On the commute home last night, all was good.

Then I made a stop when I had to turn off the engine to go into a store. After starting back up, I noticed that at low speeds the car was holding 2nd and 3rd too long and also dropping into those gears too quickly on deceleration. Like it couldn't decide on the right gear. I tried the usual - manually shifting and using SD mode and the problem seemed to stop.

Then this morning it was happening again. I continued driving and had to get on the freeway. I gave it gas - nothing. The RPMs stayed low and the car wouldn't go over 40 kph or so. I pumped the gas a few times and the RPMs picked up but there was no kick behind it. I knocked the shifter into SD - nothing. The RPMs didn't kick up as usual. It was as if there was no SD mode at all. I pulled over and turned off the engine for minute.

After starting back up, the SD mode was working but the car had the same trouble at low speeds - jumping up and down between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

There are no warning lights illuminated on the dash.

I just did my 90k km maintenance and mentioned to the service rep about changing the transmission fluid. He said the manufacturer didn't recommend it and it could actually cause trouble.

Any ideas?

 

Well if your transmission has never been serviced and your at 90k. and its an automatic. I would go kick your service rep in the a$$..lol.. Any good transmission shop recommend fluid changes every 35k give or take a bit.

 

 

This is going to be a bad day! First, I am very sorry to hear about your tranny woes. As you have learned the Mini's CVT is a poor tranny. Sounds like you are going to find out first hand. Again, sorry and good luck

 

YEARS ago mini changed its tune on "lifetime fluid" in a tranny....especially on the CVT..........
There is a complete procedure to do, including resetting the adaptations....
Guess the dealer WANTED the tranny to fail....so you would buy a new car perhaps?!
Good luck....

 

I thought if the CVT fails, the car completely ceases to move.

I'm in Israel. Base Coopers start at around $40k.

I just wonder if I can pressure the shop. After all, two weeks ago I asked them about changing the transmission fluid. They're the ones who said it wasn't necessary.

Could it be something else? If it's really the CVT, my wife will kill me. I guess I should have bought a bigger car - not much room to sleep in the back.

 

The manufacturer of the CVT recommends fluid replacement every 45000 km, so you may want to find another place to service your MINI.

Here's some reading on the CVT in the MINI you should check out:
http://motoringfile.com/files/CVT_description.pdf


As with any other transmission, the CVT can fail in multiple ways. The common "cease to move" way you mentioned would be a broken drive belt. Another common way on this box is it gets stuck in a certain ratio. This is what happened to mine, due to a failed stepper motor on the valve body.

It does sound like something is failing on your CVT. However, it is probably worth doing a fluid change and resetting the adaptations just to make sure.

Even if that fixes it, you are on borrowed time with that CVT - I speak from experience. You should start to prepare for the replacement cost, swapping to manual cost, or trading in for something else.

 

BMW is the official importer here. I bought the car a little over a year ago and took it to them right after, where I found out they had never seen the car. The previous owners (2) apparently took it to just anyplace - and I paid for it during the last year.

So I think I'll stick with BMW.

So what did you do?


Is swapping to manual doable? Does it cost more than a new tranny? Can I replace the CVT with a different tranny?

 

Sounds like your options are much more limited than over here in the states. Just make sure they use the right fluid (Esso Ezl 799) and do the adaptation procedures afterwards. It requires driving the car a certain way in a certain order.

I plan on keeping the car forever, so I replaced the entire transmission with a 6-speed manual from an S to have something that would be much more robust. I didn't want to deal with anymore potential CVT problems anymore. The stepper motor is replaceable and available though, so it would have been a cheaper route for the short term if I had wanted to do a trade in.

Yes, it's doable, and was a few thousand usd cheaper including parts/labor than putting in a new cvt. The transmission to use is a 6-speed manual from any 02-06 Cooper S. It does require some recoding work on the car's computers, which not all shops will know how to do.

Ideally, you find a donor car to get all the parts from and go from there...

 

Thanks for all your help.

I'll just have to wait for Sunday and take it to the shop first thing in the morning. I don't think I'm going to get much sleep this weekend...

 

I've been there before. Best of luck with it.

 

Looks like I dodged the bullet on this one.

Turned out to be an electrical problem. Installing a new battery, resetting the software/transmission, and removing $500 from my wallet seemed to do the trick.

Although $500 for a new battery seems a bit steep (the service rep said it was a special battery), I guess I should be happy it wasn't a new transmission.

I feel reborn.

(BTW, I asked the service rep - again - about changing the transmission fluid and he said that they haven't received any such directive from Mini.)

 

Good to hear it was just a battery. I had different symptoms when it was just a battery on mine. The dash displayed "EP" intermittently but I had no drive-ability problems.

You should still have the fluid changed. I find it hard to believe the service rep is so adamant about not changing that fluid. Like I said and posted earlier with that PDF, the fluid should be changed every 45000 km according to folks who made the transmission. I believe even MINI includes it in their Inspection 1 and 2 services. The fluid lubricates and cools the internals, in particular the main drive belt. Without adequate cooling, you are shortening the life of everything in that box.

Are there really no independent BMW shops willing to work on MINIs in Israel? $500 for a battery and not recommending a fluid change would lead me away from where you are taking your MINI.

Ultimately, I do recommend starting to look for other options too - either a MINI with a manual or another car because of the CVT and the problems people have had with it.

 

+1
Hate to say...but with a BMW/mini service center like you have, RUN.
$500 for a "special" battery is pure BS...sure you needed a computer reset...maybe a battery too...but if they are BS-ing you now...hate to see what happens on the big stuff...
Good luck.

 

agreed. not to sound insenstive or negative, but if i paid $500 for a battery, that better be the last battery i buy for the rest of my life. im fortunate enough to be able to perform all maintenance myself so i know better.

im not sure if the same types of auto parts stores are around there, but a local autozone or advance auto, usually stocks high quality batteries that are compatible with our cars, for literally 1/4 of that price. they install them in about 5 minutes and even take the old one off your hands to be properly recycled free of charge.

 

Right after I bought the car, I took it to BMW because the car wasn't shifting correctly between 90-100 kph. It was holding above 4k RPMs, which made for a very choppy ride especially when cruising at that speed.

BMW reset the computer then, which solved the problem, and charged me about $150 to do it. So $350 today for a battery, while on the high side, is not outrageous in Israel.

You guys in the US don't know how good you have it. For example, on top of the 18% VAT we have on EVERYTHING, we also have 100% import tax on cars - basically doubling the price of the car. And it all trickles down. Even used cars are ridiculous here. And when you figure insurance is based on the price of the car, we actually pay insurance on tax.

Food for thought: In 2013, I bought my 2006 Justa with 60k kms for around $18k. A 2014 manual, base Cooper STARTS at around $40k.

I am going to start looking for another mechanic, but I don't know if I will find one that I can trust.