My sons 05 R35 MCS tranny started slipping the other day. High RPM's and wasnt going anywhere kinda thing. Let her cool down a bit and got her home. Hasn't driven her again till I can look at it. She has 130K miles on it. How often should the tranny fluid be changed? I've researched and found the fluid needed, can anyone tell me if there is alternative to the OEM Mini fluid?? After changing the fluid does anything else need to be done ?? It is a steptronic tranny.

 

This needs to be posted in the 1st Gen R53 group. The transmission is a CVT. People have used non MINI fluid.

 

There is some good information here that discusses intervals and more about the MCS 6 speed Agitronic transmission. The Cooper models use the GACVT16Z CVT transmission. For fluid, I'd use Genuine or Aisin. Filter here if needed.