My wife was driving her low-mileage (7,700 miles) 2010 J-A-C about 35 mph this morning. All of a sudden, loud grinding noise from transmission. She pulled it over and put it in Park, but it started rolling forward. She put on handbrake, started it again (all good so far), then put it in drive...horrible grinding noise.

It was towed to dealer but they won't be able to troubleshoot until tomorrow (still under warranty...yay!). Does anyone have any ideas what's going on, or is this probably just a one-off issue? Thanks in advance...

 

Park doesn't work, horrible grinding noise in drive? That can't be good, sounds like the tranny is toast..

 

We've been seeing alot of hesitation upon throttle from a stop in the new base Coopers with auto. 12 cases so far at my dealer. don't know much of what's actually going on with the aisin automatic for base coopers

 

Not the transmission at all. From the service order: "found right outer CV joint broken, removed and replaced right half shaft".

I found it interesting that this wasn't a wear issue, but rather a sudden, catastrophic failure. There was no indication of a problem (clicking, etc.) until the loud grinding noise. And this on a car with only 7,100 (not 7,700) miles. It was in shop only 2 months and 300 miles earlier, for oil and brake fluid changeout, so a torn boot would have been noticed.

Dealer was apologetic about the delay in their ability to inspect the car, but explained the pre-Thanksgiving crush of business was to blame. Repaired today, courtesy car wash, all good.

 

Good to hear it is fixed for yah.. All in all these transmissions are fairly decent.. The key into keeping them in tip top shape is a ATF change far before what MINI recommends.. I think they say a change at a 100k but I have done my first change at 30k..

 

Good to know. At the rate my wife drives the MINI (7k miles in 4 years), it'll be ready for an early ATF change in about 12 years.

 

i have a friend that owns a transmission shop

he says to change the drive line fluids every 2 years or 30k miles, whichever comes first

i have been following his advise on my 1997 gmc sonoma v6 5 speed manual 4x4 since new ... it now has 300k miles and still has all the original drive line components, transmission, transfer case, front diff and rear diff

scott