Im currently in Batlow, about 7 hours from where I live.

My Mini has shat itself...again.....

I was driving along, and i started hearing tapping from the lower engine area (not the head thank god).

The car is kind of shuddering in all gears, and it got progressivly worse as I tried to make it closer to my dads.

It gets worse from 1st to 4th, 4th gear basically impossible to drive. There doesnt seem to be any power getting to the wheels, and theres a lot of clunking and shddering (almost as if only on 3 cylinders...but i know it is firing properly..its definetly clutch/gearbox)

Can anyone possible shed some light on any possibilities ? Im hoping its not gearbox cause I cant afford that, ill sell the car before i replace the gearbox in it.

Is it possible to get stuff in the clutch ? have bumpy roads screw the clutch ? have anything fall off that holds clutch/gearbox together ?

And is there any way to determine whether its just the clutch and not the gearbox ?

Please Help.

Thanx, Max.

And also....can anyone recommend car transport companies ? Looking to transport from NSW - Tumut To NSW - Gosford.

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No more Minis!......For now.

Max.are you contactable??? PM me if necessary, I may be able to help....Mick

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"Show me the Mini!"

PM Sent.

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No more Minis!......For now.

Locals (Frosty) are getting touch with Max...the car is at Tumut.

Tim Peachey can come over and tow the car if needs be an hour or so back to Wagga to The Old School Garage

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"Show me the Mini!"

Car is at the Snowy Smash Repairs yard at the moment.

Just gotta weigh up the costs.

Transport to coast and fix
transport to wagga and fix and drive home
or try and fix in tumut and drive home.

The tumut option is probably the best, cause I really dont wanna spend $300 to $400 just on transport for a $150 job.

My dad is luckily going to foot the ****$200*** bill for the ****15km**** tow.....that would have been $70 on the coast!!!!!

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No more Minis!......For now.

sounds like a bearing in the box.
I hope its not too serious otherwise.

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www.minicranks.com add me to your watch list and come back again soon, under construction.

Max....have you talked to Frosty

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"Show me the Mini!"

Yeah, jsut spoke to him.

Im gonna talk to some locals in batlow, see if they can help

If not, then its off to a place in tumut that frosty recommended.

Might be staying down here a little longer than planned, lol.

Worst case scenerio I foot the bill for transport home.

Ill get in contact with as many people as I can.

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No more Minis!......For now.

I had what sounds like a very similar problem.

Do you find that when the problem started the car would stay at one speed, say 60km/h, OK, but as soon as you tried to accelerate it started making the god-aweful noise and losing power? This was the sympton I got. It got progessively worse as I drove it, over only about 5-10km. It sounded like pinking magnified 100 times, there was no power, and after listening to the engine and revving it from under the bonnet, I was convinved it was something deep down in the motor.

Now don't laugh, but it could just be a blown headgasket between two cylinders.

First thing I would do, before you spend money pulling it down, is a compression test on all four cylinders and see if two next to each other are way down.

This might not be the problem, but it won't cost you anything to find out.

Good luck.

Cheers, Watto.

Yeah, you might be right watto.

thats exactly what the symptoms are, exactly 100% spot on the same.

It was running hot all the way down, i have no idea why.

Guess whats in the back of the car....a compression tester That was a good $10 investment.

I shall try and get to my car 2moro and give it a go.

Thanks watto!!!!

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No more Minis!......For now.

Oh yeah, that was the other sympton. My car was running hot all the way into Melbourne, just before it went caput.

Cheers, Watto.

Temperature his 115 C at one stage, i was rather worried.

It sat on about 105 C all the way down (about 6 hours driving)

This car seems to have a habit of doing head gaskets.

This will be the 2nd gasket since its REBUILD if it is.

I can tell you one mini place not to go to...............

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No more Minis!......For now.

Update..

A legend by the name of John Forrest has taken a look at it for me....

Right front uni joint has gone, it basically fell apart.....now...since its less than 10,000k old and was replaced when the rebuild was done in April should I be having words with my mechanic, or do these things just happen ?

I havent broken one of these before, so I dont know if I could have done more damage by driving it while broken....hopefully not....but knowing my luck at the moment..

At least its a start.

Cant thank john enough, should be speaking to him again later on...he is replacing the joint for while im not there....did i mention he is a dead set legend ? Country hospitality, cant beat it!!!

Gonna be getting a fair few christmas presents for people who have helped me with this car....lol

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No more Minis!......For now.

Ahh bloody unis, yeah I had this happen to me... everything shakes like crazy underneith you. Real pain to have to replace. Glad you've got everything worked out now.

Thank goodness its a 10 minute job and not a major hassel.

Warning for all please remember if your going to take your 40 year old car (which WE all drive like new race cars) on a big trip give it a once over.

Worn uni's collapse and have a habit of taking out the rear wall of your gearbox or worse. They cost $28 each 30 minutes to change and are cheaper than a new box.

glad your christmas wasn't ruined

steve