Yesterday, I tried to change the manual transmission oil on my son's 2013 JCW Paceman (I'm posting here because the R60 forums have higher traffic). I say "tried" because when I got under the car, I found that while I could access the drain plug, there was no way I could get to the fill plug. I could barely see it. Based on what I've seen online, this surprised me. Is the JCW significantly different from base and S models in this regard? Is the only access from above?

 

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart..._Replacing.htm

This is for R56 but all the same basic stuff applies to JCW. You access the plug from beneath and fill using an extended tube from top was how I managed mine. Car must be level of course for correct fill amount.

 

Pickup a garden sprayer at the hardware store. Remove the spray nozzle. Use it to fill anything you need.

 

Thanks for the replies. Something must be different on the JCW -- the fill plug is barely visible, let alone accessible.

 

Here are the official instructions from Mini:
https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/r...arbox/ErlEquFr

It shouldn’t be much different than any other 2nd gen car. Might need some socket extenders, but should be fairly accessible.

I also recommend getting a garden sprayer tank for filling. Makes it super easy.

 

I think he is looking at the wrong place and not the fill bolt. Fill bolt is not far from the drain one.

 

@dmath, did you figure this out? I'm trying to do the same. I've been researching this vehicle and there's very few diys out there on this. It is not the same as R56-R59 as far as I can tell. All I can assess is there are two options, remove the subframe brace AND possibly disconnect the exhaust pipe to get to the fill plug or fill it from the vent near the shift linkage on the top. The later requires you to measure the exact amount of fluid to be added. This appears to be the vent cover. I've seen this method used in a clutch replacement video. Did you use either of these methods?

 

Here are the two plug locations, looking from under the car:


The fill plug is #2, and the drain plug is #1

Always check to see if you can get the fill plug out BEFORE releasing the drain plug.

 

It became a non-issue for me. About a month after I last posted in this thread, before I had time to get back to working on this, the car needed a clutch. So I punted and had the transmission shop replace the fluid. All I can say is that the fill plug on our R61 was not positioned like those in any of the photos I found online. I was under the car multiple times and looked at the transmission from every angle. Good luck.