Chocolate Clutch - Mini One

[steve-r]

New to the forums but just wanted to voice my anger.

We have had three Mini One's over the years but our latest has decided to destroy its clutch just weeks before its first service and with less than 17000 miles mostlytown driving no high-stress miles or long m-way trawls), and less than 2 years from new.

Mini Assist picked up the car after I decided it had become undrivable and were shocked that we had been given the car back, after the service, in such a state.

We are getting no-where with the dealer as they say it was caused by "driver error" - which really means riding the clutch - and they say that "The clutch friction plates were worn down past the rivets which resulted in no clearance causing the clutch to fail"
We have been offered (in good will) £500 off our next new Mini. We won't be taking them up on this, franckly insulting, offer if we have to buy a new clutch every 16000 miles!!!

I can't believe that my wife and I have suddenly turned into Boy Racers.

Has anyone else experienced a problem like this?

Surely BMW Mini's quality procedures (and the on-board telemetry) would flag if a clutch destroys itself outside the normal 6-sigma range.

TIA,

Steve

[The Nun]

I dont think theres anything in the on board computerised systems that flags up clutch worn and its a hydraulic operating system so that should self adjust/compensate, so you cant say the pedal is coming up higher than normal as it wears like you can with a cable system.
Until it starts to show signs of slipping I doubt you would be able to tell anything is wrong.
I do know the dual mass flywheel has cause premature wear on lots of other makes of cars, I had to have a new clutch in my Freelander 2 at 2 years and under 50000 miles and never before have I ever had a new clutch in any other car despite mileages of well over the 100000 miles mark.
Not sure if your car has this type of flywheel, some do some dont.
If its just a normal solid flywheel, and theres nothing sticking in the mechanism, (if there was it would have felt strange to operate long before), then the only thing that can cause wear is how its used, and you dont have to be a boy racer to wear a clutch out by the way, riding it in traffic for instance can be just as bad.
In fact town driving can be harder on clutch than miles and miles of fast driving up and down the motorway where the clutch is hardly being used.
A car that has done 17000 miles in central London say will have a clutch far more worn than a car thats done 150000 miles on a motorway.