MINI gets a new transmission

audiobliss

Ron-P wrote:

Sorry, my bad, I have no idea where CS came from, my a$$ maybe.

Ahh, ok. I felt st00pid referring to it as 'CS'. But you did. And you know what they say about that blasted 'bandwagon'!

SWFalken

I don't buy it. That transmission doesn't look like it came from a drivable car. There is so much rust on the shift rails alone that I don't think that you could ever shift it. And all the rust on the gear faces is disturbing as well. That entire assembly should be swimming in oil and if there really was no oil lubricating that gear assembly then it would have made so much noise that you could not stand being in the car. I can understand the car having a transmission replaced (the early mini's are notorious for having weak gearboxes) but that looks like a box that has been out of a car for quite a while and left out in the rain.

Ron-P

At this point I don't know and there's no way to really find out. I contacted MINIUSA and there's no way to track the tranny's to certain cars. Is it my tranny, I don't know. I see no reason why they would make all this up, the transmission failed, I witnessed that.

It does seem fishy but there's really nothing I can do at this point other then get a lawyer, spend lots of money in hopes of winning a case against CarMax for what I think might have happened. It's just not worth it.

It's time to just put this behind me, forget it and move on. I'll be getting the MINI back next week and trading it in for an Eclipse.

BaggedLancer

This is a strange question but why does your transmission look nothing like this one:



I just googled for mini transmission to find one to see what they look like without rust. Notice the square corner. Maybe I'm just not seeing the right angle.

EDIT: Second shot....just not seeing the similarity....

Ron-P

There are several different types of MINI transmissions out there for the different MINIs. My pictures have been all over NAM (North American Motoring) a huge MINI Cooper site, no one has made a comment at all stating that the tranny is not a MINI one.

But, your post does bring up a good question. I might just put a little effort into researching this, thanks.

Ron-P

Here's a pic that's from an older MINI that's looks similar.



I'm sure what they showed me was a MINI transmission was it mine, who knows, these things are hard to come by as there's not a lot of older MINIs on the road, parts are nearly impossible to get so to whip one out like that, that's not from my car would be a lot of work, and for what? Who knows....

BaggedLancer

Ron-P wrote: »

There are several different types of MINI transmissions out there for the different MINIs. My pictures have been all over NAM (North American Motoring) a huge MINI Cooper site, no one has made a comment at all stating that the tranny is not a MINI one.

But, your post does bring up a good question. I might just put a little effort into researching this, thanks.

Yea, sorry about that, I didn't mean to create any doubt but it just looked strange when I was looking to see what a non rusted one looks like. I can't even begin to imagine the internals of a transmission rusting like that in a sealed case...just doesn't make sense. That looks like it's been sitting outside, open, in the elements for monthes.

I'll tell ya, that would make one amazing story if you found out it wasn't the transmission from your car and didn't even fit your car.

DemonAstroth

Maybe they spray painted the transmission to look so rusty in order not to pay for the fix....

Or they may have a warehouse full of rusty transmissions from every type of car they sell and they'll ship them out accordingly...

So either way they never have to pay for their extended warranties.

Ok, it may sound stupid, but it is way too strange that the tranny is sooo rusted, it really feels like something's up. Sorry about your loss. I hope you're not too unhappy going from a Mini to an Eclipse (ugh)

sucks2beme

The extended warranties are sold through companies outside of Carmax.
They definately would deny the claim due to non-maintenace.
The real problem is with Carmax. They are supposed to do the checks
on these cars before selling them. Although it's a manual tranny, they still
should of checked the fluids. And it amazes me how mechanics are so sloppy
that they go through all of that to find the real problem.It's why I do most of
my own work. Dealer maintenace pisses me off. I have yet to have a good
experience at a dealer.
I doubt they switched trannies. They would want the warranty company to cover it,
not deny it. Good luck with this one. Dump the car, there's more trouble coming, big time.

heiney9

I worked at a dealership for a short period of time (sales) which sold Mercedes, Jag, Audi. I will say the 40 point inspections done on used cars is a joke. Now WE would stand behind issues that creeped up within a reasonable amount of time after the sale, but the inspection process is very general and things were missed all the time.

H9

sucks2beme

heiney9 wrote: »

I worked at a dealership for a short period of time (sales) which sold Mercedes, Jag, Audi. I will say the 40 point inspections done on used cars is a joke. Now WE would stand behind issues that creeped up within a reasonable amount of time after the sale, but the inspection process is very general and things were missed all the time.

H9

Son #1 worked at dealerships and now is an underwriter for an extended
warranty company. He used to bump heads with service managers all the
time that were trying to cut corners. He also worked customer service for
the extended warranty company, and can tell you most mechanics don't
think much. They throw parts at problems. He has made many of them stop,
think and diagnose. He has also called the cutomer and told them to take the car to another service place due to incompetence. The description of how
they finally got to the tranny is typical of the "throw parts at it" fix.
Ron, good luck with this one. And please go through the car with a fine tooth comb. This could just be the tip of the iceburg.

tom t

i would still like to know why people pay $20,000 for that little car. seems like a waste of money. there is nothing to it

Sami

tom t wrote: »

i would still like to know why people pay $20,000 for that little car. seems like a waste of money. there is nothing to it

It's for people who like cute cars, just like the new beetle. Some say it drives well but I haven't tried it myself so I can't comment. Have you driven one?

bobman1235

Size doesn't have all that much bearing on how much a car should cost. A Honda Civic isn't all that much smaller than a BMW 325, they're not exactly the same price.

heiney9

tom t wrote: »

i would still like to know why people pay $20,000 for that little car. seems like a waste of money. there is nothing to it

FUN FUN FUN. Try pricing a new GTI R32 upwards of 30K. I have long been a "hot hatch" buyer all the way back to the original '83 GTi. Different strokes for different folks. Many on CP love trucks, I wouldn't own one. Just a personal preference.

H9

tom t

no problem, just wanted to know what everybody saw in them. getting the most for your money is certainly not one of them. my son just picked up a new nissan altma fully loaded,v6,mags,moon roof,premium sound,spoiler,you name it for $22,000 new. looking at both cars ,theres no comparison. bigger, quieter, smoother, more powerful, twice the interior. like you say, different stroked for different folks.

Sami

Apples to oranges. I just gave my wife my '05 Altima SE-R and while it's a nice car and performance oriented (much more so than the regular V6), it's still a rather large family car while the Mini is aimed at different buyer group.

shack

heiney9 wrote:

FUN FUN FUN. Try pricing a new GTI R32 upwards of 30K. I have long been a "hot hatch" buyer all the way back to the original '83 GTi. Different strokes for different folks. Many on CP love trucks, I wouldn't own one. Just a personal preference.

H9

Exactly! I love the small coupe and hatch segment. Wouldn't drive a PU or SUV full time.

Ron-P

tom t wrote: »

i would still like to know why people pay $20,000 for that little car. seems like a waste of money. there is nothing to it

Until you drive one you'll never know. It is the most fun behind the wheel I've ever had, it's an amazing little car. I will miss it and the Eclipse will be nothing like it, but I'm not expecting it to be either.

Also take into account they are jumping up in popularity right now and fast, that alone will drive the price upwards.

theres no comparison. bigger, quieter, smoother, more powerful, twice the interior

Of course there's no comparison, two very different types of cars. Tell you what, if you like fun behind the wheel, the MINI will smoke the Altma on just about everything but the straight away.

I will own another MINI, later in life when I don't need to use it as a daily drive.




It'll be nice to get all this behind me and be done with it. It's quite obvious I bought a used stinker of a car, nothing I could have done to prevent that inless I spent a lot of money getting it checked out by an independent mechanic before I bought it. I trusted CarMax, fool me once shame on you, they'll never fool me twice. I'll never go back nor recommend them.

As several have said, it's quite possible this tranny sat out, empty of fluid for a long time at a salvage yard and rusted up, then was put into this car before being sold to CarMax. No one really knows. And now that's it's been sitting out for 4+ weeks the rust is starting to take over again.

shack

tom t wrote:

no problem, just wanted to know what everybody saw in them. getting the most for your money is certainly not one of them. my son just picked up a new nissan altma fully loaded,v6,mags,moon roof,premium sound,spoiler,you name it for $22,000 new. looking at both cars ,theres no comparison. bigger, quieter, smoother, more powerful, twice the interior. like you say, different stroked for different folks.

Take the two cars to a twisty mountain or canyon road (like the Tail of the Dragon in NC/TN) and at the end of the road tell me which one is the more fun.

Sami

shack wrote: »

Take the two cars to a twisty mountain or canyon road (like the Tail of the Dragon in NC/TN) and at the end of the road tell me which one is the more fun.

That's why it's a good idea to have two cars, one for the fun drives and one for daily commute. One car does not do both things well (YMMV depending on where you set the standards).

jcaut

No way that tranny came out of a drivable car. That transmission hasn't been used in quite some time, IMO. I think someone's pulling some BS to try and get out of a warranty claim. Also, even if the transmission's aren't serial-numbered to match a certain chassis (which seems odd to me, but I don't know squat about a Mini) there should be date codes that should match up logically. Good luck with it.

I just read Ron's last post. If the trans has been sitting out open for 4 weeks then maybe it could look like that. Still seems fishy to me.

Ron-P

The tranny is heavily pitted from rust. It's very likely it sat empty of fluid at a salvage yard for a long time. The orange color you see on it now is all new surface rust that wipes off with your finger. That's most likely due to it being open and sitting out near the beach here for those 4 weeks.

These first year MINIs had bad tranny's. My guess, the previous owner had the original tranny fail on him so he found this one that's in the car now, changed them out and drove the car to CarMax and dumped it. Just a guess on my part though.

Face

Something isn't right here. Are you without a doubt that transmission came out of your car? Unless it was filled with salt water instead of transmission fluid, it shouldn't have corroded like that. I'd threaten to report them to the BBB.

BaggedLancer

Face is right, something is not right. There is no way oxidation can form between the teeth on the gears like it is that fast....it's just not possible. Even the slightest bit of driving would scrape that away. That transmission hasn't been used in a very long time.

rskarvan

BaggedLancer wrote: »

Face is right, something is not right. There is no way oxidation can form between the teeth on the gears like it is that fast....it's just not possible. Even the slightest bit of driving would scrape that away. That transmission hasn't been used in a very long time.

I agree. The only way that rust could form like that is if all the oil was drained, and water (or, salt-water) washed away any residual oil residue. And, then it would have to sit pretty much open for at least a few weeks.

I've seen steel parts in the factory rust over a two-week shutdown. And, I've seen parts preserved with just a little bit (film) of oil on them after a two-week shutdown. This transmission looks far worse than either of these. Note: the film of oil does an amazingly good job of protecting steel from rust.

My bet is that this transmission was submerged in salt-water for a month or so and then left to sit for several months. My guess is that it comes from New Orleans.

Ron-P

I don't see why CarMax would need to try and risk a lot trying to cheat their way out of a warranty claim. Their not even the ones the warranty is though, they sold my warranty to a 3rd party company. So there's no loss on CarMax's part if it's replaced under warranty or not.

Once I get my car back early next week, I don't want to piss off anyone while my car is getting repaired, all this will come to a head. I'm not having them return the old tranny, I told them I want to keep it, as with all the other parts from the car.

This is far from over but I'm also not going to spend a ton of coin trying to fight something I might or might not win.

Ron-P

My guess is that it comes from New Orleans.

A lot of people are stating that. The tranny's in these early MINIs were crap. My guess, along with many others is that the previous owner replaced the tranny with this one I have now. Once he did he drove it straight to CarMax and dumped it. It's quite possible the tranny sat in another MINI in the Katrina disaster for months.

The tranny was pulled from the car mid-Novmeber, cleaned so it could be inspected by the warranty company, it's sat dry and open faced for over a month and at a shop very near the beach.

Bill Ayotte

Ron-P wrote: »

These first year MINIs had bad tranny's. My guess, the previous owner had the original tranny fail on him so he found this one that's in the car now, changed them out and drove the car to CarMax and dumped it. Just a guess on my part though.

This wouldn't surprise me at all...If it was out of factory warranty when it happened, I wouldn't blame him either...BUT, if it was me replacing a transmission in my own car, I would crack it open to check out the internals BEFORE I bought/installed it, but there are stupid people everywhere....Carmax is a shitbox company though, I've known a lot of people who have been straight boned by the Nashville store...