Woofcast #75

Posted bydb 14 Comments on Woofcast #75

Ahhhhh, the 4th of July. I hope everyone is planning a safe holiday, or at least planning on blowing s**t up. Ok, how about some Mentos and Diet Coke?

Rocket MINIs? Sure, why not? Plus Todd has a great GP update and what plans he has for making possible changes to his GP. Don’t forget to check out the MTTS plans too!

MINI Clubs: Are you planning something for MTTS? Please don’t forget to let MINI in on it and if you could, send those plans to me (db@whiteroofradio.com) so Michael and I can include them in our upcoming July Event Cast.

Todd did the hard part

Download || Zipped, ,just in case || Subscribe || iTunes || 36:16 || 16.6MB

14 replies on “Woofcast #75”

  1. Gabe, is that sound you describe a whistle? Possibly air going in the Supercharger. I get the whistle quite loud through my Alta intake. And constant when pulling the Dragon Wagon (Mini Airstream) at hiway speed. I only notice it when under slight load. Just my 2 cents.
    Jim Petersen

  2. I remember hearing that chirp of death – if you listen real careful, you can hear it from Phil the Woodchuck just after the explosion in “Groundhog Day”, when Phil Conner drives the Chebby pick-up into the quarry. 😉

    HeHe!

    BCNU,
    Rob

  6. Have you ruled out the belt? I’ve had cars in the past that would chirp when I got on the throttle real hard – usually ended up being a power steering/alternator/air conditioning compressor belt that wasn’t quite tight enough. With so much running on the supercharger belt in the MINI, that wouldn’t be surprising. Did the chirp come with warmer weather? Although I suppose the real test would be if you could get it to chirp by just revving the engine real quick as though in a take-off. Can you get the noise without actually going anywhere, or does it only come with actual forward motion (could help eliminate the clutch from the equation)?

  10. The Amusement Park mentioned in the VA-DC Leg of MTTS isn’t in DC. It’s in Virginia. Specifically the park in question is Paramount King’s Dominion which is 75 miles south of DC.

  11. Gabe –

    If you have the same sound I have, the “chirp” can get worse… eventually it becomes a longer “groan”… it started out as a little chirp when the car was cold, and only when launching in first, and would go away after a few minutes of driving. Now it’s louder and longer, and doesn’t always go away.

    I talked to Eric from Helix (he noticed it when I had my car in) and he told me the sound is related to dual-mass flywheel getting unbalanced. There’s a TSB out there for it:

    http://www.alldata.com/tsb/BMW/1117609200000_1122447600000_M210105/210105.html

    This one related more to the tapping sound, but the sounds are both related. Originally, my SA thought it was the throwout bearing. I’ve had that serviced, but the sound remains.

    From what I’ve read online, the two flywheel sections are seperated by springs, and apparently they aren’t very strong, and one will lock up or get stuck, and the tapping and/or whining sound you hear is the wobbling of the unbalanced flywheel.

    Oddly enough, I’m dropping my car tonight to have 25k service as well as to address this very issue. I’ll let you know what comes of it.

  12. Thanks Lawrence. I was hoping that this would be related to the flywheel bulletin that MINI released a while back. Let us know how your service goes.

    >Is Gabe a man of few words?

    Actually no 😉

  13. Gabe –

    Got the car back from MINI of the Main Line today. After a lengthy talk with Peter, my SA (excellent guy, really top notch mechanic AND extremely easy going and personable), here’s the deal:

    – the tapping sound is a flywheel issue as per the TSB, and will be corrected with the new improved flywheel, arriving next week

    – the whine sound is in fact a misaligned clutch assembly, and will be replaced by a new clutch kit, also to arrive next week

    Peter has seen a few of these situations, including on his own personal MINI, but he usually puts off these procedures because of the work involved. He also noted that even if the above installations are done, there is no real guarantee that the same problems won’t resurface later. It’s just the nature of the dual-mass flywheel and clutch it mates to.

    However, I wanted this relatively major survey to take place, since I’ve had theses issues for most of the MCS’ life, and quite frankly, the noise drives me nuts.

    I’ll keep you posted.

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