Have a 02 mini with the cvt tranny. Every now and then, the car will jerk when waiting at a stop light, is this normal? Is there a fix? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

I have an early '03, and, yeah, I've had that happen before, too. I don't seem to have it all the time, though...just when the car is still "cold". When "cold", it also hesitates when I start to pull away, too, but again, once it is "warmed up", I don't seem to notice it anymore.

 

happens to me once in awhile ... used to freak me out, now I am just used to it ... hehe

the thing is it seems to love doing it when I am too close to another car in front of me at a light

 

MINIs have minds and personalities of their own, yours like to spook ya when it knows that you fudged up and got to close to the car in front

 

My 2003 was doing the same thing. The first time, I actually asked the guy behind me if he had hit me! The second time, the guy behind me was about 20 feet away and the third time, there was no one there. I have also had a lot of idle issues. After taking it to the dealer multiple times, they offered to replace the tranny. The idle issues are still there but not nearly as bad and it has now been several months with no thump and jerking forward. All this was under warranty but I hear MINI/BMW are really good about repairing/replacing CVT's after the warranty, some times for no charge but mostly at a whopping discount.

 

Mines a 02 with about 37K miles on it.....think they'll look at it for free?

 

as much as I love my CVT and besides the minor magical gremlins I think its pretty damn bulletproof ... especially since I always throw it in SD and Manual mode without a glitch ... but I tell you what, I would not trust this tranny once out of warranty.

 

You need to obtain the latest DME software update. I also have a troublefree '02 MC CVT with 40K miles. The "buckling" when stopped at a light did happen to us but that was like 3 years ago!

Get the latest software update available for the car and make sure the dealer resets the CVT's motronic settings and you should be fine,

 

I have an '06 MC CVT and while I don't find it "bucking" when I am stopped, I do find it a bit jumpy when I am slowing down almost to stop and also when I am just going a slow speed. The people who ride with me probably are thinking, "Man, can this girl drive?" but honestly...not my fault. I've nicknamed my MINI "Hopper" because of this. Anybody else have this problem?