'04 S: shifter gets stuck on gate

[Rich'sFroggy]

The shifter gets caught-up in the gate ie: it's not slotting smoothly through the gear changes. This happens during the 2nd to 3rd up shift & 5th to 4th down shift. A dangerous condition IMO! Not to mention annoying and not fun.

I have brought it to the dealer before for this. They said there was some slack in the cabels (??there are cabels in there??) and they tightened them up a bit. It was fine for about 3 or 4 months then reverted to the way it was. I'm bringing it in again next week.

BTW this problem first appeared a week or so after I fitted the shifter with a Whalen knob. I was very careful while removing the OE knob to pull straight up on it.

So. Dose anyone else have this trouble?

Is that a bunch of BS about "tightening the cabels"?

Do you think the force required for the removal of the OE knob caused the problem?

Much Thanks, Rich

[Rich'sFroggy]

What? Nobody has this trouble??

[GTmini]

Right now I have the problem with getting out of 5th pretty regularly. There's one stretch of road that I take everyday and lately at the point where I normally have to shift out of 5th I can almost count on it never coming out of 5th very smoothly. The gate hangup problems only began shortly after they replaced my original gearbox. After that replacement, I also had problems with 1st-2nd (which was the first hangup I experienced) and then every now and then I'd have problems coming out of 3rd.

Well, that replacement gearbox started making noises under load, so they replaced my gearbox again a few months later. This one had a problem getting out of 1st a couple of times, but usually after depressing/releasing the clutch a few times, it would finally let go smoothly. I haven't had a problem getting out of 1st many times, but coming out of 5th is almost always impossible. I've got a service visit coming up and I need to remember to tell them about that.

It does really suck as you occasionally end up in situations where you're practically a sitting duck because you need to downshift and are sitting/rolling trying to get the thing out of gear. Mine's an '03 MCS, but maybe the replacement gearboxes were refurbished '04s.

[Rich'sFroggy]

Quote: Originally Posted by GTmini

Right now I have the problem with getting out of 5th pretty regularly. There's one stretch of road that I take everyday and lately at the point where I normally have to shift out of 5th I can almost count on it never coming out of 5th very smoothly. The gate hangup problems only began shortly after they replaced my original gearbox. After that replacement, I also had problems with 1st-2nd (which was the first hangup I experienced) and then every now and then I'd have problems coming out of 3rd.

Well, that replacement gearbox started making noises under load, so they replaced my gearbox again a few months later. This one had a problem getting out of 1st a couple of times, but usually after depressing/releasing the clutch a few times, it would finally let go smoothly. I haven't had a problem getting out of 1st many times, but coming out of 5th is almost always impossible. I've got a service visit coming up and I need to remember to tell them about that.

It does really suck as you occasionally end up in situations where you're practically a sitting duck because you need to downshift and are sitting/rolling trying to get the thing out of gear. Mine's an '03 MCS, but maybe the replacement gearboxes were refurbished '04s.

Oh my goodness! I certainly hope it's not the gearbox! Never thought of that. The problem only crops up occasionally for me. But it is definetly NOT GOOD. I just brought it in this morning. We shall see.

[Aqualung]

I see this trying to go into 3rd occasionally, but not enough to strike me as a big problem...

[GTmini]

It's not going INTO gear (agree that 3rd is occasionally a tricky one), but it's trying to get OUT of gear...that's the strange part (strange to me at least). Plus, I don't think I ever had that particular problem with my car before the transmission/flywheel work...it was quite the opposite and often I couldn't get into some gears along with its other problems. I'm not totally convinced it's the transmission itself.

One random new hypothesis I had is that something is ocasionally binding or getting caught up in the clutch actuation assembly itself and so maybe it's not truly fully retracted. That could explain why one time when I tried releasing and depressing the clutch a few times, it finally slipped out smoothly/normally on the 3rd try. I think MINI uses a hydraulic clutch mechanism, so I wonder if there's some fault there and that could be the final source of these nagging odd problems.

One of these days I should take my service manual out of the shrink wrap just to see how the drivetrain & shifting mechanisms are laid out in the MINI. With all the problems I've had, I'm REALLY curious. I just didn't want to crack open the service manual until well after the warranty period in case I then became tempted to add some upgrades or tinker.