Found this when I was changing my sons manifold out. 05 Mini Cooper S.

 

that looks like a old school fix. the cable is frayed (not sure where it goes to) from contacting that heat exchanger, so the cardboard is... well protecting the DAMAGED part.

yeah. (i think that is a shifting cable)

fun fun

 

Yea, looks like you have the autotrans and that the shift cable, single one for the automatic . Looks like not in place and rubbing.

 

I placed the cardboard there till i determined it wasn't a battery cable (used my meter). I just don't see what it does and if having the insulation the way it is will hurt anything

 

How should it be placed??

 

These are the Diagrams I have :

Cable

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=25_0410

Transmission :

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=24_1057

 

Thanks....looking under the vehicle it doesn't appear as though its out of place, I bent the bracket holding the cable slightly to move it away from the heat exchanger...hopefully this helps. It was shifting fine. I only noticed it after I removed the manifold and cat assembly....it cracked at the weld on the back side just before the down stream O2 sensor. I believe this was a contributing factor to the car stalling and idling bad at times. It finally just cracked all the way around it.

 

We've seen those shifter cable brackets bent before. I think I may have a good used one from a car we parted. Need to look tomorrow if you need it email us.

 

Yep shifter linkage. The black stuff was supposed to protect the linkage from the heat exchanger. It's nasty stuff very sticky when it gets hot and melts off. When I rebuilt my motor I tried to find a way to redirect the linkage but came up nada. It's not doing any harm to the heat exchanger. Poor engineering on Mini's part.