I've been searching and haven't really found anything like what I'm experiencing. 2009 mini cooper s (all stock) 130,000 miles suddenly got the gear light with exclamation point and transmission won't shift out of 3rd gear? Turn car off about 15 seconds and restart the problem goes away (for a short time) and acts normally. I scanned it and it showed 4E84 Solenoid Valve S1? I drained the fluid yesterday, removed the drain plug and tube and got out just under 5 quarts. It looked dark but didn't smell burned. I replaced it with Valvoline ATF that was JWS-3309 compatible. Took a short drive, about 20 minutes or so and it did it again. My first thought was to replace the S1 solenoid and refill again with clean fluid but I've read where some on here have replaced the valve body and still getting this fault? Any ideas or suggestions?

 

Hi I know it’s been a while but I’m having the exact same issue! Did you find a fix for this?? Any help would be much appreciated

 

Yes, my scan tool indicated the problem with Solenoid Valve S1, I took a chance and visited a local transmission parts supply store and we were able to match the solenoid up. Replaced the solenoid, refilled with fresh fluid and haven't had any problems since the post. There were actually 2 solenoids with the same numbers in this transmission, before i purchased one I swapped them and test drove the car and the problem went away. After a couple of weeks I went ahead and replaced the defective solenoid just as a safe measure.