I have an '06 MC w/ CVT and I've read several threads of CVTs failing and of the high cost to replace them. I feel for you guys who had failed CVTs. Would you mind sharing any symptoms you experienced before the dreaded failure? Not sure what can be done other than regular fluid changes, but I want to try to keep an eye out for it.

thanks in advance.

 

Going from memory here, but I thought they changed to a different CVT in '06?

Anyway: the symptoms for mine were as if the computer controlling it was going bad. At first, pushing the gas started occasionally having a lag before the car would speed up. Once it responded, though, it ran smooth. Then, the lag (when it happened) got longer. By the time it got fixed, the result from pushing the gas was almost random -- sometimes it'd work fine, sometimes there'd be a lag, and sometimes, pushing the gas would cause the car to slow down. Not really the "adrenaline rush" I was looking for from my MINI when pulling onto the highway.

Dealer finally fixed it at ca. 57k (fall '07, IIRC). (Warranty for mine ran out at 55k.) Took numerous trips -- dealer kept insisting they'd never heard of the problem before. MINI USA said the same thing, and that it was out of warranty, so I was out of luck. I commented that 1) I liked MINI, and 2) I wanted to keep liking MINI, but 3) 5 minutes on Google would give them the contact information for the person organizing the class action lawsuit. MINI USA then covered the replacement cost. (The dealer, on the other hand, charged me to repair a part that "coincidentally" turned up broken while they were replacing the tranny they'd been insisting was fine; I pointed out either it wasn't broken before, or they hadn't really done the "full diagnostic" they charged me for. Needless to say, I haven't been back there since...)

I'm at just over 73k now. CVT drives the same as the previous one did when it was working fine. Will the new one have the same problem? Who knows. I'm hoping to convince my wife to let me trade up before I find out, but that's a tough sell...