Loose Gear Stick

[Darren Metcalfe]

Hello

I have had my Cooper for nearly two months now, I have done nearly 2300 miles and I have noticed that my gear stick seems a little loose, nothing too extreme or anything but when stationary I can waggle the gear stick from side to side with about 2 - 3 cms play. Is this normal? My dealer said that my Cooper will "Loosen Up" ater 2000 - 3000 miles.

Anyone else experienced this?

[Darren Metcalfe]

It is just a bit of play when I am not in any gear at all. When I first got my Cooper, the gear stick was very stiff and now seems to have slackened off. I have never bought a brand new car before so I do not know if this is part of the "loosening up" process.

Thanks

[adgrimes]

Ive never had a brand new car, but I thought this was normal in most cars to have a little movement when in "neutral" or no gear at all... Maybe just the wearing in process taking effect...

[Rob.]

If your gear stick didn't move when in neutral how would you be able to get it in gear?
If your gears were stiff and have now loosened up after a few 1000 miles I would personally view that as a good thing

[Adriann001]

New cars have tight fits in the gear box and engine. when the car is running these fits slaken off during the first few thousand miles. Hence the loose gear shifter. My mcs has about 2cm (differnt gear box i know) but when i got it it didnt move more than 5mm. In my other car (a Corsa) the gear stick feels as if it aint connected to any thing but a large jelly.

[Mini Cruiser]

My car got like that after about 1000 miles, got looser and looser, until i found it abit hard to get it into gear sometimes, then one day, stoped behind a car turning right and heard a bang, pulled away and there gear stick was in 1st, but was rolling around everywhere, right by 5th, the cables had snapped. Its getting loser and loser now, im just waiting for them to snap again

[gtt19]

if it is a manual transmission, the stick will be "loose" whenin neutral like this. waggleing the stick side-to-side is how most people check a stick shift car to be sure it is in neutral...and like Silver and Black said, if it DIDN'T move side-to-side when in neutral, how would you move it to change gears, say from 1st, to 5th?? bottom line here is that the transmission is now out of it's break-in period, especially with 2300 on the clock, darren. i've driven probably 200 MINI's at some point or another, all with different mileage on the clock...the sticks with miles on them are always "looser" than the brand-new ones. sounds normal to me! i think Mini Cruiser just had a bad experience...but if the stick does start wobbling like this when it is IN GEAR, or if it progressively keeps getting worse, you might want to have it checked out. but from the sound of it, your MINI is good-to-go!

[Mini Cruiser]

Quote:

Originally posted by gtt19
if it is a manual transmission, the stick will be "loose" whenin neutral like this. waggleing the stick side-to-side is how most people check a stick shift car to be sure it is in neutral...and like Silver and Black said, if it DIDN'T move side-to-side when in neutral, how would you move it to change gears, say from 1st, to 5th?? bottom line here is that the transmission is now out of it's break-in period, especially with 2300 on the clock, darren. i've driven probably 200 MINI's at some point or another, all with different mileage on the clock...the sticks with miles on them are always "looser" than the brand-new ones. sounds normal to me! i think Mini Cruiser just had a bad experience...but if the stick does start wobbling like this when it is IN GEAR, or if it progressively keeps getting worse, you might want to have it checked out. but from the sound of it, your MINI is good-to-go!

ummmmm i was on about when its IN GEAR, u could move the gear stick over by 5th when it was in 1st.

I think its common sense that the gear stick moves from side to side in neutral