i was out picking up a pizza and beer and on the way back home i was tailgated on the freeway by some guy in a chrysler 300. so i wanted to downshift into 4th and speed up but was not thinking and put it into 3rd. i was going about 70mph+ in 5th gear when i put it in 3rd. the engine made a loud rumble and slowed abit. the RPMs jumped to 5800- 6200+(did not hit redline) instantly from around 3000. and i could smell like this burning mushroom smell. did i damage my car? im so mad right now. also car was about 5 miles or about 15 min in from a cold start. So its not like i have been driving for an hour and the engine was nice and warm. was there possible damage or is that just something that any cooper put on the track experiences all day long? BTW im driving a cooper with the new getrag 5 speed. i would like to get 200,000+ miles of of my transmission and engine and this is not what i wanted to do.

also can someone point me to a chart of what MPH the 2005 cooper is at in each gear at each RPMs

 

Although I have never smelled a burning mushroom, I doubt you did any damage.


>Rev. Limiter...<

 

no damage at all. your transmission can handle it and you did not exceed redline.

sure the burnt mushroom smell wasn't just the pizza?

 

hahaha. i knew someone would say that. no it was not the pizza. but seriously there was a buring smell. shouldnt that be an indicator of damage. can the engine and trans take a sudden 3000 to 6000+rpm jolt like that. also at what speed is a cooper getrag at 6000 RPMs in 3rd? anybody know. im trying to see if maybe i did go over redline and did not see it. i would say i was going no more than 80 mph at my fastest when i hit 3rd. would that take me over redline?

 

--DUDE! I burned out so bad I think I singed the pepperoni on my pizza!!! Sorry I couldn't resist.

Um but seriously are you having any problems with the car today? Is it shifting okay? Is it running sluggish? I don't think you hurt your car. You just probably warmed it up in a hurry. If nothing's leaking and you don't notice any performance loss I wouldn't worry. You MINI is pretty tough. Just don't do it again or it might not forgive you.

--pyratio

 

you could have smelled a bit of heated clutch if your downshift was a little odd, but even that won't hurt anything if it was an isolated incident.

I say just relax, enjoy the pizza, and forget about it!

There is a thread somewhere here about shifting frm 6th to 3rd by accident and I recall someone stating they had never done it by accident but sometimes do it on purpose when they want quick accelleration on the highway. . . .

 

Besides me, and the tech at the dealer, 3 people have driving my MINI. My ex, once, my daughter, who had the pleasure of going solo, and my son. My son and I were out for a motor, he was driving, and he blew a shift, red line, bounce, he felt bad.

I figure nothing bad happened. I take it to bounce from time to time.

Should go 200k miles no problem.

 

How long did the shift take? It was probably just the clutch slipping a little. I rode the clutch a bit much trying to load my MINI on a trailer and had that awful smell. I was worried that I burned the clutch up. That was over 15k miles ago, no problems. Also I have an S and often enter the interstate shifting from third at 90 mph at approx. 6200 rpm. No problems there either. One thing to try: get up to cruising speed in forth or fifth gear at 3-4k rpms and punch it, if the tachometer goes up fast (clutch slipping) you may have a problem. Other wise you are good to go. You may want to stay away from mushroom pizza for a while.

 

Third gear is the correct gear to downshift to in ANY MC or MCS at 70mph to produce maximum acceleration (except CVT of course). It's good to 85-90mph depending on transmission and tire size: http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?s...r&titlesonly=0
But be careful, improper downshifting is the ONLY way to overrev a car with a rev limiter.

That'll show 'em. If they tailgate you again, you'll set another mushroom on fire.

 

If your MINI seems OK now, it is OK....and if it isn't OK but it seems OK anyway.......there's nothing you can or should do about it.


Not to worry.

 

Am I the only one wondering what the guy in the 300 did when he did a rapid deceleration?

 

Besides a clutch smell a car can let off a burning smell when run hard. People say this smell usually wears off...I still get it on my car after 7k miles and alot of hard driving.

 

I would have LOVED to have seen that 300s driver!!!!