My gear shift seems misaligned. I've been driving the car since February and last week it occurred to me that Neutral is *not* dead center straight up and down, the whole thing seems tilted to the right. In fact, if you run the gear shift from the trim ring up to the ball on top, it is clearly pointing slightly to the right. I took the car in this morning thinking there was a problem, and they told me it was supposed to be this way. The mechanic did look it over just to humor me. The service adviser said their loaner mini was like that too. This is my second mini, the first was a Cooper S, this is a Clubman S. I swear I have never noticed this before. Has anyone else??

 

car is built in the uk and uk is rhd, a alta shortshifter will cure this.

 

The problem is with the shift box that the stick connects to. Cable come out of this box and go to the transmission. I just had mine replaced under warranty. My shift got super tight and the springs would not keep the shifter aligned.

 

I just finished installing my Cravenspeed Short shifter and now mine tilts to the right as well! it doesn't feel right and I feel like I just lost 5th and 6th gear... I don't know what's going on. It was perfectly straight before the install.

 

Mine is stock, and the dealership said it was normal. But I know that it changed at some point and now that some time has passed it seems to me like it is weather (hot/cold) related. Sometimes it is off, sometimes it is not. Of course, maybe it is just our collective imaginations

 

I had my whole shift linkage replaced twice under warrantee, and a clutch. Both because of the shifter becoming super stiff and nearly impossible to use with serious brute force.

Now i'm out of warrantee and it's happening again. It takes full force to get the car into 6th gear. My Fiance can't drive my car...because she can't get it into 5th or 6th. Yet my local dealer says this is normal bla bla bla...

I'm just going to take the whole linkage out and clean/lubricate it. As well as change the fluid in the transmission hoping that helps.

But I never noticed the shifter being at a weird angle. I'll have to check to see if that's happening too.

 

I have a 2004 Mini S, and I am experiencing gear shifting problems as you described. This just started last week. Sometimes it works, sometimes it takes all my strength to switch gears. Any suggestions?

 

There's a plastic housing that holds the lower ball of the shifter in place. Check to see if that is broken because pieces can break off and block movement of the shifter. if you open it up and don't see anything wrong, it could be on the tranny end vice linkage portion. Good luck and let us know how it goes!