Hi all,
Sorry to post again on the same topic, and please feel free to bring these two together (https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ing-fluid.html) if it is deemed appropriate.
FINALLY pulled the transmission and engine. What a pleasure these little cars are to work on. So well engineered. I believe the seal at the front of the transmission is the one leaking. Becuase it did not leak much, there was not much evidence.
The symptoms were heavy leaking cvt fluid when running. essentially acted like it was pumping out. As I test, I topped off the trans with fluid and drove it. Drove great, just left a trail of fluid.
The fluid really seemed to be coming out of the inspection holes for the flywheel area. Since there is not torque converter, about the only suspicion I have is the main shaft seal for the input shaft into the transmission. I intend on replacing this, but have this question:
Is this feasible? Is the seal I am referring to sealing the pump inside the trans from leaking out? THanks to all that have helped me better understand these great little cars.

 

I've seen two that had the input shaft seal leaking

 

Thank you sir, Is that larger diameter circular feature in the casting the pump? Cause if it is, that would make perfect sense that this seal is the culprit. Since it was nto run but a very short bit with fluid leaking, there are not alot of signs of where it is coming from. Thanks again!

 

Hi, I just bought a 2004 Mini with this same problem, a leak from the input shaft seal, I have paid cheap money for the car that is in new condition, after removing the trans, noticed there was only about 1 quart of oil only so I think that was the reason of the car not moving, internally the trans was new, oil was clean, no metallic parts, filter was also really clean, replaced the seal, filled up trasn , mounted and the car drives perfect but the damn seal still leaks a little, one thing i have noticed when I've removed the old seal, the input shaft had excessive play, I could easily move up down and to the sides about 1 mm , my suspect is the needle bearing could be worn?, is this possible?, I asked a couple of mini mechanics locally and no one seems to know how much play a shaft can have. Hope some of you guys have this problem and I can get some feedback. Thanks.

 

Hi, I Finally fix the infamous input shaft Leak!, it happened to be the needle bearing inside the trans the one that has one roller bad, the roller actually came out when disassembled the bellhousing, What a PITA is to open this trans, there are many parts inside blocking the two halves to separate. I wanted to give some input since I see many people here post the problems but they never tell how they fixed, If some of you are having a leak from the seal most likely the bearing is gone, if someone is interested, I can post how I diagnosed the problem and how to open the trans without break it. Thanks. Walter.

 

We have a 2003 Mini S with CVT (constantly volatile transmission). The first transmission went in warranty at 15k. Now we are at 93k and had a catastrophic CVT fluid leak coming out of the inspection holes. I removed the transmission and found all of the seals leaking a little. None of the seals were in bad enough condition to warrant the amount of fluid that leaked so suddenly but we changed them all successfully. There seemed to be fluid leaking from one of the gallery plugs near the bottom of the case. These are the radial fingers that start at the main input shaft and are plugged with a ball bearing. I reassembled and drove for many miles thinking I had fixed it....and then it dumped the CVT fluid again...bad smell. I am looking at wzarach44 post and I'm kicking myself for not scrutinizing the input shaft more thoroughly. Darn that makes good sense...it ran fine for miles and then could have wrecked the new seal and dumped the fluid. There seems to be oil coming from the gallery plugs still...is that possible? I realize the flywheel is flinging it everywhere...

I'd appreciate some shots on how you got the bearing out...I may be the next to report how that fixed the leak, because the seals didn't do it.

 

I am having the same issue. Pulled the trans, replaced the seals. Re installed the trans. The new seal started leaking almost immediately. The issues has to be something else like the needle bearing you mentioned. Can you please post how you diagnosed it? Also any link to how you split the tranny without ruining it would be awesome. Thanks wzarch44!

 

Sadly I didn't split the case to replace the bearing. There was very little play but it was enough to ruin the seal with 10 miles. With no good alternative I ended up parting the car.

 

Yeah, that's rough man. Im kinda in the same boat with the exception of parting it out. I decided to pull the transmission one last time. So today we pulled the tranny, for the second time. It took around 5 hrs this time. After reading the comment left by wizarche we hoped it was the input shaft so at least I would have a answer to wtf is going on. And it does have excessive play in it so I'm hoping that's the issue. Next step is to open and inspect. If anyone has a link on how to split the case without damaging anything that would be greatly appreciated. I will take photos of the work and process. If this resolve the issue, I'll post the info here.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...built-cvt.html

Hopefully this will help. Good luck

 

Yes indeed!!! That was very helpful shawnnn. Many thanks to you.

 

I read your post below and I am having the same issue. I need help on how you opened the transmission and replaced the needle bearing.