2004 with 6 speed CVT, 137K and still tearing up the road.

 

 

We have 64,000 on a 2005 Cooper with CVT. I've had the special CVT oil changed twice, and it's driven fairly sanely, though my wife is hard on cornering and the brakes. The CVT is actually very nice feeling, compared to my 2010 Cooper with a regular automatic.

I've always wondered how many of these have died from very aggressive driving.

 

Does anybody know what fails when the Mini CVT goes out? Does it get worse with time or does it just strand you on the side of the road? I changed my fluid at 30,000 miles and it is now at 50,000 miles. The fluid looked ok and the job wasn't exceedingly difficult (as compared to an oil change with the giant oil filter wrench).

Has anybody rebuilt a CVT tranny? It looks pretty simple inside with very few moving parts.

Thanks,
Peter

 

I cannot tell you what symptoms to watch out for put there are plenty of threads here about the troubled CVT including the class action suit and settlement.

There are some references to a guy in the south that rebuilds CVTs. Even had some youtube videos if I recall correctly.

Others have elected to swap to a manual when the CVT fails.

My CVT on my 2005 R50 never failed and I sold it with 100,000+ miles and it was running fine. But with the CVT it seems to not be something you can pinpoint when it will fail.

At my dealer they included the CVT fluid drain/fill as part of the scheduled service interval. At an additional price. I don't recall the exact details, but the car had service 1 and service 2. I think it was on each service 2 they would handle the CVT service for maybe $400. So that was about 30,000 mile intervals.

My opinion is that it is more difficult to repair than a non-cvt. Electronic controls, bands and pulleys, special fluid, etc. Which is why a rebuilt unit costs as much as the value of the entire car.

 

Ive got 98xxx on my 2004 r50. Jurking is present in low rpms when accelerating of a stop sign or driveway. Jeking is also present when changing from park to reverse or drive, a bit of a lag in the jerking.