We were doing some spirited driving on Sunday, but nothing out of the ordinary, nothing I haven't done with my car (an '02 R50). We spent the morning enjoying some twisty roads as they were meant to be enjoyed, but weren't dropping the clutch or shifting quick, just revving the engine up a bit and tossing it into some curves. We're talking about 3 or 4 runs up and down a twisty 3.7 mile section over the course of 3 hours. Others in our group were driving their cars much harder than we were. We're a two MINI family and were in my wife's '03 R50. Her car came to us last year used, and has never been real easy to shift as compared to my car. We took a break, had lunch and were out visiting some area wineries when the clutch started making a wheezy noise when depressed to change gears. . Anytime you pressed the pedal in, and for the entire length of the pedal travel up and down, was the wheezy noise, standing still or while moving. Noise came on suddenly and stayed about the same for the next couple of hours. Shifting gradually got a bit more difficult but not impossible. Felt kind of a weird vibration when the pedal was at the top of the travel.

It did not feel "grabby" like the clutch had started to come apart- I've had that happen in another car and know what it feels like. My first thought was throwout bearing and that we could keep driving it for a week or two until I could get a professional to look at it and or get the parts and tools together for some DIY action. Have done other maintenance work but never a clutch- but I have the Bentley manual and NAM. Just as we were parallel parking to pick up our son from her sister's house, the clutch got all spongy feeling and kind of dropped. It didn't stay all the way to the floor but it would come up only about halfway. It also became impossible to shift out of gear or start the car as the transmission was still engaged. Had to have it towed back home and have started some disassembly work.

My question is- should I start with the clutch master and slave cylinders as indicated by the pedal dropping or is the wheezy noise absolutely indicative of internal clutch damage? After 82K it's probably not wrong to put in a clutch but if today's problem could be solved by new master/slave cylinders I'd like to take the easy way out this time. I need to change the hydraulic fluid anyway as I assume it's never been done. Is there a chance I could have developed two problems at once within 4 hours of each other?

P.S.- I haven't checked to see how much the clutch lever is moved by the slave cylinder. I don't have anything to compare it to, but I can check the movement with the help of my lovely assistant and report back here if it would help.

Thanks-

Val