Monday, September 14, 2009

Switching into Neutral

Well I finally had my first serious problem with the MINI E, the dreaded switching into Neutral problem, that other MINI E owners have reported. I was almost home after a 80 mile drive and came to a stop at a light on a steep hill. There was a VERY Big Truck behind me and when the light changed to green and I hit the gas nothing happened for a second then I started rolling backwards. I quickly hit the break and noticed the front panel had a big N on it while the stick selector was in D for drive. Realizing what was going on from other posts by MINI E owners that had already experienced this problem, I quickly shifted into part and hit the on/off button to turn off the car, all the while keeping my foot firmly on the brake and dreading the coming of horns blowing behind me. Once I was sure the car was off, I hit the on/off button again, the car booted up normally and I was able to shift into drive and get moving all before a single horn blew.
Not that bad of an experiance it could have been a lot worse, if I'd been unable to get the car started again, that would have been a very bad hill to be stuck on, no side pull off and a long long long way down to the bottom.

1 comment:

  1. Welcome to the club! It's happened to me 4 times now. I'm ready for it now though so it's not a problem. I actually find myself looking at the "D" on the gauge when I'm stopped at lights in case it jumps into neutral. Mini knows about it and is working on a fix, I've talked to them.
    Tom M #250

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