my wife is the owner of an 02 minicooper with the five speed manual, 70000 miles. two weekends ago, she was driving home with the cruise control on. she was cruising in fifth gear when suddenly she heard a grinding noise, she slows down, and tries to pull off in a gas station parking, and the car will not come out of fifth. she shuts it down and i go rescue her. the next day, after reading up on some issues, i read that there was a recall on the shifter cables. the mini lounge says that the recallwas never done. so i tow to the dealership, night drop it, and wait.

the next day, we get a call that says the recall was done, and the problem is with the clutch. instead of paying the ridiculous amount of money to have the dealer replace it, i call a mechanic friend, and he says if i get the parts, he will replace it. i tow the car to my mother in laws garage, he starts working on it, gets it apart. i decide to get the clutch from the dalership, so i have it in hand and dont have to wait on it even though i could have saved myself 130 bucks by ordering it. get to the dealership, pick it up, and check it out only to find there is no aligning tool in the clutch kit. every clutch kit i have ever gotten has had an aligning tool. i refuse to pay the 83 dollar for the tool (my friend has a universal one).

drop the clutch kit, he gets back to me today and says that the problem is not the clutch, the throw out bearing had exploded, and now with the nes clutch in, the tranny does not turn (seized up). he says needs a whole new tranny. i really cannot afford it at this time, but cannot be without that car for too much longer. has anyone had any problems similar to this? and if so, does the whole tranny need to be replaced, or is there another part that may be the likely culprit and save me a bunch of money and worry?

 

that was supposed to be new clutch, not nes clutch

 

If you do a search on Midlands transmission you will see that these are prone to this failure.I had one replaced under warranty at 12 months,the replacement is still holding up knock wood.Unfortunatley any of your options will cost money,the best but not the cheapest is a cooper S 6 speed Getrag swap.

 

The midlands seem to be ok units....minimania sells kits with replacements gears, etc. I would check a junkyard, bolt in a tranny from a wrecked car and call it done. Sorry to hear about all that work for nothing, but it sounds like swapping the tranny should be pretty easy since you have almost done it before!! Good luck!!

 

We sell a lot of Midland parts - if you have the budget, the factory rebuild is the way to go. But if you want to save some $$, have a qualified transmission shop repair yours....