2005 MINI Cooper S transmission complaints

Filed May 6, 2011 · Transmission · 49,500 miles · TN

Vin: [xxx], delivered sept. 2004. Current mileage 49,940 this car was ordered via mini.com. The only drivers are a 63 yr female and a 63 yr male. No children have ever driven this car, nor has it been raced, driven hard, simply driven to work and back last week I was driving to work, a 11 mile trip max speed on a 55 MPH highway. The front end made a huge noise, the car shook, and I stopped. I had to call a towing service, as I felt the car was undrivable. The service towed the car to mini of nashville, where I was told the "harmonic balancer" broke, and it then broke the front axle. What? I asked, is a harmonic balancer" and what does it do?, after a lengthy conversation, I find out that if the car is too old, the rubber dries out and this can happen. For a part to wear out, I am stuck with $2,000 repair bill. This car is not too old, it has less than 50,000 miles on it and is always garaged. If the parts mini uses on a car and if mini knows that they wear out then mini should fully disclose this, as consumers can make informed decisions when making decisions on car purchases. This is not what I expect from a mini, this car was gently driven, well taken care of. Your "harmonic balancer" is defective, you should make the buyers of your cars aware of the defect, put yourself in positions to make it right. This car was undrivable, I could have had a serious accident at high speed if a broken axle occurred while on a long trip, let alone the inconvenience of repairs, hotel stays, and other interruptions. I am expecting mini make this repair as a warrantied item, covering the cost, labor to repair defective parts. The invoice is dated 29 april 2011, mini of nashville, I am customer # 31442. The invoice reads as follows: the driver states while driving it sounded like something fell out from underneath the mini. 11 - replaced dampner. 1035 c there are many incidents of this on the web. I firmly believe this is the result of using inferior parts. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of inform

Filed Dec 17, 2009 · Transmission · 50,000 miles · VA

24 degree morning car's manual 6-speed transmission frozen in 1st gear. Took other car to work. Problem gone after returning from work at 40 degrees. Looked up online. Saw many of the same complaints due to water in shifter cables.

Filed Jun 16, 2009 · Transmission · 98,000 miles · TN

2005 mini cooper s-began having issues with the car jerking when shifting gears (not a manual transmission) in early 2009. I took it to my mechanics. They had it for quite awhile, trying to determine the root cause. They advised that they even consulted with the dealership, but said they felt like the dealership wasn't very forthcoming in their information. My mechanic ultimately decided that he thought it was a sensor that needed to be replaced. $500 to replace this sensor. The rough shifting continued and on june 2, 2009, while I was out at lunch, I lost first gear altogether. The car would move forward, but was not able to pick up any real speed until the RPM's got high enough. I pulled over into a parking lot, put the car in park and turned the car off. When I started it again, I had the use of first gear again, but this time it felt as though it wouldn't shift out of third. I drove it very slowly and carefully back to my office. I called the dealership, told them that I was going to need to have it towed in, and asked if they had a towing service. She said no, but recommended a towing company. I had it towed it but didn't hear anything back from anyone until monday, june 8, 2009. My husband was told it was the transmission and that it would be $8,000 for the transmission and $2000 for the labor. Hard to believe anyone could say that with a straight face. Around june 9, 2009, the mini service manager said he was going to work with it a little bit and see if he could get any of those costs covered under a service bulletin. Today is june 16, 2009. My husband has called, left voicemails, and even gone up the dealership. We have heard nothing back from the mini service manager. My husband spoke to the bmw service manager, who told him that we'd have to wait and talk to the mini service manager.