Hey guys,
I'm looking to do a swap on my countryman from auto to 6 speed however I can't seem to find anything out there at all for sale. I have a fwd r60 and if anyone could point me in the right direction as to where I can find a tranny that would be incredibly helpful!

 

I realize you've probably been asked this before by someone, but why not take the much easier route of just getting out of your Auto CM and into a Manual CM?

 

Yes as that would be ideal, I partly want to work on this car and turn it into something ideal as it is my first car. It's less logic more emotion I admit. I have big plans for my mini, but the auto is the biggest deterrent.

 

emotion = bad financial decision? You could look here or similar sites http://www.automotix.com/usedtransmi...parts-all.html

 

not a bad decision in my opinion, the money that would be lost from trade in or the sale of my c-man would be greater than the $1,542 for the tranny. I appreciate the link!

 

Don't buy it yet! You are going to need a clutch as well, which run around $3K. Then the labor to install - unless you are going to do this yourself?

 

yeah yeah, I know it's going to cost a lot but I feel it would even out in the end and to be honest doing the swap with my buddies would teach me a lot about my car versus just trading it in

 

Somebody got $$$ to burn...and its obviously not theirs

 

There's no chance you'll break even on a transmission swap unless you have access to a donor car with everything you'll need for nearly nothing. And when you're done, there's a good chance it will have issues. But you'll definitely know how it all works together, or you'll know you don't ever want to do THAT again.

 

You'll also need a new wiring harness for the car, as they are different for each model. Plus, there will likely be several hours of coding at the dealer or elsewhere to make it work properly.

 

I've never seen doing this on a modern car work well. It may be 'easy' to do on a 70's - early 80s car that has no electronics, ECUs, transmission mapping, etc. Plus when you go to sell the Frankenstein car, you will lose a ton of money on resale because it once started as an auto but it's now a manual. The VIN numbers will not be accurate about the transmission it has. Just tons of questions will be asked. Cars are way more sophisticated now days and a 'simple' swap just does not exist. You'll probably spend the next 5 years chasing coding 'gremlins' too. When I was in the BMW world, a few folks did these swaps but by the time the E46's were 7-10 years old, there were tons of write-ups on exactly what parts were needed, how to cut the floor for the third pedal, what ECU and coding to get, what wiring harness, etc. It was still about $6k to do it. Best to just sell the auto and get a manual. Find other way's to make the car your own instead of some half baked trans swap that both kills your resale and your wallet.

Just my $.02 from Grandpa....

 

I think this entire post is absurd. Its clearly from someone much younger with limited understating of car mechanicals and potentially limitless financial resources to burn.

 

Been there, done that.

It may be possible, if the right parts are available. I have an '03 R50, and my standard 5 speed transmission died somewhere around 60K miles. I did tons of research, and decided I wanted to save the car and put in a new transmission. I didn't want to put in the same un-reliable transmission, so I installed a Getrag 6 speed transmission from an R56 sitting in some junkyard. On top of the transmission, I had to install:
A new flywheel, clutch assembly, shifter cables, reverse light switch, clutch slave cylinder, clutch hydraulic line, clutch hydraulic line mount, drive shafts, engine mount, transmission mount, transmission mounting bolts, clutch fluid, gearbox oil, engine oil, and had to fabricate (by myself) a plate to cover a gap where the bell housing didn't match up to the engine block. And I know I'm missing a ton of other stuff.

I'm almost surprised that the transmission was a direct bolt on to the engine block in the first place.

A month and a half without reliable transportation, a car on jacks in my garage, three 250 mile trips to the dealership for parts, and probably around $6000 in (the cheapest I could find) parts alone later, my car was running again. Not to mention the vast amount of tools I had to purchase (and fabricate due to all of those super awesome specialty tools that I didn't want to pay for), which was probably approaching $1500. Also not to mention the third drive shaft I had to buy because one of the cheap drive shaft's CV joint blew out a week later. Oh, and also what I payed the tow company for saving me that day.


At 118K miles, my Mini happens to still be running. I'm buying a Countryman, and will never try something like this again. I should have just switched cars from the get go.

Like I said: it may be possible. But don't do it. Going from auto to standard will more than likely be a ton more work, and probably require a computer swap or software upgrade, which can easily throw another $1000 into the mix at a minimum.

And yes, I know how it all works together now, which is awesome, but I also know that I will never do it again.

Edit: Now I can't even sell or trade the thing in. To the junkyard she goes. Terrible financial decision. I could have bought a brand spanking new car with all of the money I spent on this thing.

 

This is a nice idea, I understand the desire to move from an auto to a manual, but if pursued, I think the OP will quickly realize it isn't practical.

Just thinking about this, I get overwhelmed by all the little stuff, like all of the shifter interlock bits. The coding. The gear position indicators. The kickdown bits?!

Is that stuff even pre-wired?

 

I suspect after all this time with no further queries from the OP and the numerous 'dont do it' responses, the OP gets the picture.

 

I agree, but it still makes for an interesting conversation, at least to me.

 

OP probably buried in parts on the garage floor wondering why he started the project.