I think this is a more widespread problem than is reported. Over a year ago there was a post from a guy in Vermont and he had the SAME symptoms as we have had. At that time no one believed it was related to subzero temps. But it happened to him right after he drove in -24f. A local Mazda dealer has an '02 Cooper 5spd on their lot and it has been there on the front row since November. It is not selling. Frankly I would not touch that car with a 10 foot pole either. I would only have to feel sorry for the poor sole who buys it and then gets the royal kiss-off from the Mazda dealer when his tranny goes. Then humbly tows it 100 miles to a MINI shop to get it fixed. Without knowing MINI's policy on towing etc, it could get very stressful educating oneself with a broken MINI in the driveway, that you bought from a Mazda dealer in an effort to save a few bucks. Certainly MINI and my dealer have been great in replacing my tranny....but what else could they say..."no we won't fix your brand new broken car that you just bought from us"?
Next December> 51,000 miles, no warranty, w i n t e r, high blood pressure, crawling under my car looking for oil every day. Gosh this could ruin my summer.

 

My dealer told me today flat out that the new transmissions being installed in Coopers are exactly the same as the old ones, as far as he could tell. Same seals, same everything.

He also told me not to expect the new Getrag 5-speed to make it onto any of the 2004 models; they'll arrive on the 2005, likely in July 2004.

 

This looks like as good a thread as any to resurrect. I'm about to lose transmission #2 on my '03 Cooper with a 5-speed.

Transmission #1 was lost in January 2003 after a cold spell with around 8,000 miles on the car. Sounded like a piece of plastic was being dragged under the front of the car. Made an appointment at MINI of Peabody (Mass), lost fifth gear and reverse halfway there from Vermont.

Now, I've got the same sound with transmission #2. I noticed some brown stains in the snow where my car was parked, under the engine end of the car.

I'm no longer under warranty, as I've got 68,000 miles.

Crap.

A little research showed that the idea I had of re-filling the transmissino fluid in an attempt to get the car to make it all the way to the dealership 200 miles away would be difficult to impossible (including difficulty in finding the right transmission fluid).

I'm getting very grumpy about this. I hope it doesn't wind up costing me thousands of dollars to get resolved (between towing costs and labor / parts costs).

Anyone have any brilliant ideas? If I cannot get any "friendly discounts" worked out with the dealership, should I just go to a local third party garage and see what they can do? It would save me towing costs.

 

On my 03 MC the tranny seal to the axle let go.I noticed a grinding,whiring sound when I let out the clutch after starting the car on a cold,-35 morning,knew that this was going to happen sooner or later,saw fluid on the ground under the car.Went straight to the dealer,got the seal replaced within an hour of showing up.
We can go into the service bays at my dealer,and when the tech. drained the fluid from the tranny I was about 1/3 low,and the magnetic plugs where full of fillings,no chunks,just fillings.
Should get a new tranny this week,and have not noticed any problems with the old tranny after new seal.Just wish I was getting a Getrag and not a new midlands.
It is a cold,as in extreme cold issue,if MINI would do a recall and do a $150 fix,they could save themselves a $3500 tranny replace.Guess why the cost goes way up to buy one new every year

The new seals are supossed to be better

 

To finish off the tail of transmission #2...

I just got back home after a trip to the dealership. The seal was toast, no fluid left in the transmission. New (well, rebuilt) transmission installed. I made it under the 2-year warranty on the replacement transmission by less than a week. Phew. They said I was the first cold weather transmission failure of the season, so perhaps all the "old" trannys that are going to get hit already have, and the "new" ones, and the new replacements, are good? My first replacement was too early for any engineering changes to have been made to the problem seal, so I just got another time bomb the first time.

Hopefully, transmission #3 is not another problem waiting to happen.

 

My tranny update is that my original tranny is holding in there.
Got a new seal after the first leak,then another new seal 5 days later after the old axle retaining clip let go.Get a new retaining clip any time they pull an axle.
Now I'm 10 days till I can bring in my MC for a new tranny.Work.
But the old tranny is fine,sounds and works normal.
Going to be a 5 week issue,at - 25F on average
And the cheap block heater happpens with the tranny

 

Any '04s exhibit this problem yet?

 

67000 miles in 2 years on '03 ('02 December build).

Starting noticing a grinding sound from beneath my feet--similar as described by "dragging plastic" about two months ago. I hadn't read up on the symptoms at the time and was having no trouble through the gears--no looseness, no significant play. The grinding was most noticeable under load when the engine was cold in 1st-3rd, especially in decelleration.

Finally got online and looked up symptoms again. Sure enough, driver's side output shaft seems to be slinging oil over the undercarriage.

Dealer confirms the seal has blown, is irreplacable, and my Cooper now requires a $3600+Labor fix (according to the D&R theives).

Funny how the cars come with 3yr-50k warranty but all bmw parts are garanteed 2yrs-unlimited mileage. (which in my case equals 67k) I put in a call to the toll free MINI Cust. Serv. # and pretty much got the "Wow, I've never heard of any trouble with the 5spds, yours must be an isolated case..." runaround.


REALLY IMPORTANT THAT ALL COOPER 5spd OWNERS REGULARLY CHECK THEIR TRANSMISSION SEALS FOR LEAKS!!!!

 

I check under my car everyday,even with a new tranny,and the "new improved" seals.The recall economics baffle me,the new seal is worth about $30,takes an hour to change,well really only about 20 minutes,I was standing right there,under the car when they changed my seal.The new tranny is $3000 plus 6 hours labour.
So to replace the seal is at worst $200,the tranny is $4000.Thats 8 MINIs fixed before a problem comes up.
My tech has done 12 or so trannies,that buys 2 MINIs

 

I may be added to this list. I should find out from the dealer today. I had the same sounds (crunching ice, flappy plastic under the car) in 1st and 2nd gear especially when cold and on deceleration. The sound goes away when I press the clutch pedal in. But, I have not seen any fluid in the garage or on the driveway. The Dealer said they'll probably have to replace the gearbox (Midlands). We'll see...

November 2003 build, 2004 Cooper 5-speed.

This is what they're letting me drive as loaner.

 

PEP, sorry to hear of your problem. You describe the symptoms to a T (including the sound disappearing when you depress the clutch), so don't hold your breath for any good news. I hope you're still under warranty.

What a joke this whole situation is. It cost me $5000 plus the interest on my new loan to switch from my '03 to my '05 Cooper, but boy is that looking like a bargain. Why any informed buyer would buy a used Cooper out of warranty with a Midlands transmission is beyond me (I can say that freely now, since mine is safely sold). These are only going to get harder and more expensive to replace and repair, since they are no longer made.

 

Thanks chrisneal. That's something I forgot to mention in my post. My car has 29,000 miles on it and I am still under warranty. I'm still waiting to hear from The Dealer, but I have pretty much accepted that it's going to get a replacement gearbox.

From all the posts here and on MINI2, I don't know if I can trust a Midlands anymore. I just don't know...

I've been building 06 models all day today...

 

when I take s in most times a cooper is on hoi:impatient st for transmission failure.Two of our club members had same problem,seal leaks,transmission oil drains out ,transmission gets dry,transmission makes noise,transmission goes boom.Cold weather starts the problem,but its happened in warm weather too.Mini is aware of oroblem.

 

Just reading and came across this thread. I had to have a new transmission (manual CVT) I have an 03 MC it was about 45,000, and I am scared to death that it will happen again. I was under warranty but when they had me sign the work order for what it would have cost $5600.00 WOW I don't want this when the warranty is up. anyone want to buy a 03 CR/W MC???? make me an offer

 

UPDATE:
I got the call last night. It is the transmission. A replacement is being installed today.

Accoding to The Dealer, a remanufactured gearbox is a used box with new, updated parts in it.

I'll post more when I get the car (probably Friday).

 

Well, I now have a replacement transmission. The gears feel tight and precise.
The work order says they replaced the gearbox and checked the clutch for abnormal wear (none found).

I'm glad to have my MINI back, but I'm sure I'll be paying extra attention to any odd sounds it makes from now on.

 

Well, I'm sure glad I took my 02 Cooper 5speed into a tuning shop instead of the money grubbing dealer! I live here in Texas, my car has not seen a cold day in its entire life (out of Florida, lived in Arkansas for 2 years, and now in Texas for another 2 years).

I myself am at about 75,546 miles on my 3RD Midlands tranny. It really did help to hear that a few of you have had your trannies replaced, and know that the "replacement" tranny that went in at around 45K was just a timebomb again!

Transmission 1: Bit the dust in 2002 when the body shop found a hairline crack in the block of the transmission when I hit a small tree (about the size of a Wendy's sandwich) at about 30 mph. Total amount of damage with airbags and all: 14,500 dollars (should have totalled the car but since MINI was still new they didn't know what to do).

Transmission 2: Clutch was burned up at 65K. For some reason the Cooper clutch is really just for tooling around town? WHO KNEW!? Also the shop who installed transmission 1 could have reused the original clutch plate and if thats the case I'm glad it went out because I drive my MINI hard! I sweetened the deal this time around with a little extra dough and threw in a Spec 2 clutch and lightened flywheel.

Transmission 3: Started to have the "I think I just ran over something noise" coming from the front drivers side area. The car would rev fine in neutral or with the clutch depressed but as soon as I took off it would start with the noise. After a day or so of slowly driving around I also started to have clutch slippage. I could barely get the car to 65mph on the highway and it took me forever to get up to speed (only could rev the car to 3500rpm before the clutch would slip free).

Took it and dropped it off at my local tuner shop only to get a call the next day after they dropped the tranny out.

The problem is in the output and input shaft bearings!

Apparently from the shop, they told me that Midlands puts both of these bearings inside a plastic encasement. What happened was that the plastic that surrounding the ball bearings cracked and sent ball bearings everywhere (hence losing the seal and sending leaking tranny fluid all over the clutch). I'm sure that all MINI is doing is having their techs put in an "updated" version of this seal to stop any future leakage. And would explain why the bearing is failing at low temperatures, its because its crappy PLASTIC IN THERE!

The shop is getting a better bearing from an outside source (please don't ask me I don't know yet as the car is still in the shop, but I will be sure to post their source of bearing for all to know) and should have the car back in a few days. Other than that all the other tranny materials looked fine (synchros, gears, other seals, etc.) and should have the car back at a FRACTION of what the dealer would charge since I'm out of warranty.

Labor charge at MINI shop: 110 an hour
Labor charge at Tuner shop: 80 an hour

6 hours to take apart the car to get to the transmssion, about 2-3 hours to do the work (install new bearing, new clutch), and 6 hours to put the car back together. Plus, MINI would charge 10 hours to take apart and 10 hours to put back together, not to mention the 2-3 hours to do the bearing and clutch work on TOP of that! (at least thats the estimates I got from my dealership)..........

Labor charge at MINI: 2530 + parts
Labor charge at Tuner: 1200 + parts

THANK THE LORD FOR MINI TUNER SHOPS!

 

Interesting stuff McCullster!
I barely understand the magic that happens under the hood of my car, but your description made total sense to me.

I hate to think that my MINI is a timebomb. This time next year I'll be at the end of my warranty.

Keep us updated, please!

 

I've been searching the board this morning to see if I could find what I've been hearing on my '03 MC with CVT. I think I've found it on this thread. I just noticed when we had our first cool spell (under 50 degrees for Central Florida) that when I started my Mini in the morning (it's garaged), I heard this sound on the driver's side that sounded like someone was scraping ice from a windshield. When I shift into reverse and then back to drive, it's a little rough. After the car warms up, the sound goes away.

It's been like this every morning since the weather has cooled down.
I haven't noticed any leaks in the garage but I'm going to look again
when I go home for lunch.

I've had the car exactly 3 years this month -- it was a Dec '02 build. I only have 15,600 miles on it. This is my third winter but the first time that I've noticed this problem. Do any of you think it's the transmission?

Thanks for any help!

 

I think most of us have the 5-speed manual, not the automatic.

 

I had noticed that most of you guys seem to have 5 speed.
I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that this is not something
serious.

 

I'd let the dealer listen to it. I have read of CVTs going bad (can't seem to find the thread right now).

 

So check this out - Friday night the clutch started to slip badly and without warning on my '74 S. Next I saw a spray of something on the rear window (I was afraid it was hydro fluid but it turned out to be oil). On the way home the clutch actually improved some (altho still slipping some on hard gas), but second gear started making a lot of strange noises. The next day my mechanic looked at and drove the car and concluded that I had both a bad clutch and a blown second gear. Today the dealer (BMW of Darien, CT) looked at it and called me with the really bad news. The transmission housing had been dented and cracked, which is why oil contamination made the clutch slip and probably destroy second gear. The even worse news - no warranty coverage, and the deales says it will cost about $6,000 to replace the tranny, clutch, flywheel and throw out bearing. The good news (if there is any) - my auto insurance (Chubb) is going to cover it all, so that all I have to pay is the $500 deductible. So be careful out there - hit the wrong object in the road and this could happen to you!