it burns itself up again before the maintenance warranty expires.

Otherwise, I love everything. Sorry, but please do not assume I do not understand how to use a basic feature like hill assist.

 

when i started hearing about clutch problems i decided to put mine to the test ... i got my 3 "largest" friends and loaded up the car ... 1200 pounds of human plus a full tank of fuel plus 50 pounds of hand tools in the boot

the steepest hill near me is at the asphalt/cement plant, they have a pile of torn up roadway for recycling that is 500 feet high with a 35-40 degree slope road to the top for dump trucks to unload

i know a guy that works there and told him i wanted to climb his hill to test my clutch so after closing, off we went

i did 15 start/stops on the way to the top, no smell, no smoke, no slipping clutch, no wheelspin, no problems at all

i did not use the handbrake, only hill assist, and hill assist held the car with no back sliding

so either i have the only good clutch ever put on a 03/2012 build cms all4 (the first design clutch) or a lot of people don't know how hill assist works or don't really know how to drive manual with clutch

i don't know what else to say but i have no issues with the cm clutch

 

Well guys, bmwr606 says there is no problem. You can all go on about your business.


But seriously, while I've never had a 'problem' (such as burning the clutch), this car has the worst clutch engagement and off the line performance of anything I've driven. It's a combo of the serious turbo lag and vague clutch engagement. For me, it's an annoyance that hinders the driving experience. For others used to driving more forgiving clutches, it's going to be a major expense as they cycle through clutch repairs. It's disappointing MINI saw this as acceptable.

Also, for the record, I highly doubt you did 15 stop/starts on a 35+ degree incline.

 

Ignore bmwr606. This is a well documented issue which MINI USA has acknowledged via countless clutch replacements at little to no cost. I am the OP of this thread and am glad to see it continues to help folks with this very real issue.

 

I'm about to start my fight for a free clutch as well.

My 2011 MCS Countryman started slipping at about 48k miles.
It slipped for the first time as I was coming out of the dealer from a non related repair.
I love my dealership and don't want to point fingers, but first time it ever slipped? I babied it as much as possible, but it's getting worse fast. Now 2,000 miles later, the slip is more pronounced and it needs to be fixed.

I found this thread and am thinking it was just coincidence that it slipped after being at the dealer. A lot boy may have been tough on it, but it should not slip at 50k. All my previous cars lasted well over 100k.

 

Good luck on the fight for a free clutch. I'm turning my wife loose on MiniUSA for the clutch and the "roadside assistance" that did another $4k in damage to the all-wheel drive by improper towing.

Under normal conditions and with competent driving, a clutch should last well over 100,000 miles. Back in the day of manual transmission, it was certainly possible to get 200k miles out of clutch. The clutch in wife's Countryman gave up the ghost after 30k miles. I suppose it's possible the vehicle was driven in Scandinavian autocross rallies and then quietly shipped to the U.S., but call it a hunch... it wasn't.

One way or another, we'll get another clutch and hopefully, the rest of car fixed. My wife is an excellent driver, far better than me. If she drops the clutch after another 30k, we'll be "former Mini owners."

 

We still don't have my wife's Mini Countryman back although the clutch has been repaired. MiniUSA is refusing to pay more than 2/3s of the cost, although we have reports that they have paid full freight for other vehicles. My wife has dealt with the corporate drones giving her the same answer a thousand different ways and is working her way up the organization. She'll probably keep the Mini, but if the clutch fails prematurely, we're done with the Countryman and the company. If a corporate drone from BMW is reading this thread, this is how you lose brand loyalty, i.e., not taking responsibility for a poor design.

 

Reading a lot of the posts. We just had an issue with my wife car right before Christmas. She was driving home and all of a sudden the the RPMs went through the roof. She was able to get it home.

We had it towed to MINI. The next day the service tech told us the clutch needed to be replaced. This would be the second time for us having the clutch replaced. Once around 13,000 miles. The dealer repaired and warranty covered it. But he said the warranty wouldn't cover a second time. I asked how this could happen again, at 29,000. 1. Parts, 2. Install, 3. Driver. Well first 2 are them and my wife has driven manual her entire life. Not some 16 yr. old learning to drive.

I had it towed to a guy I trust and he took it apart and found the clutch more worn then it should, but the real problem was the dual master flywheel. Which I assume caused the clutch to go out the first time at 13,000. He had to grind it to get off since holes didn't line up with bolts. All the springs inside the flywheel were broken and all over the place. He replaced flywheel and clutch and seems to be working fine..

Now I am dealing with MINI to reimburse for some of the cost since it was still under warranty. I would never trust them to fix my car.

 

I wish I had found this forum before my wife purchased a used 2012 CM with 35K from Mini of Peabody. We have only had the car for 3 months, and it has been in the shop for a total of 5 weeks. Immediately after purchase we noticed the burning clutch smell, and took the Mini to our local dealer up in Vermont. They stated that there was some oil leaking which could cause the smell, and that they noticed that the front brake sensors had been cut. The dealer in VT said that since the brakes were after market they could not cover the repair under our 100K maintenance warranty. I called Mini of Peabody and (as politely as I could) explained the issue. They were kind enough to send up a driver to get our car. During this first trip back to the dealer they cleaned the engine and replaced the front rotors and sensors with OEM. Two weeks later my wife is bringing our 3 month old back home and calls me saying the car is acting weird and the battery light came on. She gets home and when I check on the car it is totally dead. A call to AAA and it is towed back to the VT dealer. A week later the battery and alternator are replaced. Mini of Peabody covers the cost of this and a $400 rental car for my wife. We get the car back and drive it for a few more weeks and continue to notice the clutch smell. To make a long story a bit shorted, the CM is delivered to Peabody two more times and they replace the clutch, inner transmission seal, and transfer case seal. The CM was just delivered back to us today. By law, at this point, we can ask for a refund under the MA lemon law, but Peabody has been very helpful throughout the process, and our lemon law is extended for another 2 months due to all the work, so we will see how it goes. This is my wife's 3rd Mini, and the CM has been very disappointing so far. She had an 03 Cooper S which she drove to 145K with minimal issues and the original clutch! and just traded her 2012 JCW for the CM due to the VT dirt roads we now live on. The JCW was a brilliant car except for the rattle in the steering column which Mini USA claimed was "normal". Seems like the build quality is getting worse these days...Might have to go back to my trusty old Saab 900s from the mid 80s! My last had over 400K on the original clutch/engine.

 

Unfortunately i think it came the 3rd time into 2 years to change the clutch set.
I m desperate with this thing cause i like the car much (Mini Countryman S All4 with ecu at 219 hp) but i can t spend every year around 1000 euros to a car that i m using it so carefully for not having this kind of issues.
I had asked again in the past if anyone has tried a reinforced clutch and if there is a noticeable difference?
Let me know if somebody knows something more than me.

 

The "new and improved" clutch that MINI introduced in the 2013 MY has been fine. We had this clutch installed in our 2011 (original Smelly Clutch) and we had no issues. We also had no clutch issues in our 2014 MCA All4 which presumably had same clutch too. So OEM clutch (2013+) should be OK.

 

I have the updated clutch in my 2012 (was replaced under warranty). It doesn't feel substantially different to me. It still struggles to grab under hard launches and leaves me in the stink of burnt organic material.

 

You sure you got the updated clutch? You verified part numbers? (sorry I don't have them).

Our 2011 All4 had a replacement clutch at 5K miles, then again with the updated clutch about 6mos prior to lease expiration. We had zero problems with that clutch while the original was a constant, smelly mess.

Also our 2014 All4 has had no issues with clutch slip or smell.

Not doubting your experience, just contrasting to ours.

 

I did. The new clutch on the paperwork was the 067 model that replaced the other one. I have verified it on RealOEM. I posted about it a while back as well.








It could be that I just want to launch too hard. like a normal person.

 

Update - Mini of Peabody bought back our 2012 CM S All 4 for our original purchase price. Around $18,000. They were easy to work with, as they wanted to avoid a lemon claim. They transferred our maintenance warranty and tire/wheel protection over to a 2014 CM S All 4 which is certified with 27K miles. We took delivery this past Weds. The new CM is already in the shop. Had to have it towed in yesterday due to the doors not functioning. We got locked both in and out of the car, and the doors would just bounce back when you tried to shut them. We checked the child locks, which were functioning well, and were not the issue. I asked to have MINI USA contact us due to this being a serious safety issue. You can't have a car that locks you in...Mini of Peabody is paying for another $400+ rental car. The temp was around -15 F when the doors failed. All but the passenger side rear door did not function properly. We will see what the dealer in Burlington, VT says tomorrow. Anyone else experience this issue in cold weather? My wife's 03 Cooper S has a similar issue, and Mini replaced all the door latch mechanisms and handles.

 

Well...-5 degrees this morning and the doors were not functioning again. Had the dealer send a tech to come pick up the car a drop off another loaner. We are really starting to lose faith in the build quality of these cars. One more deep freeze and we will probably file another lemon law claim.