Hello all,

A new issue has started to develop on our precious mini. we have always had the rattling clutch noise when the clutch is disengaged and in neutral. the other day I started to notice that when I put my foot on the clutch, you can feel a slight vibration and not all of the time. I noticed this on the way to drop her off to get some work done, one of the things they did was replace the gearbox fluid.

now the vibration is so much worse, I assume due to there being proper fluid in the gearbox, and when you disengage the clutch(press the pedal all the way down) now there is, the best way I can describe it is a very light scrapping noise, that you can hear. you have to listen closely to hear it so its not huge amount of noise but it is disturbing to hear. its there 80% of the time and the rest of the time it feels and sounds fine, but when you change gears often, more often then not you can feel it.

The guy that is doing the work made a comment on the phone about there being a lot of noise that he did not remember from the last time we had it there. we shrugged it off thinking it was just the normal rattle that is there. Picked up the car and noticed what he was referring to.

so my question is, what is actually broken? Gearbox? Clutch?

Also how bad of a situation is it? is it bad that I shouldn't drive it anywhere? or will it just continue to wear and finally give out at some point?

as much as I would want to, I would love a new gearbox, clutch and all, but its not the best time for that and I wanna keep the cost down.


I have read done a little bit of research, none of the posts were similar enough to what I was looking for.

I tried to be a clear as possible, any questions or clarifications just ask.

 

I'd be willing to be it's something with the throw-out bearing and/or your clutch/flywheel assembly. Either way...you need to pull the transmission off of the motor to find out.

 

Unfortunately, today I left work and I made through two stop signs before getting it stuck in neutral at the next one. Got it back into third and drove home in that gear. It started to make a horrible sounding squeal when the clutch pedal is in. it drives fine when you can get it in gear and get moving, you wouldn't even think anything is wrong. but when you have to stop it is not happy. so obviously this is broken.

From your comment and past comments I have read throw-out bearing/clutch/Flywheel are the main culprits here. The main question I have is the gearbox an issue here too? I dont want to be told that the gearbox needs to be replaced when its just clutch that needs to be replaced.

Also how much work is this? shes at like 92,000 miles and would like to take advantage of the time its going to take to do the work and get other maintenance options done? shes a JCW so would it be a good time to also get SC serviced?

I would like to knock out as many birds with one stone as I can.

 

The transmission in these cars is quite resilient, I'd say you're just due for a clutch.

If you wanted to conglomerate multiple jobs I would recommend doing control arm bushings at the same time. The sub frame has to come down to do the job quickly and comfortably, so I'd highly r commend them if not done already.

Aside from that, there isn't much that would correlate with a clutch unless you already have other problems. Once the car is in service mode many jobs become easier, but what you do depends on what you can justify doing. A water pump, SC fluid change, low speed fan resistor, thermostat, sealing the crank sensor, control arm bushings, leaking power steering lines, shift counterweight, slave cylinder, etc, etc.

Are you planning to do the work yourself, or take it to a shop? That could also dictate what you elect to do.

We've got everything from the clutch to any of the aforementioned parts above in stock and ready to ship, if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone to decide on what path would better suit you we'd be glad to help.

 

Do a lot of the things they suggested above while the subframe is out if you're doing the labor yourself, I regretted it because I ended up doing a lot of those things anyway and I had to take the whole front end apart twice instead of once. Besides all the noises you're hearing the whole just stuck in gear thing is exactly what happened when my clutch went out but I'd imagine it would have been slipping before hand as it gets pretty bad before the clutch is just gone

 

Since you said that once its in gear everything sounds fine.....Id be willing to be your transmission is fine.

 

Thank you for all of the responses, it really helps.

I will not be doing the work. We have a MINI Watkins glen trip planned for opening day, and I do not have confidence to be able to knock it out in time for that, as much as I would like to do it myself. We will have a shop do it.

Like I said SC Service is coming up and I know half of the cost is the labor getting it into service mode. so if its going to be in service mode I want to save the costs of the labor and get it done all at once. I do not want to have to take it in again and have them rip it apart again, to do something that could have been done already.

on another question, how long do gearboxes normally last? because once again I don't want to be in there again in like 20K miles doing something that could have been done already. I am looking for fact based opinons, I understand nothing is absolute and my case may differ, I just want some ideas on paths to take on this. Its already a big job.

 

I have never heard of a gearbox actually going bad and eating up gears and/or bearings. I would think that with a new clutch, flywheel, and throw out bearing......you should be good for a long, long time.

 

I have only ever seen one R53 gearbox fail, and it was a totally inexplicable failure. The recess in the differential carrier where the drivers side axle clips in broke and the customer couldn't get the axle to stay in due to that. Turns out that whatever bits of the carrier that broke off actually destroyed the differential ring & pinion gears and did the trans in.

I don't at all condone replacing the transmission just due to the fact that it'll be out of the car. We have a customer with over 250k miles on the same trans and the car has zero transmission issues, it all comes down to how it's driven.

The Getrag 6 speed is an awesome trans, so if you break it you deserve an award.

 

I know that on a rear wheel car a vibration with the peddle depressed is normally the throw out bearing. Does the Mini have a throw out?

 

Yes, a clutch is a clutch.....doesn't matter if its a front wheel drive or rear wheel drive car.....its got a throw out bearing.