My Cooper S has 54,000 miles on it.
It needs a new clutch/flywheel/tranny - total cost about $8,000.
I know from reading all the chatter on the web that trannies are a problem with MINI; but, my question is - Once it's fixed will the problem come back? Have the replacement parts been "reengineered" to address the weaknesses of the originals?

 

Were you hard on the clutch/tranny ?

 

Hello Steve O, Welcome to NAM, sorry your 1st post is about a sad fact in MINIville.

The $8K number is high. Please check around your area, state or states for a NAM Vendor with a repair shop and I'm sure you will find the number much lower. If you post what state you are in I'm sure someone can point you to a shop that can help you with less pain in the pocket.

 

No more so than usual.
I have been driving for 40 years - always a manual.
I have autocrossed in the past and have done numerous "track days" at Summit Point raceway. I know what I am doing.
My previous two cars were Acura Integras - The clutches in both of them lasted well over 75,000 miles and I never had any problems with the flywheel of the tranny.
I am not alone - go to http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/mini.html

 

If you can get a 6 Speed Getrag Tranny. The 05+ tranny. There is one on ebay right now for 1500$ and the tranny is only 5K miles old. You can get after market clutch and flywheel for like 600 to 700. Thats $2.1K. Add a quaife differential that racks the bill up to 3.1K I don't think labor would cost you another 5K. Good luck.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/02-06...Q5fAccessories

 

The 6 speed Getrag gearbox is generally regarded as being "bulletproof". I have owned two R53 S with this gearbox and no problems at all with it (54K miles on my '05 MCS).

On the other hand, the LuK sourced clutches and flywheels have been known to be spotty and problematic. My '05 S has had 2 clutches and dual mass flywheels replaced under warranty, no questions asked.

Seems to me your transmission suffered damage due to a problem with the clutch and flywheel (Damaged input shaft or something along those lines).

Shop around my friend. $8K not only buys you a new transmission clutch/flywheel but a whole new engine as well.

 

Before you jump the gun, those complaints posted in that site (I have read them all BTW ) are mostly for the old 2002-2004 Midland Gears 5 speed transmission offered in the R50 Hardtop Cooper model and the CVT.

Look closely. You won't see may, if any, Getrag transmission related complaints.

 

It is hard to tell you whether or not what happened to your transmission is usual when we dont even know what happened. So why does it need to be replaced?

 

Whirring noise - mostly noticeable in 1st and 2nd gear (but, audible in all gears) and very audible after down-shift to 2nd or 1st.
There has been a noise for a long time now when at idle, in neutral and will the clutch out (I am told this is due the the flywheel problems that plague these cars).

 

But why the transmission has to be replaced?

 

The noise is coming from the tranny, metal flakes have been found in the gearbox lubricant, the sound is like many I have heard in the past that turned out to be a rough spot on a bearing race.
MINI does not have any parts for these transmissions - they are replaced and not repaired. Have you had experience to the contrary.

 

Typically they replace with refurbished transmissions. Like I said, my tranny has been flawless but the clutch and flywheel a different story.

 

i got a new tranny in november for my 05 with 32k miles

under warrenty !!! i feel like a lottery winner..

now .. will it last. and i was easy on it.. mine was a cvt

 

what year is your MCS?

 

FYI: Steve, I am in the process of replacing my 6 speed transmission. The damage was my fault (stuffed reverse while downshifting to 1st at a autocross). Having to do the repair with out the benefit of a Mini shop close buy. My local foreign car repair guy quoted me $3470 for a re-manufactured unit from BMW, and about $850 in labor. Freight, fluids, & new clutch are open at this time. I am in no position to argue as my Mini Dlr is 1000 miles away. I expect the job to come in at about $5K. I think a re-manufactured unit is a safe way to go. Hope this gives you a comparative cost.

 

My 05 MCS has over 60k miles with no signs of tranny problems. The clutch still feels new. I am sorry for your problems and I hope you are able to fix it inexpensively.

 

Well......I have a 2002 MINI. She's got around 61,000 miles. 3 months ago I had the pleasure of replacing the clutch. $3500. Last week, car would go into 1st but as soon as the clutch was let and gas applied the gear shift popped out and into nuetral. Annapolis MINI says my tranny is shot and the clutch might be too. I have an extended warranty but we are not sure if it will be covered. She's not abused. I got her w/50,000 miles 10 months ago. I love this car but am so disgusted I don't know what to do. If it's not covered under warranty, I get to let her sit and make the payments. Oh joy.

Good luck with yours.

 

I don't know all the details of your situation, but when I bought my MINI in June 2008 I looked around a lot and joined NAM too.

People on here saved me a load of cash and worry by advising me not to buy a 2004 or earlier MINI, because of the transmission issues.

After that I looked around the Net and discovered there were a significant amount of complaints about the CVT and even the manual transmissions, again, pre-2005.

It's unfortunate, but it appears that whoever you bought your MINI from decided to unload it before being faced with the transmission/clutch failures.

Sorry you have to go through this. IMHO MINI should be sued on a class action basis for all the MINI owners who suffered, and suffer the $5,000+++ repair of the MINI CVT. There's enough of them that no way it can be, as MINI likes to say, caused by the drivers.

Sidenote: At the time I was shopping for a MINI I was wondering why there were so many pre-2005 MINIs for sale, and at cheap prices.

I will leave it up to others to opine if it's unethical for a pre-2005 MINI owner to sell it to an unsuspecting newbie to MINIs.

URGENT: Who is your extended warranty with, the name of the company? There's lots of threads in here with people saying how great the extended warranties are, but I have said that most, if not all, of those companies are not about to pay $8,000 for a MINI transmission repair.

So I am curious if 1) who your company is; 2) will they repair it; and 3) if not, what did they tell you as to why it is not covered?

 

Did I miss what year your MINI is?

 

Steve,

If it was me (and your problem is defective design), I would NOT let MINI get away with this. In my state small claims court is $7,500 max. I would sue MINI for this being a defect in manufacture to which they must cover it, under an implied warranty.

There's mountains of evidence on the Net that MINI blew it with the pre-2005 transmissions (especially the CVT, but dunno about the S/manual, same issue, defective engineering/design?). In any event, they should not be telling people that the problem was how they drove or that this was simply normal wear and tear. A clutch should last, without abuse, at least 100K miles, the tranny longer. 50,000 miles is supect, IMHO.

Here in California small claims are less than $100 to pursue. $100 to save $8,000, to me that is worth a shot. It's easy to take a case to small claims and you might have to spend 10 hours in prep and 1 hour in court, max.

If it were me no way I'd let MINI get away with this nonsense. There are a lot of burned MINI owners out there, that's a "crime" in my book. I note that many of the complaints are from very experienced people, those who have years of driving manual transmissions. find it hard to believe that only with the MINI is one abusing the car or he/she does not know how to shift, etc.

Bonus Tip: I am a federal trial attorney, if you want some help putting the case together, PM me.

 

The problem with NAM and people posting is they confuse problems with one car with all the cars...that is...Coopers from 02-04 used the 5 speed Midlands trannies and were prone to failure. 2005-2006 used the 5 speed Getrag. The Cooper S has always used the Getrag trannies, so it's hard to say where the problem is with the OP--he needs to be more specific.

I can say for sure that My Acura Integra had well over 250,000 miles before I sold it, and it was a lot more forgiving than my MINI at 100,000 miles.

My '03 Cooper needed a new tranny just before the warranty expired--around 45,000 miles or so. It was replaced under warranty. My '05 MCS is still on the original tranny..but did a full clutch replacement a few thousand miles ago.

Richard

 

That is true, that is why I asked him what year his car was. He was pretty vague.

Wasn't there something about the manual transmission using problem clutches? In any event, seems suspect that this experienced manual transmission driver had his go out at 54,000 miles.

 

Like Richard said, people tend to mix up models and years and peg all cars with the same specific problem they are having.

We have no idea how the OP's car was used. We have no idea if it was maintained properly. Those are open questions for the OP to answer (If he chooses to).

For instance, the ZF CVT transmission was used in all R50 Cooper hardtops and R52 Cooper Cabrios from 2002 until 2008. But people tend to think that the CVT was used in all MINI models and that is simply misleading. The AISIN 6 speed automatic transmission used in the Cooper S was not introduced until the January 2005 builds and eventually made its way onto the R56 (MC & MCS) and R55 Clubman (MC and MCS).

The 5 speed Midland gears (It was a Peugeot derivative transmission) was used on the R50 hardtops from 2002 until 2004. 2005 and 2006 MC R50 hardtops use a 5-speed Getrag transmission totally different animal from the older Midland Gears box.

When people post problem, it is helpful if they provide 5 key pieces of information:

Year
Model
Body style
Build date (Look at the placard inside the driver's side door jamb)
Mileage

How difficult can this be??

 

$3,500 to replace a clutch is a blatant rip-off Where did you take your car to get the clutch replaced?? Even my dealer doesn't charge more than $2,500 and any independent MINI mechanic should not be more than $1,500 for a quality clutch replacement.

And Kimberly, get used to the fact of repairing an older car. It sort of amuses me when people buy a 7 year old car and they have no expectation of repairs. That is simply unrealistic.

If you want the car to be reliable, be preapred to invest some coin on the car.

 

UPDATE: Steve,the final figures are in and the car is back on the road. This is what I paid for a 6 speed transmission swap and clutch for my '02 MCS. Work was done by a independent shop. OEM Parts are warrantied by BMW for 12 mo/12 K miles. The cost was about what I expected. Again, the transmission failure was my fault.

Re manufactured Sp transmission 3475.93
Transmission fluid 40.80
Freight 250.00
Clutch kit 280.45
? (Rel Brig) 12.50
Shop Materials 10.00
Labor 888.00
Total $4957.65