5 replies to this topic

[fwelch]

Hello all - I have recently purchased a 2001 Mini Cooper with an automatic gearbox. As a car I love it - it has 80k on the clock and runs brilliantly...bar one problem.

 

About 50% of the time when I start up, the car will not shift out of first gear. Even if I engage manual/sports mode, it will not shift up. Sometimes it only takes 20 seconds or so of driving around in first doing 10mph to remember it is supposed to shift, but sometimes refuses point blank - will push the engine up to 5000rpm and still no movement.

 

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated, I am not a car-savvy person, but would like to know what it might be, if it is a known fault and if it is going to break the bank!

 

Thank-you

[Carlos W]

Did you buy it from a dealer?

[fwelch]

Bought off a used car dealer - warranty expired. I should also say that once it has finally made that initial shift out of first there are no problems for the rest of the drive, no matter how much I stop and start.

[Captain Mainwaring]

Hmmm, you may well find a fluid change may well assist.

[Badboytunes]

I assume this is an r50. This has a CVt gearbox and are problematic. I would veisit a specialist and get the fluid changed and get them to advise if there is an underlying problem.

 

 

Cheers

[Guess-Works.com]

All the first generation of the BMW Mini suffer with gearbox problems, be it manual or automatic. Which is why there are loads of independent BMW Mini Gearbox specialists around the country, which means replacements are fairly cheap, which is why I've not bothered with the BMW Mini, there's absolutely no money in it unless you're doing multiple of cars per day.

 

Try these guys, I've not had a bad report about them, and a few people in motor trade I know have used them as it's cheaper to take it to them than do it themselves.

 

http://www.minigearboxes.co.uk/