Just curious how many issues members have had with their 5 speed getrag transmissions, and what their capabilities have bee.

37K miles on mine and no problems yet. Next time it's in for an oil change I will have them swap out the gear oil for Redline MTL

 

61k miles on our 2006 R50 and no issues with 5spd Getrag transmission thus far. Just swapped OEM fluid in it yesterday with Redline MTL. Very easy DIY job. Very little bit of metallic "dust" in drain pan from gear wear. Nothing more than expected from 61k miles of shifting. Looking forward to many more miles of use.

 

Good to know OV! How do you like the Redline? I have a bottle I was thinking of putting in.

 

58,000KM on my '06. It's been mostly fine but a few small issues. I had some problems with shifting into first being impossible. Worn syncro maybe? I had the fluid changed, they found no shavings or any foreign objects in there, and it has improved. It was always an intermittent problem and now it's once in in a blue moon.

Occasionally shifting into 3rd offers a bit of resistance. Probably syncro wear as well.

99% of the time it shifts smooth and doesn't give me any trouble.

 

Just be glad you don't have a Midlands.

 

Miami - honestly, I don't notice much difference with the Redline fluid. Our trans has always shifted very smoothly. I did the change so that I could see how much wear there was to date (not much as best I can tell from small amount of "dust" in the drain pan). That said, I plan to continue using Redline as long as we have the car (which my wife tells me will be "forever").
By the way, I used 1.75 qts to completely refill the trans.

 

Thanks!

Unfortunately I have to sell my R50 now, so I'll probably never find out what it shifts like with Redline :(

Yetti, how do you like the CX-5? I am considering that as a replacement vehicle.

 

I got rid of my R50 for the CX-5. It is a hair slow as the tranny likes to shift really soon and return those high MPG numbers they brag about. If you only get the sport model (base stereo and everything then you can get a stick if that's what you are going for). Get got the Touring model with no options, the dealer added NAV as part of the deal after delivery ($500). The standard features such as Bluetooth with A2DP, Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM) touch screen radio, back up cam , etc. The options and features far outweigh those on the R60 and come in $5-10k cheaper than a comparable R60 I was building for the wife.

I highly recommend the car but remember it is more practical and room, returns good MPG and still does decent in the handling category...it's no MINI though. 28mpg is our average doing city driving, 60 miles round trip to work and keeping up with traffic...not too shabby IMO. Good luck!

 

Thanks!

 

i have destroyed my Getrag 5 speed gearbox in my 05 mini cooper had new clutch fitted 3 months ago had fluid drained and topped up seals nice service to the box not a whimper coming from her..... Then had bad snow fall and i was like a fat kid in a sweet shop hand brake up for miles bouncing off the limiter sideways 3rd gear 4th gear went threw about 50 gallons of fuel in 3 days the snow dried up car still fine no noise from gearbox but my cv boot on half shaft axle was ticking so thought just buy a new one its had a hard life spoiler her.. fitted it everything fine. 2 weeks ago i was driving up a steep hill gets to the top about to turn right stops at a junction a van flashes me out so i pull off quick to avoid the car behind him beeping his horn as i gets across the road bang crunch bang crunch like the cars limping from front left wheel thought drive shaft must of gone drags the car home by tow and i got my foot flat to the floor on the clutch its out of gear but the wheels locking up bouncing along nothing wrong with the drive shaft every cog in the gear box was obliterated unrecognisable te clutch is fine the flywheel is fine but the box is ruined..... on a good note i get to put a 6 speed in in a months time oh and by the way my millage is on 175k ive had the car when it was on 25k 10 years ago. they take a punishment

 

I'll chime in too. While mine worked when I got it, I noticed a whining noise when idling in neutral. It turned out it was the bushing in the reverse idler gear bushing. BMW/MINI told me they only sold whole transmissions for about 60% more than I paid for the car and that because of this, they had no manuals or servicing information to offer. I was able to source a new idler gear assembly for $125 on eBay but it's even noisier than the original! I also changed all of the bearings and seals while I was in there ($110 kit, shipped from eBay seller One Stop Gearbox Shop in the UK) and found a differential bearing that looked terrible. Several rollers had deep pits and when I pulled the bearing apart during removal, it turns out only half the inner race had been machined. The blank must have been undersized and just went through the machining process. This was a bearing made in Germany, not China. The car only had 83,000 on it at the time of the rebuild and has seen about 500 more miles since. I had hoped the new gear would break in but it seems to be either getting louder or staying the same. I have had the trans out twice to try and solve the issue and now have the attitude that when it blows I will just swap in a 6 speed.

If you are interested in seeing some bad YouTube videos of the internals and rebuilding process of the Getrag 5 speed trans, I have them up on my channel called Third World Garage. I didn't do a great job filming because I only have myself and a cell phone, but they are some of the only videos out there showing the ups and downs of it, from a DIY perspective. I have more videos filmed that I never posted because there is such a total lack of interest from viewers in any of my MINI stuff, so if you want to see them let me know and I'll post them.

 

Please post! I’ll talk to you till you’re annoyed. I don’t need the repair on my R50 (yet) 199,000 miles. But I’d like to know ahead of time and just refresh it when I get time / money.

 

Just posted in that other ones you have the midlands from 2002-2004 : https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...mentation.html

 

I feel like I’ve read on here the midlands aren’t much to be desired. I’ll be eager to swap to the getrag

 

Yep, some people just swap it, but we had a guy in that thread rebuild it. Just gives you another option.

 

My goodness the quality of that post is exquisite! Thank you!

 

Welcome.

 

Just got mine back from the shop.
This time it was a broken differential housing / ringgear carrier. This presented as a knocking noise that was first noticeable at 70+ MPH, but by the time I caved in and took it for an expert checkup after maybe 2 or 3 months was doing it at 35MPH. They were able to fix her up using parts from a donor box that they had in back. Total cost to fix was $1275.

The previous issue that required about $2500 of work rebuilding the box was caused about a year ago by one of the bolts that attaches the ring gear backed out of the plate, eventually sheared off and rattled around until it punched a hole in the bell housing. That resulting in all the oil ending up on my garage floor. Fortunately the 5 and 6 speeds share the same housing so another donor part was available, and at that time I also replaced the notorious pinion gear shaft with a refurbished unit that had a hardened steel bushing fitted, and replaced seals bearings and the clutch while it was all apart. Again, that started as a knock at higher speeds that got worse over time until eventually its was knocking at 30MPH, at which point it dropped its guts on the floor and ate my wallet. Sadly there really is nothing stopping (qualified) people working on these Getrag boxes other than an absence of factory parts.

Anyway, fingers crossed I'm done with the transmission for a while.... Next thing to fail will be the A/C probably as the hot weather is approaching.. Still, my R52 has 170+k miles on it and is A: Paid for, and B: Still a blast to drive.

 

Is it a straight swap from the Midlands? Just a gearbox and swap or is there more parts needed?

 

Reminds me, I found this handy link re Getrag 5 speed...

https://webshop.ganzeboom.net/gs5-52

 

From what Ive read (many bits on internet about this) you need a few more parts, axles, mounts, front arms. Haven't any direct experience though.

 

I concur, the part list is essentially the same as the 6speed Getrag swap, which is what you should do. yeah, the Getrag5 is what came with the car but the 6 is better. if you can get the late 2005 or 2006+ model year as the gear ratios are slightly better suited to the R50's W10 motors power band.

 

I blew mine a couple of months ago and it has been sitting in the garage waiting for me to work on it. I am going to pull the trans this weekend and see how bad the damage really is but when it happened I had the wheel turned all the way to the right and when I let off the clutch it blew a hole and some little gear through the housing. Im guess the Diff blew apart but will know more this weekend. If the whole thing needs replaced what is needed for the 6 speed swap?

 

You will need this:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150404...heWeakLink.pdf

 

How hard was it for you to swap the 5 speed getrag with the 6, been looking into it but haven't found a single parts list.