Help - my clutch has died

[daisygirl]

We have a 2005 Cooper S which we have owned since new. We both drive quite sedately and dont rest our foot on the clutch when driving.

Last week driving home at night and the clutch just died with only a very short warning. It started when I was in third gear and couldnt get back to second so I put back in third and drove for another km (I was in moderate traffic). I tried a few times to get it back to second but no luck. Before I arrived at a major intersection with lots of roadworks, I pulled over in the last spot possible and thats when the real problems began as it couldnt get it into any gear and was stuck in neutral.

I tried turning off the car a few times and then restarting (OK I was grasping at straws by now) but hubby came down and was able to put it into gear with the MINI turned off but once you start the car cant move between gears.

Luckily I was only a couple of kms from home. It is now at the garage and they have quoted pull the whole front end off and will probably cost over $2000 to fix but they dont know what the problem is yet.

The car only has 80,000km and they want us to replace the clutch altogether which is around $800 plus the rest is time at $100 an hour (BMW charges $200 an hour).

Just wondering if anyone has heard of anything similar so that I can point the mechanic in the right direction or should I ring BMW and say that they should fix it as I would expect a clutch to last more than 80,000 with two good drivers not trashing it?

Any thoughts?

[marque]

Hi

Sorry to here about your car :-(

Couple of thoughts

does you pedal just go to the floor and nothing happens it may be just the clutch master cylinder or the slave cylinder has gone

From what I can remember you don't have to take the front of the car off to change the clutch you use a support across the front of the car runs from left to right or a sling to support the engine then lower it down abit then take out the drive shaft and remove airbox and few other bits Them remove the gear box it's a big ish job
Might be worth getting a quote from mini as they no the short cuts and sometimes do fixed price stuff might be worth asking get a few quotes

[BRGJCW]

Would have thought a new clutch at 80,000klms is a bit early. I have a 2002 MCS with 104,000klms and it's still on the original clutch and is fine (apart from a brief grinding noise when cold). I would get in contact with your local mini club to see if anyone can recommend a good club affiliated mechanic that could give you a second opinion. Have heard of people spending 3000+ to change a clutch through BMW MINI though.