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Will a worn clutch be covered by an approved used warranty?

I bought an approved used MINI Cooper D 10 months ago with 53k miles on it. The dealer did not provide a service book at the time but promised to send me a service book, fully stamped, shortly. After 8 months of calls / emails I finally got a book with 1 stamp in it and a printout from the BMW system showing the some service dates (without details). I've put 3K miles on it since purchase and at the vehicle health check 2 weeks ago, the dealer said the clutch/flywheel needed replacing. And finally this last weekend, the car started having issues on hills with a burning smell from the engine and loss of power. So we had to call MINI emergency services and get the car recovered. Will I be expected to pay 100% of the bills or can I expect some goodwill from MINI given that the used car warranty hasn't run out yet?

Asked on 18 April 2017 by Kush Desai

Answered by Honest John
A centrally recorded service history is more relevant than stamps in a service book that can easily be faked and can be meaningless. So I don't think you have a legitimate worry there. But a clutch and DMF would not usually be covered beyond 6 months because of the ease with which a driver can potentially destroy them (it's possible to burn out a clutch in 15 minutes). So it's obviously worth approaching the dealer, but no guarantee of how much he will help. The smell is probably the clutch.

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