I just bought my daughter a used (06) Mini Cooper automatic transmission, no turbo. She claims that the transmission, without any help from her, is slipping from drive to reverse when she stops at a light or stop sign. She says when she takes her foot off the brake the the hesitates and as she puts her foot on the gas it goes backwards, yet the gearshift is in D. I will be driving the Cooper myself for awhile to see if I can replicate this or if it is a matter of not engaging solidly in D. Anyone else?
Are we talking about “roll-back”?
Or are we talking about the car actually slipping into reverse?
On most modern automatic transmission cars, the transmission is designed to allow “roll-back” on even a slight grade (while in Drive gear) if the brake is not applied. Is it possible that this is what she is experiencing?
I find it difficult to believe that the transmission is actually going into Reverse by itself. Please test-drive it yourself to clarify the information that your daughter gave you, and then report back to us.
If Katy TX where we live were not as flat as a pancake, I’d think roll back. I am wondering if the transmission is not fully engaging in D and when she stops is somhow slips into neutral. I am as skeptical as you and if the kid were a rotten liar I’d be suspect. But she’s not, so I have to sort this out, especially since I have to convince the BMW folks to fix the problem (if it exists) or explain it away somehow. This does have that funky ‘manual override’ shifter on the side that eventhe Mini dealer could not adequately explain from a functionality standpint, bu that would seem only applicable if she were wanting to ‘shift’ the transmission manually through the gears related to moving forward, not reverse. I’ll let you know how my weekend ina mini goes … Thanks. DLM