so much, so wrong, I think the entire clutch assembly is fried, help!
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1st Gear
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 18
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From: Detroit, MI
so much, so wrong, I think the entire clutch assembly is fried, help!
Ok, so first off I hope this is the right place to be posting this (car is entirely stock right now) but if I am mistaken please kindly point me in the correct direction.
Ok, so I'll start off with some car background:
'03 cooper S R53
completely stock except for a CAI
112k on the clock
6 speed manual
And here's the story:
So a week and a half ago I made the mistake of letting some fool who claimed to drive a manual trans move my car literally 200 feet. Of course I get a call from him 5 minutes later saying there's something wrong with my car there's smoke coming out from under the hood.
So the fool (a term I am using for the lack of a better word that is not vulgarity) smoked my clutch pretty bad. As I drove home that night it was extremely soft and unresponsive but it got me home (the smell was horrible btw). Over the next few days I was unable to do much more than hope for the best seeing as I work full time and needed to get to work. As I assume my clutch wore away the heat glazing caused by smoking the clutch, everything appeared to be getting better. Now I still planned the entire time to replace the clutch after an event like this, but for now I had to wait until I had the proper time and place set aside to do this. So after a few days the clutch seemed almost back to normal then something else happens, I am getting on the highway to go home and luckily for me the traffic was low, because I suddenly lost clutch pressure. Thank God I've had enough manual transmission cars in the past and knew that if I was extremely careful I could still shift it and was able to make it home alright, by which time I had mysteriously regained clutch pressure and everything seemed normal again. So moving on to today, I go to drive up to the store real quick, and there it goes, clutch pressure issues again, not a complete loss of pressure, but at least a 60% pressure loss. I was able to drive it but it was scaring me. Also I could feel a strong shuddering in the clutch pedal as I shifted.
I apologize for the length of this post, and greatly appreciate anyone who has taken the time to read it all so far and especially those who finish it completely and offer advice!!!
So moving on to issue number 2, which I am going to keep to a short sweet sentence: two weeks ago when I was getting a tire changed it became very evident that my control arm bushings were in dire need of replacement.
Lastly there's issue three: For the last few months I have noticed an extremely slow oil leak that appears to originate from the valve cover gasket, although it is so very hard to tell on these cars seeing as everything's packed in there tighter than a can of sardines. Any wisdom on this would be so greatly appreciated.
SO, here's where I stand right now when it comes to my plan:
I am a mechanical engineer with quite a bit of experience in fixing cars, although this will be my first set of major repairs on a MINI, however I am confident in my abilities and could not afford to have it professionally done right now anyways.
Right off the bat, I know that the clutch has to be replaced. The car has 112k on the clock and its an original clutch, I've only had the car for its last 35K miles and since I don't know how well it was driven before I am going to assume that if the clutch does not have to be done right now then it will very soon at least based on its age. I understand this means essentially removing the entire front end of the car to do this work, a point I will get to later in this post.
My main question regarding this is could there be more problems than just a worn clutch that are causing me to lose pressure? Almost all of the parts that I will be purchasing will have to be ordered (although coincidentally i just happen to live very close to Detroit Tuned's headquarters, perhaps they can help me as well), and I will not be starting any of the repairs until i can do everything at the same time. So what scares me the most is getting in there, dropping the trans, and realizing there are additional parts that require replacement. What could I possible need that I should order just in case and even replace even if it isn't necessary just because I don't plan on dropping the trans too often???
As for the control arm bushings, I am not too terribly worried, seeing as from what I've read when it comes to DIY jobs for both bushing and clutch replacement, when I drop the trans I will be making plenty of room down there to get to those bushings.
As for the oil leak, could it be anything other than just a bad valve cover gasket??? And if it is just a bad gasket, could I consider it low enough priority to wait and do that fix another day? Or is it another one of those tiny repairs that requires you to take half the engine apart?
Thanks once again to anyone who has read this far I really appreciate it.
Lastly, as I mentioned before, I understand that some of these repairs are going to require removing alot of the front end of the car, along with completely dropping the transmission. I don't plan on doing this all that often, seriously don't ever really want to have to do this again! Regardless of this, for these repairs I have mentioned above I am going to have no other choice.
As a car lover though, instead of seeing a huge pain in the backside, all I can think about is what else could I do maintenance to/replace/upgrade/mod while I'm down there??? I don't have a huge amount of money to spend on this project but I can probably justify 800-1200 dollars worth of parts total (including clutch stuff), what would be good to perform maintenance on while I'm in there?
On a more fun note, what would be something good to replace and upgrade while I'm in there??? I was already thinking of doing the standard pulley upgrade and maybe a set of headers, but is there anything that I can't replace at another time without removing so much from the engine compartment first???
Well, my concentration in trying to remember all of the hundreds of questions I have related to this project is pretty much gone now, so I'll leave it at this. Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this and respond!!!
Ok, so I'll start off with some car background:
'03 cooper S R53
completely stock except for a CAI
112k on the clock
6 speed manual
And here's the story:
So a week and a half ago I made the mistake of letting some fool who claimed to drive a manual trans move my car literally 200 feet. Of course I get a call from him 5 minutes later saying there's something wrong with my car there's smoke coming out from under the hood.
So the fool (a term I am using for the lack of a better word that is not vulgarity) smoked my clutch pretty bad. As I drove home that night it was extremely soft and unresponsive but it got me home (the smell was horrible btw). Over the next few days I was unable to do much more than hope for the best seeing as I work full time and needed to get to work. As I assume my clutch wore away the heat glazing caused by smoking the clutch, everything appeared to be getting better. Now I still planned the entire time to replace the clutch after an event like this, but for now I had to wait until I had the proper time and place set aside to do this. So after a few days the clutch seemed almost back to normal then something else happens, I am getting on the highway to go home and luckily for me the traffic was low, because I suddenly lost clutch pressure. Thank God I've had enough manual transmission cars in the past and knew that if I was extremely careful I could still shift it and was able to make it home alright, by which time I had mysteriously regained clutch pressure and everything seemed normal again. So moving on to today, I go to drive up to the store real quick, and there it goes, clutch pressure issues again, not a complete loss of pressure, but at least a 60% pressure loss. I was able to drive it but it was scaring me. Also I could feel a strong shuddering in the clutch pedal as I shifted.
I apologize for the length of this post, and greatly appreciate anyone who has taken the time to read it all so far and especially those who finish it completely and offer advice!!!
So moving on to issue number 2, which I am going to keep to a short sweet sentence: two weeks ago when I was getting a tire changed it became very evident that my control arm bushings were in dire need of replacement.
Lastly there's issue three: For the last few months I have noticed an extremely slow oil leak that appears to originate from the valve cover gasket, although it is so very hard to tell on these cars seeing as everything's packed in there tighter than a can of sardines. Any wisdom on this would be so greatly appreciated.
SO, here's where I stand right now when it comes to my plan:
I am a mechanical engineer with quite a bit of experience in fixing cars, although this will be my first set of major repairs on a MINI, however I am confident in my abilities and could not afford to have it professionally done right now anyways.
Right off the bat, I know that the clutch has to be replaced. The car has 112k on the clock and its an original clutch, I've only had the car for its last 35K miles and since I don't know how well it was driven before I am going to assume that if the clutch does not have to be done right now then it will very soon at least based on its age. I understand this means essentially removing the entire front end of the car to do this work, a point I will get to later in this post.
My main question regarding this is could there be more problems than just a worn clutch that are causing me to lose pressure? Almost all of the parts that I will be purchasing will have to be ordered (although coincidentally i just happen to live very close to Detroit Tuned's headquarters, perhaps they can help me as well), and I will not be starting any of the repairs until i can do everything at the same time. So what scares me the most is getting in there, dropping the trans, and realizing there are additional parts that require replacement. What could I possible need that I should order just in case and even replace even if it isn't necessary just because I don't plan on dropping the trans too often???
As for the control arm bushings, I am not too terribly worried, seeing as from what I've read when it comes to DIY jobs for both bushing and clutch replacement, when I drop the trans I will be making plenty of room down there to get to those bushings.
As for the oil leak, could it be anything other than just a bad valve cover gasket??? And if it is just a bad gasket, could I consider it low enough priority to wait and do that fix another day? Or is it another one of those tiny repairs that requires you to take half the engine apart?
Thanks once again to anyone who has read this far I really appreciate it.
Lastly, as I mentioned before, I understand that some of these repairs are going to require removing alot of the front end of the car, along with completely dropping the transmission. I don't plan on doing this all that often, seriously don't ever really want to have to do this again! Regardless of this, for these repairs I have mentioned above I am going to have no other choice.
As a car lover though, instead of seeing a huge pain in the backside, all I can think about is what else could I do maintenance to/replace/upgrade/mod while I'm down there??? I don't have a huge amount of money to spend on this project but I can probably justify 800-1200 dollars worth of parts total (including clutch stuff), what would be good to perform maintenance on while I'm in there?
On a more fun note, what would be something good to replace and upgrade while I'm in there??? I was already thinking of doing the standard pulley upgrade and maybe a set of headers, but is there anything that I can't replace at another time without removing so much from the engine compartment first???
Well, my concentration in trying to remember all of the hundreds of questions I have related to this project is pretty much gone now, so I'll leave it at this. Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this and respond!!!
Thread Starter
|
1st Gear
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
From: Detroit, MI
Ok, just figured that removing just about everything else down there might make it slightly easier, either way I am going to have to do all of the reapirs on the same day so they'll both be getting done regardless of whether one repair will make it easier to complete another. Got any more advice?
Thread Starter
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1st Gear
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
From: Detroit, MI
UPDATE***
So on my way to a friends house tonight, I stopped at a stop sign, at which time I held the clutch fully depressed, and all of a sudden I heard a pop and lost all clutch pressure. Needless to say the MINI did not drive herself home tonight :/ any ideas anyone?
So on my way to a friends house tonight, I stopped at a stop sign, at which time I held the clutch fully depressed, and all of a sudden I heard a pop and lost all clutch pressure. Needless to say the MINI did not drive herself home tonight :/ any ideas anyone?
Yes...What you anticipated has happened. No more "nursing it". You need a new clutch! Go ahead and change out the slave cylinder, too but be sure you've researched the correct bleeding procedure.
Also, do a search for the Control Arm Bushings. Plenty of good tips but it's a grunt job requiring popping the ball joints to remove the arms and cutting out the bushings with a sawsall, pressing in the new ones with a homemade tool...unless you drop the subframe and replace carrier and bushing as an assembly. If you do the bushings, you may as well do the ball joints, too. They're probably shot.
Do a search for crank position sensor. That's probably where your oil leak is coming from. Just a bad o-ring.
If you plan on doing this all in one day, it's going to be a long day! Suggest you get all your parts and materials, do your research (most is available by searching on the Forum) and plan on a long week-end.
Also, do a search for the Control Arm Bushings. Plenty of good tips but it's a grunt job requiring popping the ball joints to remove the arms and cutting out the bushings with a sawsall, pressing in the new ones with a homemade tool...unless you drop the subframe and replace carrier and bushing as an assembly. If you do the bushings, you may as well do the ball joints, too. They're probably shot.
Do a search for crank position sensor. That's probably where your oil leak is coming from. Just a bad o-ring.
If you plan on doing this all in one day, it's going to be a long day! Suggest you get all your parts and materials, do your research (most is available by searching on the Forum) and plan on a long week-end.
Thread Starter
|
1st Gear
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
From: Detroit, MI
Yes...What you anticipated has happened. No more "nursing it". You need a new clutch! Go ahead and change out the slave cylinder, too but be sure you've researched the correct bleeding procedure.
Also, do a search for the Control Arm Bushings. Plenty of good tips but it's a grunt job requiring popping the ball joints to remove the arms and cutting out the bushings with a sawsall, pressing in the new ones with a homemade tool...unless you drop the subframe and replace carrier and bushing as an assembly. If you do the bushings, you may as well do the ball joints, too. They're probably shot.
Do a search for crank position sensor. That's probably where your oil leak is coming from. Just a bad o-ring.
If you plan on doing this all in one day, it's going to be a long day! Suggest you get all your parts and materials, do your research (most is available by searching on the Forum) and plan on a long week-end.
Also, do a search for the Control Arm Bushings. Plenty of good tips but it's a grunt job requiring popping the ball joints to remove the arms and cutting out the bushings with a sawsall, pressing in the new ones with a homemade tool...unless you drop the subframe and replace carrier and bushing as an assembly. If you do the bushings, you may as well do the ball joints, too. They're probably shot.
Do a search for crank position sensor. That's probably where your oil leak is coming from. Just a bad o-ring.
If you plan on doing this all in one day, it's going to be a long day! Suggest you get all your parts and materials, do your research (most is available by searching on the Forum) and plan on a long week-end.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I really appreciate it! also, anyone have any suggestions for clutch kits that they'd recommend? And should I go all out and replace the flywheel?
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,754
Likes: 36
From: Metro Detroit Area, Michigan
Since your in our back yard, you should bring the car by to have us look it over, even if you plan to do the work...which sounds like it's going to be hard now since it doesn't drive. You will need a full clutch kit. Like this one. And you will also need a throw out guide tube. Like this one. You will also need two bottles of quality gear lube. Like this one. You will need for your control arm bushings, a set like this, and a press to press it in and out, or buy pre-pressed units. You might also want to think about these while your in there. Also might need a slave cyl. for it and they are 45.17 last i looked and we stock them...as we stock all of the above parts.
Let us know how we can help, cause if you don't have one of these, you really should.
Chad
Detroit Tuned.
Let us know how we can help, cause if you don't have one of these, you really should.
Chad
Detroit Tuned.
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6th Gear
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 3,925
Likes: 2
From: Laurel MD
Since your in our back yard, you should bring the car by to have us look it over, even if you plan to do the work...which sounds like it's going to be hard now since it doesn't drive. You will need a full clutch kit. Like this one. And you will also need a throw out guide tube. Like this one. You will also need two bottles of quality gear lube. Like this one. You will need for your control arm bushings, a set like this, and a press to press it in and out, or buy pre-pressed units. You might also want to think about these while your in there. Also might need a slave cyl. for it and they are 45.17 last i looked and we stock them...as we stock all of the above parts.
Let us know how we can help, cause if you don't have one of these, you really should.
Chad
Detroit Tuned.
Let us know how we can help, cause if you don't have one of these, you really should.
Chad
Detroit Tuned.
Thread Starter
|
1st Gear
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
From: Detroit, MI
Since your in our back yard, you should bring the car by to have us look it over, even if you plan to do the work...which sounds like it's going to be hard now since it doesn't drive. You will need a full clutch kit. Like this one. And you will also need a throw out guide tube. Like this one. You will also need two bottles of quality gear lube. Like this one. You will need for your control arm bushings, a set like this, and a press to press it in and out, or buy pre-pressed units. You might also want to think about these while your in there. Also might need a slave cyl. for it and they are 45.17 last i looked and we stock them...as we stock all of the above parts.
Let us know how we can help, cause if you don't have one of these, you really should.
Chad
Detroit Tuned.
Let us know how we can help, cause if you don't have one of these, you really should.
Chad
Detroit Tuned.
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,754
Likes: 36
From: Metro Detroit Area, Michigan
we are open M-F- 9 am - 6 pm EST. some to most saturdays, but call a few days ahead. 
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2nd Gear
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 92
Likes: 1
From: Portland OR
re-seal the 3 power steering lines while the subframe is down, IMO. those darn things always leak past the OEM clamps and replace the rear crankshaft seal. This is also a great time to replace a cracked or broken lower engine mount and replace a leaking oil pan gasket and oil cooler line o-rings as they are both easier to access when the subframe is down. Ask DT for a quote on it
yes, MINIs like to leak oil.
The valve cover gasket is relatively easy- just have to remove the intercooler and intercooler brackets, disconnect the coil harness... have access to deep 8mm socket, 6-12" long 1/4 extension/ratchet, T30 torx bit or driver. as long as is not constantly dripping on the floor, it can probably wait some time. consider replacing the spark plug tube seals while you're at it.
yes, MINIs like to leak oil.
The valve cover gasket is relatively easy- just have to remove the intercooler and intercooler brackets, disconnect the coil harness... have access to deep 8mm socket, 6-12" long 1/4 extension/ratchet, T30 torx bit or driver. as long as is not constantly dripping on the floor, it can probably wait some time. consider replacing the spark plug tube seals while you're at it.
Last edited by Nitro Jake; Nov 1, 2012 at 01:30 PM. Reason: added one more thing
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,754
Likes: 36
From: Metro Detroit Area, Michigan
He stopped by yesterday and we talked about his car. also left with the knowledge and all the right parts need to get the car back on the road. once running he can bring it by for us to see!
Chad
DT
Chad
DT
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