Ok, so tonight on the freeway, I noticed that when I accelerated the revs went high but the car only picked up half as fast as it normally does... I'm guessing this is what a slipping clutch is?

Noticed a smell of burning oil and when I got home there's oil underneath of the car and it's dripping into the floor.
Has my clutch gone or is this a seal or a pipe perhaps that's split?
It's definitely clutch related but I'm hoping and praying it's not the clutch that's gone.
The weird thing is that it goes through the gears without a problem.








It's a 2005 Cooper S.

 

If there's dripping oil, there's a chance that the rear main seal (connecting the two halves of the engine block) has failed and is spewing oil onto the clutch surfaces - making it slip.

The transmission is a separate unit and should be unaffected.

Unfortunately if the rear seal is gone (by your description, I believe it has), you're in for an expensive repair (for labour and clutch job).

Keep us updated.

 

If it feels sluggish on shifting and/or fluctuates rpms the clutch is gone. Expensive to replace. I installed a Giken racing clutch in my MINI. The clutch is like 1/2 to 1 inch and is noisy as hell. It has about a 4.5 K stall. Fund to drive~

 

+1 with what jamez wrote... great time to replace the seal, and the dual mass flywheel for an upgrade and new clutch.

Motor on!

 

Yep, I'm sure it's the clutch... You can trace my route home along the road, thanks to the oil!


Ordered the Valeo clutch kit as it seems to get a good report from most.

Hopefully my local repair shop will give me a break on the labor cost!!

 

Remember...a clutch failure is usually NOT accompined with an oil leak....
A few folks have had the couch fail when the throwout bearing granaded....and cracked the tranny case....spewing oil...
Is your engine oil OK or is it low? Is the oil dripping dirty or is it thicker and clan like gear oil?
Might be a bigger job than you think.

 

Engine or gear oil, the transmission needs to come out anyway.

No matter if both the slipping and oil leak are related, the job will pretty much be the same, except for different parts to replace. The throwout bearing would most likely cause a noise or prevent a smooth clutch operation (engaging/disengaging). I've seen throwout bearings carve a groove in the shaft and prevent the clutch from disengaging, so there's that.

 

Well, just had a call from the local shop.
Rear seal went and that's got to be replaced... along with the clutch!
They also found the thermostat to be leaking and they're replacing that too.
Around a 14 hour job apparently to the tune of $1500.


Suppose it could have been worse, but... Ouch!
That hurt.

 

Just last week, I had the clutch replaced on my 04. (90k miles) The engine seal was fine but the slave cylinder gave up due to the higher load of a nearly spent clutch.

I was on the freeway when it gave up. I went to shift and the peddle went clear to the floor and never came back up. I managed to keep going and was able to shift without the clutch by matching the engine speed to the transmission. It was more difficult to do than other cars I've owned but I managed to get all the way to my local Mini repair shop before coming to a stop. It was a little tricky timing the traffic lights once I got off the freeway but I made it.

In all, flywheel conversion, clutch, throwout bearing, new Master/Slave cylinder, new shift fork and guide sleeve was $2700. $1400 was labor. I was prepared and had money set aside. I knew the clutch was about to go. I just didn't think that the extra effort to press in the old pressure plate would take out the slave cylinder.

The new clutch is still getting seated but sooo much better than the old one. The peddle needs half the effort as before. I'm happy and still in love with the Mini. Time to start saving for the future balloon payments coming like a rebuilt supercharger. No strange sounds in that regard.

Motor on.