[petrolhead63]

My daughter is back from uni tomorrow and I promised doing a few jobs on her mini which lives here when away. I drove it in the week and concluded the clutch bearing sounded noisy, today I got two miles down the road towards getting wheel alignment done after freeing up the adusters etc and clutch died....I suspect release bearing broken up.
I know its a big job and not as easy as my old RWD motors:eeksurprise: but are there any particular pitfalls and dose the 1600 petrol R50 have a Dual Mass flywheel adding a lot of potential expense? It is NOT a cooper..just a plain one.
Thanks.

 

[mike1967]

My daughter is back from uni tomorrow and I promised doing a few jobs on her mini which lives here when away. I drove it in the week and concluded the clutch bearing sounded noisy, today I got two miles down the road towards getting wheel alignment done after freeing up the adusters etc and clutch died....I suspect release bearing broken up.
I know its a big job and not as easy as my old RWD motors:eeksurprise: but are there any particular pitfalls and dose the 1600 petrol R50 have a Dual Mass flywheel adding a lot of potential expense? It is NOT a cooper..just a plain one.
Thanks.

before doing to much more to it it would drop the gearbox oil on it in to clean container and let settle over night then see how much metal is in the bottom of container and floating n the oil, very common for r50 5 speed gearboxes eats them selves,, would be a proper pain if done the clutch and put back in to find gearbox is nearly gone anyway. should have dmf npot a good gearbox to run a solid on as gearbox is weak on early 5 speeds

 

[petrolhead63]

ok thanks, what lets go on the gearbox and are there any early warning signs? noise, selection etc?

This car has done only 55K, not an abused car....one previous keeper until we got it.

I assume if there is lots of metal it will be on the magnetic drain plug?

 

[mike1967]

ok thanks, what lets go on the gearbox and are there any early warning signs? noise, selection etc?

This car has done only 55K, not an abused car....one previous keeper until we got it.

the early cars r50 had the midland gearbox and suffered as early as 20k on some cars hard to change gear and whine noises oil leaks repair kits are fairly cheap link below
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Mini...Cooper&hash=item2a4a0170f3:g:6nQAAOSwnnlbh58O
changing it to later 5 speed getrag gearbox or the 6 speed conversion

 

[mike1967]

i'm not saying its your problem but just bare in mind its a common known problem and not a if its a when it packs up

 

[petrolhead63]

ok yes I understand your guidance and see the midland box is a bit rubbish! Prior to the car failing today I noticed a whine with clutch depressed in neutral or driving and changing gear, If in neutral and left running no noise until the clutch depressed.
I initially put it doen to lack of use during cold months as my daughter has been away!
Then just before failure I could feel the clutch pedal vibrate as I depressed it...and clutch gone, does not disengage, pedal feels soft. Hence why I think the cause of fail is probably the bearing broken up....
It is worth at least checking the gearbox oil though and fresh oil with do no harm anyway....is it the landrover/rover MTF94 stuff?

 

[mike1967]

ok yes I understand your guidance and see the midland box is a bit rubbish! Prior to the car failing today I noticed a whine with clutch depressed in neutral or driving and changing gear, If in neutral and left running no noise until the clutch depressed.
I initially put it doen to lack of use during cold months as my daughter has been away!
Then just before failure I could feel the clutch pedal vibrate as I depressed it...and clutch gone, does not disengage, pedal feels soft. Hence why I think the cause of fail is probably the bearing broken up....
It is worth at least checking the gearbox oil though and fresh oil with do no harm anyway....is it the landrover/rover MTF94 stuff?

below link oil, might be worth sticking some molyslip gearbox additive in it as well,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MTF94-Ma...588305&hash=item43fe195adf:g:0bIAAOSwr~lYn2Ce
molyslip link
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Molyslip...=282866637891df02403b249242baa844fd1a7ce69a21

as for clutch fail input shaft bearing can mimic clutch failure, so can centre bearing pivot on dmf as causes the thrust bearing to have further to travel to work clutch,, its just good thing to bear in mind know issues before stripping stuff, have seen many people get tunnel vision decided its just one thing and like clutch and turns out after they have put all back together there were other issues and need to remove it all again,,, nothing worse doing it twice

 

[NigelK]

Might be worth giving Shaun a call at MINI Gearboxes in Oldham. He only does MINI boxes and knows them backwards, especially the early Midland 5 speeds, which are so fragile. So called because they were a Rover box ...... made in one of their plants in the Midlands.
Helpful guy. Should be able to help you with what are the symtoms of failure of that box.
GEARBOX MINI ONE AND COOPER | MINI | MIDLAND GEARBOXES | EXCHANGE | North west | manchester | oldham | UK | Engines | Mini | cooper s | diesel | automatic |

 

[m_attt]

I had a r52 new, had 3 gearbox's in 2 years. The early ones were terrible couldnt take a hammering.