Started on the trip back from AMVIV. About 2200 miles on the clock. Car would not engage 5th gear. Eventually it started working fine again. Then began to experience it getting stuck in 6th gear and fighting me to pull it out of 6th. It certainly feels like something in the linkage. Just wondering who else has experienced this. I can only predict this situation will worsten to the point of easy repeatability and then I'll take it into the dealer.

 

Is the problem only with 5th and 6th gear? If you've got air or leaks in your hydraulic clutch system, it can cause your clutch not to disengage completely, which will make it hard to shift into and out of gear.

If it's the hydraulics, though, I would expect it to happen in all gears, not just 5th and 6th.

 

Update.
Problem got somewhat progressively worse, until it eventually stuck in 6th while driving. I managed to force it out of 6th with some persuasion and it stuck in 1st and the shifter went limp. Car was now stuck in 1st. Managed to limp it into a parking lot as clutch was working fine. Roadside assistance came through and flatbedded us to Brecht MINI. By the end of that day they'd discovered and repaired a "loose clamp on the shift cable". They guessed that it may not have been secured properly at the factory. This all happened at 3000 miles. I'm grateful it wasn't a serious problem or a sign of any defective parts and MINI came through with a very quick fix.

 

Bummer that you had that problem, but glad to hear it was a relatively quick and painless fix.

 

Just wanted to post a post-mortem on the problem. It reared its ugly head again at 6000 miles, this time going very quickly from stiff shifter to popping off and creating a completely disconnected shifter. Flatbedded it in again and after getting me going again that morning MINI ordered both shift cables. When the cables finally came in, they gave me a loaner and kept it for the day. They also replaced a hose that the one cable was rubbing against, so the car was actually in the shop for 3 days. Too bad the only MINI dealer in San Diego doesn't seem to stock spare parts.

 

We have a 52k '07 Cooper S with shifter particularly stiff left/right. It is fairly easy to shift fore/aft and car is supposed to go to it's new owner Monday 8AM ARGH! The shifter assembly is basically enclosed. What are people doing to lubricate these short of a new assembly -- even a temporary fix while we order a new shifter would be appreciated??-Thanks!

 

I doubt any Mini dealer stocks shift cables - it should be an EXTREMELY rare failure item. No sense keeping any on the shelf if they may sit there for years at a time.

 

Had a similar problem, Wednesday shifter became stiff and hard to shift from 3rd to 4th gear, and popped out of gear twice. Took it to Flow Mini Of Raleigh, shifter cable was rubbing against coolant hose. The technician was able to adjust the hose and lubricated the gear box. If you had not posted this problem I might have waited before bring the car in. Thanks.

 

Solution was a bent shift linkage rubbing on top of transaxle! Thanks all