Hi guys, I'm new here, visiting because a friend has a 2005 R53 with the 6 speed manual gearbox with the locking differential. Basically, a while back, he noticed there was a puddle under the car in his garage. it was transmission fluid. so he took it to the dealer, where they replaced the transmission input shaft seal. While in there they had noted that the throwout bearing had disintegrated. so that was replaced. this was all done out of warranty because the car has 85K on it.

fast forward to 2 days ago, he calls me and says "Hey, I can hear my gears turning in the transmission. what's that mean?"
-"Uh, your transmission is dry. PARK IT."

it was towed to the dealer under the assumption that the new seal didn't hold and popped out. they're looking at it, and there is a quarter sized hole in the transmission. they figure that when the throwout bearing ate it, it was caught between the clutch assembly and the transmission, cracking it (causing the initial leak, not being the seal after all) and somehow the crack grew and became a hole.

A new transmission from the dealer initially was quoted at $6,000.00.
I'm finding remanufactured boxes around $4,000.00, and a gently used 74K mile one on Ebay for $2,000.00.

Does anyone have any tricks up their sleeve regarding how to get a transmission a little less than that?

Thanks for your help...

edit: the car does have the locking differential.

 

WayMotorworks is parting out an S. He might still have a tranny. Not sure if it would be the right one because there are 2 differnt sets of gearings...I think they are interchangeable though... The 05 and up were revised to help acceraleration....

 

Fantastic. Thanks Zippy, I'll track him down and see what he's got.

 

and just for posterity's sake, lets do a pic of his MINI and my Porsche.

 

Thanks for your help. the issue has been resolved.