Hello! I am brand new to the forums and as a Mini owner.

We recently picked up an '04 Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works edition. It's a pretty cool little car. Runs great and is fun to drive! There are a couple of things I've been trying to address on it, which is expected on a 13 year old car. One main issue is the shifter. It seems to have excessive play, mainly side to side. When I pull the boot up and rock it side to side, it looks like the white bushing on the right side that goes into the linkage piece is moving out and around too much. My idea was to replace the shifter with a short throw model, hoping for shorter throws with the added benefit of taking up some of that slop since the shifter comes with new ball socket bushings. I can't find this B&M shifter that people seem to be talking about. Maybe it is discontinued? So I was looking at a couple different no-name kits on eBay. They both come with the shifter along with the lower and right side white bushings. They also come with some alloy bushings which I assume are base bushings? I haven't taken it apart to see how it all goes together. So couple of questions. Is this a common issue with these cars? Am I approaching the fix the right way, or should I be looking at something else which would cause the slop? Since I can't find a B&M, do these kits in the pictures look like they would do the job?

Any help, suggestions, directions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Thought I read something that short shifters require that you cut a hole in the heat shield below the gear box, something I am not going to do.

I had two s2000's that had one of the best shifters out there. IMO you would have to have a short-short shifter to come anywhere close to that.

Welcome to NAM