I live in LA (Fairfax area) and was informed by wonderfully inadequate people at Assael that I needed a new tranny, but they wanted to charge us $900 to look at it "to make sure". That's a new low even for them.

Anyway, I'd rather have professionals look at it, so I'm in the market for a transmission specialist in the LA area who has experience with MINIs. After calling around, we're not getting much luck, so I turn to you...the MINI experts.

Thanks!

 

What exaclty is your problem?

I've had problem with my transmission lately. Gears were really hard to get in. No grinding noise, wouldn't get out of gear by itself...

The dealer told me I needed a new tranny... But I called my favorite MINI speedshop (in Montreal, Bimmershop) and they told me to first change the cables & bushing.

I got the dealer to do that first, cost me a lot (720$) but got rid of the problem... It's a lot better than spending 4000$+ on a new tranny...

PM me if you want a faster answer!!

 

Call Steves Auto Clinic in North Hills 818-891-6109. They specilize in Minis. Mabey he can help over the phone with options.

 

Cooper or MCS?

How many miles?

What year?

Coopers have a reputation for losing their trannies in the 40K range thanks to the wonderful Midlands trannies.

 

Does the new Cooper's GeTrac is more reliable ?? I really hope so!!

 

I'm a putz...it's an '02 Cooper with about 64K on it. This is actually the 2nd trannie in it. Had the 1st on replaced in late '03. It's been grinding and stuttering since about April.

I'm just extremely leery of the dealership telling me I need a new transmission and then in the next sentence telling me it will cost me $900 just for them to check it out, especially since they have a horrible habit of doing unauthorized work. Not to mention the fact that the service rep told me that if I gave them a favorable rating for the crappy service they just provided that they could probably get me a better deal on the transmission.

Is there a better brand on transmission that would be better?

 

Thanks...I may be to go to Thousand Oaks to shoot some pics, so that would be in the vicinity. I'll check them out.

 

So this is your first out of warranty tranny replacement?

I had mine replaced at 43K, so I'm on my second and not looking forward to a third. I know that you can buy a tranny from MINI Mania for the Cooper S for $2,500 to $3,000.

I would assume that the Cooper tranny is probably atleast $2,000.

Installation should run anywhere from $600 to $900. I had a talk with Scott over at CentralCoastCoopers.com about whether I should try to retrofit an '05 MC Getrag tranny into my '03 Cooper, but it appears the number of parts needed for replacement is great--to the point that getting a totalled MINI and shipping everything related to the tranny to his shop would be more cost effective than trying to start from scratch piece by piece.

Scott is in Oxnard, and isn't too far from Thousand Oaks if you're going that way. His NAM name is Stage1scott if you want to PM him. He's VERY helpful.

Richard

DarKMiniCooperS
While the new 05 and 06 Coopers use the Getrag, I've got two friends who both had failures at 10,000 miles on their Getrags. Definitely not very encouraging.

 

I'd like to say that I'm surprised at Assael, but I'm not. We have had issues with them as well. Most recent was when my mother called to make a service appointment for her 3 month old 330 cabrio whose oil light was on, she was told by the service advisor she didn't need to come in, just add a quart of oil! To a new car!

Bottom line is I wouldn't trust anything I hear from Assael, nor give them my money. Third party seems like a reasonable path, out of warranty.

Good luck with getting your transmission fixed, fabooj!

 

One of our members was having problems with her clutch. She took it to Assael. They saw Super Blue brake fluid in there and not only said her warranty was void, but that in order to fix the clutch, they would have to replace her brake calipers too--leading to a $4000 repair.

Well after a simple brake flush and taking it to another dealer, they replaced the broken part under warranty and no other issues.

Assael also doubles all their parts prices. That's just sick. they wanted $20 for the glue for my Aero Spoiler. The person on the phone told me $12, and when I arrived, they said it was $20. When I told them what I was told on the phone, shes like, let me check--and then comes back and says, oh right, we don't mark up this item.

 

Just took in my '06 MCS with 14,115 miles on it to Assael; with a clutch or tranny problem. After reading these posts about Assael....I'm have that uh oh feeling.... will find out today what is the problem with my MCS. Will post update as soon as I hear.

 

Hello,
just got back from picking up my mini. Dealer changed out the master cylinder clutch. No charge just the time it took me to get my mini. Enjoyed the ride back home... .