Hello All,
Tonight my wife and I went to see a Christmas light spectacular and all of the sudden, I had this awful burning smell in my car. Every subsequent time I took off, the smell came back. I mean this was the most awful burnt rubber smell I have ever experienced. I was an hour from home and it is Saturday night so the dealer is not open so I drove it home. When I got home, the car still smells terrible under the hood on the side where the clutch is located. The car only has 20k miles on it (hit it driving home tonight) and was owned by a 74 year old man until 2 months ago when I bought it. I have put 2500 miles on the car and it is averaging 37 MPG. Not bad for an S, it also tells you that I do not drive the car hard one bit. Is it the clutch burning up? Any thoughts to help me with my turbo R56? Should I call MINI and have them flat bed it and get it fixed? WOuld a clutch be covered?

Thanks for the help

 

Sounds like a clutch to me- should be covered but.... and yes I would have Mini tow it but first ask your SA if you should drive it that way your covered if they tell you its fine to drive it in.

 

This is also a gen2 car.......

Thanks to the admin for moving the thread....
Who were you??? Most admins do a post saying "moved"!

 

Yeah it is my R56, not my R53

 

Clutch wear is not covered, but a defective clutch is covered. Guess who gets to decide which it is?

 

Be polite and pray the rosary that you don't get screwed by your SA. If you end up having to get a new clutch, screw the OEM one and buy an OS Giken clutch & flywheel.

 

I think you are right. It was absolutely fine with no slipping, issues etc. I stopped, took off and this weird burning odor engulfed the cars interior. I have no idea what happened but I know what a slipping clutch feels like and it did not slip. It just went "POOF" and that was it. It still drives and is not making a bit of weird noise but does appear to be slipping now. Happened shortly after my traction control took over when I was going up a slight incline. Maybe something malfunctioned with that!

 

The smell you are describing kind of sounds like burnt brake pads. Had this happen to me once and the smell was horrific.

 

Gotta ask - in your "christmas light spectacular" drive were you doing something unusual with respect to speeds, inclines, etc. I assume you're aware that is it an absolute no-no to EVER hold the car on a hill by slipping the clutch.

- Mark

 

Mark,
I appreciate your thoughts. I actually had a few hills but NEVER held in the clutch and NEVER kept the car on the hill while "clutching" it. I had a group of 5 manual MINIs with me so every time there was a major hills, we stopped and let the other cars go up and hill just so we could go up without stopping 900 million times. I honestly think it started earlier in the day when we got 6 inches of snow and the traction control was going like crazy. And at the beginning of last week, I also started getting clutch chatter. I heard the throw out bearings on LuK clutches are plastic too so I am guessing that failed and it is what smelled so burnt. Good thing is that the engine runs good and the engine oil smells good so I know it wasn't that!

Josh

 

****************UPDATE******************

Went out to my car in the garage and the battery is dead now too and my key is stuck in the ignition (stuck as soon as I put it in!) What luck!

 

That's happened to me before when I didn't drive my MINI for a week. Neat little quirk huh?

 

Sounds like the option of driving your car in is no longer available. Call roadside assistance and have them come pick it up for service. Watch the driver and make sure that they use the tow hook and that they strap the tires not the under body like they normally do.

 

Tow hook is on and ready to go. The only bad thing is that the window is down (to get the bad freaking smell out) and the battery is dead. I will have them jump it and put it up. Not a bad idea considering it is snowing!

 

OK fellows, MINI of Pittsburgh is taking care of the clutch as it was making a weird noise when accelerating on hills so THANK YOU JOHN from MOP for your diligence in taking care if the clutch under warranty in 2 business days too the week of Christmas! Hopefully this one lasts longer than the 1st one going bad at 20k miles. Secondly, when I was looking to replace the clutch myself JUSTIN at AUTOXCOOPER is THE MAN. THANK YOU JUSTIN for getting back to me so quickly to let me know how hard the job was to do for an at home mechanic, lead times on the new clutch and the best clutch for the job. He spoke to me for about 15 minutes about the problem knowing it MIGHT be warrantied and he did not have to do so. I can honestly say MINI of Pittsburgh SA John is THE MAN right now. And Justin at AutoXCooper is a straight up guy who I will buy more parts from in the future.

 

Justin is a great guy. Very helpful.

 

If it is any consolation, my clutch is at 32k miles with no issues and I always seem to get 100k or more out of a clutch before it goes. No one has mentioned it, but did the 74 year old man who owned it previously have issues driving a clutch car. This could have destroyed the clutch prematurely.

 

Hm. I haven't even put 600 miles on mine yet and I'm smelling something similar when going up our (so steep you have to take it in 1st gear) driveway.

I noticed a weird smell a week or so ago when I went up the driveway but only today I remembered this thread. When it first happened I thought it might have been the tires since it smelled like burning rubber, but I had also been checking to see how the hill assist function worked at the time too, so maybe it could be brake pads like mgbowser suggested.

When it happened today, though, I had already started up the driveway in 2nd gear before I realized I didn't put it in 1st, so maybe hitting the clutch on the incline did it?

I'll have to keep a nose on it and see if it continues in the near future. If it is the clutch, I'd rather find out that it's going bad now rather than later, but at this rate I'll never make it out of the break-in period!

 

Normally I would say that you could be right about the other guy birnging it up, however, I actually was a bit sneaky when I bought it because I made him drive it to the notary to get the title signed over to my wife and I and he drove the car flawlessly. Also, he is the owner of several Porsche 911's that were also stick over several years. I can assure you, he was getting 38MPG, he wasn't riding the clutch or racing the car!


Here is my timeline:
Week ago it made a funny humming noise when taking off up a hill (this noise is what got my clutch warranted under a MINI service bulletin by the way)
-a day later, same off ramp, i smelled something very slightly
-4 days later, POOF, clutch goes out the the smell is something you will NEVER forget and you will know when it happens but I would say, unfortunately, that yours is on its way out. They are just not good in hilly areas from what I remember. I did speak with my friend who is an Audi, BMW, Porsche mechanic and he said he would buy a single mass OS Giken Street clutch to replace the MINI clutch and that problem will just go away.

 

Well, on the 23rd I scheduled an appointment to see my service advisor and figured I'd wait until 2010 actually started for my appointment time (easier for me to take time off and I get a nice 4-day new year's vacation out of it), so my appointment is for tomorrow (Monday). I'll have to let you know how it goes. The weird thing is that ever since I made my last post, I haven't really smelled anything at all! Perhaps there was a breaking-in period for the new clutch that made it more likely to make that burning rubber smell?

 

So I took my MINI to the dealer today and told them how I wasn't even sure now that it needed to be dropped off, and mentioned how I had smelled the burning rubber smell for a bit but not anymore. I wondered if maybe the clutch had a break-in period like the engine did, and they mentioned that perhaps at first it might, but that it could have also been cosmoline or other rust-inhibitor (especially if it happened to drip on something warm and burned up). Instead of writing a service ticket, they had one of the techs take it for a spin to see if they noticed anything unusual, and they didn't notice anything unusual about the way it handled or any weird smell after about a 9-mile drive. If I remember right, they mentioned they did see some mark on the exhaust like there was something that dripped on it and burnt. I felt a little like I was overreacting taking it in at this point, but better safe than sorry, and now that I've had it looked at I feel much better about it.

 

I've actually joined up with this forum looking for other people who have had this issue, You've got a good thread here with a pretty I catching title so I'll just post this in here.
Owner of a 2007 Cooper S, bought new (January 25, 2007, the day they became available at my local dealership) and currently has 19,882 miles on it, also this is not my first stick shift.

Short version, I've had the same issue and it's not good.

Long version, here's my timeline:
Last year I had the "screaming" sound when I started my car and had it fixed under warranty. From reading the service bulletin it seems like the fix at that time was to replace a large amount of the clutch mechanism.

Three weeks ago, almost exactly 12 months and approx 6000 miles later I began to have the sound again. As I was informed last time that it wasn't a "major issue" I figured I could wait a month or so to head down to the dealer and get it looked at (the dealership is 70 miles away).

Two weeks ago, I noticed that while in first and fourth gears, not getting into the gears but in them, there would often be a sound like a fan spinning freely when I accelerated. It didn't last long and it only happened in those two gears so I let it lie for a few days, taking pains to spend as little time in 1st and 4th as possible.

Then, a few days later, I smelled it.

The first time I smelled it I thought I had run over a plastic bag and the melting plastic was the source of the odor. It didn't last long and I forgot about it.

Last Thursday (four days later) on my way to work the smell came back, big time. The tailpipes and engine compartment -not to mention inside the car began to smell like dental surgery (well that's how I thought it smelled). Interestingly the smell ?appeared? (what's the word for smell starting) while my car was stopped at a red light. It only smelled for a short while and I forgot about it.

Interestingly during this whole time I noticed that my car became more sluggish, not awful but I noticed that it took more effort for my car to go faster than 45. This wasn't easy to determine because I only drive 12 miles a day (6 each way to work) and then it's all through residential neighborhoods. Also I found that if I turned on Cruise Control my car would immediately drop out of it, as though the brake was on. I could make it stay in CC but only after numerous attempts.

Anyway, didn't drive my car last weekend...

Monday the ride to work was awful, smell the whole time minimum 3k RPMs just to get the car moving from a standstill. Called the dealership and set an appointment for Thursday (Jan 7th) and resolved to drive my wife's car for the next few days (was a little worried about driving it the 70 miles to the dealer though).

Not that I had to worry. While driving home last night, my car was incredibly sluggish, smell was present from the get go. The BRAKE light flashed on and then disappeared on the console, RPMs were high the whole time. A little more than halfway home I stopped at a red light, when the light turned green I pressed down on the gas, the car slowly started moving forward and then, poof RPMs jumped p a few thousand and nothing, no forward momentum at all, I had to coast to an empty lot and call Roadside assistance.

By the Way I love the MINI Roadside Assistance App, it gave the operators my VIN and location via GPS which was handy since I was standing alone in the middle of a pitch black field at 9:00PM.

Anyway, it was towed to the dealer last night and they are currently looking to see whether it was a defect (covered by warranty) or caused by me (will cost me $3700). I've been driving a stick for 27 years now, I don't drink, I don't race and I just had warranty service on the clutch 6000 miles ago. There's no way this is something I've done, I had to look on Wiki Answers to see how exactly a clutch could be burned, and nothing matches what I've been doing. I have to believe that the sound plus the brake issue places this firmly in their hands.

I thought my tale could be helpful, also if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

 

Just got my car last night. It's a new to me 2009 Clubman JCW with 2840 miles on it. I bought it from a Benz dealer in Florida and had it shipped to me because there aren't many (or any) JCW Clubman with Nav locally. Anyway, after it was unloaded from the truck I took it for about a 1 mile drive with my son then proceeded to wash it because it was full of bird crap. After the wash I took the family on a very short test drive, maybe 2 miles total. Here's the one confounding issue, I let my wife drive it home ,only the last 1/2 mile or so, so I could walk my dog home from that point. Anyway, when I get home I smell a burning rubber odor so look under to see if we picked up a plastic bag but didn't see anything. I isolated the smell to be coming from the front under the hood area and in fact from the drivers side from somewhere under the intake pipe. I am very concerned that it could be the clutch.

My problem is that the car is brand new to me with literally no more than 4 miles that I have put on it, so I can't make any statements about how the previous owner (or the dealership selling it) was treating it. Do you think I will get a problem from the Service Advisors? I am hoping that because the car is such low mileage that they wont give me any problems. One other thing just occured to me, when I first got in the car I was like "damn, the previous owner was a smoker, I forgot to check for that in the car details" but now I'm thinking maybe what I was smelling was the burned clutch rather than cigarette residual from the prvious owner.

I understand the JCW are supposed to have a beefed up clutch which makes it seem even less likely that the JCW clutch would be going at 2800 miles, but it is a definite burnt rubber smell coming from the correct location so it seems very likely it is the clutch, you know if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....

Any replies very much appreciated.

 

Before going too crazy, I'd look at your wife's technique with a unfamilar clutch car - one brief episode of high-RPM and a slipping clutch can stink up a storm (perhaps while pulling into a driveway or garage).

Get out and drive the car a significant distance yourself and see if it sounds/feels/smells normal before pushing the panic button after driving the car for a couple miles, part of those when you weren't the driver.

- Mark

 

Did someone say panic button?