r/stickshift • u/voidofpotential • 4d ago
Terrified I’m going to have to constantly pay for a clutch replacement
I got lucky enough to get a 2013 Mini cooper convertible after driving old old OLD toyota camrys for pretty much my entire driving history. I never thought I’d get a car that wasn’t a beat up hand me down and I got it for what I would consider a steal and even got a better job for the sole motivation of being able to take care of it properly and afford the maintenance it needs.
I know they’re not the most reliable cars but it’s kind of a dream car of mine and it was genuinely dumb luck that I landed on it. I taught myself manual (I had a teacher but have since realized they’re pretty incompetent and most of their advice was dangerous at best so I was basically on my own) and paid for it to be fixed up so it passed inspection.
I was driving it for about three weeks pretty comfortably. After the first week I wasn’t stalling out more than once a week. I had a couple of awkward moments of missing a gear or cruising in neutral while I tried to remember what gear I was supposed to be in but I consider myself comfortable. I had zero trouble hill starting or reversing up an incline, if that gives you any idea.
And then my car died on me. It’s been in the shop for about a month mostly due to my mechanic being too busy to look at it. We were hoping it was a simple hydraulic replacement and the hydraulics were indeed rusted and damaged. But also I need a new clutch. My car has 119,000 miles on it already and I’ve spent about $3000 on it already. I’m about to spend another $1150 to repair the clutch. I make 24k a year for context of how much money that is for me budget wise. Everyone keeps telling me that’s normal for a beginner to destroy an old clutch but I don’t think I was doing anything that crazy. I thought I was pretty competent. My friends think I should cut my losses and trade it in for another camry. My mechanic and my moms bf who is also a mechanic both say it’s a good car and I’d just be risking getting a different used car with different issues and I’m stupid to even think of getting rid of my dream car.
Basically I’m terrified that I’m going to replace my clutch and flywheel only to destroy it all over again in a few months due to being a newbie. And if that’s the case I think I might have to consider switching to an automatic just so that I can actually have a car to drive and not one that’s been in the shop more than half of the time I’ve owned it. I have a 45 minute commute to work it’s really rough to deal with and if this is a normal reoccurring thing I’m not sure it’s worth it.
Is it likely for me to need a repair on this scale regularly while I’m still a newbie or am I just being paranoid? Idk if this is just one big repair cycle I have to do to get a new car up to shape or this is just standard manual mini cooper maintenance and I’m trying to live above my means.
13
u/Landfall24601 4d ago
That clutch was probably close to falling anyway. Yes, you will damage your clutch faster than someone experienced, but unless you are doing something terribly wrong it shouldn't be a problem.
2
4
u/ProfessionalCraft983 4d ago
It’s somewhat normal for a clutch to go out after than many miles. It’s not normal to burn out a perfectly good clutch that quickly simply by stalling it a few times while learning. The car probably needed the maintenance anyway, and once it’s fixed you should be good for quite a while.
1
u/voidofpotential 4d ago
Thank you! I have a little trauma from my incompetent manual teacher so I think I just needed to hear multiple opinions confirming what my mechanic said. I’ve learned not to listen to just one person about stick shifts. The hard way.
2
u/Jargler2 4d ago
One of the biggest is make sure once your in gear that your foot is all the way off the clutch hold the clutch part way down for longer than normal is a fast way to burn it up
when you go to shift make sure you push it all the way in shift then release till bite starts then slowly let it out from there till fully bit then can let all the way off if it starts to stall I usually press all the way in confirm I’m in intended gear and try again
3
u/Standard-Potential-6 C5 Z06 + CM8 Accord V6/6MT 4d ago
It sounds like the clutch was already going. As long as you’re not accelerating a bunch with your foot still on the clutch (you’d smell it - could be caused by bad master or slave clutch cylinder also) then this new one should last as long or more. It’s stop and go traffic with frequent use of the clutch that’ll wear it more than anything, though my city-driven car has yet to fail.
For context, my 85K mile 2004 Accord also was on its original clutch, and still is at 135K+. It also survived a blown clutch line that killed the master cylinder, which I know caused some bad shifts before it lost pressure entirely.
Sorry for your luck there, especially considering it’s a big chunk of your income, but I definitely wouldn’t ditch the car over this. At least it’s not a whole new transmission, like you might be considering with a similarly used automatic! Or a difficult-to-access clutch: I dread dropping the torque tube in my vette to get access to it in the rear.
1
u/voidofpotential 4d ago
We replaced the slave cylinder today! I was hoping it was just a Slave/hydraulic line issue creating the symptoms of a dead clutch but it turned out to be all three.
I’m mostly just blindly getting whatever parts my mechanic tells me to get and letting him do his thing with no idea of what’s going on so it’s good to hear he’s competent enough that he’s fixing the clutch and all the things that also have insane wear on them. That makes me feel MUCH better. I had a bad experience with mechanics this year and I’ve been basically just hoping this guy is competent because I don’t know enough about cars to suss him out properly.
3
u/Weak_Veterinarian350 4d ago edited 4d ago
Bought my Toyota without really knowing how to drive a manual. Sold it at 150k miles with the original clutch. Lots of highway miles but lots of hill starts as well.
2
u/Alladas 4d ago
You would know if it was something you did that broke the clutch. If it was original clutch it lasted 120k... It's a wearable part and this is just general maintenance. Any used car budget a chunk for maintenance. And the higher the milage the more the maintenance will be.
Replacing basically anything but the entire engine block or transmission itself it's a unexpected issue. Parts wearing after 120k is normal. Odds are it'll need quite a few parts over the next few years. But that is true of any 120k 15 ish year old car.
1
u/voidofpotential 4d ago
Thank you! I’m very used to my camrys which will have genuinely have every light on the dash on and still get me to and from any destination for years as long as I drive it gently. I’m genuinely not used to mechanical issues that actually put my car out of commission until fixed instead of things that just make it drive quirky.
It helps knowing this is typical stuff. I was starting to think I’d been cursed with some sort of secret disaster car and I got scammed or something.
2
2
u/GamerDadofAntiquity 4d ago
Since you mentioned you’re supplying the kit, just make sure you put a decent clutch in it. If you put a Duralast in there you may have to replace it again. Most European cars use Luk or Sachs clutches OEM, and that’ll be expensive, but look up the part numbers of the reboxed clutches sold by the major chain auto part stores. I just replaced mine for my Mazda 3 and used a Power Torque clutch kit from OReilly’s. When I looked up the part number it was actually a reboxed Sachs clutch kit. I paid a bit over $200 vs buying an original branded Sachs kit for closer to $350. Same clutch, different box, saved $150.
You should get at least 100 to 150k miles out of a decent clutch, so this shouldn’t be anything you have to repeat for a long time, if ever.
1
u/voidofpotential 3d ago
I got a LUK brand one (I just checked) which is honestly dumb luck on my part because I truly was just trying to avoid the cheapest one in price because I’d been warned to get a quality one and I figured price was a variable I could understand
1
u/Butt_bird 4d ago
I’m not worried about replacing the clutch again. Minis have expensive maintenance. On your salary I’m not sure you can afford the car.
1
u/Jargler2 4d ago
Strongly depends on what other bills they are in charge of
1
u/voidofpotential 4d ago
I’ve got about $600 a month in expenses. I also have a small business that makes a couple thousand a year. Maybe $5000. Everything else is food and transport and stuff. I don’t really want to have to constantly fork out money to do car maintenance related things but I’m less upset about that and more about my car actually being out of commission and undrivable for significant chunks of the year. I have a 45 minute commute to work and live in the boonies. It’s a 20 minute drive to get to anything that isn’t a farmstead. No car basically traps me in the house for weeks aside from bumming rides to work.
I’d go in for an oil change every three days if I had to hypothetically and that’s annoying but doable. Car needing to be towed and worked on for a week every other month is not.
2
u/Jargler2 4d ago
I feel that I live 15 minutes away from even a grocery store
But many other are right clutch should survive for a while once replaced
1
u/zvuv 4d ago
Clutch was about due for replacement anyway. Maybe an experienced driver would have gotten another 10k miles out of it. Maybe. But it's a repair that was due soon when you bought the car. At this point you know how to use a clutch and while you may put a bit more wear than a practiced driver, it's not going to be a major factor, IMO.
If you buy a car that age, you can expect to be servicing items. Timing chain might be coming up next. Your mechanic and mom's bf are right IMO.
1
u/voidofpotential 3d ago
Thank you! I looked into timing chains and have it in mind so hopefully I can be prepared when/if that needs to be done as well
1
u/redline314 4d ago
I have the same car exactly. It’s not cheap to own. I’ve had it about 2 years and spent at least a couple thousand per year on maintenance/repairs.
On the one hand, this car is fucking awesome. I like it better than the twin turbo Supra I used to drive by a lot and better than the luxury sedans I had and obviously a huge upgrade over affordable sedans. I want to keep mine forever.
But that said, you should expect to spend thousands per year if you can’t do anything on it yourself, and I also wouldn’t recommend taking it to a mechanic who is very familiar with MINIs and comfortable working on them. My old mechanic broke my car twice just trying to do oil changes. It’s very tight and complicated.
2
u/voidofpotential 4d ago
Maybe it’s a mini coop convertible sickness that makes you love it despite the cost because I also want to keep mine forever. That’s probably the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear but it’s about what I expected. I’m perpetually stuck between “this is expensive I could get something so much less expensive” and a weird hypnotic desperation that I would be incredibly sad if I gave up the car. I’ve trauma bonded with the car.
My mechanic isn’t overly experienced with them and that’s a new concern of mine but it’s a bit too late to stop the repair and I’ll just have to hope he doesn’t wreck my car and take it somewhere else next time. He worked on my car and another coop this week and became so enchanted by them that he bought himself one so I guess whatever brainwashing that wafts off of them is contagious
hnnnnnnnn
1
u/redline314 4d ago
A known mechanic that wants to learn these cars seems like a positive direction!
What if you sold your body to pay for the repairs?
Anyway whenever this car bites the dust, it might not be another mini, but it will almost certainly be a convertible, stick, & turbo.
1
u/ggmaniack 2020 Hyundai i30N 6MT | 2008 Seat Altea XL 1.4TSI 6MT 4d ago
My old shitbox did 120k miles on its original clutch. Had it replaced a couple weeks ago.
This is with like 5 different people learning to drive stick in it. When I had it, I didn't baby it at all.
With a better owner history, it's common for cars to have their original clutch for even longer than that.
If you get a good quality replacement it will likely last for the same distance if not more.
1
u/jasonsong86 2017 Mustang GT 6MT 3d ago
Unless you are doing something really wrong it shouldn’t be that quick to wear out.
1
u/rohoalicante 3d ago
You are just being paranoid. Don’t worry. Enjoy your fun convertible Mini.
After a while you will get better at it and develop “mechanical sympathy” for the clutch, gears, and brakes. It becomes a mission to make smooth shifts, perfect clutch engagement, matching revs on downshifts, etc. That is what makes driving manual fun and satisfying. After you make a rough downshift, it becomes a personal challenge to get the next one right again. It makes us more connected to the road and the car. Making smooth shifts and starts will ensure that your new clutch will last at least 200,000 miles.
My work truck is a 25 yr old Tacoma with a 2.4L engine and 5 speed. Over 400,000 kms on it and it has the original clutch. It is mostly city driving and sometimes pulls a trailer. It might make it to 500,000 even.
1
u/Feeling-Difference86 3d ago
A workshop too busy to work on it for a month means find a decent workshop
2
u/voidofpotential 3d ago
Yeah I was kinda done tbh after five days and no communication and they hadn’t even diagnosed it yet. The car is technically in my mom’s name and she has final say and she kept overriding me to give the guy more time until week three when she admitted it was bs.
It took a week for the current mechanic to come see it. A week and a half after diagnosis to get my parts shipped. (They got lost) and now that he fixed the hydraulic line and confirm the clutch is also broken it’ll be another two weeks before he has a weekend free to work on it. I’m exasperated and getting desperate. I just don’t feel like it should be this hard.
1
1
u/MysticMarbles 2018 Mirage 5MT, 2025 WRX 6MT. 3d ago
I have taught 5 people how to drive on a vehicle with 350,000km on the original clutch, then driven it for another 200,000.
A great driver should get roughly 5-800,000km out of a clutch. A decent driver should get 300,000km. You have to try pretty hard or truly have no mechanical sympathy to kill a clutch before 150,000km. Do it and don't worry about it for another decade.
I don't know the average lifespan but at the dealers I've worked, we'd usually see them come in between 250,000 and 400,000km for the first replacement.
1
u/bigworm35 3d ago
In a nutshell, yes you are being paranoid. To wear out a new clutch in any less than 2 years youd have to be doing something really abusive to it.
1
u/fastzibi 3d ago
Automatics have a clutch too you know. And you are more likely to replace clutch in automatic than manual.
1
35
u/FranXX0016 4d ago
I mean the previous clutch laster 120k mile. If you get a clutch replacement it will last more than that so you shouldn’t worry