Hi NAM folks,

Yesterday I was driving around town in 3rd gear and noticed my shifter was able to move horizontally without pushing in the clutch. My clutch pedal felt normal, and I did not hear any odd noises. I came to a red light and shifted into the 1st gear "position", and gave it throttle once the light turned green. The car proceeded as if it were in 4th gear . I put it in the 3rd gear "position" which happened to still be 3rd gear, and was able to drive a little farther to find a suitable spot to pull over. I was able to place the shifter into each gear position, but the car was only able to get into 3rd, 4th, or 5th. When I put the shifter in the reverse position it was actually 4th gear. I was unable to get into 1st, 2nd, or reverse, regardless of the position of the shifter. My car is safely parked, and I'll be towing it to an auto shop tomorrow. Has anyone had this issue occur?

Here are the details of my car:

2006 Mini R50
135k miles
5 Speed Manual
Original Clutch

 

Sounds like your shifter cable has come loose or is breaking off of the transmission. If so it is about a $125 part. No to difficult to install yourself if you are handy

 

If you remove the air box you can see where the shift cables attach to the top of the gear box. Pretty easy to do.

 

^Should^ be easy, but with that mileage, be prepared to struggle with the exhaust studs and nuts: they'll be rusted and are likely to break, which will add difficulty to the job.