Hello! New here! I need your help with diagnosing a problem I’m having with my R50.
January 2004 Mini Cooper 168,000+miles 5 speed manual.

When I say DRONING SOUND I mean it in the following: the sound a 4 propeller drone makes when flying+ a raspy grinding. ( Sorry it’s the closest thing I could I could think of to describe this sound)

Starting the car: I hear a glimpse of some minor grinding as the car gets completely started and can’t be heard once idling. Grinding is only audible for milliseconds.

Driving: No issues getting in and out of gears. The droning hum gets audible when in gear and becomes indistinguishable from engine chatter when the clutch pedal is the pressed in. It returns when the clutch pedal is released. The noise pitch increases slightly when the I accelerate, maintains pitch when speed is maintained, pitch slightly decreases as the gas is left alone and speed decreases. The droning sound will go through the pitch ranges with the tap of the gas pedal. I haave been driving on the freeway at 60mph and the noise will be present, if shift into neutral while still traveling at 60mph and the noise is gone. I believe this test eliminates the probability of the noise being cause by a wheel bearing.
It has been making this noise for at least 10,000 miles at the minimum.
I have spoken with the head mechanic at my Mini dealership and his guess is that it is the throwout bearing failing.
I am the 3rd owner, as far as I know clutch and it’s components are stock and do not know the condition of the transmission fluid, I am working on getting that checked out.
Has anyone here had similar issues. I could really use the help. Feel free to question me if any new information is needed from me. I can link to a video if the sound needs to be heard. Thanks everyone, I plan on continuing this thread until a solution is found and posting that solution.

Sorry about that. Thank you!

Cool cool, anybody have any ideas?

The tabs on my air box are broken and I’ve had to fasten I down with some rope. Ingenuity at its best I’ll try putting some thin foam in between the outer edges of the box and see if the noise is affected at all. Will return with the results shortly. Thanks for the suggestion!

filter cover not the issue, I put in some padding and are fastened but the sound remains identical. I am trying to find some time to switch out my clutch assembly. I will be posting the results once opened up... might make a video actually.

I am 90% sure it is the output shaft gear for my car. It’s a pretty big job so I’m prepping for it heavily with different gear in order to do it myself. I just need a solid place to take my car apart, still building it so I’ll be a little while before I can give any conclusive results. I plan on making a YouTube video documenting the whole thing when the time comes.