So, for the past two years and 70,000 miles "Buddy" and I have had The Click. The dealer has replaced the clutch...wait for it...THREE TIMES!!!! I just found this thread and I'm thrilled...I even have a torque wrench!! I have to say, I really kind of like having a new clutch put in every 6 months or so...at no charge to me, seeing as how the first one was under warranty and every time I complained of The click they just replaced the clutch again. Who knows, maybe when the clutch REALLY goes out, I'll just complain of that "Illusive, Confounded Click". OR not. Maybe I'll give them a break. Sort of like the break I had in the front strut tower.

 

+1 for me on the OP's solution. Axle nut didn't look loose, but I removed it, slammed the axle back and forth a couple times to seat it, and torqued the nut back down. No more clicks.

 

Thread revival just to say THANK YOU to Dave&Stacy and wildone3c for their suggested fix/explanation. Our Mini has had this click for 8 months now and it has gotten progressively louder in the past 3 and more reproductible. Had my shop inspect it and sure enough BOTH axle nuts were loose. The left one was a lot looser than the other one (which had just started loosening). Overtorqued both slightly, thread locker on them, hoping for the best.
I insisted they weld them, but they said no.
J/K

03/06 MCS auto with 65K miles, started doing this roughly at 60K or so.

 

Thanks alot!!!!!! (With all the exclamation marks intact!)

This solution seems to have fixed my R55 Cooper S as well. I took a short test drive and couldn't reproduce the click. I will drive home soon.

I would like to add that just torquing the nut didn't solve it. I had to remove the nut completely. I torqued to 140lbs/ft.

 

I bought my 05 MCS in February. We did not hear the noise till March when we started driving with the windows open. Read many posts about torquing the axle nut but this did not work for us, so the Mini Service tech stated that we need new axles. So, still being under warranty, we had the dealer who sold us the car replace both axles and now there is no more clicking.
Now we have that grr..grr..grr sound from the LSD which we will get the lubricant change. For those that have this sound, you can find the info here.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ers-w-lsd.html

 

Thread revival. I believe I have fallen victim to this clicking issue at my driver's front side of my '06 MCS @48K miles. I recorded a few videos for trained ears. The clicks happen during acceleration and when I let my foot off the throttle. Basically during momentum changes. They're more pronounced off an idle start. Should re-tightening and re-torqueing the axle nuts resolve?

 

Hi everyone!

About a month ago, I had the infamous throw-out bearing issue/clutch replacement on a 2004 MCS w/ manual transmission (no longer under warranty). Along with the clutch, they performed the following services:

- front control arm bushings replaced
- power steering line, clamps, seals, fan replaced
- upper motor mount replaced
- alignment performed

(stoic emoticon)

Since getting the car back, I have noticed a clicking noise with shifts in momentum (accelerating, especially from a stop, braking, high-g turns). The sound is coming from the front driver's side wheel well area. It can occur more than once under more dramatic shifts in momentum, but it isn't a constant noise, nor do the clicks come at regular intervals. It's more like: accelerate from a stop: click... make a 90-degree turn: click click click...click... slow down: click. I have verified that it is not the axle nut retorque problem.

I've read the following threads on what seem to be similar noises (in addition to any others I could find):

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...tor-shaft.html

It sounds just like the video in post 181 from this first thread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o7oD...layer_embedded


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-piece-go.html

I am trying to pinpoint the problem the best I can before I bring it back to the dealer, as it sounds from previous posts like the normal response is the "replace expensive parts until it goes away" method. If something really needs to be replaced, then so be it, but I'm trying to arm myself with as much information as possible in order to avoid unnecessary and costly work. To that end, I have a few questions for anyone who might have experience with an issue like this:

1) If it were a CV joint, half shaft, or other power train problem, would the techs at the dealership have noticed it when they had the front half of my car on the floor of their shop? I would think that, with everything else they found wrong, they would have caught something like that.

2) Is it possible that this click is a result of something they did at the dealership (a bolt that wasn't torqued properly, for example)?

3) Should I hold off bringing the car anyplace other than the dealership where I got the work done in case it is something simple and/or their fault, and a possible goodwill fix?

4) Are there other ways I can come closer to a diagnosis on my own? (Is it possible, for example, to tell if it's the transmission mount without removing parts from the engine compartment?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Update on the 04 MCS click

This afternoon, I used the jack that came with the car to see if there was any play in the tires (trying to move them with as much force as I dared while it was on that little jack) . There was no play in either of the driver's side wheels, but there was a fair amount of creaking from the rear suspension as I was raising and lowering the jack. Don't know if that points to any possibilities or rules out any others, but there it is.

Don't know if the clicking noise would be coming from the struts, though. It doesn't seem to be associated with bumps or up/down motion, but rather seems tied to changes in lateral momentum.

 

Well, a little over a year and the clicking noise is back. As stated in my previous post, it was determined by a Mini dealer that the axles were bad and I had the Saab dealer whom we bought the car from actually do the repair because we were under their warranty, to which the final cost was around a thousand dollars that they covered.
Our present Mini specialist, GPS has stated that the Saab dealer probably used after market axles because the OEM axles are over $500 each. He tried torquing the bolt but stated it was already at its PSI. So, I think I have another broken axle or something has broken inside the CV joint. Mark, our mechanic, showed me a CV joint and said it could be a few possibilities inside the casing of the joint. Now I need to dig up my paperwork on the last repair and see if that work is under warranty.
So, to those who are experiencing this issue, I would recommend OEM replacement of these axles if torquing the CV joint bolt does not resolve your issue. I'll keep you all posted.

 

Hi Guys,

I'm new to this form and to the MINI world. I just purchased a 2005 Cooper S JCW w/ ~37,000 miles on it. It replaced my 1987 Peugeot 505 STX V6 :-) and is augmenting my '64 Alfa Romeo Spider pleasure-car.

Needless to say, I love this MINI. I learned recently that it was originally purchased from Motorwerks MINI.

The only trouble is that it has this same clicking that you guys describe coming from the front driver's wheel well. It's a little click when the car accelerates and decelerates. It happens going either forward or in reverse, and it doesn't happen every time, just almost every time. It's just a single click usually, though sometimes it's two or three small clicks.

It clearly sounds like something relieving stress under torque.

I just removed the stock wheels to put on some forged 5-spoke wheels and I'm really noticing this clicking noise now. I suspect it was always happening, but now it's just more pronounced because the wheel is much more open than the stock set, so there's less muffling of sounds coming from the well.

Today I tried the procedure described in this thread for tightening the axle nut. I even over tightened it by 5 pounds in an attempt to keep it from slipping in the future. Unfortunately this hasn't solved my problem. I'm still hearing the click.

The only additional information I can provide is that when I had the car up and the wheel off, I put the car in gear and I was able to turn the rotor (and subsequently the half-shaft) a couple of degrees back and forth. Keep in mind I'm coming from the old Peugeot world, so this kind of slack in the drivetrain is totally normal, but I have no idea if this is an indicator of trouble on the MINI.

Anyway, the only dealership in Portland is now owned by LITHIA Motors, and I'm not too keen on taking this car to them to ruin it.

Just looking for a little guidance. Perhaps I missed something?

Thanks!
-Nathan

 

Hey Nathan et al,

This axle issue should be a pinned topic. It's just too ironic that that many owners have this issue which truly is another Mini engineering fiasco. Now on my second set of axles which have failed, I have discovered and found a solution which is cheaper than OEM. Actually. Jan from RMW uses these on his cars and has given me thumbs up. All the info is here and they specialize in performance parts.

http://www.driveshaftshop.com/import...-level-2-axles

I am ordering mine this week. FYI they come with a one year warranty.

 

$850 for those custom axles, yikes. If that's "cheaper", I shudder to think what OEM must cost.

Worse still is the labor on these things I suspect. I have access to a shop where I could probably do this myself (they currently let me work on my Peugeot on Sundays if there's no car in the rack already). However I've never worked on a FWD car drivetrain before, so I'm weary to start swapping parts like this. Not to mention there's no room for error because I have to be able to get the car up, fixed, and down off the rack in under 6 hours.

I've cut it close before when attempting repairs that I'm unfamiliar with.

I'm a little confused how these things could be going through axles so quickly. Usually OEM axles are heavy and overbuilt.

 

Also of note. There's exactly zero feedback through the pedals or steering wheel when this click happens. With the windows up I can't even hear it unless I'm really, really listening for it.

It seems like if it were something as serious as the half-shaft, the spline fittings, the CV joint, or something along those lines that it would be a lot more obvious due to shuddering or vibrations.

No?

I'm just trying to think this through, since I have neither the time or the money to just start throwing expensive parts at the problem until it goes away.

 

The OEM axles are over $500.00 each. The noise is not going to go away.

 

I'm not going to be racing this car, and I'm not going to further mod the engine beyond the JCW setup (except to replace the intake filter with a high-flow model and fix the flap on the airbox open), so I can't help but wonder if their Level 0 replacements would be sufficient?

I'm already going to have to replace the control arm bushings in the near future, which I knew when I bought the car, but these repairs are going to start stacking up quickly in cost.

 

I realize that this is an old thread, but thought I'd check in with those who dealt with this.

06 MCS Cabrio....65k miles. Last summer heard the single click upon takeoff and decel as outlined here. Found this thread and did the re torquing routine twice. Each time it stopped for a week or so, then returned. Finally decided to get a new axle. Cured it for several months. It's back and getting louder. Going to try the re torque once and see what happens on this axle.

For those of you who still have your cars, how is your click situation now?

 

FWIW, my dealer took it in to try to assess the problem, and speculated that the noise might be coming from the transmission mount. I went ahead and got the mount replaced and the noise hasn't come back since. Yours could be something different, and they told me that it was an uncommon problem, but that was my experience.

 

Thanks for the update, grobins.

I think my plan of attack is to re torque the nut and check all of the engine/tranny mounts as you suggested. My strut mounts, struts, lca bushings, and ball joints have all been replaced since this all started, so I'm pretty sure those are not the cause.

If that doesn't work, then I may resort to cranking the stereo to tune it out.