I have posted on every forum, even Reddit, you all are my last hope… Just within the last 1000 miles my MINI has been randomly grinding into second gear (6 Speed Getrag Manual for the Cooper S) when turning right. It is a little notchy when traveling straight and beautifully smooth when turning left. When pulling out of my garage the other morning I went into second but purposely pulled the gearstick towards the right side of the gate and it did the same grinding thing that it does when going around right hand turns. It seems as though something is out of alignment? It feels like the shift linkage is not properly placing the internals of the transmission. It happens mostly when cold and once warm the random harsh grinding stops and it goes to simply really notchy.
Sounds a lot like a bad cv joint to me, a good mechanic can give the proper diagnosis.
So how could a bad CV lead to a grinding transmission? Never even thought of that being a possibility before!
It needs to be looked before it gets worse but you could try double-clutching just to see if it helps. If it does that would help a mechanic have a better idea.
Had an audi that had a similar symptom, only growled on low speed left hand turns, turned out to be cv joint the problem, the noise sounded like the trans, but cv joint was the problem. Just throwing it out there for ya. Sounds can be deceptive. A trans might be suspect but it would probably not be directional sensetive unless it was a motor or trans mount issue.
I’m not sure what a “getrag manual” is for a Mini, but if you’ll allow a guess from a driveway diy’er with no mini experience: If the noise only occurs timed exactly at the shift point into second, and not while driving in the same gear or coasting or shifting into any other gears besides second, I wouldn’t place my hopes that it’s a failing cv joint. I guess if I had this problem on my manual transmission Corolla first thing I’d do is inspect the gear shift mechanical linkage between the stick and the transmission, and the engine/transmission mounts.
For petes sake George! You don’t know what Getrag means and you are not versed on Mini’s so why even waste your time?
Am I guessing again? Hey, how about that guess of yours about the 2WD/4WD? You haven’t addressed that one yet.
It could be bad motor mounts allowing the engine/transmission to shift in a corner. And/or bad shift linkage alignment.
Or OP could try the double clutching idea … lol …
George I think you are right on with the engine and trans mounts possibly being a source for concern or the shift linkage. Getrag is simply the manufacturer of the transmission. The car is going in to the dealer tomorrow under warranty to have it looked at, but being who I am I would love to just fix it myself…
The one time I fixed a notchy Fiat transmission was with a simple tranny oil change.
I think that texases is on target regarding an issue related to the motor mounts.
However, I have to wonder about quality of Mini/BMW’s motor mounts if they are already worn-out during the warranty period.