My mini cooper for some reason will only shift with manual shifting and I've never driven the car this way. I got into it this morning and realized that it wasn't going past 2nd gear and had to change it myself.


Any ideas?

 

Justa or MCS?

 

Well, here is what I know in automatic transmission.
Most of my car from the past and present are standards.

The automatic transmission is controlled by an electronic control module, that is energizing a set of solenoids to shift into gears.
The control module is a rectangular box, often located behind the dash and wired to transmission. The solenoids are attached to valve body, inside transmission.
If a solenoid is defective, or if control module is defective, the car may have problems shifting into one or more gears.

 

I don't seem to have any problems shifting gears, it is just making me do it manually. It is a 2004 Mini Cooper.

 

So it is a CVT......

 

Yes from what I've read it would have to be.

 

So it does not have any "gears". It just simulates gears to make the driver happy. CVT troubles are so numerous....I would get to the dealer ASAP.....who knows, maybe they will good-will the repair.
Good Luck.

 

Now it seems like it won't leave what appears to be "first gear". The closest dealership is over an hour away, but thats not driving 10 mph either.

 

Jason, Turn the ignition off, can you put it in 2nd gear (engine not running)?
If you can start at 2nd then try the 3rd...all the way.

 

It lets me go from first to second and second to first but that is it. I talked with a service tech and he said that its possible that its a sensor that needs to be replaced since I haven't had any problems with the transmission in the past. Any more ideas?

 

Get a tow before you cause some $$$ problems messing with it....it seems unlikely that anybody will be able to diagnose it without touching it, and MINI is the only ones who will work on these CVT's. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

 

Jason
As has been said, the CVT has no gears. It is a giant minibike torque conveter except with a metal belt instead of rubber and cord. If the pulley motor fails to change the pulley size then the belt will not climb in the groove to change the drive ratio thus the feeling of it being in a low gear. The manual shifting thing is just a computer controlled series of preset pulley positions to make it feel like you're shifting into different gears. It could be anything from a mechanical problem to wiring to a computer problem. The short answer as Zippy suggests is to tow it to a MINI dealer for repair.

 

The good news is that if it's shifting in sport mode then it's *probably* not mechanical - there's just a sensor/signal/relay problem. But as said above, only the dealer can tell for sure.