I have an 06 MCS, all stock, 68k on it.

Wife is driving home from work, calls me up tell me the car is acting funny, wont get into gear and is acting "slow", pedal felt loose and she commented it make a screetching noise.

Call AAA for her, flatbed it home. Tow truck driver was a nice guy, and said it felt like a bad clutch when he drove it up on the truck. I have yet to even go drive it to see whats up cause Im just to busy and pissed about this being the wrong time for things to break.

Now, I dont have any of the brake fluid leaks under the car to say its a bad master cylinder (level is also up to max where it should be).

Does this really sound like a burned clutch? Or could it be a bad slave cylinder?

There was absolutely no symptoms or signs of the clutch slipping before this happen. It was just out of nowhere. With only 68k, there has only been one owner before us and she was an older woman. My wife knows how to drive stick very well and doesnt ride the clutch. That is LOW miles in my opinion for a clutch to go out.

Looking for opinions here before I get this thing on jackstands and start yanking the motor only to find out it wasnt the clutch...

 

Pull the boot off the slave cylinder and see if it is leaking into itself. That would be the first thing to check.

 

Just crawled under there, bone dry with the boot pulled back.

The pedal is pretty soft and its a ***** to even get it into gear. You really have to strong arm it to get it to engage.

Any other clues?

 

double post, sorry

 

I know my mini guy says like 50% of the mini clutches he does are caused by items other than lack of clutch materal...often a melted or gauled throwout bearing...they are plastic.
Not much to check externally.....
The "S" tranny is pretty durable, the 5 speed midlands less so, so It is unlikely the tranny itself.

 

From how hard it is to get into gear, Im leaning towards something melted or broken and it not being a lack of clutch material as well. It was a sudden break, would make sense with mechanical failure.

sigh. Looks like I need to read up on the how to change your clutch thread and prep myself for motor yanking. fuuuuuun

 

You said the pedal is soft? Like its not making pressure?

 

Correct, feels like mush and has very little pressure. Doesnt fall to the floor, but it takes no effort to push it in.

 

Before you take anything apart, crawl under the car and have someone depress the clutch pedal while you watch the throwout bearing arm that connects to the slave cylinder. If you have very little or no movement of the arm, you likely have a problem with the clutch master cylinder. I would normally suspect the slave cylinder but since you said there is no fluid leaking it's more likely to be the master cylinder under the dash.

If the throwout arm is moving normally, you'll need to work on the clutch itself.

Eric

 

I wanted to piggyback onto autosyn's thread since it is relevant. I have a similar issue and replaced the slave(bled properly, gravity bleed) and the pedal feel is the same. Catches pretty much as soon as I release any pressure from my foot and I have to slam on the pedal and shift it into gear right away otherwise it won't shift.

Right now I'm leaning towards faulty clutch master cylinder..if that fails probably TOB.

But I wanted to confirm w/ someone on what the slave cylinder rod displacement is. Does anyone know how much the slave cylinder rod that pushes on the fork should move? Mine does not extend the full length(not even close) when clutch pedal is depressed.

 

Will try this. You said little to no movement...but how much movement would be normal so I can be sure?

I wont be able to even touch the car for another week or 2, so any diagnosing I can do to get closer to the issue is appreciated.

 

I crawled under the Mini today and had my wife depress the clutch. The arm seems to move free and points directly towards the ground when fully depressed.

I finally hopped in it and took it for a quick run down the street. Pedal is soft until you hit about 1/2 way down then it starts to grab and feel like there is some pressure to it, but not as much pressure as it usually should have. It also seemed to move into gear a bit easier than when I initially just tried to move it through the gears in the driveway. Granted I only put it in R and up to 2nd gear (didnt want to take it to far just in case), but now that really just leaves me confused if its a mechanical or hydraulic prob.

Any more suggestions?

 

Keep in mind the master cylinder is attached to the upper end of the clutch pedal and is not in the engine compartment. If there's an external leak you'll have a wet pedal/floor mat. An internal leak won't show anything externally except reduced throwout arm movement.

 

My quick guess is the clutch master cylinder which is mounted with the clutch pedal in the footwell.

My clutch slave obviously failed and was leaking, so I replaced, bled system, and still was just barely able to get the car in gear. So I took it to my local import mechanic and it was the master that also failed, but showed NO signs of failure (no leak).

My recommendation is that if you replace one, replace both, they are only about $70 ea. It is the time you spend or pay someone to do it that will be more expensive. Both parts are made of plastic and can easily fail and often do, I consider them ~50k replacement parts, same for the tensioner.

 

Alright, time for some updates.

Ive replaced the clutch master, Ive replaced the slave cylinder. I am almost positive I bleed it right by taking the slave and building a little device with nuts/bolts and a plate to hold down the piston. A good amount of air comes out from the bleeder, and once it seems to be no air, I close it, top off the brake reso, then remove the nuts/bolts/plate to let the cylinder suck in the fluid...then hook it back up to the car.

Im even using a Motive Pressure Brake Bleeder at 10psi when doing all this.

The pedal is STILL mush and the slave is not pushing the trans arm far enough to even get the car in gear. Oddly enough, if I have the pressure bleeder hooked up sitting at 10psi, I can get it to go into gear. The moment I take the pressure off, I cant get it to go into gear.

To me, it still feels like air in the system, but at this point, who knows....

Suggestions please. This car needs to be back on the road ASAP.

 

Since you say you can get it in gear with 10 psi in the bleeder...I'd think you are on the right track...sounds like a bubble...
Have you looked at the shift cables to ensure they did not get stretched? Kinda of a long shot, but sounds like you replaced the hydraulics...bleeding it is a pain by all reports...I 'd do it agin...wiggling and bumping stuff to help dislodged bubbles...

 

Im going to yank the slave again, hook it back up with the bolts/plate and re-bleed it again...only this time, Im going to slowly pump the pedal this time around while I have it all bolted down.

What a huge PITA this system is. **** design on the slave having the bleeder so damn close like this....it just begs to create problems.

 

I just might have this thing kicked in the a$$ for being fixed.... I just drove around the 'hood. Pedal is still a bit spongy, but its now driveable. I think it was just air still in the lines.

Gonna go back out and try to bleed it more. Thankfully, the slave is easy to get to and pull off if needed, but F this setup!

 

What helped me when bleeding is to put the slave in the most upright position possible(bleeder at top) and tap it w/ a wrench or something to "knock" the air bubbles loose that might get stuck. Got a lot more bubbles out that way. First time I bled, my pedal still felt spongy but got back ok after awhile, second time I bled w/ another slave cylinder, I did this and it was perfect.

 

Alright, so just got back from a test drive (i.e, beating the living ***** outta it) and all seems well.

Im guessing I was being to soft handed trying not to break things when I first compressed the slave and it wasnt enough so it still had air in it. Next time around, I clamped that thing down like a man and it seemed to have fixed the air bubble issue.

To me, the pedal still feels like theres a bit of mush feel to it, but for now it shifts fine and seems to run good, so Im leaving it for now and calling it fixed. I may give it a week or 2 and bleed the system again now that I know whats up

Thanks for the help everyone, it was much appreciated. First time wrenching on the Mini, hopefully the last time for quite awhile. Much rather be under my Syclone (which ironically is current broken now).

 

Unfortunately the learning curve on a mini is kinda steep. Some parts were just made to fix...not be very matainable...but that is what you get when half the car was engeneered by BMW and half by rover...there are a few er..rough edges...and we got lucky and the handling/steering worked out to the best of both worlds. A happy accident? Not sure, but I'm happy.