Blue Scapegoat
Nov 27th, 2011, 05:57 AM
Ok, a long winded story:
I bought a 2011 MCS mid-year, 6 speed. I drive quite a bit.
I made sure I followed the break in procedure and took care of my car. During a day long drive on the highway to Virginia Beach the car started to develop a subdued constant-pitch vibrato squeal with the clutch engaged in any gear at anything above 1500 rpm or so. I thought it was odd, but it was also very quiet and I thought "well the car only has 10,000 miles on it, I've never had a turboed car before, maybe this is normal." If I apply just the tiniest bit of pressure on the pedal the sound goes away.
A month or so later I started noticing what seemed like a little shudder when I take off. After carefully driving around a parking lot and testing it out I kind of brushed it off as me being slightly paranoid. The problem seemed to go away.
15,000 miles comes up and I take my car to the dealership for it's first service. Oil change, and, according to the computer, brakes.
I explain to them the sound, and I drive around the parking lot with a technician. He can't hear the sound. We switch and he drives. The car shudders horribly when he takes off, and he notices it immediately. I hadn't even noticed that I had apparently altered my driving style to avoid this shudder. It was very obvious when he did it. After he shuts the car off, he lifts his foot off the clutch, and it creeks. I have never heard it do this before.
He says I need a whole new clutch assembly on the spot. We go back inside and the guy at the desk says it will be warrantied no problem. At this point the car still hasn't even been on a lift, let alone taken apart to see what is actually causing the issue. Now I'm driving a base Cooper loaner while they wait for the parts. Also, an odd bit- the computer says I need brakes, but they're perfectly fine.
I'm fairly young, in my early 20s. I've been driving manual vehicles since I was 16, most of them with over 130,000 miles on them. My mom taught me how to drive stick in her Geo Prizm in our yard when I was 12. I had a Celica I bought at 120,000 miles and put 50,000 more on it. I used to autocross it regularly. Never had clutch problems. My last vehicle was a 2006 Jeep Wrangler I lifted. 4 cylinder, 6 speed, oversize 33" tires with stock 3.73 gearing. I took it off road all the time. Pulled laden trailers. You can imagine the beating that clutch took. No problems. I even swapped out the transmission at one point and checked the clutch and it still looked beautiful.
So why would I have such problems on a car after a couple months and 15,000 miles? After break in I took it to a drag strip once to see what it could do. Got 3 runs in. I never launch it hard otherwise, it's got more than enough power, launching just results in pointless tire destruction. Occasionally I'll shift a hard 1-2 or 2-3 enough to chirp the tires into the next gear, but that's very infrequent. I downshift a lot and engine brake in the hills, but I heel-toe rev-match every one. When I'm casually driving I let the revs drop to catch the next gear when up shifting like you would in an old unsynchronized truck, to try to be easier on the synchros and clutch in the long run.
What seems even stranger still is that the technician didn't question my ability to drive a manual at all, or my driving habits. I would have expected some inquiry or skepticism given my age: I'm used to that crap.
Does this hint towards this being a common problem? Is anything about the clutch new with the 2011 model year? I was hoping that by now they had most of the 2nd gen kinks worked out, and according to third parties like Consumer Reports they had. I was hoping for a trouble free, fun car. Any body else have any similar problems?
I have this paranoid feeling like I have somehow caused this, but I can't think of any way that I possibly could have.
:puzzled:
::edit::
And after driving this loaner...
Thank God I didn't buy an N/A with an automatic.
I bought a 2011 MCS mid-year, 6 speed. I drive quite a bit.
I made sure I followed the break in procedure and took care of my car. During a day long drive on the highway to Virginia Beach the car started to develop a subdued constant-pitch vibrato squeal with the clutch engaged in any gear at anything above 1500 rpm or so. I thought it was odd, but it was also very quiet and I thought "well the car only has 10,000 miles on it, I've never had a turboed car before, maybe this is normal." If I apply just the tiniest bit of pressure on the pedal the sound goes away.
A month or so later I started noticing what seemed like a little shudder when I take off. After carefully driving around a parking lot and testing it out I kind of brushed it off as me being slightly paranoid. The problem seemed to go away.
15,000 miles comes up and I take my car to the dealership for it's first service. Oil change, and, according to the computer, brakes.
I explain to them the sound, and I drive around the parking lot with a technician. He can't hear the sound. We switch and he drives. The car shudders horribly when he takes off, and he notices it immediately. I hadn't even noticed that I had apparently altered my driving style to avoid this shudder. It was very obvious when he did it. After he shuts the car off, he lifts his foot off the clutch, and it creeks. I have never heard it do this before.
He says I need a whole new clutch assembly on the spot. We go back inside and the guy at the desk says it will be warrantied no problem. At this point the car still hasn't even been on a lift, let alone taken apart to see what is actually causing the issue. Now I'm driving a base Cooper loaner while they wait for the parts. Also, an odd bit- the computer says I need brakes, but they're perfectly fine.
I'm fairly young, in my early 20s. I've been driving manual vehicles since I was 16, most of them with over 130,000 miles on them. My mom taught me how to drive stick in her Geo Prizm in our yard when I was 12. I had a Celica I bought at 120,000 miles and put 50,000 more on it. I used to autocross it regularly. Never had clutch problems. My last vehicle was a 2006 Jeep Wrangler I lifted. 4 cylinder, 6 speed, oversize 33" tires with stock 3.73 gearing. I took it off road all the time. Pulled laden trailers. You can imagine the beating that clutch took. No problems. I even swapped out the transmission at one point and checked the clutch and it still looked beautiful.
So why would I have such problems on a car after a couple months and 15,000 miles? After break in I took it to a drag strip once to see what it could do. Got 3 runs in. I never launch it hard otherwise, it's got more than enough power, launching just results in pointless tire destruction. Occasionally I'll shift a hard 1-2 or 2-3 enough to chirp the tires into the next gear, but that's very infrequent. I downshift a lot and engine brake in the hills, but I heel-toe rev-match every one. When I'm casually driving I let the revs drop to catch the next gear when up shifting like you would in an old unsynchronized truck, to try to be easier on the synchros and clutch in the long run.
What seems even stranger still is that the technician didn't question my ability to drive a manual at all, or my driving habits. I would have expected some inquiry or skepticism given my age: I'm used to that crap.
Does this hint towards this being a common problem? Is anything about the clutch new with the 2011 model year? I was hoping that by now they had most of the 2nd gen kinks worked out, and according to third parties like Consumer Reports they had. I was hoping for a trouble free, fun car. Any body else have any similar problems?
I have this paranoid feeling like I have somehow caused this, but I can't think of any way that I possibly could have.
:puzzled:
::edit::
And after driving this loaner...
Thank God I didn't buy an N/A with an automatic.