I am starting to become seriously concerned about my Mini´s health. I got my clutch replaced under warranty two weeks ago. The service manager detected the problem (I didn´t noticed anything, except having trouble shifting a couple times - maybe my fault I guessed).

After two weeks on the new clutch and feeling great at for the first week, it started burning. Yesterday after being stuck in traffic uphill (for 5 minutes) , the clutch was burning terribly. The smell was just awful. This cannot be normal. I´ve had manual cars all my life and had never experienced this.

I´m wondering if people that live in San Francisco have the same problem?

BTW this is the regular Cooper

Any ideas?

 

Take it back to the dealer. Obviously something is wrong with the replacement clutch or the installation. Have the service manager ride in the car and smell the burning odor.

It seems to me that the 5-speed Midland Gears transmission is a bit troublesome and this is a reason why MINI will be outsourcing an all new 5-speed gearbox from Getrag for the '05 Cooper late next year.

 

>>I am starting to become seriously concerned about my Mini´s health. I got my clutch replaced under warranty two weeks ago. The service manager detected the problem (I didn´t noticed anything, except having trouble shifting a couple times - maybe my fault I guessed).
>>
>>After two weeks on the new clutch and feeling great at for the first week, it started burning. Yesterday after being stuck in traffic uphill (for 5 minutes) , the clutch was burning terribly. The smell was just awful. This cannot be normal. I´ve had manual cars all my life and had never experienced this.
>>
>>I´m wondering if people that live in San Francisco have the same problem?
>>
>>BTW this is the regular Cooper
>>
>>Any ideas?
>>
>>

I don't have the same problem, all I can say is a burning smell is not good. Could be two things: it could be an improperly adjusted clutch, or it could be your clutching style (no offense intended): uphill stop and go in heavy traffic can be a killer on clutches, although my feeling is that modern clutches should be able to take it.
I would suggest to take it in to your dealer and tell them about the problem.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

I have had burning smells on my 6-speed too. When I run it hard, I smell it, and in bad traffic. Once, in hot weather and VERY heavy traffic for a long time uphill, it even started to fade! It got very soft and didn't engage quickly. Everything returned to normal when it cooled off, but the clutch clearly does not like to be worked hard. If I have trouble I may put in a competition clutch/ light weight flywheel combo, Getrag or not. :???:

 

I´m starting to think about an aftermarket clutch. The car has been at the dealer since monday. It wont be ready until next monday...

No offense taken about my clutching technique, as a matter of fact I actually started thinking it could be me. The funny thing is that when they ask me what I did going uphill (it was very steep and I had to stop and go multiple times for over 5 minutes) they told me I was doing it right. After coming to a full stop I put the shifter in neutral and engaged the parking brake. Once traffic started moving I engaged first, started revving and releasing clutch and when the car started pulling I just released the parking brake. No over revving or trying to leave all the work to the clutch.

This had never happened to me in any other car. Out of 7 cars I have owned, only two were autos. None of the standards ever did that.

The dealer is trying to blame me (but he actually admitted another MINI came with a burned clutch with only 200 Kms) but in the end he admitted the clutch is probably defective (or my better guess is they are using really cheap, low quality parts).

Once it is fixed, I´ve decided to go around the steep hills to get home... what a man has to do to keep the MINI... I still love the car and will give it one last chance.

 

Hmm. Definitely odd. This is the first I've heard of anyone having serious clutch problems. And you'd really think that all of us MCS's with the stumble who are "feathering" our clutches would be experiencing all the trouble...

Please do keep us informed as to how things go. I'm assuming that the dealer hasn't made you pay for any of this? Well...that's better than it could have been!

 

Picked up the car tuesday evening (with the third clutch now). Wednesday it started smelling again, without any excuse, since I was driving "nice and softly", but the smell dissappeared after a while.

Only problem was there was some oil leaking from the gearbox, which was fixed at the dealer on friday (it was overfilled).

Its been 6 days after the new clutch was installed and everything seems to be working fine, no more smells.

Hope this is the end to the problem, since thoughts about selling the car started going through my mind...