Hey guys,

I owned a 04 manual R50 and recently sold it and have just purchased a 05 automatic R50.

I know this might be a dumb question but how can i tell wether or not i have a CVT transamission??

Do all automatic minis come with the cvt?

Any help would be great!

 

R50 automatics were CVTs. Unless someone switched it out for something else (very rare), that's what you have.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Sell it quick!!!!!!

 

Boy.... are they really that unreliable??

 

Easy to remember:

Regular Mini - CVT

MCS - Aisin 6 speed auto

Lots of problems with many CVT's but there are also members here who have many trouble-free miles. Unfortunately, seems to be more bad news than good.

 

I<m at about 70k miles. Is there something i should be doing to prevent problems?

 

Not true through today. CVTs were never part of the R56 lineup.

 

Yup...imo sell it.
$7500 fix if the tranny fails...
if you drive it nice, and get the fluid changed, you might get more life, but you have no idea how or why it was driven/sold....

 

You just need to find out whether or not it was well taken care of, I have a 2003 cvt with 96k on it never had a problem with th transmission .

 

m_bisco: Having the fluid changed regularly (about every 36k miles) is what I see suggested most. It's a labor intensive job just to gain access, and the fluid and filter aren't cheap either. We recently had our CVT MINI in for an Inspection 2 at an independent shop. I also requested a CVT fluid change, and it was more expensive than the rest of service combined. If you decide to have this done at an independent shop, be sure they get the right fluid and filter, and know what they're doing. A MINI dealer should already know all the ropes, but it will still be expensive.

It's been very hard to get numerical reliability estimates on the MINI CVT compared to other MINI transmissions, but if/when it does go belly-up, the most common "fix" is complete replacement. There are several CVT horror threads on NAM that you won't enjoy reading, but at least one long thread where owners brag about how many "trouble free" miles they have on their CVTs. I didn't post there for fear that I'd jinx our CVT.

 

WOW! Thanks for the info.

I had my 04 manual R50 and never had a problem, I also never paid attention to problems with other models. I knew that there were some issues with the automatic tranny but I should have looked into this a little more before buying one....... Doohhhh...

Hopefully nothing happens in the next little while.
So far it's been a smooth ride.

 

True, but since this is the R50/R53 forum... I should have been a little more specific.

 

Like anything shxx happens. Lots of high mileage CVT's out there, it is the ones that have failed that you hear about. 138,000 on an 02 CVT.

 

In the majority of cases, the Mini CVT is a ticking time bomb. About the only things you can do are drive it easy and change the fluid MUCH more often than is recommended. CVT's are very rough on fluid as all the rubbing parts in there break the fluid down and degrade it. I don't know what kind of fluid is used, but if you have the option, use a full synthetic. If it's a special fluid, it's likely full synthetic anyway, but change it out much more frequently.

And, if you really want to be safe, sell it and get a stick or a newer auto.

 

martinb: I'd like to see the data that you're basing your "In the majority of cases ..." statement on. I found 16 independently reported cases of failed CVTs on NAM about 8 months ago, but there were many more reported cases of "trouble free" CVTs on that one thread I mentioned.

Of course, even if destroyed CVTs represent only 10% of all CVT experiences, that's still too many. Several other car manufacturers also sell cars with CVTs that may be less prone to failure (I don't get to read about those though), so I wonder why MINI couldn't have made theirs more reliable. MINI probably has the data that I was looking for, but I certainly don't expect to hear anything about it from them.

 

OK, maybe a bit of an exaggeration. However, with modern technology, most transmissions, both manual and automatic are very trouble free and last a long, long time with proper maintenence. With the Mini CVT it seems it's much more of a gamble than other transmission.

On a side note, I'm not dissin' CVT's, though. My wife's 2003 Murano has a CVT that I'm quite impressed with. It just seems, from many reports, that the Mini CVT is much less than it should have been.