When the slave cylinder is on the way out the clutch pedal is at first slow to come back up once depressed quickly worsening to the pedal laying there on the floor like a dead fish dried to hull of a boat.
I'd like to think that engineers wouldn't design a bearing utilizing plastic but over the past several weeks I've learned to never say never.
I too am in a similar situation though. Ive had a handful of BMWs and this one sure takes the cake for 'bitchiness'. What you're describing sounds like it's clutch/hydrolic related. Try not to lose sleep is all I can offer.
I hope to get it done soon. We have a club run the 24th and there is another event I plan to attend on the 31st. I should have an estimate from the shop I normally use for major repairs Monday. His prices are usually very reasonable. I'm waiting on what he has to say before I make a decision. My other option is to stock up on beer and tools and just do it myself. As much as I enjoy working my on cars, I'd prefer to pay a pro to tackle this one, but I don't want to pay almost $2k in labor.
After having it looked at by a pro, my gearbox seems to be fine (fingers crossed). It's "just" a massive failure waiting to happen inside the clutch. The poor thing has been parked outside and collecting pollen for more than a week now. Every time I drive past it I want to wash it. I can't stand seeing it dirty like that. Road dirt is ok, but sitting still dirt is a problem. At least it's in good company parked between a D90 and some "m" series BMW.
The clutch pedal returns quickly, when the car isn't running it feels completely normal. I checked it again a few minutes ago and with the hood up, after shutting it off, I could smell melting plastic, I assume this is the bearing's housing. I'm afraid my T.O.B has given up. It looks like I get to do some extensive maintenance in the very near future.
I had it hauled to a highly recommended BMW/MINI specialist today. I didn't want to risk further damage by driving it. Hopefully he'll have a diagnosis tomorrow.
It's a real bummer. In addition, I now get to use the tetanus express as my dd. It's fun driving around in a swb f100 with a 460, but it's costing me almost $15.00 a day in gas. Not cool. My daily commute is 20 miles round trip.
Well, the BMW specialist next door to my work finally worked up an estimate. $2621.58, for the clutch, right side cv boot and lower control arm bushings. To me it seems kinda steep, or am I just experiencing sticker shock?
I looked at the estimate. He has each seperate item billed with labor even though it all happens at the same time. However, he did reduce his price by a little more than $100, I guess there were some unnecessary fees or something on the origional quote. The mechanic there has an outstanding reputation, I guess his prices reflect that. The lower control arm bushings were close to $400. I'm relatively competent working on cars, I might just leave that off, do it myself and install powerflex bushings instead of the oem ones hr recommends.
My regular shop has come through for me again. He will do all the work I requested for a price that I can live with. Hopefully I'll be back in the mini by the end of next week. I really am thinking about test driving that autotragic r53 at the local dealership just to get my mini fix.
I was without mine for a long time also. I feel your pain, I really do. I wish I had the resources to reverse engineer the box... If only a hungry law firm would hire me.
Just got it back from the shop. Fortunately my transmission was in good shape. The culprit was the plastic retainer around the throw out bearing and the fact that the friction material on the clutch was paper thin. The mechanic said I got my money's worth out of the clutch. Both cv axles have been rebuilt, they replaced the serpentine belt, changed the oil and replaced the faulty drain plug. All with oem parts and to oem specs. Now on to washing away five weeks worth of pollen and bird crap.
I just went through similar issue with my 04 r50 after returning from MTOD. Sitting in front of Lowes put it in first gear and NOTHING!!! No symptoms, no warning just NOTHING. Pedal went down and barely returned with no force. Had it towed to a local shop who said they worked on Minis. They diagnosed it as a clutch problem as well as pan gasket leaking. They also suggested a new rear main seal since we were already there. They had it all together Monday and called to say it still wouldnt move under its own power and said they thought it might be a gearbox issue but they were going to check the clutch again to make sure it was ok.
PS: the new clutch was bad. They called last night and said to come get it. Bill was $2100.
Thank goodness it wasn't on the way home from the Dragon!
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