A little background about me. I've owned nothing but manual transmissions for 35 years. I put 174,000 miles on my 2004 MCS 6-speed. I bring this up because driver error may become an issue here, and I want to be clear I am not a total newb when it comes to stick shifts.

I recently took delivery of a 2010 MCS Mayfair, again with a 6-speed manual. I noticed immediately that the clutch feels much softer and more forgiving than the clutch in the '04.

On my first day with the car, I was backing out a parking space on a slight downhill slope at a gas station when the transmission got stuck in reverse. If I went any further, I would hit a car and/or a gas pump. The clutch felt fine, and the stick moved freely, but every time I let up on the clutch, I began inching backwards again.

I tried everything I could think of to get out of reverse, including going all the way over to fifth gear so there could be no doubt about the reverse/first possibility. I shut the engine off and restarted it. Same result. Finally, after several minutes of trying, the car found first again and we drove off.

Nothing happened over the next few days. I did notice that the clutch had a much softer engagement pattern. With the '04, the clutch is either engaged or it isn't; there is little margin for error. With the '10, the clutch is much more forgiving. Sometimes on a hill I got a little bit of rollback because it took so much clutch travel before it fully engaged.

I concluded that what happened that first day was driver error. The combination of a new clutch and a space where I had absolutely no room for error meant I simply had not fully engaged the clutch, and it was gravity, not the gearbox, that was making me roll backwards.

Or so I thought.

A few days later, I was driving to work and took the car out of gear to stop at a light on a rather steep hill. When the light went green, I put the car in first, and found myself in reverse again. Again, I tried everything I could think of to go forward. The big difference this time is that I had miles of room behind me, and I was able to confirm that the clutch really was engaging and I really was in reverse. It was not just gravity and an unengaged clutch that was moving me backwards.

I again tried everything I could think of to get out of reverse, without success. After 2-3 minutes of trying, the car found first again. Unfortunately, by this time the light was red again, so I took the car out of gear to wait for the light to change.

Big mistake. The light went green, and I went backwards again! Another 2-3 minutes of trying, another first gear finally found, and another red light as my reward! This time I wasn't waiting again, so I made a right turn on red and continued on my way.

The dealership did the right thing. They brought another car to my office an took the new MINI to the shop. Meanwhile, I left town on a pre-planned vacation. They have had the car for five days, and several test drives have failed to find any problems with the gearbox.

I am returning to town today and will drive the car with them this afternoon. I am not confident I can make the car reproduce the problem while I am with them.

What should I do? Has anyone seen a problem like this before on a new car? I have heard of something like this on cars with hundreds of thousands of miles on them, but not on a new car.

This whole thing makes me more than a little nervous. Advice, please.

 

That sounds really weird, are the sticks not a mechanical connection to the gearbox anymore?

 

GO TO THE DEALER RIGHT AWAY. I bet the soft clutch was a sign of trouble to come. I've have an 09 and my clutch feels like any other clutch. Hope you get it fixed and it isn't too much trouble for you.

 

Assuming there is a next time that it might happen, try a couple things. 1st, you can always start the car in second gear to get going. So if you cant get it into first, start in second. Not the best for the clutch if you did it all the time, but fine as a temporary solution. You dont say how you are trying to get it into first, but sometime "downshifting" from second to first while stopped is the best way to have the shifter go in a straight line to hit first.

If you find the problem happening all the time or you are able to recreate the symptom then take the car to the dealership, grab the service writer and bring them out to the car with you and demonstrate the problem.

 

the car has been at the dealer for days while I've been out of town. They cannot replicate the problem. When it happened, I tried to "downshift" and also to start in all sorts of gears. It refused to leave reverse. I am returning today to have them watch me drive. I am not confident that I can recreate the problem

 

I had a similar problem with my wife's '09 Just-A-Cooper. I drive an '04 MCS. The '09 was parked nose-in on a rather steep down hill slope with a sharp drop off at the end. I had to back out of the space. When I pushed in the clutch with the car in reverse it, I noticed that the car didn't roll forward until I started to hit the gas. As soon as I touched the throttle, the car started to roll forward. I instantly assumed I had it in first gear. I pushed in the clutch and the brake and tried shifting into reverse again. I went through this exercise several times, getting more frustrated (uttering oaths and curses) and rolling closer and closer to the drop-off. I finally remembered that the '09 has a hill holder feature not present on my '04. The last time, I hit the gas much harder and the car backed up the hill no problem. You could tell that I hit the throttle harder by the unpleasant smell of cooking clutch. I'm not saying for sure that this is the same as your problem, but it is a possibility.

 

Sounds to me like a loose reverse selector fork in the transmission....

If I'm reading what the OP wrote correctly, he's moving the lever but the gearbox is not responding. If the pin, bolt or whatever attaches the selector fork to the shift rod has come loose, the act of putting the car in reverse will move the fork, and not having the pin or other attachment means it won't pull it back out of engagement, and it stays with reverse engaged till some happenstance of luck or moving the lever cause it to move again. Could also be an interlock detent out of whack preventing it from moving properly.

Why it works normally sometimes and not others I don't know.....

 

Had something like this happen to a Protege I used to have. If it ever happens again put the car in neutral and see if the reverse gear is still engaged. This will prove that you have an issue with the fork as minidave suggests.

Somehow I had the fork holding 3rd gear break, leaving 3rd gear permantly engaged. Mazda rebuilt the transmition under warrenty

 

The dealer could find nothing wrong, and I have nervously taken the car back. Thanks all for the suggestions. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

Its my understanding that there is some sort of device that is supposed to "lock out" reverse gear till you put some side pressure on the stick. Its supposed to help you to not accidentally shift into reverse. I understand that if it is malfunctioning, the sypmtoms could be very similar to what you describe, i.e., difficult to get out of reverse and an automatic selection of reverse from a stop. I don't know how it works, I'm just repeating what was said to me by a friend who used to own an 07 stick (he doesn't like Minis anymore -- bought a Porsche. Gee.).

 

Funny, if I could fit in a boxster and it got better gas mileage I would be in a porsche too. I'm 6'3". I sort of think of my car as an old porsche I know that's a stretch.

 

I just purchased a 2009 MCS with low milage and am experiencing the exact same issue with the car getting stuck in reverse on inclines and slight inclines. Whovous, has there been any resolution to this issue? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

pdflint had the right answer. Newer MINIs have a "hill-holder" feature that stop the car from rolling backwards when you engage the clutch whilst stopped on a hill. It merely felt like the car was stuck in reverse.

Theodore Sturgeon wrote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology ix indistinguishable from magic." I prefer to think of my travails with the clutch as a confrontation with magic, as the alternative, which is to chalk it up to driver error. is much harder to accept!