Engine Drivetrain 1st Gen Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Clutch time..... Again

My 05 MINI make 200 Tq and over 255 hp at the wheels and the stock clutch and OEM LSD is holding fine. The Stock stuff works just fine it all depends on how you drive it.

**** I do drive my car very hard and I am still good at almost 80K.

 

I've gone from a Clutch Masters 4 puck that was down right annoying on the street to an OS Giken that was like a weight machine for my left leg to a Valeo OEM replacement. The Valeo holds up to the HP and torque yet is easy to drive.

 

I went from a competition type clutch to the typical Valeo Kit. The car is so much more drive-able in daily traffic with hills and all the various stop/start situations one encounters. Don't regret the "downgrade" at all.

 

Like Nathan said the Valeo kit is much more reliable and easier to drive. I think you just got the most miles I've ever seen out of a Comp clutch though.

 

Picked a Valeo R53 conversion kit up for stupid cheap on the Bay. $349 delivered.

2002 05 Mini Cooper s 1 6L Supercharged 6SPD Valeo OE Clutch Kit Solid Flywheel | eBay

 

I have an OEM LSD also and it good but it is not as good as an OS Giken or Quaff LSD.
I will upgrade my LSD when the stock clutch fails someday.

AS for me I would not put the OBX in my car becasue most of the stuff they make is knock off junk.

If you are going to put one in and need to do it on a budget get the OEM one from eMINIparts.com.

 

Not wanting to start another clutch thread, I thought I would hijack this one and give my first impressions of converting to a Valeo Single Mass flywheel clutch it. If it's not okay, I will post this somewhere else.

Some of you know, I had a new clutch put in last year. It was full stock replacement. However, I did not change out the dual mass flywheel. Well, 3 weeks ago, I heard a loud bang while shifting into 3rd on my commute home and I had no gears at all. Seems the clutch broke, and the dealer covered the cost of the labor to do another clutch. Based on the suggestions of all the good MINI folk here, I decided to not get another MINI clutch and had MINI Yaletown bring in a Valeo single-Mass flywheel conversion kit. With the customary discount they give me, the entire kit cost less than a replacement dual mass flywheel. This being the first time doing a conversion like this, they asked if they could take their time to make sure they get it right. It took almost 3 weeks.

Finally got my car back. I haven't looked under the bonnet yet but supposedly, besides the clutch a whole bunch of gaskets have been replaced....$900 worth of gaskets.

My first impressions:
Extremely quiet. No more helicopter noises, and besides the supercharger whine, I can even hear the belt and a lot more of the mechanical things happening in the engine bay area now, including suspension movement. Much easier to diagnose problems.

Very light pedal. Hardly any force to push the clutch pedal down at all. It might get stiffer as the clutch wears in, but for now, it feels too easy to push down and maybe a bit more difficult to modulate. The friction point is slightly higher and the pedal movement between friction point and full clutch engagement is wider. This clutch feels very much like the F56 Cooper's clutch I test drove a couple of weeks ago.

I can feel the engine vibration/shakes more. Perhaps the dual mass flywheel from the factory was absorbing more of the vibrations coming from the engine.

I'm glad I got the conversion. The conversion, including labor, costs less than the cost of a replacement dual mass flywheel part cost alone. With this being a simpler set-up, I anticipate fewer problems into the future. The trade-off is the clutch does not grab quite as hard as the stock set-up. But I don't anticipate driving my car hard enough for that to be an issue.

Sorry for the double post. I had posted this here, then stumbled onto my original thread when I was debating whether or not to switch to a single mass flywheel.

 

As Rolls Royce used to say "adequate".

Frankly I have no idea, the car has not been on a dyno in years. Since then it's been bored over, the Jesus Head (tm) has been skimmed so compression is up and now has a ViPec that needs to be dialed in.

It ain't a slow MINI, that's for sure.

 

Thanks for that link AC! That just became my Christmas list item... Got a car cover for my classic for my birthday. God how I do live my wife!!

 

Possible oil on the clutch? Maybe?

 

Crank seal might not be a gusher.... Could be very very small amount of oil.... You won't really know until you get in there...

 

That was the issue I had, seal was weeping a little and got oil on the clutch. If OS Gieken would sell me just the clutch disk I'd have a great backup on hand just in case. But alas, they don't seem to sell just that part.

 

Jeff, I dunno what you're doing to your clutch. I'm at 149k on the original equipment - and you know I'm not driving like grandma

Bryan