My '03 Mini never stops with the fun surprises!
The last week or so, I noticed that in the morning when I would want to back out of my driveway, my reverse would act like first gear. No backward motion at all. After reading the boards on here for some similar problems I tried everthing that everyone else had recommended. Put it neutral and take your foot off the clutch, put it in first and roll forward an inch or so and then put it in reverse, etc. These worked great for a few days...for the last two days I have had to push my car out of my driveway!!! In the past after the car had been driven, I could put it in reverse and it would work no problem. Not the case now. Today when I got to the office I pulled into my parking space, figured I'd try reverse, again, no reverse it just acts like its in first gear!!!
WTF!!!
Does anyone have any idea what this might be?
If anyone happens to see my reverse gear, please send it home, I miss it...

 

curious to see the replies on this one...

 

Safe to say it is a NON-S?
Sounds like a CVT?!
But he says he has a clutch!!
Sounds like the gearbox is bad....another Midlands dies....

 

Zippy,
If it is the gearbox...what is entailed in the repair?
The only reason I ask, I'm still covered under the dealers warrenty (100% on parts and labour) where I bought it used. Hopefully they won't try to give me the run-around about it.
I finally get my dream car and its becoming a nightmare.

 

First I would look at the linkages.....simple fix...since it works some times...it might need an adjustment.
Don't fret....a Mini is easy to push!!
Seriously...if the gear box feels good and is not crunchey, or off feeling, it is likely a linkage problem. The Midlands on the NON-S is actually pretty good....they tend to fail on modded/aggressively driven cars.
The info about rolling the car a bit...if it did work would indicate the syncro's are bad...that is internal. As long as you are putting the lever in the correct location, and pushing the clutch, it should work....if it does not, get to the dealer since you are under warranty!! No worries!!
Inskip (the MINI dealer in RI) has a pretty good reputation if you got it from MINI....
If you must get it worked on out of warrenty, www.greasysgarage.com/main/ in Worcester, MA is about a 45 minutes drive from most of RI...a good shop that knows MINI's!

 

Yes, it is a non -S Cooper.
There have been no issues with shifting into any other gear. 1 thru 5 are all smooth.
I've been drving manual transmission since I was 17 and I'm (cough)41(cough)now. Never had any trouble with getting any of my cars into reverse gear...
The Mini isn't going into reverse at all, even after rolling. I'm taking it to the dealer after work today and hoping its an easy fix.
Inskip does have an excellent reputation (and only a 15 min. drive away), but their labour cost's just scare the bejeezus outta me.
Thanks also for the heads up on Greasy's...its nice to know that there are alternative out there!

 

Linkage maybe. Sounds like bad reverse gear synchros to me.

 

Good Luck....and if you call Greasy's just ask for Pete or John.....depending on what your shop does/does not do, they can give you some info/second opinion if needed. Their labor rates are pretty good too....I think at last check they said they were maintaining 163+ MINI's regularly...and they are in their first year or so!! They work on other makes too, but MINI's are their specialty! Scheduling is pretty easy too! I drive 1:15 to get there....worth the drive.

 

I should have kept my mouth shut about not having any problems with any other gears. Rolled up to a stop sign, went to shift into 1st...damn thing wouldn't go! Finally got it into gear...jeez, why does it have to be this hard?
Any other ideas? Possibly the clutch? No grinding noises...

 

Well...you might get a new tranny under warranty....or an adjusted shift linkage!! Warranties are good (when free).
I'm cross my fingers hoping you have a good place you bought it!! Heck...this is why folks should be very careful in private party sales...at least a dealer SHOULD stand behind it!!
If it is the clutch..I think you should feel slipping....and it should go into gear when not running......but I'm not an expert....

 

Had a fun trip when taking it in to the shop after work. Rt. 95N through Providence was bumper to bumper traffic because of, what else, an accident!
So it was a lot of stop and go. No slippage, but trying to get it back into first on a few occasions was a tad "bowel loosening" to say the least. I could just picture the tranny deciding to go bye-bye on the highway in that type of traffic.
Of course when I finally made it over to the dealer in East Providence, shut it off and handed the keys to the owner, he gets in starts it up and it drops right into reverse no problem.
If he calls tomorrow and says "we can't find anything wrong with it" I swear, I'll snap!

 

Its like the car knows it's at the "Doctors" so it acts normal, lol. It does sound more like a linkage adjustment or worn bushings within the linkage. Hope all goes well.

 

I hope it's just the linkage and not the synchros.

If it's the synchros, you should be getting a replacement since it's under warranty.

 

If you had problems shifting into reverse, and now into 1st, I would take a look at the slave cylinder.

 

Hmmm....Jumping, what makes you think that its the slave cylinder?

 

Fixed!
Just got a call from the dealer. Linkage was replaced and they replaced the shifter cables also because "they looked like they were about shot".
Very cool and zero cost...time to motor!

 

Did they say why they looked shot? I would be concerned that the same thing might happen again.

 

I've never not been able to go into reverse but almost every time it takes me 3 trys to get the gear to "seat" correctly so I can go backwards. Maybe we're related?

 

That makes two of us...the dream car/nightmare issue :(

 

Just like with any car, you must look at a mini closely before purchase.
I have heard of so many folks that bought the first Mini they saw cause it was "cute" or perfect, without ever having a mechanic look at it before buying it.
Some older mini's (especially pre-05 mini's due to both age/use/abuse and build quality) tend to have the biggest issues...
Many had those said issues fixed during the warrenty period, but so many Mini's have been 2nd or 3rd cars with very low miles, some issues were ignored or failed to ever appear till far beyond the warrenty period due to lack of use...
Good luck on getting your car squared away...
Check with your local club for a trusted non-mini 3rd party shop...
A bad/ineffective dealer or shop cannmake ownership hard at best...
Since gen1 mini's are mostly out of warrenty, many dealers don't fix them often, and with dealers having a high turnover of mechanics ( working on one make is how most folks start out of school) many dealers have limited gen1 experance...Making things even worse...

 

I have a similar issue. 99 per cent of the time everything works great, but once in awhile if I put it in Neutral at a light, I'll have trouble getting it back into 1st. Reverse can be tricky too but not so much. Does this sound like a linkage issue? I have warranty for about 3 more weeks, I'd better get it in!