Excuse my ignorance as a first time poster here at NAM. Hopefully my request does not already exist elsewhere.

My wife and daughter's LOVE for a Mini Cooper persuaded me to purchase a new R50 fully loaded with all packages in June 05. "Stewie" as my wife calls him now has 10,000 miles. Although I truly like "Stewie" and feel like he is my "adopted son", HE worries me to death thanks inpart to NAM. All the articles posted here about all the problems begin to take it's toll over time. Do I want to disappoint my wife and daughter? Certainly not. Do I want to pay $7000 for a replacement CVT someday? Certainly not.

The "sticky" on the "mushrooming" of the strut tower was certainly a help to me. The first thing I did the other day was go out and check "Stewie" for mushrooms. Left side OK.....Right side...about 1 to 2 mm deflection as determined with a ruler placed on the tower VIN location. First thing I did was order the M7 product.

NOW.....for my wish. I would find it extremely helpful if there was a Sticky for CVT's. I would truly like to know whether this tranny is due to GO between 50K and 70K as reported on this site. It's really difficult to determine if the number of failures as reported here is normal or if there is truly a problem. I would love to here from some CVT owners who have not had any problems on high mileage vehicles. At this point, I am certainly thinking about getting rid of Stewie for a more dependable Aisin automatic.

Thanks in Advance,

 

hey MD,

i too wish there was was a central location for us cvt owners. i have an 03 R50 and love it to death as well. being new to L.A. my wife (who had been out here 7 years already), talked me into the automatic over the manual due to our traffic.

hindsight is 20/20 though and i still wish i had a manual as i prefer it over an automatic. but, i USED to worry to death about it. i'm at 38k and have absolutely no issues. however, the only way i could ease my mind somewhat was to purchase an extended warranty which covers me until 2012. i still worry a little because well, i LOVE my MINI i don't want to see it die. by then (2012), i'll be ready to decide if i'm going to stick it out for a few more years or trade it in on an S in manual. or keep it and buy an S- you know what i mean...

depending on the state you live in you can purchase an extended warranty through various sources online. warranty direct is the name most referred to for a good after market warranty company. or you could call the dealer, it will be a little more expensive. the dealer warranty will not be a BMW/MINI warranty however so essentially it is like paying more for possibly the same results as say warranty direct. warranty direct also offers a payment installment to get you covered. if you're in california like me, it's a little tougher to find an extended warranty due to our nutty police state "protection" laws. but, i did. if you are in california shoot me a PM and i can refer you to a good company.

some will say that an extended warranty is a waste but, chances are they do not own a cvt. put it this way; my warranty cost me $1400 which is a good chunk of $ granted. now look at the common failures on our year(s) of R50. window motor, door lock $400 per side at the dealer. power steering pump $800- $1000+ if the fan goes too. those are the "little" things. the reason i use those examples is that they are common and because like clockwork, within 60 days of being warrantied my MINI developed the issues. leaking power steering pump and both windows acting up. i'm getting it fixed tuesday. total bill will be around $1300. total out of pocket will be $100- my deductible. that indicates i will have "saved" $1200. so that means on my $1400 warranty, what do you think the chances are that i will have something go wrong before 2012 that will cost $200 and therefore cause me to totally break even on the warranty investment . we haven't even gotten to a $7000 cvt yet...

to the worry thing again. reading NAM caused me a lot of lost sleep too! it was to the point that i was driving and listening for my tranny to break. then, i stopped and looked around and PM'd some fellow CVT'ers. come to find that the largest percentage of cvt folks have no issues. but, the posts you will find are normally the negative. i think someone calculated the failure rate at around 5% which is probably a little high. so there is a risk as with any other vehicle. but, the big factor is IF it goes it's a $7000 hit. the other thing is that of all the bad cvt posts, hardly any if any had an extended warranty! most were just out of warranty. 4 more years of warrany buys a lot of sleep...

as far as prolonging the life of your cvt, i would highly recommend regular maintenance. find a good independent MINI specialist in your area and when you get your oil changed, change the fluid in the CVT too. or if you change the oil before the 15,000 mark, change the CVT fluid around once a year. a good independent MINI guy in your area will be a big cost saver (warranties will not cover maitenance), and most independant guys love MINI's and pay close attention to warning signs. you can look here on NAM in the regional forums to get a recommendation in your area.

sorry for the long post but, i've been where you are and this is just some info i'd like to pass along .

 

Purchased our '05 Chili Red & White CVT 6 months ago after driving our neighbor's Mellow Yellow one (instantly hooked). We had 30 days to buy the extended warranty offered through CarMax. I almost never buy an extended warranty on anything. Went back on the last day and paid the $1599 because of the CVT posts I found on NAM. Have slept better ever since. By the way, did I mention we love the MINI and the CVT? I think I saw somewhere that they phased them out to cut production costs? (I agree on the Sticky.)

 

Whew!! Thanks for the partial relief I've been searching for. I've been monitoring NAM, MINI2, MiniUSA, etc., for more than three years now. I've often felt like I have a ticking money time bomb (Stewie) in our garage. I know I drive my wife crazy as I have had our "adopted son" on AutoTrader several times (at very high prices that I knew it would not sell at ) . It REALLY takes the enjoyment out of owning if you know what I mean. In my experience, women just don't sense the same concerns when it comes to mechanical problems and mechanical breakdowns.

I will definitely check out Warranty Direct before our warranty expires. I believe you invested wisely. I am from Ohio. My current Mini dealer is Classic Mini in Mentor. For some reason, they do not recommend any specific extended warranty. There are many days I wish we would have driven our 05 R50 more than we have. I feel like I will have missed out on about 30,000 miles of repairs that would have been taken care of by Mini.

Thanks Again,

 

oh i hear you loud and clear on BOTH accounts. i was literally at the point where i made myself sick staying up at night researching warranty options.

and when i drove i was totally NOT enjoying my motoring experience...AT...ALL. every little sound, or vibration, "ok, JESUS, the tranny is going"... i'm totally serious!

my wife thought i was a raving nut. and i guess i WAS . but, she didn't understand.

all i know is that when i finally got that warranty (i had NO warranty at the time), i slept well. now i enjoy the hell out of the MINI and love to use all the different modes on the CVT. it's a total blast. in many ways close to a manual with the perks of an auto in bumper to bumper L.A. freeway traffic.
i'm not talking abuse here...

i still have some slight concern that the cvt will fail only because i love this car so much. but, knowing it's covered for another 4 years makes it much better. when the 4 years are up, then i will have the experience and hindsight to know what to do with my next MINI, which will be a manual S. i'd love to keep my R50 forever but, that may be unrealistic. we'll see.

 

Nice to read all of this about CVTs. Bought my 16-year-old daughter her first car about a month ago... an '03 CVT, Velvet Red.... I'd never driven any MINI before that... I'm a little unsure about how these are supposed to drive... I'm talking about in pure automatic form, not using the shifting capability, just get in and go... are they a little sluggish? This one seems so... just wants to take it's own sweet time getting up to speed from a stop sign or traffic light... once it's up around 40-50mph, it seems fine, or, it seems like a lot of other cars I've driven with automatic transmissions... at higher speeds it's even more "normal". Just looking for someone who can say, "Yeah, they are a little different..." or, "No, something doesn't sound right about yours...."

 

Pulling out in traffic, you have to quickly be more aggressive on the accelerator for a couple of seconds to get it "wound up". Be prepared to back off if needed; it's ability to take off can be surprising. It's just different than anything else and takes some getting used to. Between the CVT and the "drive by wire" accelerator, there may be a tiny bit of lag involved. Normal.

 

Yep, that describes it pretty well. What about after that initial "lurch"? Seems a little slow getting going after that too... admittedly, I'm not teaching my 16-year-old daughter to be very aggressive on the pedal just yet.

 

Yes it can kind of "lurch". To me it's more so in reverse. Reminicent of letting the clutch off a little too quick on a standard tranny. I completely understand about having a young driver. My son loves the MINI, of course. He's riding with me one day, I shift over to Sport Drive and then down to Manual, and he's like What's That?!?! Have to watch it around them!

 

Congratulations on your purchase Mark. Your 03 CVT Mini sounds normal to me also. One very interesting fact about these ZF CVT transmissions designed in Germany is that they "learn" the driving habits of the individual driving them. I downloaded a complete manual from ZF on this transmission and read it from beginning to end. They actually recommend "erasing" the memory once a new driver owns the vehicle. NOTE: I am definitely not the CVT guru here. I simply read what the manufacturer had to say. ZF produces many CVT transmissions for various auto manufacturers.

Our 05 CVT has 10,375 miles on it. In the beginning, there was a noticeable lag when taking off from a start. At about 7,500 miles, that lag seemed to have just about disappear entirely. Both my wife and I noticed the significant improvement in starting out.

When I was teaching my 17 year old how to drive it a little over a year ago, I was very concerned about the initial lag. This is one reason why I went out and purchased a year end new 2005 Honda Civic for her to take to school. I just couldn't bear to see my new Mini in a high school parking lot full of beginning drivers. For some reason, I wasn't worried about the Civic.

As for our 05 Mini, my wife quickly took over the Mini has her mid life gift I have to admit. I like "Stewie" (from Family Guy) also except for my occasional 1.5 hour drive to Classic Mini of Cleveland to get his fluids changed. Oh well, what we won't do to keep them happy.

P.S. You might want your daughter to put it in SD when she is getting on the highways.

 

MiniDad08,
Ours is a '05 also. I've read every CVT thread that I could find here and elsewhere, but I didn't know a ZF manual existed. Is that something I can download or order from them? Also, like you said, I remember reading that the CVT adjusts to how you drive. Didn't they come out with a software upgrade on the CVTs? It may have been before the '05s but I wonder about the '03s? Edit: You did download the manual from ZF.... my bad.

 

How does one erase the CVT memory so it can adjust to a new driver? Or does it just do it gradually by itself?

 

The CVT manual I downloaded is in PDF (Adobe) format and is 31 pages long. Below is the last page of the manual regarding "adaptation": As I stated, the manual has some interesting information about the Mini's CVT. This transmission has far more engineering than I first thought.

If anyone wants a copy of this file (The CVT manual) sent to them just let me know. The file size is 1.4 MB.

Description Transmission VT1F Page 31 of 31
IV. Adaptation Procedures
Due to manufacturing tolerances in the transmission, and since the VT1F system is subject to
many strict legislative requirements, it is essential to put the control system through a learning
procedure, before the transmission can be controlled effectively.
On the completion of the adaptation, the lifetime adaptation strategy will commence; fine
tuning the response of the control system for the transmission attached to a particular vehicle.
If either the ECU / TCU, GIU / driver or transmission is changed during the service life of the
vehicle, the adaptation strategies must be reset, which in turn will reset the lifetime strategy so
it starts learning from the new base point.

 

yes the cvt does lurch and has a little "lag". not sure if it learns well enough to overcome the lurch or if the driver just gets used to it. but, 2 things i did to pretty much eliminate it was add an aftermarket cold air intake by aFe. and a nicer exhaust. lurch is now gone totally. doesn't lag as much either. much better immediate throttle response.

one thing i do if i'm needing to pull out or manuever in heavy traffic is just toggle over to SD and let the tranny handle the shifting .

 

Thanks Gaffer, Minidad, and Whitey... interesting stuff... am I correct in what I'm reading here that 1) I could ask my shop to "reset" so mine can start learning all over again, or 2) just live with it and let it eventually catch on to how my daughter will drive?

I'm not so sure about the value of adding a CAI or nicer exhaust to a 1.6 liter, non-supercharged engine... especially when all my daughter really cares about is how cute her car is. I don't think better acceleration is too important to her right now. I did put a K&N in the stock airbox... I've done that for years to all my cars.

One more question about switching between "regular" and "sport" and manual shifting... should these switches only be made when the car is stopped, or can you go from regular to sport while driving?

 

You can change back and forth into the different modes while driving. You don't have to be stopped. Also, I read that the computer won't let you change into an inappropriate gear that would hurt anything (I don't want to find out).

 

well, you can go to the dealer and have them perform a reset. however, not sure where you live but, if you look in your regional forums here on NAM you should be able to find a recommended indeoendent MINI specialist in your area. get to know him, he will be your friend. prices will be roughly 1/2 of the dealer's and in most cases service will be much better.

again, not sure how much learning the tranny can do as opposed to the driver learning to deal with the tranny .

i can understand the exhaust and cai reluctance if it's your daughter driving. she may not ever know the difference. but, there is a difference. not so much in HP- you're correct you're not going to get huge gains on the cooper without going crazy with the $$$. but, immediate throttle was my concern and it did address the issue.

you can switch from D to SD or steptronic at anytime. you do not need to be stopped. try out SD next time you take it for a spin. just flip it to the right and you'll see SD in the speedo and just let the tranny make the shifts. you get quite a bit more gusto out of the car.

lastly and i may have already mentioned this. get your tranny fluid changed around once a year. it'll run you around $100-ish - this is when you want to have a good independent mechanic- imagine the dealer will be much more. supposedly it is "lifetime fluid" but, i don't buy it and won't take the chance. i'd be willing to wager that a huge chunk of failures are on cvt's with the original fluid.

 

thank you to MiniDad08 for the pdf. just skimmed over it before work and seems like a real nice little read.

i have PM'd the moderators asking for it to be a sticky. we should collectively gather any links to info if we can get the thread stickied.

 

So I'm ok with stickying a thread but this thread started out as a request for a sticky which doesn't really seem like a good thread to make sticky

Regardless if everyone would get together and start a thread on CVT issues/things to watch for/etc. I would be happy to sticky it.

Thanks

Mark

 

sure i think we would all be happy. if you can just start a sticky maybe titled "CVT info" or something like that. we can start to collect links and provide "life support" to fellow CVT owners.

 

We’re pushing 34K miles on our ’03 CVT. The tranny fluid was changed at the first prescribed Inspection 2 (or is it 1?). I had the dealer do the work as the procedure to change it was a bit involved and the car needed some warranty work anyways. Cost was about $130 I believe. The fluid is not lifetime fluid. I don’t have the Bentley manual in front of me to say for sure, but the change interval is around every 25K miles.

When the fluid was changed they re-flashed the control software for the transmission also. I didn’t get a good explanation as to what the changes were, but I gather it had something to do with the part-throttle, low-speed response to smooth out the pogoing effect that people complain about. The difference was very subtle, to the point where it may just be in my head. I feel it’s more about driver perception than the transmission “learning” cycle and such. Just drive it and like it.

I am wary of the CVT. Something about a composite metal belt driving on a couple of metal drums doesn’t scream longevity to this engineer. I try to avoid quick accelerations from a stop and changes from forward to reverse. No powerbraking and burnouts for me.

Not something to tell a 16 y/o, but I’ve found that the quickest way to go fast is to put it in SD mode and push the throttle to the “kickdown” point in the throttle. RPM goes to ~5500 and stays there. Presumably this is right around the peak power output of the engine. Push the throttle any further and the engine will rise and fall off of the rev limiter.

 

Good advice all, and many thanks for it... along with many thanks for this website in general.

I'm in Memphis. Local dealer is Roadshow BMW/MINI, but there's a great independent shop too that I have experience with from my BMW days a decade ago... Alpine Autoworks... formerly a BMW shop only, but now I understand they're into MINIs also. I think I'll go see my old friends there and see what's up.

 

If you change the fluid every 15-20k miles you will drastically reduce the chance of having any issues .

 

i got my cvt "erased" when i bought my mini and it didnt really help the lerch between park and drive and drive and reverse. im going to the dealer in a week or so, and hoping theres something more to help with this, cuz my lead foot and i would like the lerching to stop =)

 

Kristee,

The lag that occurrs shifting between park and drive and drive to reverse is "normal" for the mini cvt. Just a second of "patience" is all that is required to adjust to this delay.

The lag or lerch from drive while accelerating is what I noticed "smooth out" after about 8000 or so "learning" (Stewie is a bit of a slow learner) Our cvt mini now "takes off" much better than it used to.

Out of curiosity, how many miles agao did you have your cvt "erased"?