Hi everyone,

I just bought a 2014 Clubman S and have been enjoying it for all of 2 weeks. It has 70k miles on it, and was checked out before I bought it.

Today, I drove the car and parked it, didn't notice anything strange with the clutch. When I went to drive it away, the clutch pedal felt like it was dragging a little bit--a little harder to push down, a little slower to bounce back. I went a few blocks and few shifts, and then the pedal went to the floor, the transmission started grinding (like the clutch wasn't fully disengaging) and I was stuck in first gear. I pulled over and stopped the car. After calling for help, a few minutes later I tried to depress the clutch pedal and I had a lot of resistance. As I pushed, I suddenly broke the plastic connector at the pedal where it meets the master cylinder, so now my pedal doesn't push the piston of the master cylinder down. At that point I abandoned the car and called for a ride.

I have not felt any slipping or other issues, and I didn't see any leaks inside the car to indicate hydraulics failure. I'm going to go have it towed back to my house, but I'd like to see if I can troubleshoot it easily enough to see if its the clutch hydraulics and something I can do myself, or if I'm in deeper doo-doo and about to have a really expensive repair. The pedal didn't loose pressure from what I remember of the brief lead in, it seemed like it just go harder to push and stuck.

Can you please advise me on checks to do once I have back in my driveway?

• check brake/clutch fluid level
• leaks at the master cylinder (non inside the car, maybe on the firewall side?)
• leaks at the slave cylinder (is this visible from under the car? this is my first journey under the belly)
• other things to look at?

Thanks! I'm hoping this isn't a huge repair bill looming to tarnish the new Mini love.

MJ

 

I suspect you'll be pulling the transmission. It sounds like the fork that the slave cylinder pushes on then pushes the throw out bearing may be broken or bent. Not a real common problem, but I've seen some threads about it.

 

We've seen this happen when the clutch fork breaks. So sounds like you will be pulling the trans to fix it. Make sure you do the entire kit with the fork.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/oem-cl...-cooper-s.html

Also since the subframe will be out make sure you go ahead and replace the front control arm bushings with the powerflex as they will be very easy to do at the same time.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/powerf...7-r58-r59.html

 

Thanks for the quick diagnosis, even if it wasn't quite the news I was hoping for. I spent some time last night looking at video walkthroughs of the transmission removal, and they were helpful. Since this will be my first time underneath there and pulling a transmission from a FWD car, so I'm just trying to assemble as much information as possible to tackle it and make sure I do anything else when I'm in there besides the control arm bushings.

I found this writeup from Pelican: https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart..._Replacing.htm

Are there any others that you would all recommend? Thanks in advance!

MJ

 

I suggest you have a Mini tech check it out, we could be wrong. Pulling the trans is a lot of work. For example, slave cylinder could be a problem. After all, you're getting an Internet diagnosis on the cheap.

 

Thanks, that's good advice for sure. I'm trying to understand how the system works so that I can learn a bit more and decide what I'm going to do moving forward. In looking at it after I got it home, the fluid level is at the top (it was replaced 2 weeks ago as part of the brake flush before I got the car) and both the master and slave aren't leaking any fluid. On my previous cars, hydraulic clutch failures were a loss of pressure and the pedal either went the floor and stayed there, or couldn't get enough pressure to engage/disengage. My master cylinder right now you can't push the clutch pedal down hardly at all--it has so much pressure it broke the connector pin to the clutch pedal because of the resistance. Is there any other way I can check the master and slave cylinder function on the car?
I called some shops today, and they all want close to $3k for a clutch replacement. If can eliminate the hydraulics from the suspects, that would help a lot.

Thanks

MJ

 

I just wanted to update everyone. Score 1 for the internet diagnosis The clutch fork was toast. The rest of the clutch looked good, but I guess there must have been some binding on the TOB and the guide tube. Question--should I just replace the tube as well?



r55 clutch fork--dead

 

Ding Ding Ding, I got it right first

 

@AZdsrt the only silver lining to this whole ordeal

 

This is why we always do the fork with every clutch we do.

Yes I would go ahead and do the guide tube as it's cheap and best to be safe.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/throw-...9-r60-r61.html