Tonight while driving my 2002 MCS w/ 118,000 on the interstate, I went to downshift and the shifter went completely limp and the car was stuck in 6th. I didn't hear a pop or anything. Fortunately I got off on a nearby exit and brought the car home on a flatbed trailer.

The shifter freely moves forward and aft with no resistance. Oddly there is no side to side play on the shift lever.

Does this sound like a shift cable???

Has anyone repaired this on their own??

Or have you had a MINI shop repair and what did that run?

Thanks for any quick response. I'm planing to tackle it tomorrow or tow it to the dealership.


Thanks for your ideas.

 

Usually it's the rubber end of the cable that breaks. Check that first, but if you have a short shifter check to make sure it hasn't come apart. I've seen several of the alta's have the screws fall out, or the side shaft unscrew itself. I think the car vibration does it most of the time.

 

It's a stock shifter assembly. I think you might be on the right track regarding a rubber component failure. I've broken cables on motorcycles, etc and this failure gave no indication that anything was amiss. It was just gone, so perhaps a rubber component wore through.

Is that replaceable and reachable from under the car?

I'll get under it in the morning and make an assessment whether to tackle it or cart it off to the dealership for a $400+ repair.

 

Well, to get to the cable attachments from below, you have to remove the exhaust, heat shield, and linkage cover. The cable attachment on the transmission can be accessed after removing the airbox.

 

I pulled the airbox/ECU to get to the shifter cables. Both cables were intact so the problem appears be at the shifter end. Since the exhaust system has to be removed to get to it, I'll trailer it to my mechanic. At the same time I'll get the exhaust leak at the pre-cat welded up if possible. I wrote about that a week ago.


*****Word of advice: The rubber bushings in the cable ends at the transmission showed sign's of future failure as they had a lot of cracking in the rubber. If your MINI is getting up there in years, or mileage, it might be worthwhile pulling the air box to inspect their condition. Be careful unplugging the ECU, there are relief pull tabs at both ends of the two large plugs.

 

After the Exhaust system was removed the mechanic showed me where both shifter cables popped off the connection ball joints at the shifter end of the cable. Also when prying the cables off the transmission end the connection rubber inserts completely disintegrated. Tomorrow I'll pick up both new cables and have them re-installed.

Interesting thing happened at the pre-cat in the exhaust system. It completely broke in half when I picked up the exhaust manifold-to-cat section. The metal they use to construct the joint is paper thin. I have a call into MINI to see if this is covered by a recall. It is a design failure and could cause damage had it failed while driving. If it's not covered, then tomorrow I'll have a shop TIG weld it back together.

Hope this info helps someone in the future. Check your shifter cable if you have +100,000. The cable doesn't fail....just the ends...which is still a complete failure.

 

Glad to see you are getting it sorted out. You should be back in your MINI in no time.

 

Cables on the early 2002-2004 are prone to fail at the gearbox side with the rubber falling apart.. and the shifter side where the large crimps get a bit of rist and loosen and eventually separate. If you replace the clutch or take the gearbox out you need to be extremely careful when removing them because they usually fall apart

 

My transmission got stuck in 5th and thought i was looking at a broken trans.... Turns out My shift cable popped off the ball joint at the gear box...I was able to push it back on (too easily).

Trying to see if there is a way to keep it from popping off so I can delay replacing the cable...any thoughts?

 

Why not replace it now? http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...eplacement.htm

-Jorge

 

Thanks for the link!...I guess I might as well!

 

Btw...i see the procedure is for an S model...how much different is the procedure for a standard MC?

 

Oh I thought you had an MCS! Must have confused you with the OP. I'm assuming it's the same, but unfortunately, I am not entirely sure.

-Jorge

 

I had the same thing happen to me today... shifted hard into 2nd and all of a sudden my shifter went limp. Pulled out the Airbox and on the driver side cable, there is a plastic washer below and above the housing that's attached to the car, both of those plastic washers are broke. I ASSUME I have to replace the entire cable right?

 

I think it might be something where you have to get the cables in order to replace that part, but I may be wrong. Do you see the washers you're talking about on this diag?

 

well... based on being a r53 and that diagram i found a genuine mini shift cable on eBay. Got the old one removed and this new one... looks like they switched from a nylon housing (which is where mine broke) to a metal one. Seems like the ball on the transmission is too big for this new cup to slide over and the metal housing I can't get to slide down into the black housing on the car. Grrrrrrr.... Any ideas? looking at the VIN, looks like it was build in 02' "Production date 2002 / 09"

 

as you can see with the new one on top... hole is too small for the ball and further back that black sleeve won't slide over the housing. #bummedanddefeated 😠

 

Can't tell if it's the right size from the picture, but it does take a good amount of pressure to get the cable to snap back on

 

it's the wrong k
one... looks like I need part #25 11 7 531 707

Nobody has them... everyone is saying late October if I'm lucky. what the hell? NOBODY has one? haha..... feeling defeated

 

Damn, all these vendors posting on this forum and nobody has one. Hope my cables stay together until they're back in stock.

 

Yes, unfortunately 25-11-7-531-707 is on back order nation wide and are not available until Halloween time frame. Germany estimated date 10/29/15.

 

There is a condition A and a Condition B for that year. Looks at the top of the shifter base, pull the shifter boot off and look at the base. It looks like 25117531707 but I want to make sure, if it is 25117531707 its on BO for that time. And you could take the cable out and make a fix. How bad is the end , I have done temp fixes on them when then end plastic separates from the metal loop. It will get you by. Otherwise a would search junk yards for that year fro used http://www.car-part.com/ and have them send you a pic of that end.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=25_0386

 

This is the piece that's cracked. There has to be a way to fix it for now till the new cables are stocked

 

I had the ends pop out on the metal O connection on the end and epoxy them in for a short term fix. Never had that end break.

I would clean it up epoxy that, but there is allot of force on that part of the cables and also grease the pivot points on top of the transmission.

I would also try to find a C clip at a hardware store or a Mc Mastercar , very thin one and put it on the other side. its might hold as it would take the force off one locations ones epoxy , you could also epoxy the C clip in place against the nylon on the clip side as reinforcement. Make sure its clean. Might work.

https://www.google.com/search?q=c+cl..._sm=0&ie=UTF-8

 

it's worth a shot!!! what's the most gnarly heavy duty epoxy you think?