2nd Gen R56 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Manual trany shifts hard when cold

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'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.

 

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....

 

Heck. I shift hard when cold...

 

Have you ever changed the gear oil in the transmission?

That could be the issue, been there myself.

 

Yep, I'd check the shift cables.

 

^^^^ this x 2

 

I vote shift cables getting cold and sticky.....

 

Wondering, has it done this all the time or just since it's been getting colder?

 

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?

 

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...

 

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....

 

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