Ok so hi, I'm new here (of course). Let's start at the top. On April 15th I purchased a used 2011 Mini Countryman S Manual Transmission.I've been having a blast driving it I love it. 2 days ago whenever I would put the car in gear and push on the gas, the car would over rev then drop and accelerate normally, so very slow because I'd have to wait for the RPMs to drop before it'd accelerate. After work tonight I tried driving home and it wouldn't go into gear. Not even stall. I limped to my parents house almost across the street at like 7 MPH. The roadside assistance is towing it to the MINI dealer Saturday morning. I don't know much about cars, but I'm gonna assume its the clutch lol.

The car has 33,300 miles on it and in the month and a half I've owned it I havent done much of anything but drive to and from work. The vehicle has some of it's original warranty left, 16 months/17,000 BASIC,16 Months/17,000 DRIVETRAIN. I also purchased an extended warranty through CNA National Warranty Corporation. Would either of these cover what I'm having problems with? I've read yes and no all over the internet. I really didn't expect this to happen so soon. I recently got a divorce my ex wife cleaned me out after I got back from Iraq and all my savings is gone. I really don't need this. If its not covered, how much is this going to cost me abouts? Thanks in advance.

 

Clutches are not cheap, very labor intensive. If it is in fact the clutch and if your warranty won't cover it, then definitely find a independent shop that specializes in MINIs. It will be a whole lot cheaper than the dealership. Also look into aftermarket clutches.

To locate a MINI shop go to:

http://soopercooperinfo.com

 

Hello mate, something wrong with that website? Won't load for me...

 

Me neither, hopefully it's just temporary.

 

Had a glass or two of beer with soopercooperinfo just yesterday and he told me he'd shut down the website. Something to do with Yahoo putting a twist in his knickers. If you have patience I'll get the PDF file he has of the independent shops and get that to you.

 

Sounds like a clutch. Where do you live? Go to Way Motor Works. Worth the trip!

 

I remember hearing early Countryman cars had clutch issues. I'd actually try Mini ;Corporate; first.

 

Got an Email from soopercooper today saying he's got 10 new shop entries to make then he'll be sending it along.

 

Good guess!
The previous owner either fried it, or was learning to drive the manual for the first time. Either way, you get to pay for his/her mistakes.

Go and try to get it repaired at the dealer under warranty.
If that fails, you may try to push your luck with the selling dealer, but they will likely renege on any responsibility. At which point you will have to pay out of pocket. Budget around $850, plus/minus, depending on your part of the country.

http://store.helix13.com/headquarters/

a

 

I would most definitely consider this a warranty covered failure simply due to the fact that these model Mini Coopers have a sad history of failed clutches and this has been discussed many times on this forum. Here's a link to some of that discussion.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...clutch-19.html


Other than the warranty, doesn't Mini Cooper cover maintenance for the first 36K miles? I would think Mini Cooper should cover it on that alone without even getting to the warranty.

 

A clutch is a wear item just like brakes, dampers and tires. People out of ignorance can toast a clutch in 20 or 30K miles and wonder what happened just because they didn't know how to avoid spinning the plate down to dust. The earliest clutch replacement I had was just short of 100K many years ago on a sports car. Warranty cannot presume to cover careless handling.

 

Brakes are a "wear item" also but they are covered under the 36K maintenance program.
Sure some of the clutch problems with the Mini Coopers are probably due to abuse, but certainly not all and Min Cooper recognizes that to some extent as shown in some of the threads I reference earlier.
When there is a definite history of clutch failure with low mileage Mini Coopers, I'm not going to claim that they were caused by abusive driving habits in all cases and from what I've read in these threads I tend to believe these Mini owners who experienced clutch failures at low mileage were not abusing their Mini's.
I believe the old adage "innocent until proven guilty" should apply in this case.

 

Innocent until proven guilty should apply to both parties imo.

 

I really don't think there is much room for dispute over the question of whether there have been a lot of premature clutch failures within the Mini Cooper family. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...his-month.html

 

I do.

 

One of you may be right.

The real question is whether the OP can get the clutch job covered under warranty.
I've heard it reported both ways: some people had luck getting 1 clutch job out of a dealer, others got bounced. Sometimes it pays to shop the job to multiple dealers until you find the one that is having a slow week, and wants the job badly enough to risk working through the push back from MINI NA.

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