Hi,

Seems like my transmission is starting to give me issues. I'm not a car expert but after spending the past 3 days researching on this forum I think I have similar problem to what's being discussion in a lot of the transmission posts.

I have 2005 Cooper S with about 87K miles.
The Mini is fine when it's cold but once it warms up, here are some of the problems:
- Sometimes it takes a long time for it to shift.
- When I put it in reverse; the car jumps or makes a loud bang noise and shift very hard.
- Sometimes when I'm stopped at a light, the car will jump or shift hard when taking off.

After reading everything, looks like I would have to get a Transmission Flush.

Can someone recommend a mechanic near/around Arlington VA?

- I took it to my local Mr. Tire & they said they can try but have never flushed a transmission on a Mini so don't feel too confident about their work.
- I called Funktion Auto in Dulles, VA but they are too far for me.
- I checked out Specialty Services in Arlington, VA but all the reviews online are worst then the dealers in the area.
- I have tried to reach Alexandria Bavarian Service in Alexandria, VA for the past couple of days but no luck; no one picks up the phone. I give up on them.

Any other places?

Thanks for any help you may provide...

 

Mach V Motorsports is in Sterling Highly recommended....

 

@daflake - Thank you for the reply & recommendation. However sterling is just as far as Dulles. Will have to keep these guys in mind if I can't find anyone else around Arlington & just plan to spend few hours at the shop or something.

 

I will second Mach V as well; however, he says Dulles is too far, and i doubt this will be any better for him *shrugs*.

Why is it too far? It takes me 30 minutes to get from Clarendon to Dulles/Sterling. Mind as well just go to a rubbish place around the block if you don't want to go to the place that's superior to all others in the area!

 

You might want to give these a call:

Motorhead Ltd.

 

How about Passport Mini in Alexandria?

 

Crap, I drove from Laurel MD to Sterling to get my MINI serviced and a cracked exhaust fixed.

 

We'd be happy to look at it. If this is an auto trans, we can change the fluid, but we don't get into actual automatic transmission repairs.

I also live in Arlington. It's about a half hour to get out here in the morning. Coming back in the evening takes a lot longer.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Thanks everyone for your responses. Sorry took some time to respond.
What I meant to say is that Sterling/Dulles is not too far in reality but inconvenient for me currently due to my work situation; I’m working as a contractor and each hour I don’t work, I don’t get paid.

I ended up taking the car to Passport Mini in Alexandria and as I expected, I walked away with a headache and got ripped off for $130. The service manager there is an idiot and I really don’t understand how a moron like stays employed. Here’s what he said to me:
- Found EGS transmission control unit was not fitted to car. Need to replace EWS to allow car to know it is fitted with an automatic transmission. The cost for that will be $400.
- Essentially what he said is that when they hooked up to the car they noticed the network was compromised as the EWS was sending wrong codes or was not sending codes. Since EWS is compromised, they can’t talk to the transmission control unit. Because one of the nodes on the network is compromised, the network can’t be trusted. Hence EWS should be replaced before they can continue to find out what the problem is with the transmission. Maybe replacing the EWS will fix the problem, maybe it won’t.
- WTF does all that mean? My car was built by the freaking NSA/CIA? Is it on a secret mission to the US for MI6?
- If the transmission control unit is not fitted to the car; how the hell is the car working?
- What does the EWS module have to do with anything? I thought the EWS is the Electronic Watchdog System responsible for controlling anti-theft. How is that related to transmission?

I asked all these questions to the guy and he jst talked down to me as if I’m a child and believe whatever he says is true. Seriously, thank god I was talking to this idiot on the phone. If I was there I would’ve punched him in his freaking face for being an idiot and talking down to me like I’m a child.

I called my credit card company and will be filing a dispute to get my money back.

Oh well, I guess for the time being it’s back to square one.

 

This is unbelievable…Just noticed that the exhaust is hanging lower than it should. I knew that the supports were coming lose before I brought it in to Passport Mini and now it’s hanging way low.

I also found an estimate for fixing broken exhaust hangers in my paperwork from Passport Mini.

WTH, I thought these types of scams were thing of the past…What a bunch of crooks.

 

The EGS is the trans control module. Something has gotten confused in translation between you and the dealer as you state EGS initially and then go on to talk about EWS. You may need to call your credit card company back as EGS would be a valid starting point if it is not working properly.

 

Thanks for your response. What I wrote is word for word copy from te report they gave me & the verbal explanation. They say EGS but then they say to replace the EWS.

I even argued the point w the service rep & told him that the dig report makes no logical sense. And that's when started talking down to me & said they can't do anything furter till I replace the EWS.

Like I said the service rep is an idiot who has no clue how to explain things to their customer.

So confused...

 

Since I appear to be the one who suggested that you go to Passport, I'd like to know the present status of your problem.

 

@JAB_67 - Thanks for your reply.

I took the car to Funktion Auto since they were able to get me in at 8am. They said they had no problems reading the modules and that the modules did not report any error codes. They "reset the adaptations for Transmission Control Unit" which seems to provide a big improvement. However I do feel very minor jumps when the car shifts (1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4) but the amount of time this occurs is much much less and it's not very harsh. Also, the "jump with loud noise" problem the car was experiencing when placing the gear in R is completely gone and the shifting is very smooth.

So I'm not sure if the semi-harsh shifting in lower gears is normal after reset or if the transmission still has problems. I'm going to drive it around for another week to see if the problems get worst.

Also, the tech at Funktion Auto recommended against changing the transmission oil since the car is at 83K miles. He stated that if this was at 40K or even at 60K he would recommend changing the oil but at 83K; he said there is 50/50 chance of damaging the transmission when the new oil is injected. Is there any truth to this?

 

Go ahead and change the fluid. My first fluid change came at 105K, there are many others who have also changed their fluid with 6 digits showing on the odometer. I can't guarantee that it won't cause any further problems, but I can say that the old fluid won't help anything either. A couple of us have had cars that bordered on undrivable because of transmission issues. After changing the fluid a few times (I also used Lubegard the last couple of changes), the cars are completely drivable. I still have a flared upshift at times but nothing as severe as it used to be.

 

@darth_cooper - thanks for the reply...I'll have to find time next week to take this taken care off. When you said, you did this few times; do you mean one after another on the same day? Or more like, change it once...drive around for a while and see what happens...then couple of weeks later change it again and so on?

Also when you said Lubegard; what do you mean by that? You used it to flush the tranny?


On the side note; I know this is not part of the topic but found out that the "lock" button on the shift **** seems lose. So I guess I'll have to get replacement for that. However while searching online I saw this note; "...Technically, even though the auto has a “lock” button on the stock ****, you don’t *really* need it… the tranny is electronically controlled, so it won’t let you slam it in reverse while going forward, etc..."

Is this true? Does anyone know?

Thanks....

 

I would change it, drive the car for 30 or 40 miles, let it cool off and change it again. I would do this over the course of a couple of weeks. I noticed an almost immediate change in the transmssion once I started changing the fluid but I still had an occassional sticking torque converter clutch. Don't know if it was the solenoid or the TCC itself. That's where the Lubegard came in, I put it in with a fluid change and within 100 miles I noticed it almost completely stopped misbehaving.

As for Lubegard, it is a transmission additive. I will readily admit it is the only transmission additive that works (for me anyway). You can order it online or visit your local parts store and ask if they have it. Some carry it, most don't. If they have it, get either the red or silver bottle, do not get the green or black bottles. Red and Silver are the trans additives. The Green and Black are friction modifiers, you don't want those.

http://www.lubegard.com/C-110/Transmission