I have a coworker who has just bought a 2003 MCS with approx 50,000

miles on it. When it sits overnight in below freezing temps. he can not

get it out of the first gear position. The dealer he bought it from has re-

placed the clutch and flywheel under the 90 day warrenty but it is still

doing it. I have driven it and the clutch feels like it should and it shifts

smoothly. Any ideas?

 

The shift cables are probably sticking. The sheath can sometime crack, or come off at one end, letting in water that will freeze the cable. Also, the water rusts the cable and that leads to increased shifting effort.

 

When it's freezing outside the moisture gets in the shift cables and freezes the cable not allowing it to move. You should be able to replace the shift cables and that will solve the problem. They actually had bulletins about this years ago, and updated the cables to keep them from freezing.

 

Mine used to do the same thing, there are a couple of things he can do till he can get it fixed properly that will let him drive it. The first is to not park in gear, then just start it and let it run a bit, the heat from the exhaust will warm it up enought to unfreeze in just a few minutes. Or, he can just pull really hard on the lever till it pops loose, then shift it a whole bunch of times and it will work free enough to drive - then again as it warms up it will shift fine.....

But he will have to replace the cables eventually to cure it, or not drive it till it warms up again!

Mine used to be OK unless it went under 25* overnight.....

The good news is that he got a new clutch out of the deal!

 

Thanks for your responses, I will tell him what needs to be done.

 

Ah ha...Thanks for this thread. This is the answer to my issue. My poor Florida Mini apparently hasn't liked these cold spells and doesn't want to engage gears when I need to go anywhere.

 

I learned that there was a bulletin out about this issue with Minis. Not ok. NOT normal for your car not to want to go into gear just because it's cold. I took mine into the dealer, had them look up the bulletin, and they did something minor and fixed the problem.

 

The fix, per a TSB, is for the dealer to replace the original shift "casette" with a redesigned one (new part #) having improved cable seals. I had that done on my 03 MCS under warranty. Even out of warranty, under the TSB any Mini dealer ought to do this for free.