This is a new phenomenon - it's been 100F+ last few days, today my temp said outside ranged between 105 and 118 degrees F. Anyway, city driving this afternoon with A/C on, pulling out of a parking lot and suddenly my clutch pedal remains almost all the way to the floor - car won't go in any gear. My car (05 MCS now with 33,000 miles - orig clutch) has never seemed to like super hot days and a/c and stop and go traffic (is this just a MCS thing????).

Anyway, I was convinced my clutch just suddenly blew out. I pushed it to the side of the road, turned it off and back on (I culd depress the clutch enough to get it to start in neutral), but re-starting it and pumping clutch multiple times did not resolve the issue and the car still wouldn't go into any gear. Finally, as I'm just about to call AAA and my local foreign auto mechanic, I wiggle my foot behind the pedal and pull the clutch back into the correct position and shazaam I can put it in gear and drive away. A little later, again in stop n go traffic, the pedal does the same damn thing.

Has this happened to you? Is my clutch going out or is this related to ambient heat, heat in the engine compartment/drive train? Appreciate your input. Thanks

 

My 3000gt used to do the same thing, and the problem was having no brake fluid in the reservoir, am not sure how the mini setup is, but I would try and make sure none of the reservoirs are empty, goodluck.

 

My MR2 did that to me once. Drained all the brake fluid from the reservoir from a leak at the clutch slave cylinder.
Check for leaks after you refill the reservoir. You may have a bad slave.

 

Check your clutch slave cylinder these are symptoms of it leaking. We've replaced a bunch of them so it's a pretty common failure.

 

I have had a couple of Vehicles act this way and flushing and replacing the fluid fixed the problem. One was a Yamaha Venture Royale and the second a Nissan Pathfinder. Once the weather got hot, the clutch would get spongy and very difficult to engage.

You may have a leak, but if the reservoir is full, I recommend replacing the fluid.

 

Thanks for the replys and suggestions. I'm hoping it's a minor problem with an easy/affordable solution like that.

 

My 05 mcs just started doing the same thing as you described. It was a hot day also. It's going to the shop. How mich did Mini charge for parts and labor??

 

Mine did this and needed a clutch slave cylinder replaced.

Question to others: my clutch engagement is now RIGHT at the freaking floor. Before, it was low, but not THIS low. Something up? Can it be changed?

Thanks!

mb

 

If your fluid is not empty, I think the clutch slave cylinder is the culprit.

The dealer flushed the brake fluid on my Mini 2 years ago. Do you guys know if they also bleed the clutch slave cylinder as part of the flush?

Incredible how poorly some parts are made on the Mini... soon they'll make it from cotton candy!