I have done a search and either i am not asking the right questions or there is a different term used for what i am looking for, so a thread if born.

I am having a weird shifting issue with my 07 mcs auto, its acting like the clutch is slipping but there is no clutch. This happens when there is steady pressure to the gas pedal and shifting from 4th-5th mainly but has happened from 3rd to 4th. Also happens in manual mode but can be worked around by letting up on the gas pedal then manual shifting. Linked a video to show i am not crazy



I am lucky enough to have a tech at a local dealer as a good friend of the club, and he said it sounds like fluid in the connectors.

Which are in the wiring harness, which my question is are there any pictures out there of this wiring harness so when i get under the car tonight, I know what to look for?
Any advice from someone who has done this?

Any help or tricks or guidance would be very welcome and appreciated!

I have a track day this weekend and would like to keep that date as i have already paid for it and can manage with just 3rd and 4th anyway.

 

Have you scanned the vehicle with a MINI-protocol scanner to see if the transmission is having issues / problems?
I'd start there first, then verifying the fluid level and condition inside the transmission.

- Erik

 

Fluid level good and no codes on a standard reader. Getting it into the shop after finding the 2 connectors.

On the transmission (toward the front) there are 2 connectors, on is vertical with maybe a slight angle towards the right side of the car, the other is horizontal that is more to the right of the vertical connector near the hotside boost tube.

You disconnect each of these and check for transmission fluid. I had fluid in the vertical connector but none in the horizontal connector. What happens is that the fluid migrates through the wire harness and collects in the connector causing shift issues. Use brake cleaner to flush out the fluid and allow to dry, reconnect and you should be better off.
The wire harness needs to be changed out, which is not an easy job and from what it sounds like would be an aggressive DIY.

Cleaning out the connectors made the issue less pronounced and took a long drive with aggressive acceleration to return to the noticeable level.

Just an FYI for anyone else who comes across this, don't freak out just yet. Might be the $150 wire harness before its the 6k transmission.

 

Wow, very good information! (Bad problem to have of course) Thanks for posting your results. My first thought would be "the tranny is shot or the fluid is low/destroyed"

 

same thought here and apparently its very common issue that is many times mis diagnosed as a transmission problem. I am just really lucky to have a direct line to some very knowledgeable MINI techs who have a lot of experience.

trying to get a few pictures of the connectors but the ones i have are not very clear.

 

Just an update and i hope i got the details right.

As my video of above showed the slipping of the transmission as it shifted from 3rd to 4th and 4th to 5th.

In many cases its the wire harness that can fix it, however in my case its the valve body of the transmission that is the issue. Not sure how common this is, as more and more 07 and 08 r56 auto's get to 100k , maybe it will be better known. But the fix is either a new valve body which means taking part the whole transmission, essentially rebuilding it, or risking getting a used transmission that may have the same issue already building.

 

Very sorry to hear that it is the valve body.

Just reaffirms the necessity to change your auto trans fluid early and frequently. VERY cheap insurance to help keep the transmission running longer. I am at 62k miles now, and swapped the pan fluid at 50k (when the warranty expired), very noticeable crisper shift. And I changed it because I started to detect an VERY VERY VERY subtle slip in between a couple of gears. Then I swapped the pan fluid again at 60k and noticed an improvement again.

My last car had a very failure prone auto (F-4EAT), but I drove it *very* hard. It was shifting like new when I sold it at 178k miles, I flushed the fluid every 50k.

 

i waited till 80k to do the transfluid, I agree would have been better to do earlier and more often, but not sure it would have prevented the issue, but certainly would not have hurt. I am gonna start changing it once a year, its super cheap to do but you need to replace the factory fill bolt with an aftermarket one as the factory bolt is a crazy special BMW bolt.

 

Oh the fill plug, I think I remember reading that is a T50.

I fill it from the drain plug...much easier and quicker. Only need a standard allen wrench, a fluid pump and the special fill adapter. Takes a lot longer to jack the car up than to swap the fluid.

 

its a crazy reverse T50, the torx part is positive with the recessed part around it , this crazy socket that is a bmw only design is needed. The aftermarket bolt is a standard metric and easy to remove with a right angle ratchet.

 

I have a 2010 R57S auto with 48k miles. Last week, when I shifted from P to D, I heard and felt a loud clunk. Yellow check engine light came on. A yellow gear indicator with an exclamation mark also displayed on the tach. Drove down the block. Transmission would not shift, felt like it was stuck in third gear.

Restarted car, and the transmission shifted normal again. The yellow gear indicator turned off, but the check engine light was still lit. For some reason, however, the check engine light disappeared the next day. I tried pulling codes (by holding down the BC stalk), and all it said was "CC-ID 000," which I believe indicates that everything is ok.

Still, as a precaution, I took the car into the dealer. They couldn't find any error codes, but when they examined the wiring connectors to the transmission, they found that one of the connectors had ATF in it. As outlined above, the ATF seeped into the wiring harness. They had to drop the transmission pan to replace the wiring harness, which, according to the dealer notes, requires removal of the airbox and certain other things. This also required re-filling two quarts of ATF.

So glad it was just a problem with the wiring harness and not the transmission. Even more glad that I'm barely still covered by warranty. But definitely not happy that this happened only two and a half years into ownership and after 48k miles. Crossing my fingers that this doesn't happen again!

 

I'm probably going to look like an idiot because I don't know the answer to this question. Does the MINI A/T have a screen/filter in it? I know that other vehicles do. It could be a clogged transmission filter. That's what my Vette used to do as the filter started getting dirty. Just a thought.

 

@dave: I'm glad I got my fluid changed when I did. I observed the same thing as strobey, improved shifting, although I have caught the car doing an odd shift once before. I'll keep an eye on the shifts and if I notice it, then at the next DIY day I'll swing by and see if the ATF has seeped into the connector or not.

 

Might be a good idea to do as he suggested and switch back to mini fluid or the Toyota equivalent.

 

My 2007 R56 MCS only has 44000 miles on it and they have found fluid inside the harness (they call it fluid migration), acts like the tranny is going out but only when it gets warm. Now to contact MINI USA to see what they will do about this. The quote for repair is $1800 + tax. Just another problem that a car should not have

 

How the heck do you remove the 14 pin (horizontal) connecter? I squeeze the tab on the side and nothing. Tried pliers and screwdrivers to wedge it out and still nothing.

 

where can i buy this part for my mini

 

Bumping this old thread. I think I may have the same issue (ATF in my wiring harness). But my issue is showing a P2764 code. Clutch pressure control solenoid low circuit. Has anyone had this issue and got it resolved by cleaning fluid out of the wiring harness?