Ok....I believe I'm at a crossroads here. My sons 05 MCS Auto I believe the tranny is going out in it. Its not the CVT Tranny but the Steptronic Tranny. Prior to getting up to operating temp it will shift into gear just fine. After it gets to operating temp it lunges violently into gear. Once in gear it will up shift smooth, however down shifting again is pretty violent. 120k miles on the clock. Ive changed fluid 4 times to no avail. Soooooo...after researching I can either try a new valve body ($800 +/-) or a new rebuilt tranny ($3k +). The car is maybe worth $3k with that many miles on her. What to do what to do!?!?!

 

Before you go ahead and replace the valve body you might want to take it to a MINI indy shop and see what they have to say. If a new transmission is recommended, you could search on www.car-part.com for a used one. Here is a thread on NAM with a lot of information about the Aisin failures.