I've now had my '08 Mini for a year, and put a whopping 1500 miles on it since I picked it up. Aside from not using it enough in the winter and needing to give the battery a jolt a couple times, the car has been running great. Motor is quiet - used zero oil. Transmission shifts smooth and no odd sounds. Overall it's been solid.

One thing I'd like to do is change the tranny fluid. Yea, I know it's "lifetime" fluid, but I think that I'd make things a bit quieter and the downshifting a bit smoother if I dropped some new fluid in the system.

Owning the Bentley manual has been great as it gives me the steps and locations for the drain and the fill of the fluid. I need to verify I can get the torx bolt off the fill location on top of the tranny before I do the drain, but the procedure is pretty simple. I'll probably do one fill/drain, run it a couple months, and then do it again, and see how it goes.

But my main question surrounds the tranny fluid filter. There is a filter, and it can be replaced. But to get to it you have to drop the pan, and that requires loosening the motor mounts and raising the motor to get access to the pan bolts and get clearance to remove. It's this part that I think is a bit beyond the effort I'm able to put into the process.

So my question is - does it do any good to do a couple fluid changes WITHOUT replacing the filter? Or do I bit the bullet and pay a shop to change the gasket/filter and do the first fluid change? My local shops (mini dealer, or specialized BMW/mini shops) are quoting figures in the $400 range for that work - which is pretty rich for my current budget. In my Hondas there's no replaceable transmission filter so it's only drain 'n fill.

Any viewpoints on this?

thanks - andy

 

Here is a thread on NAM with a few members talking about the filter change as well. Maybe PM the user on post #19 and see what help he may be able to provide you with the install. Here is also another NAM thread. It's pretty extensive. See if it may also help you out. If needed, Automatic transmission fluid and parts here and here. Good luck!

 

I don't know about the Justa but I did our 2009 mini last year and I just did the fluid drain and fill. I bought the filler tool and followed the procedure using a basic fluid transfer pump that you would typically use to service a rear end. I too decided to not bother with the filter for all the reasons you have mentioned. The car shifted much better after so I suppose there was some benefit although it would have been nice to change the filter as well. I have the filter and gasket hanging on the wall for next time.

 

thanks for sharing your experience. Just a question about which pump you used, and in particular what the method was you used to put the fluid back in. Asuming you put the stand pipe back in. Do you just place the nozzle end of the pump's hose up to the bottom of the fill tube and pump it in, and then pull it back periodically to see when you hit the right level? Most of my experience with pumping lube back into things like xfer cases and diff's is horizontal and not vertical (so you can see when you hit the fill point).

I may give this a try - couldn't hurt for sure.

thanks - andy

ps - "justa" is lingo I picked up here for "just a cooper" (non-turbo hatch) - although maybe I just jumped on the incorrect term...

 

I almost started a thread justa find out what people were talking about when they used the term JUSTA so I'm glad you clarified that for me. I guess our 2009 is a JUSTA since it isn't an MCS or JCW.

The pump I use looks like the body of a grease gun with a handle on one end and a clear tube on the other. After I drained the fluid I reinstalled the stand pipe and installed the filling adapter. The I sucked new fluid out of the container and connected the clear tube to the filler to pump the fluid into the transmission pan. After each fill, I waited to see if any came back out. Once it started to flow back I allowed it to drain till it stopped which should in theory be the correct level. Then I removed the tool and closed it up. Simple and the end result is the same fluid level as existed before I started.

 

Cool. One other question. Did you use the Mini fluid, or did you go with one of the lower-cost alternatives that some of the site sponsors sell? Would love to not spend the OEM $$$$ if I could do aftermarket $$.

thanks again! andy

 

I went to NAPA and bought equivalent spec fluid there.