My my newish to me 03 Cooper, noticed about a week ago a slight rattle in the engine area, especially when downshifting to 2nd gear. Just a slight rattle.
Took it in to the Mini service guys at the BMW dealership and had them check it out. Road tested with the mechanic as he could hear it on his own. And actually got it to do it. He heard it.
Seems that I need a new transmission.
Any caveats I should be aware of for this fix?

Jay

 

Is it still under warranty? I wonder what caused the transmission to go bad? Are you in cold weather, because I have read that this can cause the seal to go bad and all of the fluid will leak out.

 

Sorry for your loss.
I just had mine replaced in my 04 Cooper (11/03 build) last week. There's a thread on the cold weather possibly being a factor here. Mine never leaked fluid though. It just went. They will give you a remanufactured Midlands gearbox as a replacement. According to The Dealer, the remanufactured gearboxes are used boxes with new, updated parts in them. Mine took about 2 days to replace and now feels stiff, but good.
If you do a search here and on MINI2 for "Midlands gearbox" you will find more than you ever wanted to know about how many have been replaced.

Will it fail again...that's the question.

 

Thats great news if they put in the tranny from the 05 and up. It was regeared and the car will pull much harder. Did you know that you can shift gears on the 03's with out using the clutch and with out doing dammage to it? But not with the 05's.

 

That's what the previous owner of this guy's car said. Was that YOU?

 

No, wasnt me. Ive still got my 03 S. Dark silver, Combo, 1,2,3, HK, leather, R99's

 

Did he say the tranny was bad and needed replacing?? If not, perhaps it could be something else. And yes, where are you on your warranty? If it's in force, that's good. If the transmission is going you'll most likely get another Midlands unit, though, not a Getrag.

 

Forget pulling harder, it wouldn't crap out after another 40,000 miles.

The point is moot, though. MINI is not putting in Getrag units as warranty replacements for failed Midlands. Nope, they'll just keep on recycling the same dwindling supply of Midlands transmissions, replacing the failed parts and passing off the rest of the used parts as acceptable replacements, with the resulting quality going steadily down the toilet along with resale value.

 

It is still under warranty. 33K miles.
It is in a cold weather environment (Ct).

Will keep an eye on them as the new tranny goes in tomorrow.

Thanks for the thread on cold weather issues, but don't see anything after May 05 regarding the Midlands transmissions. Is BMW replacing the old tranny's with new or rebuilt? Getag or Midlands?
Have the issues been resolved?
Am I looking at another tranny in about 30K miles?
Cause that will be way out of warranty.

Jay