Noticing the increase in complaints about the Midland 5-speed I wondered if most of the problems are the same and if anyone knows specifically what the problem is. Maybe something as simple as changing to synthetic transmission oil could prevent the problem?

I noticed the change to Getrag is going to occur sooner than previously announced.


R.E.

 

I think it's bandwagon-jumping.

 

no problems here so far :smile:

 

>>I think it's bandwagon-jumping.


You may be right, I'm not exactly being flooded with info here. I'll mark this off my list of things to worry about.

 

I'm dealing with an issue that is hard to pin down. From time to time, as the clutch engages from a standstill, I hear an odd squeal/chirp sound. Probably clutch rather than transmission. It's a tricky one to solve because it's intermittant and hard to reproduce for the folks at the dealer. Anybody else dealing with this?

 

I've never had a problem with mine.

 

>>I think it's bandwagon-jumping.<<

What ARE you talking about? Do you think we're all sitting here thinking "hey, look at all these people complaining about their transmissions, and getting all this pity from the forum for having to replace their transmissions at 15,000 miles. That seems like a really good time; I think I'll complain about my transmission, too!"

To answer your question, resmini, of course ALL the problems aren't the same, but there is one common one that I've heard a lot about this winter, especially after it happened to me and I started searching around for info.

A common problem is for a seal to let go on the transfer case at the driver's side front wheel, causing fluid to leak out until suddenly you're driving down the road listening to ball bearings grinding. This problem has occurred often after spells of very cold weather. The problem was common enough at MINI of Peabody in Massachusetts that the Enterprise car rental guy nodded knowingly when I told him what happened. He said he'd given rides to numerous people just at this one dealership for this exact same problem.

The only reason I can think of for people not being more up in arms about this is that the transmissions are being replaced under warranty, at minimal cost to the owners, and then the owners are buying the dealership's story that the transmissions have been "updated" to address this problem. I for one DO NOT buy this story, and I have no reason to expect my new transmission to last any longer than my first one did. MINIUSA was unable to verify that the problem had been addressed.

I'm considering selling my car and ordering a late 2004 or early 2005 with the new Getrag 5-speed.

_________________
"In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane." -Oscar Wilde

 

Thanks chrisnl,

I guess I knew that ALL the problems weren't the same. I just wanted to know if there was a common problem. Do you happen to know if the 5-speed transmisson fluid that MINI uses is synthetic? No way I can afford to sell my MINI and buy another just because the transmission might give me a problem. If there is anything I can do to reduce the probability of a problem I'd like to give it a try.

Thanks for your reply, that's the kind of info I wanted. :smile:

 

The problem with my tranny happened at 3,000 miles. You could try to take off in first gear, and you couldn't go. It was like the gears were stripped internally. It would sit and pop. It started in 2nd gear also by the time I got it to the dealer. They replaced the transmission under warranty. I tried to get them to tell me what was actually wrong with it, but their excuse was that they can't tear transmissions apart they just replace them. Either way I now have 12,000 miles, and I haven't had anymore problems.

Brandon

 

Resmini, the resale values of the MINI are so insanely high, that if you were today to trade it in, you would practically get back every single penny you paid for it.

I would suggest not discarding the idea of selling the car or trade it in for a '05 Cooper with the Getrag gearbox. If I had a regular 5-speed Cooper now and even if I hadn't had problems with it, I would seriously look into selling/trading as soon as the getrag equipped Coopers become available.


Some food for taught, that's all.

 

I have no idea whether or not the MINI's transmission fluid is synthetic. It's hard for me to imagine how that would affect the likelihood of this problem, but then again I don't know a heck of a lot about transmissions.

 

<the resale values of the MINI are so insanely high, that if you were today to trade it in, you would practically get back every single penny you paid for it.>

I have to wonder if, as in my case, I could find anyone who would want to buy a 1year old car with 30k on it that had just had it's transmission replaced. No local dealer either. I certainly like the car, but how I will I feel next winter after warranty expired? Will I be crawling under every day to look for oil? You have to hold on to a car for more than a year to get any value out of the purchase price. I love the MINI and I want to defend it, but.... Having a car that after a year dumps all the gear oil and trashes itself> has to raise eybrows at BMW. I would think they would need to jump on this asap to curtail the damage to reputation and negative $$ flow. Maybe it is only a certain production run. Too early to tell.

 

My car is 22 months old, with 31,500 miles on it. Does anyone seriously believe I would get back almost every penny I paid for it? I certainly don't. I am keeping an eye and ear on things due to some of the tranny issues popping up with this car, but no plans to sell.

 

I've seen this problem mentioned by owners with build dates anywhere from May '02 to November '02. Pretty large number of cars.

>>I certainly like the car, but how I will I feel next winter after warranty expired? Will I be crawling under every day to look for oil?<<

EXACTLY. I didn't pay 20k to worry about my car springing a $3,000 leak every time the temperature drops below zero.

 

I'm new to NAM. I have a MC 5-speed arrving in about two weeks. Although I thought I researched the car fairly thoroughly...I somehow missed the threads on 5-speed tranny problems (seal failures). Car was finished before I discoverd the problem. I might have waited for an '05.

It seems a bit absurd that there is not more data on this issue:

1.) What percentage of these failures are occuring?
2.) Is there a certain period in the production dates that seem to be more affected than others?
3.) All transmissions have seals. If this is a seal failure, why haven't we seen an explanation as to a redesign of the seal, itself?

In closing I would like to thank all of the pioneers who took a chance and bought a mini in 2002. I wish I could have been one, also. I couldn't financially afford to make the plunge, at the time. All of you have dealt with problems such as rattles, windshield cracks, transmissions failures, yo-yo problems etc. which the later owners may not have to deal with. I would guess that alot of corrections have been made in the last two years, unknown to the public. Because of you I will be getting an improved product (hopefully). Thank you!

With regards to my 5-speed. I will probably trade up to an '05 MC or an S if experience a tranny failure. Which is a shame because in long run an '04 S would have been just as affordable than having to trade-up in year or two. (My MC choice was based on price).

I just hope the seals have been redesigned.

Be well!

 

>>I'm new to NAM. I have a MC 5-speed arrving in about two weeks. Although I thought I researched the car fairly thoroughly...I somehow missed the threads on 5-speed tranny problems (seal failures). Car was finished before I discoverd the problem. I might have waited for an '05.
>>
>>It seems a bit absurd that there is not more data on this issue:
>>
>>1.) What percentage of these failures are occuring?
>>2.) Is there a certain period in the production dates that seem to be more affected than others?
>>3.) All transmissions have seals. If this is a seal failure, why haven't we seen an explanation as to a redesign of the seal, itself?
>>
>>In closing I would like to thank all of the pioneers who took a chance and bought a mini in 2002. I wish I could have been one, also. I couldn't financially afford to make the plunge, at the time. All of you have dealt with problems such as rattles, windshield cracks, transmissions failures, yo-yo problems etc. which the later owners may not have to deal with. I would guess that alot of corrections have been made in the last two years, unknown to the public. Because of you I will be getting an improved product (hopefully). Thank you!
>>
>>With regards to my 5-speed. I will probably trade up to an '05 MC or an S if experience a tranny failure. Which is a shame because in long run an '04 S would have been just as affordable than having to trade-up in year or two. (My MC choice was based on price).
>>
>>I just hope the seals have been redesigned.
>>
>>Be well!
>>
>>


Welcome to NAM!

Question...is seems to me you can still cancel your order with the dealer. At list my dealer (Lauderdale MINI) allows customers to change thier minds even if the car is ready to go in thier showroom. My point is...you haven't taken delivery, you haven't signed the papers or exchange the money...you are not committed to the car in any way shape or form other than you have it ordered.

Call ylur Motoring Advisor and see if you can swap your order for a MCS. if they give you a hard time, cancel the order and demand your deposit back. Take your business elsewhere.

Is not too late!.

 

Honestly, this has only become an issue in the past few weeks, which explains why you didn't know about it. One of the prevailing theories is that the seal failure may have something to do with temperature. The recent extreme cold has caused an increased number of failures.

Do you live in a cold-weather location? That might affect your thinking.

Of course, you might also argue that enough of these 5-speeds have driven enough miles at this point for them to start failing, and that the winter is just a coincidence. Personally, I think the problem is at least exacerbated by cold weather.

If it were me, I don't think I'd cancel an order over this problem. For every failed midlands 5-speed, there are dozens out there that haven't failed. And the more recent your build, the less likely you are to have problems in general, I think.

As far as a redesign of the offending seal, that won't happen, since MINI is going to Getrag 5-speeds in '05.

Good luck! :smile:

 

Thank you both countrym & cooper4us,

I will probably stay with my order. This is actually my second order attempt. The dealer screwed up my first order. (Left out the sport seats). That was in the fall of '03. I stood there looking at my MC with the standard seats the week before Chistmas. I demanded a reorder. It is on the boat as we talk.

I really don't want to wait any longer. I'm in Virginia (it gets cold here...10 to 20 F most nites in the last couple of weeks, but nothing like the upper Mid West).

In addition, this dealer puts alot of dealer add-ons on all their cars on the lot. Typical S is 25 grand or more.

In researching this issue I find that this problem is older than we think. Seems it has been happening last winter, also. Thus, my comments on the seal were wishfull thinking with regards to Mini redesigning the seals on the the late '03s and '04s.

Anyway I plan to hope for the best, and trade-up, if the worse happens.

Heck, I drove a beat up Triumph TR3 and beat-up BSA 650 in Graduate School (1970's) I think I can deal with a few idiosyncracys.

be well!

 

Hi Velomini,

I wouldn't cancel my order because of the transmission.

I did call ASKMINI today and was told there were a "few" transmission failures but the problem had been corrected. I also talked to a MINI mechanic at my dealer, (Roadshow BMW), who said the dealership had not had any problems with the 5-speed, but did have some problems with the CVT.

Your research was fine and you're going to be very happy with the car.

The mechanic also said the transmission oil was petroleum based and "sealed for life". When I asked about changing it to a synthetic oil he said don't do it while you're under warrantee because if you do have a problem they'll use that as an excuse not to fix it.

Everything's OK.


R.E.
:smile:

 

I just had mt transmission replaced and have yet to pick up the car. Dealer tells me that they HAVE changed something to fix this problem. He says they (BMW) can't afford to be replacing many more transmissions. He sounded pretty sure of himself.
11/02 build '03 MC 31k miles

 

What was changed?

 

>>What was changed?

Now THERE'S the 50,000-mile question...

 

2003 MC, 5-Speed

While running my car in an autocross-like event this weekend (short road course, all 1st and 2nd, heel-toe shifting, rev matching, etc.), my 2nd gear was grinding... sounded like a crunching noise when shifting from 1st to 2nd... It felt like the synchros weren't spinning up to match the RPM's of the tranny when shifting above 4k?

It only happened when the revs were above 4k rpm's though. Shifting below 4k, no crunching sounds. I let the car cool down completely, and the problem went away...

I took it to my MINI service department today, and my SA told me "Keep driving it". I told him that I brought it in now because I didn't want to bring it back in with a detonated tranny... he said, "Just keep driving it. If it happens again, bring it back when it's doing it". Yeah, right, that will prolly be convenient.

Anyone have any ideas?

I think I'll drain the tranny and re-fill it with some fresh synthetic oil just for piece of mind... I'm sure the plug, if it's magnetic, will have some shavings on it.

 

My first MINI had the five-speed tranny and I had a heck of a time getting it to engage reverse. I was not pleased that I couldn't quickly shift into reverse, but would have to shift into first or third then try reverse again. UNSAFE!! :evil:

I am glad to learn that MINI is going with a Getrag five-speed. I love Wanda's Getrag six-speed.....great tranny!

 

As I posted earlier in this thread, my transmission has already been replaced once. I have since put approx 12,000 miles on the new transmission, and mine is starting to do what you mentioned about grinding between 1st and 2nd gear. It only happens when the rpms are high like you mentioned. I believe it is a sychronizer problem, but not sure. I was thinking of taking it to the dealer, but they are over an hour away, and will not give you a loaner. Please keep me informed if yours gets worse, or you find out any more about the problem.

Brandon