Ok after reading some posts I'm not sure if this is what's referred to as the stubmle but here's my situation:

It happens most often in Boston during city driving, I'll be in gear, like 1st or 2nd, with the clutch fully depressed coasting to a stop or just in stop and go traffic and the revs will drop. The car shakes like hell like its about to stall, I shift into Neutral an the car still shakes, I blip the throttle and everything is fine.

I've brought the car in during the summer, and the SA (who seemed like he was just hired) said they all do it and to drop down my gas grade (the only thing that did was reduce my milage).

Is this the stumble situation? Has there been a software update to fix this yet?

My Second Issue:
When its cold outside I can't shift into 1st or Reverse. When I was checkingin for service the other day, a BMW SA checked me in cuz the Mini guy was busy, he said its because they are not syncro gears (which I understand) and that they would grind is that the proble, but then I told him what it did.

Basically when I start my car up (in either first or neutral) sometimes I cannot get into Reverse, it will go about half way into the gear (the light will turn on) but it does not go all the way, if i do add gas it will grind, the only solution I have found is to fully release the clutch again in neutral and try again.

They said they could not replicate either problem when I brought my car in. They rescheduled me for next Tuesday to leave my car and they have a loaner setup for me (nice since I didn't buy my car from them). One of the SA's said that he thinks the second problem might be the shifter cables (why cant they inspect and replace if thats the case).

Does anyone here have any clue what either of the problems are and how they could be solved? Thanks for all your help.

 

Cooper or s?There is existing thread on this problem depending on s or cooper.

 

The SA told you the MINI transmission doesn't have gear synchros

If that were the case, you would not be able to downshift (unless you can precisely match revs) while moving forward. When I had the gearbox on my 914 rebuilt last year, the synchros for the first three gears had worn out, causing them to grind during shifting. First gear was so bad that unless I was completely stopped, I couldn't engage it.

Here's a little tidbit from wikipedia that explains it better than I can:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_transmission

Unless I misunderstood your post, I would say that the tech you spoke with had no idea what they were talking about...

 

pooch: I have a Standard MC, doees that help

mudfoot: he said that 1st and Reverse don't have syncros and that's what's causing that, but then when I told him that they weren't grinding that I just couldn't get into the gears he simply replied with, "oh."

 

Your first issue is most likely software related. There have been several issues over on the MCS side of things relating to irregular idle. Next time your at the dealer, make sure you have the latest software update.

Second issue: On the MC, reverse is un-syncro'd. All forward gears should have syncro's. When you tried giving it some gas when pushing into reverse, how much did you give? Whenever I have that problem, I just give it enough gas to get the revs above idle then let out the clutch just to it's catching point. I've got a MCS which has syncro'd reverse so I'm speaking from experience in our other cars. The problem usually occurs when I'm parked on an angle and have to use my brake to hold the car when trying to get into reverse. If your having problems with first gear as well, it might be the shift cables. Otherwise, you can try puting it in 2nd gear then pushing it up to 1st.

 

1st and Reverse do not have Syncros on the MC Getrag 5sp.

Steve