2 weeks ago i bought from a autosales a mini one 2004 (january vin 160 000km ) , i tested good all the front gears, 1,2,3,4,5 and they works perfect and well, fast changement, no problem on syncros, no bearings noise.......so...when i engage the reverse gear :( the car slap, the gear engage well, so i hear from the gear box a CLA CLA CLA CLA like a woodpecker bird in my gearbox, and when i increase the speed, the noise increase the speed , more fast, and a cltuch bad smell....this JUST with reverse box, i tested the first 1th gear, and i dont hear any splap or claclacla sound, just the reverse....


i bring my car to who sell me the car, its a mechanic, he want to pull down the gearbox the next week , to find the problem.
He talks as who knows these gearbox units (midlands ) so i havent full trust in him, he propose me to fix the gearbox with pegeout ma parts or rover parts...sooo....who knows........


other bmw parts seller in italy ask me 2000,3000,5000 euros from a gearbox units or parts, more than how much i spent when i was

young to fix a corvette gearbox or porsche gearbox......



well, i will ask you if u can help me to find the problem on gearbox and if u ve to sell the parts to fix the gearbox (reverse gear?) , bearings, , or the other parts ? and ship to italy?





i m able to pay for your time spent to help me to fix this problem





thanks for your patience

 

I am not sure if you can fit a r56 gear box to a W10 or W11 motor. You can fit the gear box from a R53 - Cooper S, the 6 speed Getrag or the 5 speed Getrag from a mid 2004 and newer R50 - MINI Cooper. I am certain that you cannot get a Corvette or Porsche gear box in a MINI without massive modifications to the body of the car.

 

Since it is a Rover gearbox, parts may interchange. However, this transmission is a known weak point in the early cars and I would consider using the 6 speed out of the Cooper S. It is a fairly involved swap and would need the clutch and flywheel, axles, mounts, shift cables. and other parts to make it work. It is also worth noting that reverse is usually louder than the other gears since it is straight cut and not helically cut like to forward gears. I have the Getrag 5 speed in my 2005 that I did a rebuild on myself and also filmed it on my YouTube channel, Third World Garage. Reverse is noisy on that trans too and while I find it worrisome, I could find no fault with the transmission when I had it apart. I did shoot some video of the noise in mine that I never posted but I think I do show it in my final video on the trans. With the Getrag, there is a bushing on the reverse idler gear that wears out and makes it noisy. It may be the same on the Midlands but I am not sure as I bought a 2005 to avoid that trans.

So far as I know, the transmissions do not interchange between different generations of BMW MINI. Each generation had a completely different engine made with a different manufacturer. The R50/ R52/ R53 engine was designed with Chrysler, the R56 is from Peugeot, and the newest one is a BMW design. There is very little that interchanges between them, if anything does at all.

 

thanks friend! I fix my gearbox. I used a new mini crashed reverse gear, same for the second gear. I put in new reinforced skf snr and timken parts. reverse sound noisy similar to more fiat so works well and great