My 04 S car makes a whining noise coming from the transmission when taking off in 1st gear, has anyone experienced the same problem? the car has about 4000 mi and the next service is not before another 4000 Mi, should I take the car in right away or can it wait untill the next service period. many thanks.

 

I would take it in NOW and let them listen to it then if they say keep driving your covered. I you drive another 3000 - 3500 miles and it comes apart they can say you should have had it looked at.

Also have you checked the fluid?

Earl

 

let me scare the pants off of you. this happened to a friend of mine. I have changed the names since this was her issue not mine to post but it definitely applies. good luck.

[size=2]ORIGINAL QUESTION:
Have any of you had problems with your clutch? Mine started whining on Sat whenever I pushed it in. Last nite it would not even start. The clutch would not engage. It is on the way to DEALER A to get looked at
[/size][size=2]I have finally found out something. DEALER A called me on Tues saying that my clutch was burnt up and it would be $3000 to fix since it was do to my misuse. I could not believe it. I called back and started asking questions about how they came to that conclusion without pulling the tranny. They told me that they opened the hood and it had a burnt smell. I had the hood open before it went on the tow truck and there was not a burnt smell. I asked them how they got the car in the service area and they said the service tech played with it until they got the clutch to engage.

I talked to John Doe about what I should do and he advised me to call Mini USA and to get on the forums and start searching. I found lots of threads about clutches, throwout bearings and trannys being replaced under 30000 miles. Yesterday I got Mini USA on the phone and told them the whole story and that I wanted this covered under warranty. They called the dealership and talked to them. Mini USA called me back and told me that they saw signs of misuse and it would not be covered under warranty if it was customer misuse. What a big help they were.

I called DEALER B and talked to Mr. Smith the Service Advisor. He could not believe they were telling me this was customer pay since he had replaced a couple of clutches under warranty. He said unless I had high centered it it should be covered. He could also not believe that they did not have me in a rental car from Enterprise. He said the price of $3000 was way too much. I informed him that I would move my car from DEALER A to DEALER Bif that is what it took. He wanted to call DEALER A first and find out what was going on. Within 2 minutes after he talked to DEALER A I had a phonecall saying that they were dropping my tranny to find out what was going on and they were paying for that labor cost. They found a shattered throwout bearing which is under warranty. Of course they don't have the parts and they were trying to tell me it might not be done till Monday. I got them to get me a rental car.

After all this trouble with DEALER A I will be taking my car to DEALER B from now on. Sorry this is so long.

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thanks , I'll call the dealer NOW.