6 replies to this topic

[cats_mini]

Last week I noticed my autobox wouldnt go into 4th gear. I have put this down to oil as my rocker cover gasket is leaking really badly,even though I did try to fix it. And sure enough, when I checked,my oil was below minimum!

It's really hard to find duckhams so I bunged in some Castrol GTX 15/40 until I could get to somewhere with good oil. Car started ok and I took it out for a burn,though I did find the steering very heavy and the brakes a bit spongier than I remembered,it was going into gear.

However, the other night I took it out and it wouldn't go into the manual 123 gears until I had put it into D,then it would move in 123. Normally I just drive in D anyway though. But yeah every so often I would have to put it into neutral to be able to get 4 gears in Drive. It goes into Reverse fine every time.

Things to consider:

It's been about 2K since my last oil change (put in Comma 20/50 and topped up with Duckhams and this C**p oil when I started losing some about a month ago) It now has Castrol 15/40 in it.

I was driving a very fast,hilly road about 4 times a week,sometimes hitting 80,which is previously unheard of in my auto!

It's very cold weather. LOL

There's 55k miles on the clock.


Does this spell the end??

[Guess-Works.com]

I'm going to have to find me a book...

[A_SERIES_SUPPLIES]

Last week I noticed my autobox wouldnt go into 4th gear. I have put this down to oil as my rocker cover gasket is leaking really badly,even though I did try to fix it. And sure enough, when I checked,my oil was below minimum!

It's really hard to find duckhams so I bunged in some Castrol GTX 15/40 until I could get to somewhere with good oil. Car started ok and I took it out for a burn,though I did find the steering very heavy and the brakes a bit spongier than I remembered,it was going into gear.

However, the other night I took it out and it wouldn't go into the manual 123 gears until I had put it into D,then it would move in 123. Normally I just drive in D anyway though. But yeah every so often I would have to put it into neutral to be able to get 4 gears in Drive. It goes into Reverse fine every time.

Things to consider:

It's been about 2K since my last oil change (put in Comma 20/50 and topped up with Duckhams and this C**p oil when I started losing some about a month ago) It now has Castrol 15/40 in it.

I was driving a very fast,hilly road about 4 times a week,sometimes hitting 80,which is previously unheard of in my auto!

It's very cold weather. LOL

There's 55k miles on the clock.


Does this spell the end??

hi does it change gear when you kick down

[cats_mini]

Yes,kickdown is working!

[A_SERIES_SUPPLIES]

Yes,kickdown is working!

if the kick down works and you are intamitantly gettin gears and then other gears
you need to check the selector
ok from underneath the front of the mini
you need to check the cable to the gearbox
there is a plate with a bulge on under front on the drivers side.
remove this plate ,look in haynes manual if you dont know .
wher this cable meets the gearbox is very imporant . the correct gap needs to be maintained .
also put the car in neutral and then really swowly move it back and forward till it tries to engage gear ,there should be a little play either way before it selects gear.

[cats_mini]

Thanks,will try and investigate cable and an oil change in the next few days

[minimanclive]

Something to remember with the Mini Auto gearbox. It was designed in about 1965, and designed to run on the oils that were available then. I think even the cheapest 20W40 type oil you can buy today would be better than the stuff that was available in 1965. I ran my Mini mini auto on cheap under £5 for 4.5 litres oil for 4 years with no problems. As long as you change it regularly it's fine. Mine leaked loads of oil anyway so it had self changing oil. Just needed topping up.