Three problems related to transmission not go into gear have been reported for the 2005 Mini Cooper S. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2005 Mini Cooper S based on all problems reported for the 2005 Cooper S.
Transmission previously replaced at 48k miles by manufacturer due to noise. My transmission is broken. My tires chirp every time I push on the gas because the transmission does not know what gear to be in due to the bad body control valve. The transmission needs to be replaced because I cannot verify how much mechanical damage has taken place during the time that the valve body has been broken. Once the valve body breaks down, the mechanical unit also begins to break down. Mini needs to issue a service bulletin telling the dealers to commence servicing the aisin transmissions every 40k by replacing the fluid. BMW/Mini's transmission fluid is not lifetime. Volkswagen issued a similar bulletin a few years ago because it also uses the aisin transmission. The independent repair shops may not replace the fluid right because the transmission fluid is hard to drain and in many cases if it's not done right, great damage is done the engine.
Takata recall. Transmission would not shift gears intermittently while in automatic. Spent $5,600 to rebuild transmission. Still having intermittent issues.
While proceeding down a normal dry road I manually shifted the transmission (using manual mode on the cvt automatic transmission) from 3rd gear to 4th gear. The shift normally would be smooth however on this occurrence the engine idled extremely high and the gear kicked in after a couple of seconds with a loud banging sound when the gear finally took hold. The car behaved itself for a while but this event started happening more and more until it became a regular occurrence. Most of the time there was no loud noise but the 4th gear would not catch and I adjusted my driving so that I would shift from 3rd gear to 5th gear as quickly as possible to avoid the over revving. I brought the car in to a local transmission shop. They looked it over and advised me that there was no way of repairing the transmission and that I would have to replace it entirely. I am currently working to locate a new transmission as during the last occurrence (July 21, 2012) the car did not go into 4th gear and I was stuck on a highway without being able to move, I. E. The car would not go into any gear. After pulling over to safety I was able to put the car up to 3rd gear and return home. The car is currently unusable. I am not working with the manufacturer / dealer as previous experience has shown me that they are extremely expensive and financial gain is there primary objective. In addition all the internet blogs that I have reviewed, and joined / commented on has shown me that BMW / Mini does not work with their customers to rectify this bad, unsafe product. I am hoping that BMW / Mini will work with their customers who are stuck with his bad product and I am on a list to support a class action suit against them.