Hi everyone,

This might be a long one but here we go! Been keeping quiet about this for sometime. I thought everything would workout at the end cause Adam from Mini Mania UK seemed nice and sincere but in the end I got screwed the cost of an extra gearbox install totalling at $1,018.14 CAD.

The story:

I ordered a gearbox from Mini Mania UK on October 3rd, 2006. Everything seemed fine after the install. After 2 months and 700km later, shifting from second to third, I starting getting a grinding/biting noise at 3500rpm or higher. After a few emails back and fourth, changing tranny oil to Redline the noise seem to have disappeared until December 12th. Noise came back and the gearbox seemed sensitive to the cold and started whining in all gears. Whining continued even in warm weather. I requested a new gearbox to be sent and that they pay for labour for the install, Adam agreed.

email exchange below:

Hi Adam,

Can you please just send me a new gearbox? Its just not working out for me. I really don't want to deal with this anymore... I need this matter solved immediately.

Please ship the gearbox to my garage and arrange labour costs with Marc.

Alpine AutoWerks:


marc@alpineautowerks.com

Shop Location

4509 1 ST SE

Calgary, Alberta
T2G-2L2
Canada

Telephone:
(403).287.9114

Facsimile (Fax):
(403).287.9165

Adam's reply:

Hi Randy,
Sorry to hear you have ongoing problems with the gearbox,we are having another 10 gearboxes uprated and waiting on machine parts being made this will take some time, as you are after quick solution I will credit back your purchase price plus shipping to your card as we still have the details on file, if you get your garage to fit a new bmw item ( alpine auto works) and we will pay the labour cost of replacement direct to them. I will e-mail Marc and confirm with him, he can ship back the gearbox to us and I will cover the return shipping cost
regards Adam

December 13th

Hi Randy, we expect a new set of gears made within the next 3 weeks and have boxes done the following week,I will send you one and make sure it is wooden crate packed
Adam


On January 7th, I noticed that when the clutch is depressed at idle I can hear a sound, not sure how to describe it but kind of like a mechanical device is rotating. Whining also was louder.

Gearbox finally arrives at the end of February. I had it installed and sent the bill to Adam. Three weeks later, after numerous attempts to get a hold of him, I got a hold of a rep. She complained about the price of the install but will have Adam get back to me. To help clear things up about the price I emailed Adam this explanation:

Hi Adam,

Hope the move went well. You guys settled in yet?

Okay so I haven't heard from you for almost 3 weeks so I called you
yesterday but you weren't in. But I spoke to one of your employees
yesterday. She was very nice. But after the conversation, I felt a little
concerned.

She said that the work done was too expensive.

Let me explain. Minis here in Canada is more of a higher end Coupe. Not a
lot of these on the road like in Europe. Adding to our booming economy and
the masses of people moving to our city everyday, instead of mechanics
competing for customers, it's customers competing for mechanics; the result:
inflation.

Your employee said that it would have been cheaper to go to BMW, but when my
first transmission went kaboom, they quoted me over $2,500 of labour and
another $2,500 for the gearbox! If you don't believe me I can send you the
quote.

Please call me or give me some sort of response so I know you will honor
your part of the bargain.
Your employee seemed like she was implying that I was picky and that I
wasn't happy with the first gearbox. I promise you I'm not that kind of
person and that the gearbox was not functioning properly. It was almost as loud as a straight cut dog box and whenever I shift to 3rd it makes a loud
grinding sound. I don't think that's being picky. I got a faulty gearbox.

If you want to know what was wrong you can call Kris Carlson @ 403 287 1581
and he will take the box apart for you and let you know what went wrong.

Please reply Adam, let's rectify this problem so we can move on.

Thank you,

Randy


I'm not sure but did I sound rude in this email? This is his reply:

Hi Randy.

Thankyou for your demographic overview of the the Canadian economy but despite this, having teleohoned Mr Transmission in Canada he quoted us just CAN $675. 00 for the same job as you claim to have carried out at the same workshop for which you show an invoice for an excessive CAN $1000.00!!!

When dealing with long distance sales it is extremely difficult to assess the condition of an item due to non accessability and under these circumstances we do not know if there was a fitting problem. For example the shaft was been bent slightly during fitting or whether enough or the correct gear oil was added.

Both of the above could cause the problems you have reported.

We have however replaced the gearbox as a good will gesture, even though we do not offer a warranty for overseas customers as such warranties are only available to items that we fit in our own workshops. Please bear in mind also that we have borne the shipping costs for this replacement item at no extra cost to you.

Any consequential losses cannot be our responsibility, due to the circumstances under which we have supplied the item. eg. not fitting in-house.

BMW themselves do not offer warranty for even a brand new gearbox unless fitted by themselves, indeed they would not even have replaced the item as we have done.

Please note that the cost of a reconditioned box like we have supplied you, Now twice!!! costs £1,300.00 each - please see our website!! The box supplied to you was at a discounted price of just £600.00!!!!!

We feel we have bent over backwards to help and you are now making excessive demands on our good will and to add insult to injury the invoice that you have presented to us is of almost twice the value quoted to us by phone from Mr Transmission today.

We accept no further responsibility.

Adam McCollin
Mini Mania (UK) Ltd.



So questions came to my mind. If there was no warranty available for my gearbox then why say so on the December 12 email? he told me he will pay for the install!!!

If Adam didn't intend on paying for the install then why did he call for a quote from Mr. Transmission? It's not like I changed the price on him so how would that be adding insult to injury? If he made sure his product worked the first time then injury wouldn't have occured in the first place.

I used my credit card for this install. I was hoping that Adam would pay me back so I can buy books for school for the spring semester. Now I have to withdraw from all my classes because I don't have room on my card for books. I was counting on Adam's word and he failed me.

I do have all the emails that we exchanged, what can I do now? Or did I basically got owned?

Your input is much appreciated. Thank you very much!

Randy

 

If there was no overseas warranty, didn't you know that when you ordered the part originally?

Adam *never* offered to pay install for another of his gearboxes - he said put a stock MINI one back in and they'll cover that install cost.


This is an excellent warning story for people looking to deal with long distance suppliers and expensive but hard-to-fault-find parts. However it appears that you're done with MINI Mania UK.

I hope your new gearbox works better for you!

 

Actually, the warranty was recently updated after the price of the gearboxes were raised. Maybe trying to steer overseas customers away after this incedent? We actually spoke on the phone prior to the install. He told me to send him the bill and he would reimburse me through my credit card. If he didn't intend on paying for the install then why did he ask for a qoute from Mr. Transmission? He stated that on his last email...

Thanks for your input. Damn... that sucks... I got pwned

Randy

 

If they did change their warranty policy AFTER their sale to you, and you have some sort of written evidence of what it was (on the invoice?), then you still have a case to fight this.

Again, Adam did not specifically say he'd pay for what you thought he'd pay for - but it's a close enough call that you should be able to call him on his original promise.
If nothing else, they should offer you the $675 that they say the install cost - that's better for you than nothing!

Maybe send a link to this thread to Adam; ask him to visit #1 MINI USA website NorthAmericanMotoring and explain his side of this situation ...

 

I'm sorry to hear about your problem with the uprated gearbox. As an '02 Cooper owner I have had some concern with my Midlands box because of the numerous postings of gearboxes gone bad both here on NAM and MINI2. I've been keeping my fingers crossed that my transmission lasts at least 100,000 miles. Knowing that there are no more new Midlands gearboxes, that BMW is refurbishing old ones and not improving on its weaknesses, I was going to buy the MiniMania gearbox, or at least the uprated internals to have my transmission rebuilt. Now because of your problem I'm not sure what I will do. At least the dealer has a two year warranty parts and labor. Chances are that if it is defective it will make itself known within that time period.

As far as MiniMania's customer service is concerned I'm not sure that anything more will be done. They feel that they have been more than fair to you despite not keeping the promise of paying for labor. Who is in charge there? Is Adam really calling the shots? I just hope you have better luck with the new gearbox. You might post over on the UK MINI site just to see if anyone else has had a defective uprated gearbox.

 

Who fitted the original replacement transmission last year and what did it cost?

 

Ranzo,

Man what an ordeal you have been through with your transmission!

I agree that they owe you $675 as that seems to be an undisputed amount that they said they would pay for the install. As others had voiced, I saw the Mini Mania as a possible cure if (when?) my Midlands craps out. Now, I'm not sure what I will do should mine fail. This is not encouraging.

 

and offer to accept the amount from the quote they found... Point out that they had previously committed to paying a tranny install, and all you're looking for is for them to follow through on thier already stated committments.

If that doesn't work, chalk it up to a learning experience, or brake out the big guns (lawyers) but the total claim won't be worth the cost.

If there is no satisfaction at all, then place a complaint with the English equivalent of the BBB.

Matt

 

Don't know if they'll help overseas buyers, but ...
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

 

The invoice was just a computer print out. No warranty info. Either way, we talked over the phone prior to the fitting. I told me he spoke to Mr. Transmission himself and that he would pay for it. If it wasn't covered under warranty why would he tell me he would pay for it?

Okay maybe I'll try getting that $675. Showing him this thread will probably **** him off or something and I would get nothing... but that would make Mini Mania UK look pretty bad huh?

 

Yup Adam is the man.

 

Last year Alpine Autoworks did the work for $1,085.84 before tax so it was actually more expensive the first time.

 

Okay I'll try the $675 approach and if that fails then I guess he will have to explain himself on the forum. Thanks Doc.

 

Thanks again hey? I'll try that when all of the above fails.

Thanks guys I really appreciate this. Me and my Mini went through a lot this year... It's tough to be enthusiastic when things keep breaking down...

 

How's the new tranny coming along so far?

 

...........the MM UK box was my failsafe.......I've been lucky enough for my origianl midlands to have held on for 71k.........but I guess I'll just have to watch this thread to see the outcome. Best of luck to ya Ranzo.....

 

Same here...when my second midlands fails, I would like to go for something that will not just break again. I hope the defective one was just a fluke, and I hope you can get all of this BS sorted out! I wish there was a way to get these parts from this continent...

 

MM USA told me that there is not enough demand for the transmission here due to the ratio of Cooper to Cooper S owners......I say if enough of us bug 'em they could at least get the uprated gearsets for us USA and Canada customers. Makes sense right? I hate sitting on this ticking time bomb of a transmission, I want a permanent fix by BMW (yeah right ) or MINI Mania.....I've always felt left in the dust as a cooper owner but this problem is really irritating me. If there is no sure fire way to fix this problem then I will have no choice but to sell.

 

How about a 6sp conversion? The heck with a 5sp getrag!

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co....php?p=1455575
http://www.mini2.com/forum/faults-fi...onversion.html

 

The 6spd will be too slow unless you get a lot of hp. The s tranny was designed for more power. The gearing won't work. I would like to know about the 5spd getrag though.

There has to be a way to fit it. It is bolted to the same engine! I would love for someone who knows what they are talking about to tell me what parts would have to be switched for it to work. I would much rather do that. I wish i could afford to trade it in for an 07 S.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=96594

 

Paul's experience indicates the match is better than you think! But in general, you'd need a HUGE change in ratio to have issues.

Matt

ps Paul, did the car's cruise control still work?

 

It didn't have cruise control fitted so I'm afraid I cant answer that one, but as the only electrics to the gearbox is for the reversing switch I would presume it would be okay.

 

the first gear ratios of the 5 speed and the 6 speed handy? I was thinking about this one, and I think the Cooper may be a bit spunkier than the S when the S is off boost because of the compression ratio, so the first gear numbers might be closer than AliceCooperWA thinks....

And I asked about the cruise cause I heard of someone not getting the cruise to work after putting a newer 6 speed in an older car because the ECU wasn't seeing the right RPMs per speed in each gear. It knows that from the wheel speed sensors..... But I haven't confirmed this or not.

Matt

 

Send me your e-mail addy and I'll send you a speadsheeet I've done.