I noticed whenever my car is cold my transmission shifts hard in 1st and 2nd. After a couple of minutes and I feel the car warm up everything is silky smooth 1st-6th. It almost feels like I'm not pushing the clutch in all the way even though I am. I wouldn't say it sounds like the gears are grinding but almost like the syncros aren't engaging properly? Like I said though once everything warms up it goes away. Anyone experience this? Could it be the shift cables gummed up possibly?
I'd lube the shift cables... But I suspect somebody change the tranny fluid to something a bit thicker.....so changing the tranny oil will likely be the real fix....
I talked with my dad (ASME Diamond certified mechanic of 20+ years) and he thinks another possibility could be the slave cylinder on the clutch. And it has done it all the time but gets much worse/more noticable/last longer in the cold.
Soooo we are talking about two areas here.... The shifting and the clutch are two different systems.... Is it the stick shift that's hard to move when cold or is it the clutch pedal that's hard to move when cold..... Or are you saying both are hard to move when cold? The clutch pedal connects and disconnects the clutch to the flywheel. The gearshift moves the gears through cables at the transmission... Which one id giving you issues?
The thought behind it being a clutch problem is the seals on the slave cylinder slowly leak when cold causing the clutch to not fully disengage when depressed the first few times and also making it hard to shift. I took it for a spin just now after sitting all night in the cold and pumped the clutch roughly 10 times before taking off and that seemed to solve the hard shifting.
I'd say that's your problem... The trans oil is probably OK.... Just don't believe in the lifetime oil part that MINI claims.... Maybe change it around 50,000 miles of "normal" driving... Or sooner if you track it for sure...
I purchased the car at 80,000 with no previous maintenance history and have 85,000 on it now. Is it safe to assume trans oil was never changed? I was planning on doing a complete fluid change at 100,000 for all fluids.
Probably not changed.... If it was maintained by the dealer they should have the info in their computers. Since they claim it to be lifetime, the original oil is probably still in there... Changing the trans oil is not difficult and oil is relatively cheap.... Oil change schedules are somewhat a personal preference.... I like to err on the safe side.... But that's just me.... There are no filters in the manual but there is a magnet to catch some of the iron wear particles....
A tranny oil change is probably the cheapest thing you can to to help diagnose/eliminate this problem. The absolute worse thing that'll happen is you have new lubrication for the transmission. I"m really thinking I'd try that asap and see if it helps. My money is that it will.
I let the car set for 2 months and now when I move the gear shift it is stiff. How do you grease the cables
I'm not sure greasing the cables is going to solve your problem. If you want to give it a shot, and you have a R50 or R53, you'll have to remove the battery box or air intake, respectively, and you can try using a high wicking lubricant that'll make it's way down the cable housing. Try Wurth HHS. It's expensive, but wurth it.