i own a stock MC auto and i was driving it yesterday when out of nowhere the cars RPM started going crazy reving up and down without me hitting the accelerator and then when i came to a stop light the car reved down to about about 1500-2000 rpm and wouldnt pick up, the car barely budged and following that the EP light and service engine lights came on. The car would barely move in both reverse and drive but everything thing else is working. Can anyone give some insight?

 

Sounds like a belt issue in the CVT transmission. Has the fluid been changed regularly? What year? Mileage?

 

yes i just got my 50,000 mile maintainence by mini. its an 05 mini cooper auto stock

 

almost forgot, also when the car was towed to mini, when it arrived the car seemed to be driving fine again but the lights were still on.

 

Does the Dealer have a diagnosis yet?

 

The dealer said its the Transmission computer system. Its being put in and tested now, then they are running a second diagnosis test. They said basically i abused the sportronic mode too much. i need to get me a manual this summer

 

How do you abuse an auto transmission or better yet a CVT which doesnt even have gears? The only way I can think of is doing neutral drops...

 

And it's not possible to due a neutral drop in my MC with a CVT. I can rev it in neutral but the transmission won't shift into drive until the rpm's drop. Even power braking it at a stop the engine won't rev much past 2,000 rpm's.

I don't think using the features in the CVT like the sport drive or the manual shifting is abusing it. Plus with the rpm cutoff it doesn't rev above the 6,000 rpm max of the CVT anyway. I would ask them to be more specific about how they say you abused the transmission. Then ask which of them has ever owned a CVT MC and for how long. It seems the people with the worst opinions of CVT's are ones you have never owned one.

 

yeah and now they said its the entire tranny that needs to be replaced so that blows. I am going to inquire as to specifically how this happen. They sadi it was because of using the car in sprots mode, manual shifting too much. since im out of warranty by a couple thousand miles, mini agreed to pay for parts so i have to pay for a labor: $2500

 

Have you contacted the MINI field engineer in your region with this problem? The dealer can arrange an appointment with him/her on your behalf. Have you had a similar problem while the car was still under warranty? If so, you may get the field engineer to approve the entire cost of repairs under warranty. Even though they are covering the cost of transmission, the labor charge is still insane! Besides, CVT is known to have problems (just look around NAM). It's not like you are the first person with a CVT failing at early mileage :( It's very easy for the dealer to blame the driver if there is ANY problem with the transmission and/or clutch. In my case, the field engineer was a great guy and agreed to pay for the clutch replacement at 54Kmiles while the dealer wanted somewhere around $4K for the job (parts + labor)...
Good luck!