I did something similar, using a long-neck Walmart funnel. Pics here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...yet-r56-3.html

If you screw the funnel into the fill hole, it will stay in place (helps with pouring) and provide a tight coupling to the tranny (helps to minimize spills).

Even then, pouring the fluid in was done in 50ml increments, each one taking roughly 1 minute to drip into the tranny. Thus it took me ~20 minutes per 1 liter bottle to get the fluid in.
I had pre-filled the oil pan with ~2 quarts before bolting it back, so only had another 2 quarts to drip in via the funnel.

As I kept the tranny idling, and eventually out of the car, for more than a week, I was able to get exactly .75 quarts/liters out with one flush. Removing the filter release a secondary shower of old fluid, and allowed yet more fluid to drip out. Then I stripped the fill tranny fill plug and had to wait for the new one to be custom-ordered and received by a dealer. 3 days later when I vent to bolt everything back together, I found another 0.25 quarts of fluid in the pan.

If I waited another week, I probably would have gotten all 4.5 quarts out, but 4 out of 4.5 quarts (89%) is good enough for me.

Old fluid was darker than new, but didn't smell much different than new, or wasn't otherwise alarming in any way. Car had 56K miles before engine had to come out (long story on other threads).

HTH,
a

 

Hi all. Registered today due to problems with my used 06 Mini Cooper S Convertible. Bought it at 68K miles in Aug 13 and now has 79K in May 14. I had it checked out before I purchased it and the shop said it was a second generation mini that was not beset of the CVT problems so I felt comfortable purchasing it. Other than the windshield wipers, gave it a clean bill of health.

Read through this thread after cross posting this in another part of the NAM forum. These problems sound very familiar to me, she would sometimes flare when I had the automatic shift from 1-2 and 2-3, and would occasionally "kick" when it downshifted. If I used the paddles it would shift slightly smoother. However, twice in the last two weeks the car had gotten stuck in 3rd gear and would not shift beyond it. The first time I was accelerating to freeway speed, the second time I was decelerating and felt it buck hard before not shifting. Restarting the car allowed the car to shift up and down fine. This morning I got an EP error and check engine light and it would not get out of the low gears. Thankfully I was about a mile from a dealer in Sacramento and able to take it to the service department.

They just called and let me know that there was a code that indicated a 2nd gear fault. They cleared the code and reset something within the transmission. On the subsequent test runs the issue did not pop up, the Mini shifted up and down fine (I would assume they did it both automatically and with the paddles). Then it did go through the same fault and get stuck in 2nd gear. The service department is saying the issue is within the transmission and not something they can fix and suggest that I take it to a transmission shop for repair/rebuild.

So my questions are thus:

Does this issue as described sound like what's going on with the same issue described through this thread?

Is the fix a replacement of the valve?

I'd need to take it to a shop. Should I take it to a tranny place or a Euro car place?

Any ideas on cost to repair, especially in the Sacramento region?

Thanks for any assistance.

 

The repair cost is really something that is the unknown here. Just a valve body from RevMax is somewhere around $700-$800. If you need a complete rebuild the cost will be much more. Then you still have labor costs that will really bump it up! So with that said you will want to find a transmission shop that knows these type of transmissions. In most cases a valve body does the trick. But since your not doing any of the work yourself its best to get a shop to give you an idea of what they think should be done. Hope things go well.. good luck!

 

FYI,
Your car is a first generation MINI with a conventional auto trans with gears and a torque converter. Hopefully it is just the valve body. You might look for a tranny shop that works on Volkswagons because this tranny is almost the same unit as in several VW models, only without the nice extended warranty that VW offered once it became a known problem.

 

To update, I took the Mini into Bay Bridge Motors. I bought a new valve body from Revmax and they did the installation, plus filter & fluid for about 750. I have the old body but need to take some photos of it. They said there was a solenoid cap and a metal part in the pan when they pulled it out, so something was failing in the valve.

After replacement the car is shifting much better from 1-2 and 2-3, no flaring/kicks behind it. It does well under smooth acceleration, but I've also noticed it gets up to high RPM (4000-5000) from 2-3 if I don't paddle it myself when I'm accelerating onto a freeway. It will shift smoothly on its own as well. I've only put on about 100 miles since I picked her up a few days ago, but will be doing a longer drive over the weekend to properly put her through its paces.

*EDIT* here's a couple photos of the valve body that was taken out. Notice the solenoid cap missing. The tranny fluid can be described as a red/black mix, closer to reddish black than a blackish red.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/sbr3fcipp...EbE_RkDu2NtOXa

 

Update to my situation, the transmission I got from the wrecked MINI was the wrong one, probably off of a non-S or something. I don't think that friend of mine knew what he had, model wise. I didn't see the car, just trusted his judgement.

Got my transmission rebuilt at a shop in Denver, Advanced Tranmissions on 44th and Wadsworth. They said that my valve body was toast, but there was other problems as well. A couple gaskets were bad, a couple bushings were bad. If they were correct, even if I changed the VB, the transmission wouldn't have lasted too long. Put the thing in this week and weekend, got it running today, works good. I used Lucas Semi-Synthetic fluids, drives well. Used the software to reset the transmission adaptations and the fluid temps, worked great.

So far so good.

 

Hello everybody,

First thanks to all for contributing to this post that is very useful for all the person concerned.

Ok i have read all the 16 pages more than one time, finally decided to change the body valve few weeks ago with a specialist garage in Barcelona. The body valve installed was new.
Right after the modification, it was better but the garage told me to wait a bit to get it perfectly working. 1 week later it did became much better but only for a short time... then worse and worse until i now have almost the same effect as before:

- Shifting gears up: i did have bumps but not anymore
- Shifting gears down: i have very strong bumps when i slow down, and specially when i reaccelerate

Do you know where it could come from? i have installed a V2 alta admission 30 000km ago and i was thinking that the problem may have started at about this time... but seeing the problems i had were exactly the same as yours, i prefered to change the body valve.
Although i don't see any link between the air admission and the tranny, i feel sometimes that the air intake noise tells me when the tranny will bump right after shifting down...
Anyone can help me on that? anything else to check on the car?

Tks

Jonathan

 

Make sure the fluid level is at the perfect fill level. Mine was more that 1 litre over after the VB swap and acted funny. I drained out 1/2 litre and it improved markedly. I then drained another 1/2 litre and got it to the proper spec. After 3 weeks it adapted and improved to where I would call it 95% good. Only get a little 1-2 flair when it is dead cold. 2-1 shift is sometimes a little "firm" but no concern.

 

Hi Aspen,

Thank you very much for your answer. You are right, I will try to find another garage specialist to try to readjust the fluid level and see how it goes! It is just that i had it done with a specialist so i could be sure about the quantity of liquid he puts. anyway will have it checked again by someone else.

Thank you!

Jonathan

 

How much fluid came out with the service? Did they just put back as much as came out? Have you tried checking if it's overfilled? Park on level ground, take out drain bolt, start car. If fluid comes out, catch it. If nothing comes out you are definitely underfilled. When the fluid coming out is ~100 F and is a thin drip, screw the drain bolt back in. If you are low, stop engine, pump fluid in through the drain hole till it starts coming out and start car and wait till it's 100 degrees, slows to a thin drip, close drain.

 

After you get the proper fluid level as yesti described, try driving the car until warmed up. This takes about 20 minutes to get the fluid fully warm. Then stop and shift the car between Reverse and Neutral several times while waiting a few seconds in between. This will make the TCU adapt faster.
I would go to the shop that did your VB swap and ask them how they set the fluid level. It is very sensitive and must be done with the correct procedure at the correct temperature. They should not charge you to get the work done properly if they care about their work and reputation.

 

Hi,

Sorry for late answer, i finally have appointment with the garage tomorrow but he insured me he did the level well... I will check with him again
He told me he did it according to a built in gauge that gives the level. I was surprised because i didńt read nothing about this on the forum but after investigation i saw somebody talking about it brievly on another forum. Maybe this gauge isńt accurate?

 

He may mean the stand pipe in the drain hole being the gauge. The pipe sets the level as long as the fluid is at the correct temp, the engine is running and the car is level. The fluid should be slowly dripping from the pipe as the fluid gets warmer. There is no "gauge" to read like a dipstick or sensor.

 

Hi All,

Tks again for your replies.
Yes Aspen you are right, I saw him on Friday and he confirmed what you wrote it is a stand pipe. He has checked the level again and told me it's right, but he does it when the oil is 100deg not 45deg and maintained it is the right temperature. He told me that he repairs 20 to 30 aisin a month...
He told me that it could be due to an air intake problem and he may be right. I am wondering if the bumping problem didn't appear at the same time more or less as i have installed my air intake Alta V2... anyone has it here with his Automatic Transmission?
I will buy an original air intake and have a try... it may be as simple as this!!

 

OK, I'm going to post this here since it's mostly the definitive MCS Auto failure thread.

I have some weird new symptoms. My tranny has been trouble free with frequent fluid changes for the past 75k+ miles.

Yesterday after drive the car at the track all day with no issues, I headed home. After about 30 minutes on the road, tranny started erratically searching for a gear, and eventually stuck in neutral. I found that if I shifted into neutral (with the car still in motion) or stopped and put the car in park, then turned the car off, waited a few seconds, and restarted, then shifted into drive, things would work normally for anywhere for 20 seconds to 30 minutes (I had a 2 hour drive home from the point of initial failure). After this random interval, it would start seeking a gear again, eventually failing to shift into anything but neutral. Same symptoms in D or SD, letting it auto shift or manually shift. P0700 code threw after about 4-5 cycles of this, but it took a while for the code to appear.

I'm not opposed to doing a valve body swap (it's lasted 150k of hard use, it's due), but I'm perplexed by the failure mode - that a reset resolves the issue short term... sounds like an electrical / electronic control issue. Maybe that's just how the solenoids behave and the power cycle does something to reset them? Anyone have thoughts?

 

This not something other hard driving tuned autobot owners want read considering you actually performed some routine mantinance beyond anything recommended by BMW.

Were you using full synthetic ATF. I've notice when towing the fan will run must be the ATF getting hot with the extra load do you have any idea what temps your transmission reached on the track.

 

Running Toyota T-IV fluid, with frequent refreshes. I'm really not surprised, given how crappy the valve bodies are. My biggest surprise is that mine lasted so long compared to some others. I drove it again today and couldn't fully replicate it, but it is shifting more sluggishly. I'm pretty confident it's the valve body.

Already have a new one on the way. I'll report back on results in a few weeks.

 

If you track your car at all and are not using a fully synthetic ATF you will have issues and def shorten the life of the transmission hands down. Anything short of fully synthetic is really not a good idea. There is just too much heat that a non synthetic cant handle. Even with my 2013 I changed mine out a 2k too full synthetic ATF.

 

Maybe a trans cooler would be a good idea for the track. Are you sure you didn't fry your fluid.

 

certainly possible I cooked the fluid. But that doesn't explain the failure mode (power cycle fixes it for a while).

I'll use synthetic ATF when I drain / refill

Anyone successfully rigged an aftermarket cooler? Vs. the OEM style cooler?

 

Once the ATF begins to break down you start to have valve body trouble. Which can be as simple as a solenoid valve hanging up in the valve body. which is what im guessing you have. As far as installing an external cooler for the transmission(which would be awesome!) you cant. These type of transmissions have internal coolers so you have no means to tap in and add a external cooler. But check on your transmission and see. Im more familiar with the 2007-2013 models. I would be shocked that you could. You have a 2006 correct?

 

Since the ATF is coolant cooled, could we route the line going into the tranny through a radiator mounted in the grill to cool the coolant before it draws heat from the transmission?

 

what other atf fluid can we use in our transmission? Motul? Redline, royal purple? etc?

 

I'm using a local Australian manufactures ATF it's Penrite FS(full synthetic). Only been using it since tuned which is only15,000km. I plan to replace two litres every 10,000km at the same time that I do an engine oil change.

I guess time will tell it its enough to avoid problems down the track

 

Yep, 2006.

To do that, you're basically going to have to build an entire secondary cooling system for the tranny - which means adding a separate electric water pump, separate reservoir, etc. Which THEORETICALLY could cool the tranny better, but only if the new system were built such that it ran cooler than the coolant entering the tranny currently (or if it flowed more volume). It would be an engineering exercise, not just re-routing a couple of lines and bolting on a small oil-cooler type radiator.