Actually, I have fought this: to the GM of the dealership, up to BMW North America, up to the BBB.

Nothing.

 

the only other thing I would suggest is to contact local news teams and see if they want to do a special interest story. Sometimes, bad press is a great motivator.

 

Definitely considering this.

Thank you.

 

The clutch on my R56S had always been a bit "grabby" from new, it was hard to smoothly release it and accelerate from a stop. It was my only complaint about the car and I just worked on perfecting my technique. (I've been driving manuals for about 40 years...) When my car was in for the oil service, I had a Justa loaner, what a difference! Really smooth, easy clutch.

At about 10K miles I first heard a strange noise when releasing the clutch to take off from a stop, it seemed to only happen when the weather was really hot. Hard to describe, sort of a honking noise. At about 12K miles I started noticing it more often, and not only when the weather was hot.

Today at 12.6K I took it into the local dealer, the SA immediately called the shop foreman. We went for a drive and he was able to reproduce the sound. He said there is a bulletin out for this, covering cars up to November 2012 production. So I'm getting an updated clutch under warranty, and have a brand new Countryman S to drive for a few days.

Though I wish this hadn't happened, so far Mini is treating me right and stepping up to take care of it without any hesitation.

 

Do you know the bulletin number? Please share if you can

 

It isn't on the work order - I'll post anything from the final paperwork.

 

Got the car back today, and WOW, what a difference. The new clutch has a totally different feel. It doesn't have the dead 1" or so of travel at the bottom and isn't at all grabby like the old one. I'll have to see if I can figure out what made the difference besides a new clutch plate.

Mini really treated me right, I had a brand new CMS-4 (with a manual transmission even) to drive while my car was in the shop, no hassles unless you count having to drive to the dealer to drop it off and pick it up. But the dealer is only a few miles from work so no big deal.

The paper work says "per SI M 21 01 13" and lists 21-20-8-606-67 as the clutch kit. I'm guessing that "SI M 21 01 13" means a service bulletin issued on 21-January-2013. realoem.com shows the clutch kit superseding the previous part as of November 2012.

Hope this helps.

 

2013 Roadster S.

Just got back from BMW/Mini dealership, was told I need a new clutch at (ready for this?) 5500K. Also told essentially "driver abuse". Mini covered labor but we bought flywheel, still pissed. We told them we'd eat this one but if clutch becomes a problem again during the life of the warrantee we are looking into filing a class action suit. I also should mention Mini USA was NO help at all, rep seemed totally unconcerned but at least we have a form of documentation. Also, wrote on check while paying for flywheel, in memo line, "repairs to 2013 Mini, under protest". I really think class action should be looked into, as many similar complaints as I have seen!

 

Seems to me 5,500,000 miles is pretty good. :P

I think you meant to say either 5.5K or 5,500 miles. Either way, sorry to hear about your misfortune.

 

What were the symptoms?

 

This is the experience that you should have. Thanks for providing the info to everyone.

 

Yes, indeed, incorrectly typed, thanks. But I must say at 5500 miles I could hardly call it "misfortune". There's just too much of this happening and there can't possibly be this many "abusive" drivers. i could have given this car to my sixteen year old son and, even with effort, he'd have a hard time wearing out a clutch in 5500 miles!

 

You said that you bought the flywheel - what about the clutch disk? What were the symptoms?

 

At about 4.5K I noticed a squealing sound when taking off in first or reverse, not when shifting through, however. It only seemed to happen when the car had been running for a while, probably 30 miles or more. It didn't worry me too much as the car was shifting fine and it was due shortly for 5K maintenance, at which time I figured I'd mention it. I mean, who even begins to imagine their clutch is going at that mileage? So I was stunned when. Was told, "Your clutch is 'gone'. We're going to have to tear the transmission apart. Oh, by the way, this is only covered ONCE under the life of your warrantee". Again, stunned. I called Mini USA and got nowhere. My husband raised Cain at the dealership and managed to talk them down to eating the labor on this one (the transmission was already on the floor at this point, anyway) and the throw-out bearing (which they said was gone) and we would pay just for the flywheel/plate. By doing this they said we would 'preserve our freebie' under the warrantee. The more I thought about this the angrier I became. We told the service coordinator that if the clutch 'went' again during the life of the warrantee we would sue for the value of the car, and we will. On top of all this the service rep asked my husband if I "like to drive fast" and indicated that this was caused by "driver abuse", same as virtually everyone else whose complaints I have seen on various sites such as this one. Obviously, this is what they are being told to say, which would indicate to me that they are well aware of this problem.

 

Sounds like similar symptoms to what I had, but a very different experience with the dealer. In my case just the clutch disk was replaced, the flywheel and everything else was fine. If you car was built prior to November 2012, you should discuss the service bulletin I mentioned above with the dealer and Mini North America.

If you needed a new flywheel, clutch disk, and throwout bearing at 5.5K, the only two possibilities I can think of are 1) someone who drives your car tends to keep pressure on the clutch pedal all the time, in which case it would be the driver's fault, or 2) it wasn't adjusted properly from the factory which had the effect of keeping pressure on the throwout bearing and caused the clutch to slip.

Sorry to hear of your troubles.