I took my 06 MINI to the dealer a week ago today as it had the stat housing leak. I picked it up right at closing time, and having driven it a short distance, the clutch chattered upon take off. I called the dealer but it was closed. It barely made it up my inclined drive at home.

I had no choice but to drive it over the weekend but it began improving. By Monday it was almost normal when I called the dealer's service manager who could not understand this condition because he stated the clutch is a sealed unit. He offered to look at it but now it's back to normal. I will return the car if symptons worsen.

What puzzles me is the clutch was fine with the leak until after the repair and then the return to normal.

I replied to a related post last week but it appers it had limited views thereafter. I did a search and found a recent thread where an owner indicated the clutch was damaged by leaking coolant.

Any ideas as to what was going on here?

 

ya know im not sure how the clutch is affected by the tstat issues since the two areas are not connected and the clutch is fed by the brake system fluid not the coolant system