2003 Mini Cooper R50

[Coog]

Drive on. Save your pennies. Stick new oil and additives in. If / when it does burst see what you’ve managed to save up and either buy another car or repair that one. Hold out for a facelift R50 next time if you still like MINIs.

I had an old 4x4 that honestly sounded like it had a straight cut gearbox out of a BTCC car. We all laughed and called it the BTCC bus. The noise out of it was UNREAL. Like radio turned up to 11 just to drown it out.

Lasted years. In fact the thing dropped a valve in the end and the box was still OK.

 

[Blackie]

Where here stocks gearbag additives?

 

[BabyCraig_]

Don’t rule out a bare minimum approach and just keep it all ticking over

I think this is great advice and @Coog too!

Bit of saving should it go wrong but drive her on. I’ve thrown thousands into “cheap” motors and it’s pointless

If it’s completely broken fix it and won’t drive, if not leave it until it does

 

[Coog]

Where here stocks gearbag additives?

I got Lucas stuff out of North Down Motorfactors iirc.

 

[andy9eleven]

Absolutely agree with the above. It could drive a fair while yet, and the end result is going to be the same, so no immediate rush.

Even then I'd be tempted to just keep it simple and chuck another gearbox the same in it. It's not like you need it to last another 125k miles. Cheap motoring should be cheap. Keep it simple.

 

[svensktoppen]

All good advice there. No reason not to keep driving and just put a little aside as you go in case something does go bang. Worst case same result, best case just keep on motoring.

Change gearbox oil first of all. Doesn't matter if it's already full or not. Just replace the lot. It will be well degraded by now.

Then go from there. No idea what gearbox additives are. I treat all additives as snake oil, lol. But if they do no harm then hey.

At the miles it might be worth at least checking the chain and tensioners. That would be game over if it fails. No idea how hard that would be to change on these cars should you need to.

I think the truth is there's no such thing as "cheap motoring" any more.

 

[Coog]

The tensioner is easy. Big bolt in the wheel arch removes it and pop a new one in. IIRC one engine mount needs loosened but that might be R53 only. Either way it’s probably the easiest tensioner you’ll ever do.

 

[Cro]

Molyslip I think it was called was used in all my Renault gearboxes and always stopped any crunching. Could be worth a look

 

[_Stu_]

Agreed with above comments. If the box is toast and coming out anyway then drive on until it properly lets go. If it’s only 5th gear at 70 then you still have 4 other perfectly good forward gears to keep hooning about with and even more excuse to take back roads instead of motorways. Keep saving in the mean time for when the inevitable happens. The box could go another 20 miles or 20,000 miles.

My worry would be the car sitting at the door and not being able to drive it will make you fall out of love with it. Then you’ll end up taking poor money to get shot of it and end up in a much worse scenario and scraping the barrel with a replacement.

 

[Blackie]

All good advice there. No reason not to keep driving and just put a little aside as you go in case something does go bang. Worst case same result, best case just keep on motoring.

Change gearbox oil first of all. Doesn't matter if it's already full or not. Just replace the lot. It will be well degraded by now.

Then go from there. No idea what gearbox additives are. I treat all additives as snake oil, lol. But if they do no harm then hey.

At the miles it might be worth at least checking the chain and tensioners. That would be game over if it fails. No idea how hard that would be to change on these cars should you need to.

I think the truth is there's no such thing as "cheap motoring" any more.

The gear oil should still be in good nick as I had replaced it back in May noting at the time there was very little swarf in it.

Yea definitely will be checking the tensioner and chain.

As for driving the car on, my worry would be that it fails out on the road somewhere, potentially far from home and that’s a stress I don’t need, worrying about getting it and myself back home.

At present my wife isn’t driving due to us letting her license lapse. We’ve to drop forms into the GP for medical reports to see wether or not the DVLA will let her drive again. So that makes things difficult, especially if I were to be stranded far from home.

 

[andy9eleven]

That's why we have Fred!!

Or the Nationwide Flex Plus account which gives you breakdown cover no matter what car you are in

 

[Blackie]

Fred’s a busy man! Lol I Do have breakdown cover on my car insurance which gets me to the nearest garage, but I’d want to be doing the work myself as you know.

 

[svensktoppen]

AA or RAC have options that will bring the car from anywhere in UK and RoI to any place of your choice. I've had the Lotus rescued that way more times than I can remember from all over the country. The record so far was all the way from deepest Wiltshire to Belfast when she ate another CV joint.

That said, for all you drive up and down the coast or around home, etc. Even the commercial outfits like CCRS or Agnews recovery will get the car home worst case.

But I don't think it will fail like that on you. You'll know if it gets worse long before that.

 

[DJMCA]

I had a whine in 5th a few years ago in the Escort, sounded like a straight cut box. When i eventually bothered my hole to check it out it was a circlip not fully in, wasnt causing any real bother but made a lot of noise.

Point im trying to make is - it might be (and prob is) sounding worse than it really is. Change the oil and drive on

 

[Blackie]

When I get home from the hospital (wife’s getting her bloods done and seeing the oncologist before getting chemo this afternoon) I’m going to ECP to get more gear oil and some molyslip.

If the weather and time permits I’ll get it swapped out before taking the wife back down to the hospital.

 

[eamon343]

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[Blackie]

Do you ever feel like things are conspiring against you?

Found a 6sp conversion one eBay. I was going to put it on my PayPal Credit, but the seller won’t ship from mainland UK to Northern Ireland “because of the paperwork”!! Turning down money for a wee bit of paperwork!

I know I need to chill out a bit, but I am beginning to think I should take a bad price on the car.

 

[andy9eleven]

Chill out dude and just drive it. Turn the stereo up a notch.

 

[pablo]

Do you ever feel like things are conspiring against you?

Found a 6sp conversion one eBay. I was going to put it on my PayPal Credit, but the seller won’t ship from mainland UK to Northern Ireland “because of the paperwork”!! Turning down money for a wee bit of paperwork!

I know I need to chill out a bit, but I am beginning to think I should take a bad price on the car.

It’s a faff to send something like that so can’t really blame them.

@Wild Thing got anything would suit?

Take a step back, catch a breath and think of the most logical solution here. Putting a 6sp box conversion on credit likely isn’t it.

 

[dddrrift]

ok, just so you know, that gearbox is one of the easiest to remove, literally falls right out with no subframe removal required, just pull the front clip off. Also, i have rebuilt a few of them, you can buy the bearing set and swap them all out easily with a set of gear pullers. If thats not your forte then shop around the breakers, you will get a gearbox for buttons. Try AG breakers in balloo in Bangor, seen he has had quite a few through the door for breaking. New clutch, fresh oil, away you go....

 

[mark19]

Do you ever feel like things are conspiring against you?

Found a 6sp conversion one eBay. I was going to put it on my PayPal Credit, but the seller won’t ship from mainland UK to Northern Ireland “because of the paperwork”!! Turning down money for a wee bit of paperwork!

I know I need to chill out a bit, but I am beginning to think I should take a bad price on the car.

I think before buying anything just add all the oils into the gearbox. Check small things first

I thought my BMW was going crap the bed cause was leaking coolant badly!
Was pricing timing belts waterpumps. Selling it. Etc Panicking.

Turned out it was under a minor leak in something else and easily fixed

 

[svensktoppen]

As above, just do the oil stuff for now and keep on motoring. No need to panic. Definitely no need to go down credit route.

Deal with family first, and only then worry about the car. One thing at a time.

but the seller won’t ship from mainland UK to Northern Ireland “because of the paperwork”!!

Something like that has to go on a pallet, which is painful enough on its own. With the Brexit balls its even worse shipping a pallet over here. No English breaker will do it, certainly no private seller.

Only option is finding someone who could bring it back for you, or arrange collection. I brought back a Honda cylinder head in the Lotus, lol There are RMS people going back and forth who might be able to help, but either way means messing about to complete the deal.

There will be boxes available locally.

 

[da.murf]

As mentioned, step back from the car and take a breath.

Personally as I said earlier, I'd change the oil, check for metallic substance, add molislip (its a 350z miracle tonic) and go from there.

a 6 speed box might solve a problem that doesn't need to exist.

And again from a none mechanical note, look back at your own posts from this thread and see the family adventures this car has brought you. and how often you've spoke about it fondly as an escape from stress and worries for you and the kids, what are you going to realistically replace it with that brings you those things? and even if you do take bad money for it, there is that kick in the gut to deal with and thennnnn the car that replaces it... its going to potentially need work and tinkered with etc

 

[pablo]

Take a look at this. £2k.

How much is a 6sp conversion plus all the “while you’re in there” work? Bet it’s not far off 2k

 

[da.murf]

Take a look at this. £2k.

How much is a 6sp conversion plus all the “while you’re in there” work? Bet it’s not far off 2k

no link?