I just bought a 2005 mini base. Looking for some wisdom on the cvt. The symptom is when put in gear it goes under load and dies. Similar to disengaging a clutch in a manual with out pressing the gas pedal. If you press the gas then put it in gear it shakes and starts rolling. Once its rolling it seems fine at parking lot speed. Hoping someone else has seen this problem. Was told the torque converter was bad. Mini says it doesnt have one in their parts diagram... so reaching out before I take the trans out. Thanks guys

 

Mine started doing that recently. I’ve been living with it.

There is a function that resets the clutch engagement that can be reset by the dealer. Probably an independent shop can do it but my OBDII scanner doesn't have the ability. Yes, it uses a little electronic clutch to get moving in 0.1 gear (or just very low gear). Once reset, you go through a bunch of starts and stops and it relearns the clutch engagement.

OR... you might try driving it in manual mode for a while and see if that helps, (push the gear lever to the left and right while in drive). By selecting manual, it sometimes forces the computer to reset some things. It seemed like mine had a problem and one fix was to shift gears manually and it would clear up. But that was eight years ago and I'm not 100% confident. I think I'll try it (its free anyway).

While I'm on the topic, let me say something about the tachometer. They can go bad and tie up the canbus electrical system which can make the CVT act absolutely crazy, (down shifting on the highway, etc.). I spent a long time and a bunch of time and money only to learn that if I removed the tach, everything was fine. I found another used tach on eBay and its been fine ever since.

If you figure this out, please tell me what you did.

Thanks,
Peter

 

BTW, the resetting of the CVT is call Adaptation.

Peter

 

Replaced the transmission cost 1400 and 2 days of my time. Not a fan of this lil drivetrain . Haven't had a chance to pull the other transmission apart yet to find the problem.