Yeah, the stupid question, I know. But I am befuddled. I've just fixed my 2006 R53, so it is drivable now (the whole story could be seen here, if interested: https://www.instagram.com/mini_bmw_mechanic/). It has 6 spd AISIN tranny, with shift paddles on the steering wheel, as well as it has
JCW Shift Indicator installed (https://media.fotki.com/2v2a6H74qxA1NP.jpg)
So, the manual shifting works if I use the shifter lever. But if I press on any of the paddles, it just shows me the current gear (like "M6") and in a couple of seconds switches back to "D". The JCW Shift indicator is also not displaying anything other than just a single green LED at the left.
I went through the Owner manual (https://www.miniusa.com/content/dam/...All_Models.pdf). It says, I should be able to change gears with just pulling one paddle or another. But it doesn't seem to work for me. What am I missing?

 

With the shifter in the “regular” D position, the manual shifts are temporary and the transmission will go back into D when you’re no longer accelerating. When you move the shifter to the right to engage sport mode, the car will go into automatic SD mode and hold the gears longer, but still shift before redline. If you manually shift in SD mode, the transmission will stay in manual mode and only automatically upshift close to redline to protect the engine, or downshift when coming to a stop. When stopped it only goes to M2. To start in M1, you have to manually shift down by pressing either paddle forward with your thumb. The paddles and gear stick work the same way, push forward to downshift and pull back into upshift. To reset the shifting back to automatic sport/SD mode you have to move the lever left to D, then back right to Sport/manual.

Even in manual mode, it won’t hold a gear if the engine is close to redline.. That’s why it’s so hard to dyno an Aisin auto. It will always upshift instead of holding the gear at the max. I haven’t driven mine in a while, and I drive it in manual 99% of the time, but I think you can slow down enough in manual mode without the transmission automatically downshifting and lug the engine, so once you go “full manual” you should always downshift as needed unless coming to a full stop.

For the JCW shift light, there are different RPM settings on the control box which are set by the dip switch positions. The first two should be the number of cylinders, and the remaining four are for the max RPM. For a Cooper S the recommended setting in the instructions is 1,2, and 5 up/on, 3,4,and 6 down. This should set the box at 4 cylinders, 6,750 max RPM.

 

So, yeah, JCW shift light works, I just have seen that a couple more LED were lit during my drive, but since the engine is newly rebuilt I am driving very conservatively at low RPM.

As to the steering wheel paddles... I think I found an issue: both - left and right - paddles work as '+', i.e. both of them raise the gear. The left paddle seems to be shorted with the right one. Will need to check wiring.

 

I might be misunderstanding your post, but the paddles are not conventional shift paddles with one downshifting and the other upshifting. They function identically with the downshifts being actuated by pushing them forward with your thumb or upshifting by pulling back them with your fingers. The only thing I like about that is it makes it possible to use manual mode while driving with one hand.

There is a wiring mod to reverse the action of the left paddle so pulling back will downshift and pushing forward will upshift. I was going to do the mod, but leave the push forward upshift disconnected on the left side if possible.

 

OH! REALLY? Jeez, I am stupid. I just thought it works like E46 M3 paddle shifts where one paddle is + and another is -


Wow, I feel so stupid now (but it is a weird approach by MINI, I'd say anyway!)

 

LOL. Drove it yesterday using paddles with the new knowledge. I think I can get used it. It is a pretty fun-to-drive little beast, even with the auto tranny!

 

Dont feel bad, I was baffled test driving my R56 back then, its a stupid idea. The went back to the right way with 3rd gen.