Several have written about difficulty getting INto gears, but the problem I am having is getting OUT of 2nd, and 4th. Danny at Mini Corsa JUST finished some work this morning. I drove from the shop back to work, and everything was fine. This evening, about 10 miles in, I had trouble getting OUT of 2nd several times in a row. By "hard" I mean that the gearshift lever wants to stay in 2nd (and 4th) just before it gets to the neutral position. 1st, 3rd, and 5th all work fine, so I just started shifting around 2 and 4 the rest of the way. There are no strange noises that I've noticed, but then I am not that great at detecting them. It was past closing time, or I would have called Danny at Mini Corsa. I don't think it is related to anything they did there, but they did work on the exhaust, so they were working under the car, so....

Anyway, if anyone has an idea what this might be, please send my way. Thanks. And, by the way, I just had a new clutch (which feels right, so far) and There is NO history of any tranny trouble before. The '04 MCS has a little under 72000 miles.

Ideas?

 

If they were doing exhaust work it makes sense. The gearshift linkage is directly on top of the exhaust and covered by the heat shield. Under the center heat shield are two cable clips and it is possible either one of the clips or perhaps part of the heat shield is putting pressure on one of the two shift cables. It is interesting you are only having issues with 2nd and 4th; the cable could be catching or chattering where it is exposed in the gearshift assembly thus only being noticeable on the pull and not push of the cable into its sleeve. It shouldn't be difficult for them to look at. Otherwise, getting at the cables at the transmission end simply requires removal of the airbox and is also a very easy affair. Do you have a short shifter installed? Goodluck!

 

Thanks, lovethecorners. The feel of the shift lever fits what you are saying: as though an edge or corner of one part is rubbing on another, and sort of hanging up a bit. No awful noises are coming from either the trans itself or the shifter. It is just this "sticky" feeling coming out of 2 and 4 (I haven't tried 6th since this started! It might be a problem, too.) I did notice after shutting the engine down, when I moved the lever through 1-4 while stopped, that the feeling still occurred going from 4th to neutral, though not as pronounced, but not from 2nd to neutral. I believe that these behaviors jive with your hypothesis.

I have no short shifter, but I do have an OBX header and Milltek cat-back (i.e., "non-stock" in the area). The work they did was on the portions of the exhaust where there are connections and/or flanges (which have caused minor problems since the after-market stuff first went on!!). Danny told me he/they did a little welding in one area to eliminate a leak that was causing a noise he found obnoxious. (I couldn't hear what he was talking about, but it does sound different -- smoother(?) -- now, I think. I'm not sure.)

I wonder, though, why the shifting problem wasn't evident immediately upon picking the car up? Could the shift linkage have moved around a bit -- changed attitude, perhaps -- some time after being put into use? Oh, well, I guess I'll call Danny and go from there.

If this were to turn out to be an unintended result of the work they did, I have to say that would make me unhappy with an otherwise fairly good experience with Mini Corsa. It might not be "difficult" for them to check it out, or even to correct, but their shop is 50+ traffic-filled miles from either my home or my work. That means at least two hours round trip for me, plus whatever time I might spend waiting for them to fix the mistake -- hours that I can never get back, and that I'd like to be able to bill back to them!

Not to mention that shifting "around" 2nd and 4th is a PITA and, to put it mildly, not conducive to optimum performance!!

Thanks, again!

 

But you have no choice but to get it fixed. It is annoying to have to deal with a constant shifting problem. And you maybe causing damage in the process too.

Good luck.

 

Did you ever get this problem resolved? I just had a short shifter installed and am having similar problems shifting into and out of 2nd, 4th, and 6th. The cable was kinked as the directions say and the shop did say they clearanced the heatshield and everything underneath.

- Andrew

 

First thing I thought of when I saw the title of this thread was... Check the adams apple.