My car and the cold are not friends. Recently shifting into a gear when first starting out has been difficult. Sometimes it didn't want to move from 1st to 2nd or 3rd to 4th when the temps have been low. Once the car is warmed up some the shifting is fine. Talked to Chad abut some possible reasons and scheduled a date to have it looked at by Best Motorworks here in Columbus. That date was today. Finding the potential problem turned out to be easy. Maybe event too easy. The selector cable has a ripped boot at transmission. Doing a bit of detective work this looks to be another issue due to the louvers in the bonnet. Since the boot ripped water can find it's way into the cable and freeze. Making it hard to shift. Once the car warms up some, the water melts and shifting is fine. New cables have been ordered from eMINIparts, an appointment has been made with Anson at Best Motorworks to replace the cables. While only one boot is torn it makes sense to me that since we are in there anyway we might as well replace them both. Will report back after the service is complete in 2 weeks. Hope this is the problem. I don't relish the idea of a new clutch soon.
I would also recommend have the oil in the diff changed at this time. I was ready to reply to your post cables, but it was in the body of the post. John & Anson will get you squared away. Steve bought a clutch for his MINI only to discover once up on the lift it was cables.
I didn't know they still used cables. You mean the ECU doesn't do all that shifting stuff. :crazy: Jim
I just did a set on an '02 Cooper S, they're relatively easy to change, but fiddly. You have to remove the exhaust - but only take it loose at the headpipe, you don't have to remove it from the car. Then you have to remove all the thin aluminum shielding, which is just a matter or undoing some screws and bolts. The hardest part for us was getting the cables off the balls on the shifter and on the transmission end, the best way turned out to be an open end wrench of the appropriate size to pop them off.... I had a similar problem with my '03 JCW, since my cars live outside, if it was below 25* in the am, either I had to just let it idle and warm up, or I had to force the lever to move, once it did it gradually got better till it was driveable, but it was a big PITA. Something that would never happen in nice warm sunny Texas! Hope you got the right cables, there are two different ones depending on which style of shifter stack you have.....
Those buggers can be a pain to pry off under the stick shift....I'm sure Mini has a special tool for it?
How about adding some gutters behind the louvers to channel the water away!! :biggrin5::biggrin5: Just a kidding. Hope it all turns out well.
The operative part of the definition in this usage would be this bit... Having an obstinately uncooperative attitude
Yea....the 03's, you gotta know what month even. When I did my B&M short shifter, had to know what month build it was, because of the cables.
...........toward authority. Perhaps Gnat just didn't want to go into the gear you wanted and you were becoming too authoritative. :lol: Jim
New cables have made a 110% difference. While it is still a little stiff, like moving a stuck through almost hard cement, when the temps have been in single digits as soon as warmed a little it's like a hot knife through cold butter. There was also a broken bit that had to be welded back into place. I wasn't exactly sure what it was from the quick description I got right after getting off the plane. I'll have more details on that in a day or two when I pop over to the shop and pay my bill.
I'll bet it was one of the ball studs on the transmission end that worked loose. They're just staked on and over time can work loose. When I helped my buddy put the clutch in his '02 last month we had to replace his cables too, he lives in Dallas so he's never had the freezing problem that we in cold country get - but while we had the tranny out I found one of his loose, but didn't have a welder handy so I just re-staked it tight again. If that's what it was it's a good thing that he saw it and fixed it......
Have a picture of the part now. You can't buy one of these according to the parts listing on RealOE<. Spoke to Chad and he's got a transmission that he has to junk, so he's going to pull the part off for me and hold on to it. I'll run up to Detroit Tuned come spring and get it installed. It was previously welded but the ball end came lose again. Previous fix New Fix