HI,
I have a 1991 Mini City E (998cc), I have had it for almost 2 months now, but yesterday it started making a sound that was quite obviously not right. It sounds like it is coming from the clutch housing (inside).
The sound is a slightly high pitched tapping which gets higher pitched over time, (not so high pitched that it's squealing but a clearly higher pitch than the engine).When the clutch is depressed or not the noise is pretty constant. Once in gear however (seems very hard to get into gear) the noise is almost gone, once you start to take your foot off the clutch.
I haven't driven it since as I am unsure of the problem and don't want to make it worse.
Any advice would be great, I have looked into this slightly on other forums, where people have been told that the problem lies with the release bearing. But with this in mind, in every case I have come across the noise goes once the clutch is depressed or compressed and does not persist either way. Whereas with my current problem the noise is there whether the clutch is depressed or not.
Every now and again once the engine is turned off and there should be nothing, the engine does keep running for a few seconds (not a nice noise). I believe this may be a timing issue. I have added this as I am unsure to whether the two are connected.
Any help would be great. I apologise if I step on anyone else's topic with the same question but I am yet to find one that details the exact same problem.