About 3 weeks ago I picked up my 08 R56. Everything about it is great except for this.

When I drove off the lot at the dealer, moving the shifter from gear to gear was very smooth. Very smooth. Now, after 600 miles of city driving, shifting feels worse, it takes more force to shift and feels like there is a gate blocking every gear. Not as much as moving into reverse, but similar. This also makes a bit of noise in the shifter area.

I've driven stick for a long time, but only in higher mileage cars.

The feeling of the shifter was my favorite part about this car and now it's gone. What leads to this type of degradation in quality of shifter movement?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Look a couple of topics down for clutch fully ingaged, slight grind.

You won't find an answer but at least you won't feel alone.

 

My total guess is that it's something to do with your clutch (but I've been wrong before). This happenend on our '06 R53 MCS (which we still have). I'll know before too long with our new 08.

 

I've had to replace two slave cylinders. If the slave cylinder starts leaking the car becomes very hard to shift. If it is a slow leak it progressively gets worse until the clutch peddle will stick to the floor. The brake warning light will also come on intermittently. It will also become almost impossible to downshift. I don't like the Mini clutch design but grin and bear it since it is still under warranty. I'll be a bit more ticked off when I have to pay to repair it.

 

Thanks for the info

 

I got the same problem as well. Have you had your car checked in the dealer yet, MelvinParker?

 

My dealer is in san antonio. I'm up in austin. So its 90 minutes away.

I can't make out if its really that different. I feel like it is. Oh well.

 

Only 470 miles on '08 base Coop, but shifting still seems fine still and usually feeling better. I dont' get any grinding or real difficulty except for an occasional notchy feeling (usually 1st to 2nd; synchros???), but that seems dependent upon rpms. Something interesting I've noticed is not always, but probably half the time, when shifting into first from a complete stop, I hear this distant "thump" almost like a trunk closing or a distant original MINI burble sound. Odd because I hear it in the trunk area, not around the transmission. Always interesting sounds and quirks I assume with any new car, but I sure pay a lot more attention to them in my MINI...

Greg