gearbox problems

[jimw00d]

I purchased a 1996 Mini Cooper 1.3i with sports back back in August this year. Everything was going fine until one day the car started to pop out of reverse gear. After arguing with the dealer who sold me the car, they agreed to replace the gearbox. Great, that fixed the problem of the reverse gear.

But since then I have had continual problems with the forward gears and the reverse gear. Sometimes it just will not go into gear. Selecting 1st is usually really difficult and when selecting 3rd, sometimes it feels as if there is an obstruction preventing the gear from engaging. Reverse gear often grinds and crunches.

A few weeks ago I got stuck in a petrol station not able to select any forward gears. I took it straight over to the dealers who got their service department to have a look. They came back to me and said that they needed to replace the clutch. It has a warranty, so no problem. They replaced it. For two or three days, everything was fine and then the gearbox started its old tricks.

The real problem for me is that when the car is warm the gears seem to work fine and often when stationary the gears are smooth and change without much effort. So everytime I get someone to look at it, for example my Dad, who used to be a car mechanic, he finds no problems.

The dealer and service department are, for some reason, hesitant to produce any documents relating to the work carried out or the warranty on the car. When cynicism kicks in, I feel as if they have done nothing other than tinker around.

This problem is proving quite dangerous at junctions and I need to get it sorted. What would you suggest I do. Maybe you know of a remedy that the service department are unaware of. Maybe I need to get tough with the service guys and kick some ass.

What do you think?

[Tamiyaman]

I think you got screwed like I always seem to do. Is it just me or do mechanics mess up more then they fix?