[bimini]

this is getting rediculous now!

400 miles on...so far we have:

1) loud rattle from jcw exhaust/aero rear bumper when engine is close to stall

2) a general rattle (that i cant hear) from the exhaust? that people commented on as i leave their drives and drive up the road...possibly related to no.1

3) a loud ticking from engine...i suspect its the harmonic dampner

4) dashboard rattle and one in my ear from the seatbelt which sometimes appears in sympathy it seems

NOW ANOTHER ONE...5) a whiring when the clutch is released in neutral...dip the clutch, gone, release and its back...its quiet, but its noticable. Ok so my missus's cooper is different but there isnt any difference in noise dependant on clutch engagement.

i know i picked my car up on late friday, but this is getting silly!

so this is in addition to the non noise related stuff in this thread...

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97407

[Shorty]

I get number 5, and have done since I picked her up a couple of months ago
Dealer tells me this is normal?

[andreuroig]

I also have the rattle from #1 and #2 from my JCW. This is only appreciated from a cold start, after 5 min. it goes away. Currently, I have 1.500 km. and I seldom hear it, so I guess the exhaust needs some running in too!

[-=cHiLli=-]

I get number 5 depending on how smoothly i release the clutch pedal after start up, if i release it smoothly no noise!

On the clutch noise thing, does anyone else get a sort of droning when the gas pedal is released and the car is slowing down by itself (ie clutch up but no accelerator press)?

mD( )

[supercoopers]

Number one is caused because when the exhaust is cold, it is retracted and possibly touching the rear valance which causes the resonance/buzzing you hear. If the 'rattling' is pretty severe, then it sound's like one of the silencers or most likely the manifold pre-cat has burnt out. What happens is the glass fibre sound deadening in the silencer can heat up so much that it melts and forms little glass 'balls.' This then rattles when you are setting off from a standstill/manouvering etc. The car only has 400 miles. I know, but it could be a manfacturing defect...If it goes away from some driving (i.e. allowed to warm up) and doesn't resurface again, then most likely it is scenario one.

Number 3, a loud ticking, sounds more like a tensioner or idler pulley issue than a crank pulley issue. A number of things can cause this sound, most fixes come from repacing the supercharger, the idler or tensioner assembly. That's all that can cause a ticking sound from the drive belt area of things. If the ticking is not that noticeable, then it could be just your tappets in the head at work. I remember mine being faintly 'tickkety' even when standard. A thicker oil (15W50) helped eliminate alot of the engine's natural noises.

Number 5, this sounds like a flywheel issue or a faulty throwout bearing on the clutch if you are having problems with engaging the clutch at all. If there is a little 'resistance' or 'notchiness' to the clutch's engagement, then that can be rectified by replacing the clutch slave cylinder.
Alternatively, if other 05 owners are getting the same sound, it could be down to the new LSD. My car makes all sorts of tapping sounds at idle with the gear in neutral, but then again I have a lightned flywheel with no dampner and a Quaife LSD, so no wonder

Hope you get things sorted soon.

Cheers,

Henry

p.s. Minis are never perfect unfortunately. They all have quirks. If this is a real issue, then I can recommend Lexus. These are by far the best engineered cars on earth right now bar none. Even the Maybach gets run close for build integrity, and that does cost the earth!

[bimini]

thanks for the advice guys...i'm wondering if she just got hot in traffic, perhaps the noises were related to that somehow...the ticking has certainly got quieter, although its still there it is more settled into the background of the engine noise.

the clutch still concerns me but it seems to really only do it when its cold.

the exhaust rattle/shake/valance vibration happens all the time, hot or cold...i've had to adapt my driving style to avoid it...even though the car will happily cruise a multistory car park at 1000 revs in 2nd the moment i give her a little gas she rattles so loud that people actually grimace....i can also hear whatever it is back there rattling over speed ridges etc...think of it as like driving with a metal dustbin with a loose lid in the boot and you aren't far off the sort of noise its making when its pulling away on low revs.

its going in on wednesday now...they want to hear her from cold to see if there is a problem with the clutch. What concerns me is my golf did it and it got worse and worse until it never went away.

the really aggrivating things is the missus's cooper is as quite as a mouse...

any way i've made a list of priority...

1 & 2 ...must be solved, it is spoiling the experience of driving the car, and seeing as a JCW and aero kit add up to about £5000 i dont see any reason why it shouldnt function like any other vehicle.

3 4 & 5...i'll compare to the demo works car they have and ask the dealer to do the same...i can live with them at the moment especially if 1 & 2 are fixed, but i really dont want them to get worse.

[mph999]

Hi guys,

My cooper gives a bit of clutch noise, at idle if you depress the pedal, you can hear a bit of a whirling noise - only the release beasring , some cars do some don't, usually perfectly normal unless the noise is very harsh ...

Can also sometimes hear a bit of a clunking sound, which I presume is just a bit of slack within the system, or something, nothing to worry me (and I'm a ex-mechnical engineer ...).

Hope this helps,

Martin

[egghead]

[quote=bimini]

the exhaust rattle/shake/valance vibration happens all the time, hot or cold...i've had to adapt my driving style to avoid it...even though the car will happily cruise a multistory car park at 1000 revs in 2nd the moment i give her a little gas she rattles so loud that people actually grimace....i can also hear whatever it is back there rattling over speed ridges etc...think of it as like driving with a metal dustbin with a loose lid in the boot and you aren't far off the sort of noise its making when its pulling away on low revs.

QUOTE]

Hi bimini,

Me too have experienced the rattling like what you have mentioned. It also rattles when you rev at low rpm when climbing slope. But are you sure that the rattles came from the exhaust? At first I thought it was the exhaust rattles as the sound seems like coming from the center of undercarriage, but I was wrong. It actually came from the engine bay. I had visited my dealer 5 times (yes 5 times!) but they still can't solve the problem. They had replaced A/C compressor, Idler, tensioner and engine mounts but the rattles still there. The German consultant suspects something to do with the clutch, so I must endure the sound for the time being until the parts are arrived then I can book her in.

egghead

[bimini]

there was a bit of progress on the big rattle...they found the bracket support at the rear of the aero apron above the exhaust was cracked...they've made a makeshift one while they await a back ordered part from germany. It was exactly the same circumstances as your noise that caused it, low revs close to stall.

The clutch idle is getting louder, but it dissapears after 10 secs of running...only happens when she's cold.

[sv650]

We have an 05 Cooper Convertible and have only done 600miles but we have the noisy clutch.
However it only appears to do it if you let it out to quickly.

[Mr G]

no 5 sounds like rollover noise to me. (gear chatter) its just gears that are not loaded up rattling against each other. Mine does it too, and BMW reckon its quite normal. Must have taken germany's finest engineers years to work out how to get that noise out of the Morris Mowog gearbox and replicate it in a BMW one!