As I was accelerating on the highway in my 50k manual 6spd (stock) '06MINI S, I suddenly felt the car 'jerk' back and essentially get 'stuck' in 4th gear. The car was still on, and I was able to safely steer the car to the side of the road. I didn't see any fluid leaking from under the car, but this was the eventual findings:

When the car is off... I can shift into all gears normally.

When the car is on, I cannot shift out of neutral or from any other engaged gear.

If I shift into a gear with the car off, then turn the car on when it is in gear, I am able to drive the car (barely). I'm stuck to that one gear and the car feels like it is in a "semi-automatic" mode, where the car slightly accelerates, even without me giving it gas.

This makes the car "drivable", but I can also hear some crunching sounds from under the car. Luckily, I was only a couple miles from home, so I decided to drive back.

It is the weekend, so I'm awaiting some calls back from service stations to see if they are open on Labor Day, tomorrow. I just wanted to post here to see if you all had any idea what could be the issue here.

Is my clutch shot?... transmission busted? Do you think I'm ok to drive my car another couple miles to the service station, or should I tow to avoid any more major damage?

I appreciate all the help.

 

Check the clutch slave cylinder.

 

^this.

If it turns out to not be the slave cylinder it might be the stupid POS throwout bearing.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I had a mechanic come by and I talked to a local import service station. I got a couple different opinions on the issue:

- One mechanic thinks it's simply the clutch that needs to be replaced. Estimated $750-$1500 total parts/labor for the job
- Service station thinks it may be something else, but the cost would still be upwards of $2000. He mentioned something about a pivot pin shaft needing to be replaced.

For now, I can still drive the car in one gear. I can shift if I have to if I reach around 3200RPM and I release my foot from the clutch, but I avoid this if at all possible.

 

I wouldn't trust those quotes...did they even check to see if the master cylinder or slave cylinder (more likely) were bad/leaking?

 

They didn't check. I only spoke to the service station over the phone, and the mechanic that came out to my car didn't have the tools to really diagnose it.

I'll be sure to they check everything you guys have suggested (slave/master cylinder, throwout bearing, etc) before proceeding.

 

you could probably diagnose the leaky slave, or master cylinder. Just look under the left front of the car and there will be a small plastic piece with a hose connected going upwards at one end and at the other end there will be a sort-of crinkle rubber boot. The rubber boot is usually where it will leak from.

The master cylinder I'm not exactly sure where it usually leaks from, but if you take it to a service station they can do a quick check on that one.