2003 r50 g/box or diff issues advice please

[peter2704]

ok , my daughter is learning to drive so i got her a 2003 cooper to learn it.Now the car has been great but have noticed a rumble noise from the front end.My gut feeling is the midland g/box or diff could be on its way out.Best /cheapest place to get this sorted ,and would it have all steel caged bearings fitted to solve the issue? hope you can help,its a shame to get rid of the car if the cost to fix is too much

[MDifficult]

I may be wrong (R50/R53 not my area of recent expertise) but I think the most common approach is just to swap the gearbox out for a second hand or refurb unit rather than fixing, or even upgrading to the later Getrag box. The original Midland box is inherently poor, so maybe you want to go straight to the later box?

[peter2704]

thanks for replying,i was lead to believe the box isnt bad its the bearings used that are the issue,and if replaced with all steel and new o/t shaft bearing they should last a lot longer

[peter2704]

bit more checking and a local mini guy pointed me in the direction of a possible wheel bearing issue,so hopefully its this and not the g/box