Mini Cooper Transmission replacement

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I have a 2002 Mini Cooper. I have been told the differential is going out and the transmission has to be replaced. Repair costs of this amount to the total value of the car (it has 196000+ miles on it). I’m not comfortable replacing it with a used transmission as I have learned that this is a common problem for this model. I have found no information indicating that the Generation 2, 6-speed transmission has this problem.

I wondering if this is true: the Gen2, 6-speed transmission doesn’t have differential problems; and is it possible to replace my transmission with a Gen2, 6-speed transmission?

2

northamericanmotoring.com/forums/r50-r53-hatch-talk-2002-2006/231533-putting-the-6-speed-transmission-in-the-base.html

3

Do you think you will keep this car for another 200K miles? Not going to happen…Stick a used tranny in it and unload it, or unload it the way it is…You want a 6-speed Cooper, buy one…The cost and complexity of converting your car to a 6-speed is not worth the effort…

4

I wasn’t sure it was possible to replace the tranny with a 6-speed. I guess I was hoping for a miracle of sorts. I should have known it would be a huge headache. Thanks for the reality check.

5

I fail to see where the transmission has been problematic for you as it’s lasted for 196k miles.

Left unsaid is whether the transmission was serviced regularly, whether it suffered any fluid loss due to leaks, etc.

6

There have been no leaks in the transmission and the car has been serviced regularly since I purchased it in 2005, with 43k miles. It’s not been problematic until I noticed it making a noise last December. I was just hoping for an affordable repair so that I could continue enjoying the car. I have become quite fond of it and consider it to be a member of the family.

7

Servicing the car is not the same thing as servicing the transmission though. I’m pretty sure that Mini states the fluid in their automatic transmission and the gear oil in manual transmissions is a lifetime fluid and this is a very bad recommendation. Some other car makers are guilty of the same thing and the end result is often the same; the transmission fails out of the warranty period and the car owner is left holding the bag because of ill advised factory recommendations.

Automatics should have the fluid changed every 30k miles and manual transmissions no later than 100k miles with the latter possibly being changed more often all depending.