A local MINI repair shop in Miami is doing a Honda engine swap, into a MINI, will look in to this next week.

Here is a funny story (not really):
I bought a Jeep Cherokee long time ago and it had rainbow bears on tail gate. I drove it like that for a couple years until somebody explained to me what that meant...

My daily driver is a 2010 Suzuki SX4 - the economy version with CVT front wheel drive. I bought it used - in a former life it was from a rental fleet in Montreal. It is nimble and surprisingly quick. It can be manually shifted into 6 presets, which is useful for engine braking. In full auto mode, hard acceleration is similar to a boat with an outboard motor.... you floor it, revs go up and stay up (but not too far) til you ease off. When you do lift off, the car continues to accelerate a little until the transmission catches up with the engine. There is a little downshift hesitation when you floor it to pass, but not much different than a typical automatic. I generally work it aggressively (I AM a Mini owner) and it works well for what it is.

dr mini .. well at least with classic mini AUTO . you will get 30K before rebuild.. the CVTs look like a train wreck.. later bc

My wife bought an 05 MINI Convertible not long after they first came out. it had the CVT. I hated it. HATED it. Step on the throttle to try to cross traffic and it whined and revved but went nowhere.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooommmmmmmmm

I compare it to trying to cross a 4 lane divided highway in an 850 from a dead stop. You REALLY needed to plan ahead and give yourself lots of wiggle room.  It was more OK if you put it in "sport mode" and shifted it manually-- I think it gave artificial "shift points".

Fortunately or unfortunately, the CVT is probably the best style of transmission for fuel economy. They are getting better, but I too am reluctant to every own one. However, I have driven some rental cars with cvt transmissions and they weren't as bad as that 05 MINI was.

I was told by a long-time MINI tech that the dealers started having to change the fluid in the transmissions before the cars went on the lot because of an incorrect fluid that was put in at the factory. The cvt transmissions were improved in 05-06 (through to 08 in the convertibles) but still suffered from early failure and fell under the subsequent class action lawsuit (that not enough people heard about in time).

I bought an 04 with a bad CVT... gosh... too many years ago... as a project to do a 6-speed conversion on. I've acquired all the parts including multiple 6 speed getrag transmissions, but haven't done the swap yet. What froze me initially was the ecu stuff. Plan was to do the swap and if the car would still pass CA emissions (if ecu doesn't show a code that it was monkeyed with) it was going to be a street car until it became a Lemons car. If the ecu caused it to fail emissions inspection, it was to become a Lemons car immediately. It's still sitting. I need to stop buying other project cars and focus on the ones I already have.

But it is SOOOOO much more fun to acquire a new project than it is to finish an existing one!

But I digress.

I've been tempted to crack open the cvt transmission and try to fix it myself, but again: Too Many Projects not enough skill.

Personally I will never buy a car with a CVT trans. If they were to make it as simple as a snowmobile, which go to a 100 HP without problems, and a simple to change belt, away from the automatic liquid parts (forward/reverse/neutral), I might reconsider.

Wow, things really get distorted quickly around here...

Post is about a transmission and it morphs into an engine problem??

And what does a rainbow sticker have anything to do with the topic other than disclose the poster's imbecility? What's next, a negative reference to religion?

Yeah, if BMW would use Honda engines they'd probably have a good product! First plan was a Chrysler engine then they went to Citroen? Doesn't BMW make a 4 cylinder engine that they could use in the MINI? I guess they really don't want them as dependable as a BMW...

I think that's when you yank the MINI lump and put a Honda into it.

dr mini. have you noticed. almost every MINI you see these days has a RAINBOW sticker in the window?? later bc

hehe.. dr mini.. I am sure that the BMW MINI dealer will be real help. and real cheap.. btw I heard they charge $5500 plus parts to rebuild a CVT tranny.. ouch.. later bc

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mini+cooper+cvt+rebuild

Check with your local MINI dealer. They are always more willing to help a poor MINI owner with a bad transmission!

There is an online subscription company called Alldata for vehicle repair instructions for all makes. It's quite expensive to have on your own, but my local library provides access to it, you just need a library card, and 5 cents per printed page. Yours may also.

There is someone selling how-to videos on the internet for a few hundred dollars. There are preview videos on youtube, I recall seeing.

Unfortunately, we do not have a CVT service manual that we can offer....

Ken

I want to rebuild 03 CVT transmission.
thanks.