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I just bought myself a Mini cooper stick shift and taught myself how to drive stick in January. The clutch and shifting is fine on the road, but when i hit reverse, sometimes i hear this scraping at the time i move the stick to reverse gear.
Does anyone know why this might happen? Should I be pressing the brakes at the time i move the stick to reverse?
This only happens about 40% of the time. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong.
I think the (modern BMW version) of the MINI has a syncronized reverse - do you have the current model or the old British Leyland car?
If the car has a non-syncro reverse, the thing to do is make sure you are really pressing the clutch all the way down, and engage any forward speed before shifting into reverse.
I do this all the time with the Scirocco, and don't even think about it anymore.
I am assuming the grinding noise is when you are shifting into reverse starting with the car idling in neutral, clutch out - right?
When it's cold out, you may find the car does not much want to go into first gear from neutral, but you can usually engage 5th (or 6th if it's a 6-sp) easily. This will stop the gears on the clutch side of the transmission. Deftly shift from high gear into first, and you will find it goes in more easily.
I think the (modern BMW version) of the MINI has a syncronized reverse - do you have the current model or the old British Leyland car?
If the car has a non-syncro reverse, the thing to do is make sure you are really pressing the clutch all the way down, and engage any forward speed before shifting into reverse.
I do this all the time with the Scirocco, and don't even think about it anymore.
I am assuming the grinding noise is when you are shifting into reverse starting with the car idling in neutral, clutch out - right?
When it's cold out, you may find the car does not much want to go into first gear from neutral, but you can usually engage 5th (or 6th if it's a 6-sp) easily. This will stop the gears on the clutch side of the transmission. Deftly shift from high gear into first, and you will find it goes in more easily.
Yes, i have the modern version of the mini. Yes, when i hit reverse, i make sure it is at a complete stand still. i guess i REALLY need to press the clutch more.
I think the (modern BMW version) of the MINI has a syncronized reverse - do you have the current model or the old British Leyland car?
If the car has a non-syncro reverse, the thing to do is make sure you are really pressing the clutch all the way down, and engage any forward speed before shifting into reverse.
I do this all the time with the Scirocco, and don't even think about it anymore.
I am assuming the grinding noise is when you are shifting into reverse starting with the car idling in neutral, clutch out - right?
When it's cold out, you may find the car does not much want to go into first gear from neutral, but you can usually engage 5th (or 6th if it's a 6-sp) easily. This will stop the gears on the clutch side of the transmission. Deftly shift from high gear into first, and you will find it goes in more easily.
There are cars with synchronized reverse? What on earth is the point? I'm pretty confident the Mini doesn't have synchronized reverse.
Anyway, to OP: If you're getting a bit of grinding in reverse, wait a second or two after stepping on the clutch pedal before moving the stick into the reverse position. This allows some time for the output shaft to stop spinning. If that doesn't resolve the situation, then you may have a situation where the clutch plate is not lifting all the way off the flywheel, which is something you'd need to get looked at as that should not be happening.
There are cars with synchronized reverse? What on earth is the point? I'm pretty confident the Mini doesn't have synchronized reverse.
Anyway, to OP: If you're getting a bit of grinding in reverse, wait a second or two after stepping on the clutch pedal before moving the stick into the reverse position. This allows some time for the output shaft to stop spinning. If that doesn't resolve the situation, then you may have a situation where the clutch plate is not lifting all the way off the flywheel, which is something you'd need to get looked at as that should not be happening.
I know the E30 BMW (late 80's 3-series) cars have syncro reverse, my M3 certainly does, I guess the point is for "rocking" the car if you get it stuck in mud or snow. Although with a dogleg reverse pattern (typical NA 5-speed, with dogleg 5th too) the 1-R shift is clunky enough that I don't have much interest in trying to do it fast...
I seems clear that you need to push the clutch in more. If that does not end the problem, soemthing is wrong, Take it to the shop, you do not want to keep grinding it, it will damage your car eventually.
My wife's Jetta does the same thing. I don't think there's a sync in reverse on her tranny. Yours is probably similar. What I do is shift to 1st, neutral, clutch out, then blip the throttle and go clutch in-throw it in reverse then.
My guess is you are pushing the clutch all the way down because it's pretty hard not to.
My wife's Jetta does the same thing. I don't think there's a sync in reverse on her tranny. Yours is probably similar. What I do is shift to 1st, neutral, clutch out, then blip the throttle and go clutch in-throw it in reverse then.
What's the point of letting the clutch out again? All that does is get the output shaft spinning again which desynchs everything again. If you're going to use 1st or 2nd to synch up reverse, then leave the clutch pedal in. Or, simply disengaging and re-engaging the clutch pedal (no throttle blip necessary) is often sufficient to get the gear and the collar lined up with each other -- but doing both is redundant and unnecessary.
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