Hearing about DreamWeaver's 10 day out of warranty story reminded me of my friend's 1978 Mercury Capri....the car had a 12,000 mile warranty.....at 12,500 miles, the stick shift came off in his hand while shifting into 3rd!!!!.....just like on a Three Stooges episode. They told him "sorry" out of warranty...but after much complaining to the district manager, they did agree to cover it, but left a bad feeling towards Ford/mercury

 

Would it be crazy if a clutch failed at 43,000 miles? I would expect a longer life for the clutch, but if it is the clutch only, that doesn't seem outlandish. But if it is the transmission, that is a bad sign. What was the approximate build date of your Cooper, Richard? Let us know what the problem is/was!

 

Hey Dansmini,

Well my last car was a 1991 Acura Integra GS that I owned for 11 years--manual also. Had 230,000 miles when I sold it. I also put on about 30,000 miles my first year, and I certainly didn't do a clutch replacement at 43K. Maybe 100K, I don't really recall since I was having the dealer do the servicings. I just remember that car was pretty maintenance free. Prior to that I drove VW GTI's and had lots of other issues by 60,000K, but never the clutch--had a radiator explode spewing hot coolant inside the cabin....etc..

My Cooper is a July Build 2003 that I picked up in September from Road Show MINI in Memphis. Only performance mods I've done are intake (Moss MINI), Exhaust (Remus), ECU (MTH). Except for MTH, none of those mods are known for maximum horsepower---so I don't think I was putting on excessive strain on the tranny--although I did do a drive with a bunch of MCS's on Sunday, and one of the comments was that I was the fastest Cooper they had ever seen--since I'm always hot on their tails, but I've never abused the car--don't do doughnuts, hard shifts, burnouts, ok.. wait, I did do a burnout once--that was back at AMVIV II during the Vegas Strip Cruise..

Sadly, and I sure hope this wasn't a major contributing factor, I let a good friend of mine with a CVT Cooper attempt to learn to drive my 5 speed cause he needed to rent one and didn't want to look foolish driving it off the lot, and we went through a few hours of unpleasant grinding and engine kills, etc.. It was excruciatingly painful to see my baby who I've cared for these past 2 years go through it.

 

Really sorry to see this. Hopefully they take care of you.

Keep us posted.

 

Well, let us know what the problem turns out to be. I ordered my Cooper in July of 2003 and picked it up September 4, so this issue definitely concerns me! Good luck getting it all taken care of.

 

Good luck Richard...

I have an August '02 build, and have heard of quite a few transmission issues with '02s as well. I, too am a little bit concerned at this point.

 

3:12 PM Update

**I censored my post---instead sending it directly to South Bay MINI.
Latest news, they still haven't looked at the car, and said they might look at it tomorrow, and besides they have to order a new transmission if that's the problem and it won't get here until next week, but they got to look at the car first.

 

Let me get this right:

"They might need to order the part" is their rationale for not looking at the car? Am I missing something here?

 

OctaneGuy,
I'm sorry to hear of your present troubles, but I think in the long run, you should probably be happy that this happened (stay with me here).

The Midlands 5-speed is generally regarded as unreliable. It was the main reason I sold my 2003: I regarded the tranny as a huge long-term risk in the midst of an otherwise outstanding car.

So, you pay for a rental car for a few days, and you end up with a warranty repair and a transmission that's 43,000 miles newer than your car. If you keep the car long-term, you probably won't be sweating about the transmission as much when you hit 100k as somebody would who had all of those miles on the original tranny. Would you buy a used '03 with 100k on the Midlands? I sure wouldn't.

Best case scenario, and I have no idea if this is even possible, is that they replace your Midlands with the new 5-speed Getrag. I haven't paid attention to whether recent failed Midlands trannies are being replaced with Midlands or Getrags.

(If the switch isn't possible, how would you like to have been the guy at BMW/MINI who had to gamble on how many of the Midlands trannies to keep on hand for future warranty repairs once production of the trannies stopped? )

If I were still driving my '03, I know I'd be praying for the transmission to fail at 49,950 miles.

Good luck,
Chris

 

Thanks everyone for the support. Yeah, you know, I was kinda hoping that if it WAS going to fail, that it do it before 50,000 miles. Sadly, I recall reading about someone else who had his tranny replaced with the same thing--not a new getrag--so I'm not even going to get my hopes up.

You make some excellent point, and I'm sure it will all blow over soon. Just wish it'd blow a little faster.

****
Quick Update

After some nudging by one of my South Bay contacts, they finally got the car into the shop, but will be taking apart the transmission tomorrow morning to have a look. Amazing at how much an attitude can change when you talk to the right person. LOL. All of a sudden they might even give me a loaner. Geeesh.

Richard

 

Richard, get it fixed and sell it. Chris is correct... The Midland Gears tranny is a huge liability post-warranty period. Take advantage of the good resale value and step up to a new '05 or '06 with the infinitely more reliable Getrag gearbox.

Good luck.

 

Thanks C4. Yeah I was amazed at the Kelley Blue Book value of my current MINI. Hmm, I'm very tempted to say the least, although I've been so pleased with both the looks and performance of my MINI. Guess it's something I'm going to have to consider very thoroughly.

Thank you.

Richard

 

The only problem I see if you decide to upgrade to a new MINI, is that you won't be able to get that gorgeous Indy Blue paint. However, if you want to stay with blue, your choices are Hyper Blue and Space Blue.

 

Well, good news everyone. My tranny and clutch are being replaced under warranty, and even better news they have both in stock, so I'm going to get my car back today. Wooohoooooo

How exciting is that? heh heh. I spent some time configuring a 2005 MC and MCS last night, and couldn't make up my mind on the configuration. LOL. After my MC is repaired, I'll probably go do some test drives for some "field research" in the new MC and MCS.

Thanks everybody for your concern.

Richard

 

I think C4 needs some kill stickers to represent all of the 2003s that he's convinced people to dump for 2005s.

Glad you got your car back quick!

 

Well thank you everyone for your support. South Bay MINI is awesome. They restored my faith in them. I got back my MINI with a new clutch and tranny. The work order says the parts are refurbished. Doesn't say anything about Getrag or Midlands. In any case, some observations.

1.) Clutch is surprisingly light.
When I stepped on the clutch I thought something was wrong, so I pumped it several times, but it didn't change. The clutch is really light now. Hmmm. After 43,000 miles, I got used to the clutch feeling a certain way.

2.) Engagement location is different.
The point at where the car begins moving after letting out the clutch has moved. Seems "higher" up now--or more out than before.

3.) Gearbox has a stiff notchy feel to it. Maybe cause it's still new. Not sure. Having a little trouble in shifting from 2nd to 3rd--often have to shift to neutral and back to 3rd to find it.

So far so good though. Guess I will put on a few hundred miles and report back to see if anythings changed.

Richard

 

Richard, your description of "notchy" sounds like you may have gotten a Getrag tranny. Good luck with the it and let us know how you like it!


Clover

 

I thought Getrag required different mounts?

I would look into the 2-3 shift. It doesn't sound right.

 

When I had a new Midlands installed last winter it felt a little notchy, except for 5th. After 20k it is no longer notchy, and reverse is never an issue, unlike the factory one.

The part number for a Midlands tranny is 23-00-7-520-071, thats for a Trans GS5-65B or so it says on my work order, and I saw the box it came in, it said Midlands on it.

I noticed no difference in clutch feel, but at 35k miles the tech. said my clutch looked like new.

My original Midlands was replaced because of extreme cold, as in -50F causing poorly tested axle seals to let go, not a fault of the inner workings of the tranny. Still no recall on the seals So they wait till the $35 seal lets go, and replace a $3000 tranny.

I don't care what anyone thinks, I'm holding out for a 07 turbo MC. With a Gertag

By then I will have over 120K,km (80K miles) some warrenty left, and will be ready for another mid-life thing. I want a turbo

 

Hey Lot15,

Yeah that's the same part number I have, so looks like I do have another Midlands--mine also specifies it's a remanufactured one (REMFG).

So far of the 5 times I've shifted into reverse, I haven't heard the occasional crunch that I did with the factory one.

Did you also get a new clutch? The work order says that my original clutch was "because of oil saturation from broken trans." That's why it feels different.

What warranty is left at 80K??? I thought it all ends at 50K??

Richard

 

Octane Guy.

My tranny was new, I saw the crate. Maybe there are no more new ones now.

The tech. said my clutch looked almost new. 95% of my miles are cruising on the highway, not much wear doing that. And because it was an axle seal, no oil got on the clutch.

I have an extended warrenty. 5 years, 150k KMs. About 95k miles.

 

re: Extended Warranty
Ohhh I can see how that might be useful now. Hmmm, I'm wondering if the life of the tranny is only around 43,000 miles or was that just my factory one.

Not looking forward to seeing 86,000 miles in a couple years! LOL
I guess it's pretty cool that I essentially have a new car--with the new clutch and tranny.

Thanks!

Richard

 

I'm not hard on the clutch or tranny. And my tranny did not fail, the axle seal did, causing the tranny to dump a 1/3 of the fluid. After it was drained, flushed and refilled, it felt like new. But the metal bits that were floating around in there would has really shortened it's life span.

But like I said, I put over 1500 miles on it in 3 weeks before the new one was installed.

Have been hearing of the new Gertags starting to have issues now too. My tech. has swapped out 2 now.

 

Just wanted to give an update on my new Clutch and Tranny. Now that I've been driving with the new combo, it seems everything is pretty much back to normal. Relearning the clutch feel took some getting used to as well.

I still have a little trouble when shifting quickly--happened again tonight when merging on the freeway---shifting from 2nd to 3rd--had to try twice before getting it. Maybe I just got so used to the tranny being "loose" when it was failing that I forgot how to shift.

The notchiness seems to have gone away, and yep, it still grinds occasionally when shifting in reverse.