Yesterday my daughter was driving our Cooper S Cabrio automatic to the dealer for a couple of warranty issues (one of which was no reverse lockout) when at about 70 miles an hour the automatic transmission simply broke....no warning, no symptons, NOTHING. Luckily she was able to coast off to the side of a very busy freeway to relative safety.

I was with her in my 04 MCS--both cars were going in for minor issues--and my initial thought was the car had gone into limp mode as the SES light had been coming off and on. But no, it was a total transmission failure. No Drive, No Reverse, No Manual or Sprot Mode...the engine just revved freely in gear! You could start it in Park, and shift to R or D; but if you tried to return it to park, it "ground", just as if it were a manual transmission trying to go into a gear without the clutch.

Has anyone heard of a similar failure? The dealer says that these 6 speed automatics have been "bullet proof" Well, this one "took a direct hit", and is now very, very dead.

Any feedback would be appreciated

Charlie

I also posted this at mini2

 

WOW!! I'm interested to hear more about this as the dealer works on the car.

 

holly crap!! hadn't read such catastrophic failure on the cabrioAT's yet.

Glad to hear your daughter is okay... well, physically that is.

 

See my "MCSa Warning" previously posted in this forum. Looks like the same problem I had....drive shaft fell out of the transmission. I suspect there will be more to come.
Glad to hear that no one was injured.

 

My MCSa is at the dealer right now. They did the wiring harness recall on it and updated my computer and since then it has been acting up. I've had my turn signals and hazard lights go out(no lights or sounds on the dash), loss of steering wheel electronics, my windshield wipers come on while driving, and the airbag and seatbelt warning lights come on. Those things happened to me twice last week. The second time it wouldn't start 3 times when I was trying to reset it and the 4th time it started and everything was back to normal, but when I started driving it was stuck in 3rd or 4th gear until I came to a stop. I've also been hearing a metal rubbing, screeching noise that I fear is the transmission, driveshaft, or something connected in there.

Over on MINI2 one person said he had an ice-link and they told him he had to remove it becuase it was causing the airbag and seatbelt warning lights to come on, and he had the turn signals go out like in mine. They told him the ice-link was cutting the voltage of the k bus in half. I have the ice-link also, but it had been functioning fine for the last 4 or 5 months so I don't see why that would all of a sudden start creating a problem. I just had the limp mode problem fixed and my car was running just fine then they had to go mess with the software again! Why can't they just leave it alone...

 

Sorry to hear about your latest problem Charlie. It seems to be one thing after another. I am starting to feel a bit embarrassed at how trouble-free my MCSa has been. Did you get the SES/CEL/DME problem sorted out? Or was that one of the items the Cabrio was going in for?

 

Sorry to hear about that, Charlie. This is a first to hear about this kind of problem. Keep us updated as to what they say the problem is.

 

MINI Service Advisor emailed me today to explain that they discovered the cause of my "transmission failure." Seems the passenger side halfshaft (drive axle) popped out of the transmission; and because there is no limited slip differential, it just free-wheeled once disconnected.

Haven't had a chance to talk to him to find out why this occurred; and what the "fix" is to prevent this from re-occurring. Is this an assembly defect at the factory; Is it a manufacturing defect due to an inadequate design. As best as I can tell, mine is only the 3rd reported such occurrance (by reading NAM and mini2) Let you know more later.

(racoman, you called it correctly in your "MCSa Warning" thread, https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...448#post685448 )

Charlie

 

When was your MCSa built?

 

mdsbrain:
The car was built in late January of 05......during the last week. Why?

 

I'm just curious if the problem was found and fixed. Such as how the engine wiring harness only affected cars from Jan-June.

My car was built in April and has 6700 miles on it and so I wonder if the problem was fixed or not...

 

Chief-

Very glad to hear no one was hurt during the axle failure.
Now that they know what happened, I hope they know why. Keep us posted.

I recall one day a friend asked me to go for a ride in her 91 Legacy wagon to hear a funny noise it was making. Next thing I know at 50mph all four tires locked up sending us into a lurid slide. No crash but the sound drew lots of neighbors out of thier homes. The tranny had siezed up. Glad she wasn't on the freeway.

 

The service technicians at the MINI dealer inspected both the passenger side output shaft (axle) and the carrier bearing. (On a MINI, the passenger axle is shorter than the driver-side unit. MINI makes them equal length--thereby eliminating torque-steer--by the use of the carrier bearing, which fits to the transmission's right-side output flange.

Upon inspection, it appears that the tolerances between the size of the axle shaft splines and those in the carrier bearing are too great, thereby allowing the axle to slip from the bearing, leading to the "failure" we experienced.

The Techs have created a "pink sheet" which is a technical-issue notice to MINI/BMW about the problem. To resolve the issue with my car, they are installing a new axle and carrier bearing. It appears the problem is one that occurred as a result of a manufacturing defect when the axle's splines were machined by the parts vendor, prior to installation at the MINI factory.

 

Charlie, interesting news. I wonder if there will be a recall.

 

Sorry to hear about the troubles, Charlie - at least you were there to help.

So did the half shaft actually fall out of the tranny/carrier, or just pull out far enough so the splines weren't engaged? There is usually a circlip on the end of the shaft to prevent just such a thing.

 

Charlie, I can't believe I missed this thread. Glad your daughter is okay. She was calm enough to pull over on a busy highway.

Your transmission problem got worse--definitely serious compared to your other problem (no lock-out from neutral to reverse)! I wonder if BMWMINI provided an explanation for your transmission's not having the lock-out gears.

Similar to Caminifan I feel guilty my MCSa has been relatively trouble free for 1900 miles. Let's hope yours has been fixed for good.