Hey fellow cooper enthusiasts, I've had this big problem for a very long time bout 2 years but i've just been ignoring it. Actually its my girlfriends mini that im talking about, See the problem is when she first purchased her mini, automatic, non-s, her retard friend abused the steptronic (over-reving, red line shifting) and after few times of doing so, ever since the car doesnt change gears as smoothly at all, it changes gears right before hitting redline, and when your going,lets say 40 and you try to step on the gas full throttle to reach up to 70-80 the meter stays at redline for a while, than it finally goes down after you come to speed, it feels like its either skipping some gears, or missing some gears, or its not shifting when its suppose to, does anyone have an idea what the problem might be, have anyone heard of this problem before, if so can you give me and my girlfriend a hand and try to figure this headache out please, we went to the dealer and they said its just a characteristic of the car,
thats bull **** i think because the other auto mini's i drove didnt feel like it was skipping gears, another thing it also feels like as if it goes through gears 1-4 very fast and than the rest is where it start to stay at redline and wont want to switch, well thanks alot ahead of time

 

Welcome to NAM.

I'm sure others will have more ideas, but have you checked the fluid? How many miles? It might help to have someone familiar with MINIs ride with you and tell you what's normal, and whether yours isn't.

 

She took it to bmw/mini and she had them do a full service, so it cant be the fluids, it has about 50k miles its a 2003 cooper (non-s) its definently something with the tranny
can anyone help me please?

 

Not to be alarmist, but I know I have seen some threads on here about serious problems with the CVT tranny in Coopers. I found this thread where the OP seemed to have similar symptoms to what you are describing, but unfortunately it doesn't offer an answer: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...&highlight=cvt

You could go to the 1st Gen Stock Problems/Issues forum and do a search on "CVT" to find more info.

 

The CVT in SD manual mode will only shift gears automatically when you hit the red line. You can shift manually at any time by pulling the shift lever back to up shift and pushing it forward to down shift. Keep your foot on the gas as you are doing the shifting, or else the computer gets real confused and will shift roughly. Hope this helps.

 

Try the car in steptronic mode, but do it correctly (shift at appropriate shift points/speeds) and see if it will downshift and upshift "at your command" using the shifter in steptronic mode. If it does shift correctly when you tell it to, that's probably a good sign.

Also, if the dealer says "that's a characteristic of the car" and it's obviously not (because it's NOT supposed to behave the way you describe) then ask them to have a mechanic drive it a few miles. Then they will realize it is not correct.

Good luck!

 

I would still check the fluid. I've heard of people having loose drain plugs, wrong levels. Wouldn't hurt to rule it out.

 

this is not when im in SD MODE this is when its on regular Drive this isnt even my car and its getting my head aching haha

 

is there any other way to get the most out of the CVT? :D

honestly, i drive my MC exactly like this but not always will check back on this for updates

 

I hope you aren't comparing the CVT in the Cooper with the six-speed auto in an MCS.

 

Good point Resmini. The CVT has no shift points or distinct gears. Thats why it's called Continuously Variable. It does have a kick down passing gear/mode. It should return to normal mode when you lift of the throttle.If you take the passing gear to redline then it will shift to standard gear after a few seconds. Perhaps thats what Ilovefishing is experiencing.

 

THIS ISNT WHEN IM USING CVT ITS WHEN IM USING DRIVE

 

Sounds normal to me - maybe it's time to get used to it.

 

I've experienced the exact problem as your girlfriend (with my 05 MC/CVT) and had to take it to the dealer several times before they fixed the problem.
Because it's a CVT that means it's always trying to "learn" what the driver is doing and adjust. That means that if there is more than one person driving the car, as there seems to be in your case, the car is constantly trying to adjust and drive at its most optimal. However, because the retard friend drove it so differently than your girlfriend the car is trying to accommodate the differences in driving styles, including yours if you're driving the car.
I had the same thing happen to me with the car trying to deal with my driving style and my husbands. While in Drive (not SD or CVT), RPMs would sit high (3500-4000) and rev higher at highway speeds. If we tried the car in CVT it would essentially skip gears and we couldn't get the gears to drop properly when RPMs dropped.
I finally convinced the mechanic at my dealership that yes, this was a problem and no, it wasn't normal. I had to take him out in the car with me for a drive to show him how I drive and what the car does while I was driving. He did some research on his own and they finally took the car and did a complete reprogramming of my ECU.
I haven't had any problems since. It had nothing to do with fluids, clutches, or anything mechanical. Keep on your dealer and don't let them tell you it's normal. It's not. And they can fix it. Hope you get everything worked out! Let me know if you have any more questions - feel free to send me a PM.

 

thanks!

 

To reiterate what delelie said, the dealer CAN do something about it. They need to reset the CVT adaptations in the ECU, then there is a test drive they need to complete so the ECU can relearn the "gear ratios" (scared the crap out of me the first time I had to do this) I do not recommend accompanying the tech on this drive and this is not something you can do by yourself.
--Dan

 

If you haven't driven another CVT equipped Mini, do it, because before I bought my Mini, I test drove a different one with cvt and thought something was wrong with it- until I drove my cvt Mini, which drove the same way. It is also true that the car's computer will adapt to the driver... And this can take a few days. My cvt has 72,000 miles and I never have had a problem. I change it's fluid often. I think that keeping the trans fluid changed (clean) is critical to long life from a cvt. I drive mine like I stole it, but keep oils clean and it stays happy. -Jeffy.

 

I cvt will remain at close to redline while you are at WOT. That is the point, the transmission is varying the ratio and the engine stays in the power band. If you reset the shift logic, it will just relearn and start doing the same thing, because it is supposed to do that. Do some reading on CVT transmissions.

 

Sounds about right to me....And there are no gears...only virtual gears which are preset points( specific dimensions that the drive pulleys change to) that are in the steptronic table, which is kind of a gimmic. The truth is, that the car has more power for passing when the engine is in it's tuned powerband which the DME and transmission are very capable of doing. If youre expecting a real gear change, you'll be waiting for a while longer. I think the CVT's have been pretty trouble free from my view point. Been at the dealer since MINI's inception wrenching on them and have replace 2 for sure(one was from a front seal leak and the shaft was pitted) and can't remember the other. Been a great trans after the customers perception of how this trans were supposed to act and why.

Not saying that I haven't seen some strange behavior from time to time. Ask to ride with a tech.

 

Exactly, these programed gears are useless and defeat the point of a CVT.

 

Totally agree with you there, I think it just confuses the consumer about what this transmission is....

 

You can probably get MTH to fix you up with a program that will make your cvt behave the way you want, reguardless of which of you drives it this week. I have been wanting to do this for some time, but something always comes up to smite me. I just passed 75,000 miles of trouble-free service from my cvt. I have more engine performance than when I bought the car, but despite this, the cvt holds up. If I understand the manual correctly, this kind of transmission offers potentially better fuel economy due to less reciprocating mass. I plan to add more engine power and raise the full-throttle shift point of the cvt. I may be slow... But at least I'm not fast! -Jeffy.