Hi guys,
hope you can help with my problem.
I bought my mini cooper s 56 reg in June 2009. Have one year warranty on it.
It has now done 36k miles.
It has recently started to make the "Chewbacca noise" when cold pulling off in 1st gear, Also makes a rattling noise when in neutral but once i push the clutch down the noise stops.
I took the car to mini dealership to get this checked out. They have come back saying that they think it might be the release bearing on the clutch or a worn clutch!! If it is the release bearing it will be covered by warranty, but if it is just a worn clutch i will have to pay for it!
They cant tell which one it is without take the whole gearbox out apparently! This sounds very weird because you would think a professional mechanic would know if it was one or the other. Plus many of the threads i have read on here have shown that you can tell what it is before taking the whole car apart.
By reading threads on here it sounds like it could be the flywheel and release beairng. Does anyone know if this should be covered by warranty even if they find it is the clutch that needs replacing?
If they take the gearbox out and find it is a worn clutch i will have to pay for a new clutch and have no choice because they have done all the labour.
I was just wondering if anybody has been in this situation before?
and whether a mechanic would be able to see if it was a release bearing fault or just a worn clutch before taking the gearbox off??
Also does anyone know how much it would cost to get the release bearing sorted out and the flywheel, not with mini (including labour costs)
Hope you can help
Thanks
