We have an 03 Mini Cooper with automatic transmission and approximately 73,000 miles on it. The other day we noticed a distinct loss of power going up hill but thought it might just be because we had the air conditioner on. The next day, while my wife was driving home from work she found that it was having a hard time shifting. When I test drove the car later that night I found that it would tach up to about 3,000 rpm but would not shift as before. I did discover that I could shift it in "Sport Mode". I took it to the dealership but they found no error codes?? They said fluids were good and that it had a service just 12,000 ago. They suggested that we drive it and see if it repeated. When I asked them what they would do they quietly suggested that I might want to sell it. I'm concerned with what I've read about these transmissions and am worried that we may be on the early stages of transmission failure. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi there. The 1st gen Minis with automatic trannies are notorious for this. What the dealer told you might not be a bad idea. Either that or get a manual tranny Mini.

 

Soon after bringing our Mini home we got a "Service Engine Soon" light along with an "EP" light. I took it back into Mini and we were informed that the transmission was showing multiple faults. With assistance from Mini we replaced the transmission. Unfortunately, we are now experiencing a lack of power and a drop in miles per gallon from approximately 24.6 to 19.7? Yesterday another "Service Engine Soon" light came on. I took it back to Mini and was told they found a module loose, near the gas pedal that could have been sending confusing signals to the transmission. Any thoughts????

 

As it turns out we had to take our Mini back multiple times before the actual problem was finally identified as the Gearbox Interface Module. Unfortunately, we paid for a transmission that we most likely didn't need. Now trying to resolve this.