Several brands out there and I'm up for the service. So which brand of ATF should I use? Redline? Castrol? Mobile? MINI? Toyota? Other? What's your take on the best? Kind of scary to think MINI gets ~$20, Redline ~$12 and Castrol (Transmax Import Multi-Vehicle) gets ~$5 per Qt. All are Toyota approved JWS3309.

 

I use Redline. I figure that for the 5 quarts that I used (I dropped the pan and filter), it cost me an extra $25 over the cheaper stuff.

Bottom line: as long as you use a fluid with the proper spec approval, you will be helping your car by changing the fluid. Amazon was cheapest on redline (everyone has the same price, but amazon was free shipping).

Mike

 

Thanks Mike. With all the responses I got... I bit the bullet this afternoon and got Redline with my Prime earlier this afternoon. I think Redline is good stuff at half the price of MINI. I wonder if Castrol is the provider of the branded ATF like the oil?

 

At our shop we prefer to use the factory MINI fluid, it cost more but works the best.
My second choice is to use the redline fluid.

 

Who makes the MINI branded I wonder? What makes it work better than another synthetic?

 

Just make sure you get the Redline in 75W-90 regardless of climate, I miss the Redline stuff because my shifting was smooth! In the end I went with the BMW 75W-90 MTF-LT4 (piece of mind), note the MTF-LT4 spec is just like BMW Long Life-01 for motor oil. If you change the tranny oil at least every 30-50K the Redline in 75W-90 should do nicely.

 

I have a manual tranny, but went with Redline ATF. It was recommended by someone on here. Since I put it in about 6 months ago it feels great!

 

How do you plan to go about changing it?

 

I'm depending largely upon the club DIY day at MOD on the 18th. And I'm sure, drawing upon the documentation that has been provided here. I'm torn now between using the MINI stuff at 22.50 X 6 or Redline, which I have on order already : ( at half the price. I understand the suck and dribble process is the pits. I've ordered up new plugs and sealing washers. If you are in town you should stop by.

 

I definitely would except I'll be in LA for a wedding that weekend. I've always been curious about dropping the pan to change the filter/strainer but wondered what makes it so labor intensive.

 

Dropping the pan makes the drain a lot faster, but not the fill. From what I gather, there is a pipe that threads in to the drain that is removed after you remove the plug in the pan. That drains the pan. On the top side there is a fill plug and also a vent pipe. I believe you open both of those and there is a MINI tool that should be used to take the top plug out, but there is another tool to do it also - big square head of some sort. Screw the stanchion back in to the drain hole which has to be correct depth because it sets the fluid level in the pan. then, you're supposed to pump fluid back into the drain hole until it starts to run out which means it is running over the top of the stanchion tube. Then to top it off, you attempt to put more fluid in through the top. And that is like putting shampoo back in the bottle, is what I understand.