My 02 MCS has recently been getting harder and harder to shift. When I shift with the clutch pedal pushed to the floor I can hear little squeaks as the shifter moves. I have searched the archives and found a few posts that seem to indicate that the shift cables sometimes need to be lubed and it sounds likely that this is my problem. I am hoping that someone who has been there and done that can either point me to information on the procedure to tackle this repair myself and/or if anyone has had a dealer/mechanic do the work can you give me an idea of the amount of time and/or amount of money it takes to complete the job.

Additionally if someone has had the cables lubed after shifting became stiffer did the repair work well? Did it last a long time? Any problems since the repair?

As usual, all information, assistance and links to information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Bump for any reply?

 

Thanks for bumping this back up, I missed it on Monday. Yes you can do the job and most of it from inside the MINI. Pop that boot up and you can get to most of the stuff that may need lube. Will it help? Don't know, how many miles does the MINI have? Is it all the gears or just the even or odd numbers?

 

Do you have a list (relating to the shifter) of what needs to be lubed and with what kind of lube? I need to do a 50k maintenance session.

 

When you lift the boot you will see where the old lube was/is. I don't have anyone product to recommend to use and don't know what we used on the last MINI we did.

 

Thanks for the reply, and the good news that it can be done from the inside. The car has 55K on it and is stiff in all 6 gears, though sometimes slightly better than others, but in no particular gear. Is it pretty straightforward to get everything apart to do the work? Any special precautions or caveats?

And lastly, I play to use moly grease. I have had good luck using it on the bushings on my TR6. After 2 years still no squeaks with poly bushings using the moly grease.

 

How did you make out?

This past Friday, I experienced what seems to be the same problem. It was fine driving on the highway, but when I hit the road locally the constant shifting from 1 through 3, I had a hard time. When parked and I shifted into all gears with foot to the floor, I kept hearing squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.

My car was sitting for 2 weeks outside before I used it!

I also last year, from fall through winter, every morning when I'd start the car
and drive for 10 minutes it was hard to shift, until the car warmed up.

Which brand of Moly-Grease did you use? Red Line?

 

the shifter cables are known to rust on certain cars. lubing the end where it meets the lever on the trans wont help the rest of the cable inside the jacket up to the shifter where the problem lies.

 

I must admit, I'm not aware of any MCS having this problem. Is the MINI
one of these cars with this problem?

 

havent really heard lately about people having this problem. I know we changed these on plenty of cars years ago.

 

Here are the steps I took:

Removed the shift ****.
Removed the shift boot.
Removed the down shafts.
Removed the center console.

I used just some CV joint moly grease I had hanging around on the ball of the shifter even though it didnt look like that area was dry, but I figured it couldnt hurt. I am not sure of the brand name but I purchased it at NAPA.

On the passenger side of the shifter there is a little window where you can see where the cable slides into the cable housing. It was too tight of a fit for me to get any moly grease in there so I used the straw like little tube that comes with a can of PB Blaster and squirted some on the exposed cable and tried as best I could to get some PB Blaster to go into the cable housing. I tried shifting while everything was apart with no noticable difference. So I put everything back together rather disappointed.

Over the next 3 or 4 days of driving and shifting the stiffness has gotten progressively better and the squeaking a little less and less, but still noticable and the shifting is not back to what I would consider normal or ideal, but much better than before any repair attempt. I believe I really need to attack the problem from the bottom of the car also and remove the exhaust, remove the heat shield, the shifter cover and the lubricate the cables from the bottom also and I would expect the problem to go away.

It might be possible to just get to the little window and squirt some PB Blaster on the cable by simply popping the shifter boot off but I havent tried it yet.

Since it will be so involved to try to fix the problem from below I will try to lubricate from the top again to see if it makes things even a little better.

 

I am having the exact same problem that was originally described. I have an 05 MCS. My right arm is really getting a work out and there is a lot of squeaking. Sometimes it's worse than others and it doesn't seem to matter whether it's hot or cold.

Did you ever resolve the problem completely?

 

The clutch and brake cables on my Harley Davidson needed lubing when they got hard to pull. I used white lithium grease in a spray can and a gadgit that fit around the end of the cable tite and had a little hole in it for the straw to fit in. The spray would be forced into the cable housing.
I would think this would work on a shifter cable if it is not overly large. That is if there is enough room to use the devise.
As far as grease is concerned I would think "WHITE LITHIUM GREASE" would be the best lube to use because it will not run off or stiffen up when the temperture drops a little. It is also good for door hinges Etc.
I don't know what the cables look like so I don't know if the motorcycle gadgit will work.
Ronnie948

 

An added benefit is that if you can the white lithium worked into the cable housing, it will keep watter out and keep the cables from freezing in cold weather........like mine do. On mornings when it's well below 20* it's all I can do to move the lever, once it's moving it's usable, once the car warms up it's like new again. PITA!

 

Have you noticed that most of these posts are from the frigid north east and mid west? A search of this forum will yield multiple hits on ice forming in the cable housings resulting in stiff shifting. Most of the cars were parked outside in wintery conditions. Some of the respondents resorted to parking their cars in heated garages to alleviate this problem.
May I suggest that you pop the hood on your cars and remove the air cleaner housing. Voila! this will reveal the guts of your shift mechanism ( Cables, cable housings and ball joints). You may, if you chose, lube these parts with molly or lithium paste grease. Try fixing the problem with a gentle application of heat. I would suggest using a hair dryer set on high. Fix the hair dryer in position to the block such that the hair dryer nozzle is six inches from the cables. Let the dryer play on this site for 1 to 2 hours. This ought to thin the grease in the housings and liquify the ice.

 

My Mini parks in a heated garage every night and it's still a problem for me when I pull out of the garage in the morning. But I am going to give your other suggestion a try this weekend. Thanks for the advice.

 

Blowing off some cobwebs on an old thread....

I am experiencing all the symptoms listed above, in cold and warm temperatures. My shifter has a soft squeak, is often difficult to get in/out of the shift gates, but is still very clean and accurate from shift to shift. No clutch issues, no grinds, synchros are fine. The linkage is more than likely simply in need of some greasing up.

I'll be lubricating every accessible point in the shift linkage within the next week or so. I'll do my best to report back here and possibly snap some pics along the way to help anyone who's unsure of what they're up against.

 

Yes, A nice picture tutorial would be really a good thing. I think that at some time in the future we are all going to need to lube the shift cables on our std transmissions.
Thanks again,
Ronnie948

 

Nice to know mine's not the only squeaker out there. I started noticing it about 2 weeks ago - guess it was a combination of warm weather & being able to have the windows down and had the radio off. Also, it seemed the longer the mini was driven, the stiffer it was to shift. parked car. engine off. go through the gears - squeak, squeak - Glad nobody around to say "hey, your MINI's squeaking -

will follow the posted advice and see what happens via lube.

cheers
-dan

2006 BRG/W 25K miles

 

Anyone tried one of these tools to force the lube down the cables?




http://www.motionpro.com/motorcycle/partno/08-0182/

Or this:

http://www.keysolutions.com/M-Class....ent&AutoFramed

 

I did mine and it's totally just lack of lubrication. There are 2 black accordian boots (one on fwd gear linkage, one rev) and the fwd one is ripped at the top. I assume water gets in there and then dries/corrodes and stiffens things up further as the linkage was gray/white and very slightly crusty.

On the moving parts of the linkage I used Liquid Wrench white lithium grease (comes with WD40 type red hose) while my buddy rowed through the gears. Since the top of one boot was torn, I basically filled it with a good amount of grease to let it slowly work it's way out and also made sure to pop up the shifter boot in the cabin to do the pivot ball on the shifter stalk. I didn't even bother trying to force any down into the cables as it loosened right up instantly.

No more squeaks and it shifts 100% freely with no resistance. The shifter almost jumps into the next shift gate with barely a nudge. A friend has an '08 S for me to compare it to and they're exactly alike, so I'm pretty sure it's solved. (for now...)

 

hi
having this problem myself.. especially in reverse gear.. finding it hard to get out..
I live where there is warm temps only.. so ice isnt causing the problem..

where are u lubing?
1) under the shift boot
2) from under neath and lubing where the cable shifters connect ?
3) under the bonnet?

Thanks.

 

Definitely watching this thread as I am having similar problem. I'll try the suggestions here, thanks guys!