One day my throwout bearing gave out and decided it didn't want to be around anymore and that began my adventure.

I scheduled to replace the clutch, and flywheel past thanksgiving weekend. 4 days is ample time to do this project.

Lo and behold, flywheel they shipped me does not fit. Had to wait a week for them to get things sorted.

Finally put everything back together, and before I put the front bumper carrier and wheel wells on I decided to try and start it.

It didn't start. :(

The car has basically sat for 2 weeks on jackstands(inclined), battery is good, it cranks but just doesn't turn over. If I give it some throttle it'll almost sound like its about to turn over but it doesn't. No fuel smells.

I also tried to remove the intake manifold, but couldn't. But ended up taking off the intake piping to the supercharger inlet, throttle body. I ended up losing the intake manifold nuts so am one short, possible for intake leak to cause a no start?

I'm wondering if there's something I might've not plugged in that can cause this? Even though I'm sure I put everything back in.

I need to check the fuel level, but given its on an incline, any of you had trouble starting a car that's been sitting on an incline for awhile?

Any help would be appreciated, as I'm beyond tired and frustrated to try to diagnose it right now. Thank you!

 

Any chance that missing intake manifold nut fell into the supercharger? That would definitely lock up the S/C if the nut got jammed in the rotors. If you think that is a possibility, you can confirm by removing the serpentine belt to de-couple the S/C and see if the motor cranks over then.

Eric

 

Hmm...not likely. If that was the case I'd heard some nasty noises as the nut rattled around in there when I tried to start it. Not to mention a dead SC lol

I'll be checking spark and fuel tonight and hopefully will get some more answers.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Look over everything...look for loose/disconnected wires..but bet you already did that.
When all else fails, crank, but no start can be caused by a few things...I've seen/heard first hand that when the computer fails or when the anti-theft gets " out of alighnment". Don't think either would be a issue...I'd look at the crank postion sensor..maybe you bumped the wires/sensor when doing the install...similar results..crank, no start.
Unless the fuel was incredibly low, it should start after a few seconds or longer of cranking...it was running when you started, so all other things equal, it should start up!!
Good luck!!

 

I would think that if the intake was leaking, it would start...might stall or run bad, but would cough and run a bit...

 

Well finally got her running again lol. It turned out to be a combination of fuel starvation and fouled plugs. Once I lowered the car(the car sat at an incline of about 20degrees for 2 weeks) and tried starting it, it actually started up a bit and then died. After few more tries I finally got it turned over but had insane misfire. Took out my spark plugs found them to be fouled pretty bad.

What I'm guessing happened is that fuel pump wasn't able to fully pressurize the system from an inclined position when all residual fuel pressure have been released. Must be how the pump pick ups the fuel. I had little less than half a tank of gas.

There was some fuel coming out since I can smell it coming out. The extended cranking fouled up the plugs which caused the misfire once it finally started up.

The plugs were replaced not too long ago, maybe about 20k miles. Attached the pic of the fouled up plugs. Its a bit hard to see but they were really black, covered with soot.

Now for some fun pics of the clutch and transmission...

The pressure plate and flywheel you see is what greeted me once I took the transmission out...trans fluid had leaked out from the input shaft bearing(my initial hunch was the rear main, but rear main is only slightly weeping). The only clean, and wet spot was right near the input shaft bearing.

Also if you look closely, the transmission housing looks like its been shotpeened. The throwout bearing has disintegrated, causing the bearings to fly out everywhere amongst other bits of the tob making score marks everywhere.

First signs of the problem happened a year ago when I'd hear a cyclic metal brush sound at high revs. Since it only happened once awhile and I didn't pay much attention. Next warning sign was when my clutch wouldn't disengage all the way and it became really difficult to shift. And then while I was getting all the parts and ready the tob finally gave out and all I heard is a horrible metallic clanging noise from the transmission. haha

So if you hear strange cyclic metal brushing sound, that's probably your tob on its way out. Fortunately the bellhousing didn't sustain any structural damage.

Hope this helps out anyone who may run into the same problem in the future.

Thanks zippy and eric for responding and giving me suggestions

 

I'm glad to hear you got your motor going again. I'm also glad it wasn't a nut in the supercharger.

How many miles on your car? I'm curious how long that T/O bearing has been in use.

Eric

 

I have 145k on the car so, yeah got a lot of miles on it. It probably started to make noises around 100K. The funny thing is the clutch and pressure plate were perfectly fine. I don't abuse the car, but I certainly don't baby her. I could've just replaced the tob and reused the pplate/clutch/flywheel and it'd lasted till 200k for sure.

One thing about the new CM flywheel and clutch is that it is LOUD. People weren't kidding about the chatter...holy crap. I had no idea that it'd be this loud lol It also makes noises when I'm accelerating moderate to hard in gear...makes me a little worried haha I've never heard a MINI w/ an lightened flywheel and clutch so have no idea what it's supposed to sound like.