Car should be done the end of the week. Cost is 8K. Cost is alittle less than just replacing it with a rebuilt unit.

 

Ouch! That must have hurt

 

Any idea what prompted the failure?
How many miles on the transmission? How did the ATF look upon draining?

 

How many miles is on it? I just bought an 06 with 33k miles on it. Running fine now.. ;0

 

102k Miles on it

 

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but thought this worthwhile. I just had my 2005 MCS automatic transmission rebuilt. Car had about 80,000 miles on it when the transmission started having problems. Issues were pretty much identical to the earlier poster's, flaring between 3rd and 4th, hard shifting, etc. Final cost for the work was $4500 including sales tax. Price included a new torque converter, new valve body, rebuild kit, labor, etc. Had it not needed the valve body the cost would have been $3200 out the door. Got a 3 year / 36,000 mile warranty as well. Far cheaper than the $9500 or so that the Mini dealerships get to replace the unit with one from the factory.

Interestingly another person in my local Mini club is having the exact same issues and also has around 80,000 miles on his. I wonder if the Mini world is about to seen an explosion of failed 6 speed autos as the cars start to hit 80,000+ miles.

I have to say it's frustrating that it failed so early and cost so much to fix.

 

Sorry to hear about your issues gmc. Did the shop that rebuilt it say why it failed?
What did they observe? Were there deposits? How was the ATF? How did you drive this car in this interval?
I am asking these questions because I am hoping unfortunate experiences such as yours can be educational for others and can help us prevent such issues.

My money is on the "lifetime fluid". It simply does not last that long and lifetime in corporate world means lifetime of the warranty. I opted to change my automatic transmission fluid at 70K miles and you should have seen what it looked like. Black. I chose Mobil 1 synthetic ATF and it has never shifted better.

MINI uses a dino fluid similar to the Toyota TypeIV and from my research it is somewhat like a tweaked Dexron III fluid. Many other manufacturers recommend this fluid be changed usually at 30K or 60K mile intervals. Similarly, you could talk to Mobil 1 and ask them what their recommendation is for the service interval of their dino JWS3309, because that's exactly what our fluid is. Add to that the fact that the Mini tranny does not have a cooler, just a heat exchanger that works off the engine coolant and which makes it run hot imho, and you have a recipe for potential disaster.

 

VW also uses this Aisin tranny and recently amended its maintenance recommendation... from "Lifetime Fluid" to changing the fluid every 40,000 miles. Mini owners are wealthier folks so we're getting the finger from BMW.

Whenever you see "Lifetime..." anything, it's nothing more than marketing speak for "buy me.... I'm low maintenance till the warranty expires. Hah Hah."

My other car....

At every 40-50,000 miles, I drain/refill and replace the filter on my VW New Beetle's notorious auto tranny (01M), which also has the "lifetime ATF". It's still shifts smoothly after 179,000 miles. I could be lucky or my maintenance routine has had a contributing factor... who knows? But I'm hoping it goes over 200,000 but also expecting it to fail before the engine.

 

Granted there are certain fluids that will last you 200K miles, but not tranny fluids, and certainly not dino
Here is a thread where I have posted a DIY for ATF change
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-change-3.html
With absolutely no ATF cooler installed, this tranny can't be flushed. We're stuck doing the traditional 3 drain/fills.

 

JWS-3309 ATF, i know for sure that is not a lifetime fluid. If i recall most other autos that have this fluid show 30k changes.