Okay so my new to me Justa with autobox has 110k on the motor. I flushed all the fluids of the car except for the tranny. Today I went to a reputable tranny shop to get it flushed and after 1 hour they handed me the keys. When I saw the cost of the job I immediately questioned the work done. They said they only managed to take out 2.25 quarts of fluid and did not change the filter as it is a sealed unit. They said do the service every 40 or 60k depending on how you drive the car. They also said never do a flush on the tranny as that will cause trouble.

So I am confused as after reading a few threads here at NAM it says replace tranny filter as well. Is the recommendation given to me correct? Only drain and refill basically and not change the filter? I did somehow noticed the car shift smoothly afterwards. It changes gears better and when I smash the gas pedal it has quicker gear changes so there is no complain about it. This car will be on my garage until it gets totalled so I want to get the servicing done correctly while it is parked on my driveway so I want to know what is the proper way in getting this service done.

 

You are correct to question the service. A true service would have changed the filter also. This probably should cost you about $650-800. The parts and fluid are about $300 if that. Unfortunately, due to the design (plus it's supposed to be "lifetime" fluid), ONE bolt is a little difficult to get to, and this really drives up the labor component of the job.

You should change the fluid at about 100k miles, if you want to get another 100k out of it. It sounds to me like the shop did not warm the fluid up before draining. This is a little bit of a Catch-22, as when you warm up the tranny so the fluid will flow, it is difficult to get all of it out because a lot of it is distributed throughout the transmission. DIYers like to let it drain overnight. The only way to get all 4.5 quarts out at a shop is to do a flush, which IMHO is a bad idea. Counterflow flushes can loosen metal shaving s that have been happily motoring along just where they are in your gears, so your tranny shop is right about that for sure.

So where are you at right now? Well, you have two new quarts of transmission fluid, which is why your car is shifting smoother. So you can probably sit on that for awhile (25-30k miles?), until you're ready to shell out the money to have the job done properly, or alternately, do it yourself. My recommendation is to find an independent import shop that is familiar with working on MINIs, BMWs. VWs, etc., not a transmission shop, even though that might sound counter-intuitive.

 

Thanks! I will sit on this one and will get the proper service when I am due for the next oil change. I just need to find a specialist who knows how to do it properly here as I called a few shops and they said the same thing.....drain and fill only and forget the dealer as for them their fluid is perfect and should last a life time.