My experience with a replaced clutch (at less than 4000km, and I think with the same OEM part) so far is that I got the same clutch burn (asparugus?) smell, followed by the electrical fire smell for the first couple of thousands km. The intensity of such smell is less now (at about 7500km now). But clutch disengagement is much worse (shuddering?) and twice now I felt something "slip" in the transmission when trying to accelerate - once in 3rd/4th gear and yesterday, at 6th gear. Any idea what was that? I suppose I should be concerned. 2012 CMS All4 manual.

 

well that sucks. If they replaced it with the same clutch I feel bad. Its supposed to be the JCW part. the part # even differs.
If it was the JCW & that is slipping... were pretty much all screwed until this aftermarket piece gets sorted.

 

I took mine in for its 15k service this week. Hesitant to bring it up, I brought up the fact that my clutch has started to slip already. I let them know my fears from all the story's I've read here about dealerships not replacing it under warranty. He assured me that if it in deed failed within the first 36k miles that they would replace it under warranty! But....the dealerships do not have part numbers to order the redesigned clutch in the new CMs!!?? I drive 600+ miles a week for work, so 36k miles is only a few short months away for me! I hope they get it together soon!!!

 

here's the stock clutch info. http://mini.sewellparts.com/oem-cata...60SX-2012.html
- how the dealer charges another $2600 for labor is beyond comprehension

_ the 13' S & JCW use the same p/n 21208606067

 

Assuming the replacement is anything like our R53, the $2600 is not shocking. I shopped around and the least expensive labor quote I could find was $1800 at a local independent garage, and I saw the car while they were working on it. They had to pretty much disassemble the front end of the car. I've seen other front wheel drive clutch jobs being done, but never like this!

This became another reason we ordered an auto versus manual on the 2013 replacement CM BMW has on order for us.

The early Gen 1 Mini's had problems with the CVT transmissions, but from I can tell few owners have had problems with the newer automatics...BMW sources them from Japan :-)

 

Dealer ordered the new clutch kit for me under warranty. They mentioned that they would look at the flywheel and I would have to cover the flywheel if there were any problems such as black spots or cracking.

I'm thinking I fight this if the issue comes up. I asked why when the SA told me about this and he said to wait to see if there was a problem first.

Any thoughts?

Bill

 

I think the SA is basically under instructions to not commit to anything and treat any failure as a one-off. Anything else would be tantamount to acknowledging a real problem. It appears like a probability game. If the barriers put in front of the customers are high enough, there is a high probability that a large proportion will be discouraged from following up. Only the hardcore few will insist on a fair deal (at significant cost of time, effort and anxiety) who can then be disposed off on a case by case basis. If the installed base of CMS All4 Manual is not very large to start with, BMW may have been persuaded this is a reasonable effort at crisis management. Of course, this wisdom will fall apart if some catastrophic incident were to happen due to clutch failure at steep inclines or at high speeds. I am always concerned about such a thing happening. Is that possible at all?

 

Don't know about catastrophic as mine failed slowly. Started out smelly at 1,500 miles when I believe there were times the clutch peddle was fully released and the clutch didn't fully engage. Other times maybe I was too quick on the gas during shifting, although those were rare. Last week the cruise control started failing and I tracked it to clutch slip. I called my friend at the dealer and he said mini's don't often give signs of a coming problem. I was 100 miles from the dealer and by the time I got there it was slipping in second with any gas.

We'll see what comes and I will fight for what is fair, however, I refuse to let Mini play with my blood pressure.

Bill

 

Recently spotted this ad ->http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hn...489062734.html

 

Not only would I not buy a no name clutch from CL. But the listing is incorrect in its fitment. The larger 235mm CM clutch is specific to the CM.
Sometimes ppl will use tag words to gather attention/hits but the smaller 210mm(IIRC) Cooper clutches will def not work in a CM.

Not saying the product is bad, just very unknown. Solid Mass Conversions are very common & widely used. It's nothing new, the design is simply better than a DM. However, it does need to fit correctly & be of appropriate size.

 

Kudo's for Mini of The Woodlands and SA Lance. Mini has replaced both the clutch and flywheel under warranty. I'm told it is the 2013 redesign version.

I pick it up this afternoon.

Bill

 

Nice!
If you can, get the part numbers from your SA and share with everyone here! Seems like a lot of dealers are claiming they have no clue how order the new parts.

 

I would pay you for old clutch & FW if you could get it from the dealer. Seriously.

 

After reading everyone's posts about thier clutch slipping and smelling, I was considering myself lucky that I had not had that problem - until now. My March 2011 build CMS All4 with 27,000 miles on it has been showing symptoms of the clutch slipping along with the burning smell. I'm going to get in touch with my SA tomorrow to see what he says. I live over 2 hours away, so I want to make sure they have parts in stock before taking it in. Can someone give me an idea as to how long it takes to repair/replace the clutch?

MsBrit

 

Sorry to hear about the trouble with your clutch. Hope it gets resolved with minimal hassle. Please update with the outcome.

 

Our clutch was replaced in one day. Dropped car off in the morning and picked up towards end of day.

Please advise which clutch was used as replacement: original model or new upgraded model. Part number would be helpful.

Good luck!

 

MsBrit - Sorry to hear that. I hope you have a better experience than I and resolve it quickly. Repeating what is already here - I went through a huge run around. First they took a day to "investigate" what was wrong. Then they said they had to take apart the transmission to look in but wanted me to commit to paying for that labor and any replacement if they determined the issue was clutch wear, for clutch wear is not under warranty. I refused to give any such commitment arguing it should be a warranty repair. They did give me a replacement car while this was going on. In the end, mine took several weeks before they told me that Mini agreed to a "one time" replacement. I really do not know if it is just a day's job if you avoid all these hassles. I presume it is but cannot be sure. Please do keep this list updated. I will dig up the part number and post.

 

I thought I had pretty much mastered the clutch by technique development, but last night, as I climbed increasingly steep hills in San Francisco, I ended up at the top of the hill on a slope so steep I expected to see the pedestrians climbing with the aid of ropes and pitons. I was second in line, waiting for a long light to change - an opportunity to confront one's confidence and fears. When the light turned green I didn't make the best start I'd ever done, giving it more revs (to match my heart rate) than were probably needed.

As I pulled into the garage soon after, the parking crew looked up and said, "Manual, eh? We can smell the clutch from here" and parked it with the other MINIs.

 

Guys, there is a difference in part numbers between the JCW clutch and the regular S clutch.

The Regular S Clutch I looked up on REALOEM for 8/2012 production is this:
1 SET RMFD CLUTCH PARTS D=235MM 1 UP TO 11/2012 21217603025

The JCW part is this:
01 SET RMFD CLUTCH PARTS D=235MM 1 21208606067



If youre going in to get your clutch replaced, DEMAND the 6067 part and you should be set.


http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...55&hg=21&fg=05

Also tischer has the JCW clutch kit for 275 + shipping. For those of you that cannot get the $tealer to replace it that is...

 

Isn't the number you show for JCW the same part number for model year 2013 non-JCW's?

 

yup! after 11/2012 all r60 clutches have been updated to the JCW clutch. This is exactly what Realoem shows too.

 

I still wonder what the exact cutoff day was for the old clutches and the start of the new ones in 11/2012 because mine was assembled in that very month on the 5th.

Knowing my luck, it's prolly the 6th.

 

Has anyone else noticed that the shift from first to 2nd seems a bit clunky? Not in the transmission, but in the actual stick shift itself... Has anyone else noticed this sometimes?

I don't want to say that it makes a loud audible noise, but it doesn't feel as smooth as shifting from 3rd to 4th, 4th to 5th, or 5th to 6th....

 

I thought all November build cars were model year 2013. Am I incorrect?

 

Mine does this. The colder the weather the worse it is. It seems to get batter after the car warms up. (at least for me)