It's a sad day for my countryman today.... First time on the tow truck is always hard.

Earlier today, I went into my car, put my foot on the brake and tried to back out of my driveway, but the gear is stucked on park. I can't change it to R,D,N, etc... A symbol showed up on my tach as seen attached. I looked at the manual and it says that i can unlock it manually with a special tool that is provided in the bag with the jack. Tried it and it didnt work as well...

Has anyone ever experience this?

 

Sorry you have to go through that. Hope everything works out for you.

 

I had that same error symbol on my 2011 CMS! It ended up being fluid contamination in the "gear shift assembly". Hopefully your cup holder hasn't torn the bottom off a Styrofoam cup full of soda? Why MINI would put something fluid sensitive under the cup holders nobody knows!

 

I did have some liquid spilled there! Did MINI fix this under warranty or tried blaming it on you?

 

Stanley was repaired under a provisional one time coverage from MINIUSA and the GM of the dealership I purchase from four months ago! I'm not sure if they would have been so accommodating if I had not purchased Stanley from them with 16000mi.
Hopefully it is not the gear shift assembly, or if it is they we grant you warranty coverage for such a poor design flaw.

 

Sympathy to the OP for sharing this story, and thanks to those who have responded subsequently. I will definitely not be placing cups in the Countryman's cup-holder from this point forward! This "ounce of prevention" provided by the posting, confirms the value of our NAM community!

 

A quick fix for the "leaking fluid" problem is to remove the screws in the bottom I the cup holders and either put flat rubber washers on the screws or a generous dollop of clear silicone on them.

 

The transmission shift lock solenoid can actually freeze if the outside temp drops low enough and there is any moisture present from the dreaded leaking cup holder scenario. I'm not sure if your in a cold climate, though a quick fix is to jam a blow dryer into the shift lever boot area.

 

Yea, it was around 20 degrees this morning. Dealer called and said it needs a new shift assembly- cost is 1k. Not covered under warranty because they said it's my fault. Called MINIUSA and they agreed.

 

Wow...that is a horrific design flaw. BMW continues to amaze me.

 

Long story short:
My wife's 6 day old mini countryman had the same exact symptom. She got into the car, started it and the cute little idiot light for the trans lock came on. She drove my car to work that day and when I got home I started the car and it was fine. Next day same story, though I was off so I went out and did some diagnostics. Both days the temp was well below 15 at night. I pulled up the shifter boot and stuck a blow dryer into the transmission tunnel. Within 7 minutes I was able to get the car into gear, I left my the blow dryer running for 30 minutes or so and we haven't had a problem since. When I interrogated my wife (Fluffy) so admitted to having a 16 oz cup of water leak into the cup holder 3 days previous. Since the official drying out we've had plenty of frigid nights (outside ) and no repeats of the inop trans lock.
I'd tell the dealer to stuff the $1000.00 repair. I'm guessing that if you went and picked up your car it would be fine.

 

Too late..Already authorized the dealer to fix the car. I wish I've thought of using the blow dryer...

 

That is unreal I would talk to the service advisor and tell him what the consensus is , if they really think a 1k fix for a bad design is ok then take business elsewhere

 

That reminds me of my brother-in-law's A4 that had a cup holder right above the radio. Even without spilling anything, cups would sweat and drip all over the radio. He got the radio replaced and never used the cup holder again. Don't know who paid for it.

 

Not sure what your deductible is but Your insurance company might pick it up as a comp claim. Comp covers spills which is what this is.

 

Thanks for the advice, but my deductible is 1k as well...I'm planning on writing a letter to corporate and see if they will reimburse me. Doubt they will do it, but worth a shot.

 

I know MINI is aware of the poor design because on the 2013's that made some corrections. They replaced the claw-like tensioners with rubber flap supports and a solid rubber insert in the bottom of the cup-holder to help seal it.

I know this doesn't quiet the anger you have. Who knows maybe MINI will do the right thing. If not maybe the (it must be thousands)people this has happened to will get together and think about a class action. I'm sure some attorney out there that would take the case on spec (or what ever it is they call it).

 

Well it worked! Got a call from a service manager where i got the repair done, and MINI corporate will reimburse me the cost for the repair. Thanks MINI!

 

Nice! Glad to hear they stepped up for you!

 

what did u say to them to get them change thier mind???

 

I told them i'm a loyal customer and have 2 MINIs in the family. Bascially, i didnt ***** about the design flaw and just asked nicely for a goodwill repair.

 

On October 7th, 2014 the key would not come out of the key slot in our 2011 Countryman. The key is not required to be inserted to start the car but simply with you. However my daughter had borrowed the car and inserted the key so I have no way of knowing if this failure occurred on the date mentioned or earlier. It was in for service on August 25th, 2014 so sometime between the two dates the failure occurred. I took it to our local dealer, MINI of Des Moines, and they also could not remove the key. They noticed that without the car running and the brake pedal not depressed the automatic transmission shifter could be moved to any position. They did not know if this would occur with the car running, i.e. inadvertently hitting the shifter into reverse or park while driving. They also did not know if the car was actually in park when indicated so.
I left the car, was given a loaner, and when they called me the diagnosis was that liquid had spilled in a cup holder and leaked through the unsealed screw in the bottom onto an electrical component causing the problem. I am well aware of liquid spilling into the cup holder as this happened a couple of times when I first got the car due to the spring loaded holders in the side of the cup holder that I removed shortly thereafter. They are engineered incorrectly and although the manual states to use "lightweight, nonbreakable containers" these spring retainers will poke a hole in Styrofoam cups and will compress a paper cup, like Starbucks, enough that liquid will expel through the top vent hole and drinking slot. In addition, while one would assume that liquid would occasionally be spilled in a cup holder, an additional engineering error was made when no sealing washer was used on the retaining screw in the bottom and any liquid the would leak on to another unsealed component and cause this failure.
I did call MINI relations at the suggestion of my dealer but after a week I was told that they would do nothing.
A $1,100.00 repair cost for BMW's engineering incompetence???
It seems to me that a car we paid just less than $40,000.00 for, most options included, would have better customer service.
I will have this repaired and talk to my attorney, if necessary, but it will then be traded for a new Yugo if I can find one. I'm sure it's a better car.
I should say that our dealer here who also handles Lexus and Jaguar both of which I have had serviced there is excellent and in no way should this reflect on them. This is all on BMW.

 

Amazing how many people have their own 'attorneys'.... and are quite sure their attorney will put the fear of God into anyone and everyone who opposes them.

Given this is a 16 month old thread and a number of others have had similar problems for the same reason you have, IF you are a regular customer as you have suggested i'd be going after my dealer first to provide some support and help resolve the problem and then following the advice above to start writing letters or even involving those 'fix-it' people who have newspaper columns where they help others get their problems fixed.

 

I've been dealing with this issue for several months now. It started right after I had my transmission replaced at the dealer. Each time the light would come on, I took it to the dealer, they said they tightened up some cables and then the problem returned. The last time, they told me I would have to replace the shift assembly for 1.5K.

I'm going to try to use a hairdryer to to see if it works.

Mine will go several days without locking and then it will lock for several parks in a row. I usually just wait. (have never had to wait more than 2 minutes) and it seems to just spontaneously release.

I'm pretty sure something is blocking the signal to the solenoid but I can't figure out where (brake switch? shift ****?).

Is there a way to remove the shifter to see if it just needs cleaning? Would love to hear from others who have had and fixed this problem.

cheers.

 

Still under warranty but am being told by MINI USA "resolution specialist" that it is NOT covered under warranty because the damage was caused by an "outside influence" and NOT by a "manufacturing defect".

The only time I know any liquid has gotten anywhere near the shifter was when the cup holder punctured the bottom of a styrofoam cup from Chick-Fil-A about 6 months ago. A small to moderate amount of liquid (soda I think?) leaked out of the bottom of the cup and into the cup holder. We noticed it and cleaned it up within 15 minutes.

The shifter locking up only started about 6-8 weeks ago and was very intermittent but now seems to be happening a bit more frequently, so I took it to the dealer service center today.

I can't believe that MINI won't own up to such an obvious awful design flaw and that this isn't covered under warranty. Any cup holder will get some liquid in it at some time or another. It's absolutely ridiculous that the cup holder not only caused the leak but also then doesn't contain the leak... a leak which apparently leads to requiring a $1300 repair that MINI then doesn't cover under the still active warranty!!?

I'm just baffled. Any additional tips on getting this paid for, such as who the one poster wrote the letter to and what was said in the letter that worked. Even talking to the "retention specialist" at MINI USA got me nowhere. He was completely unsympathetic and acted like I was the first one to ever call with this issue.