Clutch Concerns - MINI Cooper Forum

Chip · #1 (**permalink**) Sep 2nd, 2005, 10:45 PM

Firstly my apologies if this topic has already been covered somewhere but......

has anyone suffered similar issues with their Cooper ?

My car is an August 2004 build Cooper and has now covered 13500 miles since it was registered in late Sept 2004.

The clutch operation is extremely noisy on the car, especially once the car has been in use for a period. It is most noticeable in heavy traffic with constant clutch activation and can best be described as a linkage type rattle ?. My dealer says MINI are aware of this and looking into a fix, and that they have added my details to the list of others affected, but 2 months and 3500 miles on I have not yet heard any more info. The noise seems to be getting worse and now seems to be accompanied by the following problems.....

1) The operation of the clutch seems erratic. The bite seems quite low at times whilst at others it seems very high (before anyone passes a sarcastic comment I don't cane the car causing excess clutch wear and I have over 15 years driving experience)

2) The gear selection also seems erratic, mostly the gear change is slick and smooth but with increasing freqency it has moments where it is very notchy though it does select each time)

If anyone has had similar issues and has had them fixed by their dealership (or have similar on going issues) I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

Chip

russs99 · #2 (**permalink**) Sep 3rd, 2005, 06:18 PM

Hi there

Mine is exactly the same, infact, according to my dealer 'they all do it' - that is all the MINI's fitted with the 5 speed Getrag gearbox (since 04 model refresh). I asked to take a couple of the demonstrators out and they were both the same. I can't say I noticed it when I had my original test drive(s) though.... They didn't say anything to me about a possible future 'fix'

I can't say I really have any problem with clutch operation asuch though. The box can seem a bit notchy sometimes but this seems to be getting smoother with use. Just the clonking bothers me really. I have heard it can take many thousands of miles to break-in nicely.

Russ