I started noticing a little weirdness with the clutch on my MC the past day or two. It's making a clicking sound that I can also feel through the pedal when I engage it. There is a similar though less profound click when I push the pedal in. Also, when I shift, I've noticed that there is a brief "whining" noise that I thought at first was the engine revving. I looked at the tach when this was happening, however, and it stayed steady. I've never noticed this phenomenon before yesterday and I've had the car for over 4,000 miles now. Has anyone else experienced either of these things?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

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Frau Blüecar -- MC IB/W. Motoring since 3-10-2003

 

>>I started noticing a little weirdness with the clutch on my MC the past day or two. It's making a clicking sound that I can also feel through the pedal when I engage it. There is a similar though less profound click when I push the pedal in.


I think this is normal on all MC. In my opinion, the tranny on the MC is one whole reason to go with an MCS. It's a POS. WoW. I can't believe I finally came out and said that, but it really is. If I listen very carefully to my clutch engage, I'll hear a clicking noise too, but I have to be listening really carefully.


>Also, when I shift, I've noticed that there is a brief "whining" noise that I thought at first was the engine revving. I looked at the tach when this was happening, however, and it stayed steady. I've never noticed this phenomenon before yesterday and I've had the car for over 4,000 miles now. Has anyone else experienced either of these things?


Are you running your A/C when you hear this? Many people have been discussing this new sound. We think it's just a normal sound the compressor makes when the climate control is in operation. Try turning it off and see if you still hear the whining.

 

I haven't heard a clicking noise but when ever I push the clutch pedal I hear a weird pumping noise, kinda like a tire pump.

 

Good point about the A/C. It's been on 'cuz it suddenly went from a cool, rainy Spring here to a blazing hot Summer with temps 90-100 in the last week (hey, I'm not complaining -- the rain has rendered me homeless for the next few weeks but that's another story).

The "click" does have sort of a pumping sound to it now that you mention it. Hmmm.

I can't believe that the transmission on the MC is a "POS", though. I think a lot more people would be complaining about it if that were true. All things are relative. It has worked fine for me up to this point -- as good as or better than our Civic.

 

>>I started noticing a little weirdness with the clutch on my MC the past day or two. It's making a clicking sound that I can also feel through the pedal when I engage it. There is a similar though less profound click when I push the pedal in. Also, when I shift, I've noticed that there is a brief "whining" noise that I thought at first was the engine revving. I looked at the tach when this was happening, however, and it stayed steady. I've never noticed this phenomenon before yesterday and I've had the car for over 4,000 miles now. Has anyone else experienced either of these things?

Don't know about the whining noise, but as for the clicking...

I had a noise on my MCS. (This may not be the same thing.) With the transmission in neutral, and the clutch pedal released (clutch engaged), it sounded a little like a loose tappet. If I depressed the clutch pedal (disengage the clutch) it would go away. If I released the clutch pedal sloooowly, the noise remained gone. If I released the chutch pedal rapidly, it came back.

I took it into the dealer. They verified the nose and replaced the transmission. Noise gone!

 

>>I haven't heard a clicking noise but when ever I push the clutch pedal I hear a weird pumping noise, kinda like a tire pump.

Me too! It doesn't click, but it sounds like a "swish" of air when I push the clutch pedal. The click I DO hear is the one I get when I push the brake pedal fully down. I think I need to turn my radio up louder.

 

No clicking today. I turned off the A/C for a bit and noticed that the whining or revving sound abated, too. Just a thing to keep an eye on.

 

Totally unrelated...but....on my newish (500 miles) MCS, I notice that I can clearly hear myself shift from first to second when I have the windows down. It's quite a loud click from outside the car. I don't notice it when doing other gear shifting combos. Is this normal?

 

Lately, I have been noticing a clicking noise when pressing down the clutch pedal in my MC, but I think I know what it is. It seems to be the switch that tells the engine "yes, the clutch is engaged, you can start up safely" when the key is turned to start the engine. Any thoughts on this are appreciated, but that seems to me to be the cause of the mysterious click.

 

Okay, here's where I get to publicly admit to being a moron :???: My "clicking clutch" problem is solved. No trip to MINI was needed (thank the gods). Here's what it was;

Last week, I went to the super-duper car wash down the road where, for ten bucks they clean your car inside and out. A whole crew goes over the thing, it's amazing. Anyhow, the "clicking" started soon after this and, as I mentioned above, subsided shortly thereafter.

The MINI got dirty again, so I took her to the same car wash on Monday. Yesterday (Tuesday), I did a lot of driving, most of it highway, but when I got near my destination and onto local roads, I noticed that the clutch was doing its thing again. This time, I tried reaching under the clutch pedal with my foot and I could feel something odd down there. I stopped, got out, and looked into the footwell. I immediately noticed that the front edge of the floor mat was curled around so that it hung out into the well. Apparently, when the interior cleaners at the car wash took out the mat, the re-installed it too far forward. I pulled it back to where it belonged and got in. When I pushed the clutch in, the click was gone! I drove the rest of the day with no problem. Boy, am I glad I didn't make an appointment to take the car in to MINI!

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Frau Blüecar -- MC IB/W. Motoring since 3-10-2003