If you or someone you know has had a low mileage clutch failure and had the dealer claim driver abuse to not honor the warrant, you'd best check out this site 'cause it wasn't your fault. The DMF failed due to poor design. This has been known since Mar. '08! BMW claims to not know about it. Don't know if this address will load by clicking on it. If it won't, enter it manually in Google Search and click "Technical Services Bulletin - Valeo Service". http://www.valeoservice.com/data/mas...78.pdf?rnd=102 The text is pretty grim, the pics are grimmer. :nonod:
Let's see if this link will work http://www.valeoservice.com/data/master/webfile/19835431504AD33F8566078.pdf?rnd=102 . The later model flywheel's secondary mass will rock on its axis a little when new/out-of-the-box, but when it goes bad, the face can wiggle freely while grasping a dowel pin. I would normally consider flywheel warping and hot spots a sign of abuse, but in this case (28k miles) I believe the flywheel the cause, because of its wasted elastomer.
I definitely agree. Nearly all the early clutch failures I've seen reported were at less than 30K miles, a couple at only 11K! In Europe the problem was showing up on service bulletins as early as the Spring of '07. Something besides burnt clutches smells here! :mad2:
How do we know if this applies to the clutch being used in the MINI? Yes, it uses a dual mass flywheel, but does it say this applies to MINI clutches? I agree that this sure sounds like it fits the symptoms some people with early clutch failure have had, and it explains why some fail and many others don't.
Thanks for this information. My clutch went at 18,000 miles in my '08 MCS. I (like many others) have driven manual transmissions in other cars for 75,000 plus miles without ever needing a clutch replacement. I've never abused the clutch in my MCS, and I was astounded when it started to slip after a year and a half of ownership. Mini agreed to "Goodwill" the parts for complete clutch and flywheel replacement. But I payed out the labor to the tune of $1000.