Hey fellow r60 owners has anyone on here changed there autos transmission fluid? I'm at 37000 and would like to at least drain and refil and repeat. Just curious to see if anyone has done this yet? And before anyone decides to tell me it's lifetime fluid, I know but i want to be safe and take care of my beloved r60s

 

I talked with several local shops about mine, one was anxious to grab my cash, another suggested waiting until at least 50k and the last one said leave it alone at this point if things are going ok. I chose to wait to at least 50k.

Btw i do oil, brakes and coolant ahead of schedule.

 

I waited till 55,000 miles to change my manual transmission fluid, I used the BMW 75W-90 MTF-LT-4 gear oil. I'm not taking any chances choosing the correct gear oil, not with how hot our engine run.

 

What oil do they call for? Works with no problems?

 

Always better to be safe that sorry

 

Your transmission should have a sticker on it, if you have an R56 manual it's likely requiring BMW 75W-90 gear oil. It's the same gear oil that comes in the transmission from the factory.

 

I have a r60

 

I'm uncertain in regards to the an automatic as I have a manual.

 

I seem to remember that toyota branded fluid is the same and lots cheaper.


"Automatic transmission fluid Type T-IV from AISIN, the manufacturer of the GA6F21 6-speed automatic transmission in your automatic transmission equipped MINI. This transmission fluid is equivalent to the factory JWS3309 transmission fluid. 1 liter bottle."

Go to a vendor website and double check.

 

Another old saying is " if it is not broken, don't fix it". The best thing to do is to follow the factory recommendation. There have been numerous instances where a transmission flush or fluid change cause problems.

 

When I purchase my Mini I took notice that it stated that the transmission and some other parts were made in Japan, is this the consensus.

 

I use Valvoline MaxLife Synthetic ATF in all my vehicles (2013 Mini Countryman S All4, 2012 Land Rover LR4, 2002 Mercedes ML500 (140K miles and tranny shifts smooth), 2002 Chevy Tahoe) and it works great. Been doing so for at least 10+ years. Never had any problems and the trannies shift great. It is a very high quality synthetic fluid. If you want to waste money, then by all means by the expensive "Mini" or whatever other brand fluid.

 

BTW, just replaced only the fluid in the Mini (almost 42K miles) and the original fluid still "looked" decent; not black, just very dark red. Didn't smell burnt either. The tranny was shifting perfectly fine but I wanted to change the fluid as a preventive measure.
I will do it again at 45K and after the warranty expires, I'll replace the fluid and filter.
It still shifts like a dream.

 

Old post, but this thread got revived so here goes. Factory recommendation is "never". Following that wisdom almost guarantees the auto tranny will fail at ~80k. Doing a full flush after 50k is risky if its never been done before, this is probably what X was talking about. I do a 2.5 qt drain/fill every 10k miles (every other oil change) since new with full synthetic royal purple atf. 37k miles now and so far so good.

 

As long as you don't flush it with a high pressure device it's fine. Replacing the fluid by draining it through gravity should be no problem. I've done it on numerous cars from different manufacturers, including Mercedes, Land Rover, Chevrolet, and yes, Mini.
On my Mercedes, I flushed it using the internal pump from the vehicle (by disconnecting one of the transmission hoses) and had no problems.
I would NEVER follow the factory recommendation of never changing the fluid. There's a reason they only warranty it to 50K miles; after that, they're no longer responsible for your transmission. Mercedes used to make the same claim until they started having all kinds of problems and now went back to having schedules transmission service intervals.

 

A pressure flush might clog things up if the fluid is forced backwards through the system. If the fluid hasn't been touched in over 50k miles, which is kind of neglect, accelerated wear of friction material could be in the fluid. Replacing all the fluid at that time may be more than the transmission can compensate for and cause slipping or shifting problems since it was using the fluid itself as the friction material. On a stock car this might not be the case, but tuned engines making 300 torque might have issues. That is my understanding. Thoughts?