I bought an 03 MCS last year with 70k miles on it. It has made the screaching clutch noise ever since I have had it. In Oct I had a mini dealer fix another part on the car and they mentioned that the clutch is worn out and needs to be replaced ($2000). I told them I will wait until it is slipping before I pay $2k. Almost 10,000 miles later and it is still not slipping. I am having the front control arm bearlings replaced by a mechanic friend for a great price and since the sub frame has to be dropped to do that, should I just have him do the clutch as well?

Also, what part of the clutch do I need to replace? Does it come in a kit of the clutch, throw out bearing and flywheel or are they all seperate? (looks like kits don't come with the flywheel, do I need that to fix the problem?)

btw, clutch does NOT slip

Thanks?

 

Replace the flywheel at the same time, the noise is from that.

Don't get it done at the dealer, they charge 2x the rate of an independent mechanic.

 

According to my mechanic (who I trust) the TO bearing and/or pressure plate fingers will go before the disk wears to the point of slipping. Once metal starts flying around in there it can get ugly quick. One harbinger of a failure is a "crunchy" feel from the pedal. This is the TO bearing rubbing on ridges worn into the PP fingers.

 

One way to test your clutch is to carefully park your front car bumper against an "immovable" object, like a fat healthy oak tree. Put car into 5th gear, rev engine, and engage the clutch. If your car stalls quickly, your clutch is fine; if it keeps running, your clutch is done. Like one other poster said, if you begin hearing the "fingers" make noise akin to a card within bicycle spokes (continuous clattering), your clutch is toast. Greg

 

I don't let people lean up against my car, there is no way I am going to butt it up against a tree and try to get it to slip. Is there another way?

So which is it a TO bearing, the flywheel? Is the noise causing further damage or is it just more or an annoyance?

 

You can do what he said without the tree...

Noise is usually from the flywheel. If you have to replace the flywheel, you might as well replace the entire thing. You can get a after market clutch and flywheel kit for around $800. (My Clutchmasters Fx2oo and Clutchmasters Flywheel cost around $850 shipped) The clutch job itself can cost you another $750 to $1000. Bring it to a reliable mechanic who knows MINIs and worked on MINIs. $75 an hour is a great price. Try to start from there.

 

I recently had my mini in for the power steering pump (03 r53 with 67000 miles) into the shop and they had mentioned replacing the clutch around 75000 miles as it started to feel like (though i didnt notice) the clutch may be going. He (the mechanic I went to) explained something directly along the lines of what tazio was saying about the fingeres and that it doesn't take much for enough damage to occur that the whole tranny would need to be replaced. It doesn't feel like it's slipping in any way, and close friend who's a mechanic said that clutches usually are good for around 100k, especially for a little car (in size only I reminded him, still smokes his tuned '67 bug). Granted he worked with a lot of generic cars, hondas, jeeps, etc. I have a good, trustworth shop out here I use, should I start keeping my eyes peeled for good deals on clutches (and flywheels? I'd like to go with the fidanza lightweight anyways)?