Hello everyone, I have recently purchased my dream Mini. It is an 03 MCS Indi blue. It has only 18,000 miles on it. Recently I have noticed the car shaking under acceleration in 3rd and 4th gear around the 4000 RPM area. None in 1st and 2nd, and a little in5th and 6th. I am new to the front wheel drive car. Any help would be appreciated greatly. P.S. any Indi Blue clubs out there

 

Im guessing thats the bypass valve issue? There are some modifications you can make or purchase the Detroit Tuned replacement that eliminates it. Its caused by the valve not closing correctly or something like that

 

Thanks, Ill look into that. Why would it only do it in higher gears though?

 

it might be your wheel balancing, go to a tire garage and have your wheels balanced. Mine did the same when my balancing was out. When driving on the freeways..thats usually slightly higher speeds when driving in urban areas..the steering started shaking/shuddering

 

While you are getting your wheels balanced, have them take a look at the drive axle (CV axle).
It may be an outside chance because you have such low miles but my 03 started vibrating at around 85k miles. It would only vibrate while accelerating (under load) but not when I let off the gas and coasted. I had the same issue with my 02 Silver MC just before I sold it.
Hope it helps.

 

I got some vibration at speed under throttle in higher gears. My lower motor mount had gone bad. $30 and about 20 minutes to replace.

 

Hmmm, an '03 with only 18K on it. This means the car has been sitting for long periods of time and I might bet on original tires. Might have flat spots by now.
So hard to diagnose something like this without inspection as it could just be a bunch of things.

 

Thanks for the replys. I will have to look into these things one at a time. The one thing that makes this such a weird problem is that it doesn't vibrate at all in first or second. You can take it all the way to redline in 1st or 2nd and it is smooth as butter, third it starts @ 3800-4000 and by those rpms in 4th I am backing out for fear of tearing something up. Also, I have another problem now, someone rearended me on the way home from work. It only damaged the rear bumper cover. I hate to have to repaint on a car in this good of shape, but I guess this is a good time to look into adding an aero kit!