My 06 S 'vert has a little over 153K, all mine. I am a 95% of the time down-shifter. My clutch(?) has been making ticking noises for years. Every time I take the car in for an oil change (BMW shop), they mention the clutch. Now they have started putting on the "you need to do this" list. They say it can do some damage when it comes apart. It doesn't sound any different to me; car shifts same as it always has. The clutch did slip once about 4 weeks ago when I floored it after shifting it into either 2nd or 3rd (can't remember which). I was surprised and backed off the throttle, got curious, hammered it again to see if it would slip again, and it did. After that one morning, no more slipping. Is there anything I should be especially watching for? Should I just go ahead and get it replaced? I still love the car, and am planning on keeping it for the foreseeable future.
If your clutch is slipping it is time. They are correct if something fly's apart in there it can & will take other things out. Lots of folks like the Valeo clutch kit plus you get rid of that damned dual mass flywheel. I'll be going that way when the time comes for my MINI.
153K out of a OEM Clutch is good and it lived a good life. If it starting to slip or has slipped it time to replace it but not at the Dealership unless you want to over pay for the work.
Replace it before your throw-out bearing explodes. Willing to put money on the fact that it falls apart once touched/removed from the gearbox.
Comes down to how loud the ticking is... Some mini's do have a throwout bearing sound... But if it gets louder or changes, time to do the clutch... When it fails, the clutch MAY just stop working, BUT it can bounce around and break the transmission bell housing....costing you a tranny.... Feeling lucky?
Regardless of sound if it's slipping it is time. In my playbook that means the clutch is failing. My .02.....
I remember hearing once that you can place the bumper of the car against a telephone pole or some such similar thing (gently of course) then put it into the highest gear you have and slowly let out the clutch. If the engine stops, the clutch is OK. If it doesn't then it's bad and go get a new one ASAP because you probably just made it worse. Fine advice from Car Talk, iirc. I'm not sure I'd try that with my Mini, but I thought I'd throw that out there. But yeah, if it's slipping, go deal with it before it's a real problem.
You can also do the same against the huge front bumper of a new F56. :devil: Push as hard as you want. :lol:
This is what mine looked liked when I just replaced my clutch. It had been making a squelching sound for some time Never hurts to listen to others
The shinny nicks is where the throw out bearing came apart and got tossed ar loo under like a rag doll
Different cars are funny. I think there's a thread on here regarding my trans problems in the r50. I never did get around to getting the other trans apart unfortunately. (I'm still really upset about that actually.) Neither here nor there but you can "glaze" a clutch. Basically it slips but if driven in a "proper" manner it can repair itself. At 150k I doubt that's the problem though. You have the getrag trans so I'd just replace the clutch. General consensus is the valeo is best but poke around a bit. After replacing the trans w a rebuilt unit and new clutch I still a bit upset as there is a faint noise when pressing depressing the clutch in neutral that adds to the "road noise" while in gear at speed.
the original post here was mine. I recently got my car (06 S ragtop) back with from the shop with a new OEM clutch. The old one was slipping some after 157K. With the old clutch, the engagement range discussed above was in the bottom 1/3 of the travel. With the new one, its in the top 1/3. I was thinking that maybe I would get used to it, but after 6 days, it still feels wrong. Except for that issue, I love it. The old clutch must have been slipping even more than I realized, because now I feel like I have more power (or maybe it just the feel of a Mini vs those crappy rentals). Anyway, should I look into getting something adjusted, or keep trying to get used to it the way it is?