Hello all, I'm new to posting on this forum; although ever since I got my used 2002 Mini Cooper S, I've been following the forums here for various issues that have cropped up. I'm posting now because I can't seem to find anyone with the same issue as mine; probably because these transmissions are supposedly "bulletproof" and thus not many people have issues with them. I'm on quite a budget; the only thing I have going for me is a dad with good automotive knowledge, and a shop with a car lift. So here's what happened...

Driving on a country road as usual from my house, I shifted into 2nd after a turn and ground the gears kinda bad because the shifter wasn't fully engaged before I let off the clutch.. this has happed to me a few times in the past; just not as severe. After I depressed the clutch pedal again to fix it, I noticed the shifter now feeling different; like it's shifted a bit to the right and the gears are harder to shift into now. Plus, as I kept driving, I noticed when trying to shift into 6th, that I cant.. or its almost impossible. I have got it to go into 6th twice but idk how I did it.. so I'm thinking it might be linkage problems along with (hopefully not) bad syncros?

I'm not the most knowledgeable with cars and my dad isnt familiar with mini coopers besides the minor work we've done on mine.. but I know if we can figure out the problem and there are parts, we can probably fit it. ANY help anyone can give me in terms of troubleshooting will be great! I'm just hoping I don't need to buy another transmission X( Thanks for reading!

 

Being in a similar "boat" as you in terms of knowledge of these transmissions or transmissions in general I'm not sure I can be of much help so take my advice with a grain of salt or sand or perhaps a finely ground up shroud of metal. I would suggest draining the transmission fluid and closely examining whatever metal may be stuck to the drain plug. Then refilling the box with fresh fluid and seeing if the problem persists. If the transmission doest blow up after running through several tanks of petrol it may be something you have to live with until you can yank the trans and get into it. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the reply. I know the tranny in my car has "lifetime" fluids so it probably hasn't been changed ever. I was going to swap with redline anyways and see if that helped anything... its almost like I loosened or shifted something with the linkages though.. I just wish I knew how it all worked and could imagine what might be going wrong! I'll post an update when I get that done though.. 😕