Gravel sound coming from gearbox

[rghuska]

Hi! I have a 2002 mini cooper 1.6L Automatic transmission. I took the car in to a local garage and a mechanic noticed a rattling/gravel sounding noise coming from the gearbox area when the cars front wheels are manualy turned while the car is in neutral. He does not seem to know the cause. Can anyone please help? Thanks.

[Sejanus]

Not sure about the cause, but you don't have an automatic transmission if your car is an '02, you have a CVT
(Continuously Variable Transmission). If you hear a rattling noise while driving that usually means the CVT is about to fail and they are very expensive to replace. I would take it to a MINI dealership and have them check it out.

[rghuska]

Thanks, you are right it is a CVT. However I do not hear the noise while I am driving, and the CVT changes the gears smoothly. I did have a problem with the CVT last summer where it would not change gear properly between 50-70km/h, and knobody seemed to know what was causing the problem. Everyone said that everything seemed ok. Anyways, I later replaced the battery and the CVT has not worked fine ever since (so far 5000km since then). As for the noise from the gear box ... the noise was there last summer also (not sure if it is worse at all). I would assume that if the CVT was about to go, that I would notice somethign now while I am driving. As I said I can only hear the noise when the car is in neutral and lifted up off the ground and rotate by hand either of the front 2 wheels.

[rghuska]

I did talk to a couple mini cooper mechanics over the phone, of course they said that they can not tell me exactly what the cause is. However, one told me that maybe it is the Axel ... however that I doubt since it would take a lot to break it, and the mechanic I took the car in to would have noticed I would assume. The other mechanic mentioned that it might be the transmission mounts or the power steering rack.