Here's what i did for my fluid check,
1. pull off the undercover that blocks the trans pan.
2. Car cold, start and let idle the whole time you are doing this procedure and make sure you are on a level surface. Shifted the car through park neutral drive and reverse keeping it in gear for five seconds each.
2. it was tight but i got down and the front of the car and used a laser thermometer and shot the center of the pan till it met the target temperature. Off hand i wanna say the target temp is between 95 and 113 degrees.
3. when i got the center of the pan temp around 96-97 i went back in the still idling car i went through all the gears again like before and then got under the car and removed the drain plug and let the fluid start to come out. To double check i was within the reccomended temp i shot the stream of fluid coming out to verify.
4. if you are grossly overfilled you might go over the target temp just put the drain plug back in and shut it off and let it cool, then start the car and repeat the procedure you just did.
4. once i got a small trickle of fluid out of the drain plug i put the drain plug back in and buttoned everything up to finish.
some state to shut the car off when removing the drain plug but i don't think this is correct. when i did it this way the first time it seemed like all the fluid pumped up into the trans when it was running was coming down to the pan and draining out giving you a low level.... i don't think i am wrong but if i am please correct me on this one.

 

Thank you for your response. Here is a link from passatworld that supports your procedure to check fluid level while the car is running. Refer to the 2 last paragraph of the article.

http://www.passatworld.com/forums/91...ilter-diy.html

 

Question for you MCSa experts.

I've been through this entire thread and seem to be having a different problem than most. Easiest way to explain it is when my 2006 MCSa (45k miles) goes up any kind of an incline, at low speeds, it wants to hang in whatever gear its in until the revs reach nearly 3.5 / 4k.

For example, if I enter even a mild incline in second gear it won't want to change to 3rd gear at all! If I start off the incline in 3rd gear (i.e. I enter it going a bit faster) it won't want to change to 4th gear at all.

Now this doesn't happen when I'm doing 40 or 50 mph, it happens at 25mph and below.

Also, when I start the car from cold in the morning, even on a flat surface, it will take its time changing into both second gear and third gear.

I had the transmission fluid changed around 400 miles ago - it was done by a BMW / Mini specialist, and they reset the TCU. The symptoms I have described above had been happening BEFORE the fluid change.

Any ideas?

 

My suggestion is pull the paddle to the next gear.

 

Thanks, great answer. Lets pretend, shall we, that I want the gearbox to operate as a normal automatic gearbox should, with no use of the paddle shifters and no moving the shifter to the right and using manual shifts?

 

Let off the throttle then to indicate that you've reached your decided speed then add throttle again. Or start a new topic else where

 

gents
have pulled the pan and removed the filter, but cannot seem to find any info on trans filter torque and trans pan torque. any help would be great...

 

I used the Bentley guide that indicates 8 Nm (6 ft-lb) for the Oil pan ("trans pan") to transmission. It didn't specifically address the trans filter but I did the same -8 Nm (6 ft-lb).


AISIN gear selector valve and oil temperature sensor
10 Nm (7.3 ft-lb)
Drain plug to transmission oil pan
27 Nm (20 ft-lb)
Oil filler plug to transmission housing
25 Nm (18.4 ft-lb)
Oil pan to transmission
8 Nm (6 ft-lb)
Valve body to transmission
8 Nm (6 ft-lb) + 90 degrees

 

It's called emergency 3rd gear limp mode combined with the hill descent and ascent. This happened to me going tthrough 40 minutes of hills. Your valve body is dead or on its way to dying. Changing the transmission fluid is a short term symptom alleviator, however, the symptoms will become progressively worst and it will start occurring in areas without inclines and you will be going in limp mode 50% of the time when the valve body is basically dead. Order a valve body from Rev max , gaskets from pelican,and d4 redline ATF, 6 qts,

 

great!!!and thank you for the quick response. I have done 2 flushes and starting to see the fluid clear-up. I will do another one tomorrow. with pan and filter removed, I was able to get about 3 1/2 quarts. I also did the fluid level check (95-113F) using an infrared thermometer, as suggested by kb30, i check the fluid level with the car running and in Park.

 

what symptoms should one see on the aisin auto trans in order to consider replacing the VB. and can you test the vb whether it needs replacing?

 

Hard up shifts, downshifts when hot. Delays, hard engagements of drive and reverse. Slip, bangs on gear changes. You will notice.
Mine was real bad wi hard shifts when the car warmed up , oddly when it got hot outside it would not be that bad. The next winter it got worse and worse. Twice the car felt like it wouldn't release the the clutches when coming to a stop. Ended up letting my car sit till I replaced the valve body. You can get a lot of symptoms.
And I can't stress this enough, get a valve body from a reputable builder that will back their product. Once I get my friends issues worked out I will post one to avoid based on my experience.

 

Hi All,

This is a great write up on the valve body replacement. I have hopefully a little less work to do than this but hopping for some input.

I have a 2009 R56 and when i came back from the dealer oil change service they told me I have a leak in the valve body harness connector. Small leak apparently but nevertheless.

I have a couple questions.
1. I had a the car up on jack stands today and crawled under and around and couldn't find a trace of this leak anywhere. I found two connectors on the front side of the tranny a few inches above the oil pan line but those seemed like they were bone dry. That's about the level of the valve body as i understand from the pictorials so it seemed logical. Its possible i didn't look in the right spot though so can someone tell me where the valve body harness connector is?
2. Is this a common problem?
3. Small oil leak doesn't really seem like that big a of a problem to me as long as there is oil in the tranny so I'm assuming i can live with this for a while as long as i keep the oil topped off and i don't feel any difference in operation.
4. Lastly i have 70k miles on the car at the moment and i see some folks are recommending a oil flush but with the older models is this also something i should be concerned with on the r56?

thanks in advance.

Spetz

 

. i have never heard of any issues with leaks regarding the connectors.if i recall the connectors are in the trans pan and maybe near the top of the trans is a related connector that goes to the tcm. are you sure you didn't misunderstand them, was it on that inspection sheet they give you?
With that many miles i would look into doing a fluid change even though yours is newer it's still pretty much the same transmission.
last time i went to the dealer they told me that i needed 3200 worth of repairs. oil leak, ps leak, coolant leak. in my case i was messy on my fluid changes and they tried to take advantage of that. My service advisor was kind enough to refuse all repairs for me and didn't even ask...

 

My fiance was the one who did the service but that's what they wrote on the work order and i quote...
"Transmission valvebody harness leak connector leaking fluid $1853.00"
I understand the $1850 but whats the extra 3 bux for ?

Anyway considering i didn't really find anything and you say you've never heard of it i'm going to not rush into things and just keep an eye on this for a few months.

The fluid change isn't a bad idea as i understand from reading the best way way to do it and get the most fluid out is to remove the pan. I'll probably take this up during the summer. Is it necessary to change the gasket in this case?

thanks for the response

 

hey if you look you can find that trans pan gasket for pretty cheap.
i got a felpro for about 20 dollars on ebay you can find some deals. edit sorry!

 

If the filter pictured is the one they ship, do not use it in your MINI. The pan on the MINI is deeper than on the VW and Audi. The MINI specific filter has an extension on it to allow it to reach the bottom of the pan. If you use a VW/Audi filter, you run the risk of starving your transmission of fluid, even though the fluid level is correct.

 

One more thing i wanted to mention before i end posting on this website...
I ordered a valve body from a ebay seller Pacific coast transmission. the valve body was supposedly rebuild and offered a 12 month unlimited mile warranty. once i bought and paid for the item this seller waited a month before sending the item. I should have filed a complaint then....by the time i got it i couldn't file any complaints on ebay about it being defective.. anyhow i recieved this part and swapped it out with the bad one. Well after doing a relearn procedure it shifted worse then before. When cold it would slam 1st to 2nd. and then when it was warm it would not downshift correctly. It was very hard and felt like something was grabbing.
anyway, i tried to contact the shop owner and it took a week of calling to get contact with him after talking for a bit he concluded the valve body was not tested proplerly and out of adjustment. after Threee times more calling him he said he would send a replacment and never did. Avoid this shop at all cost and go with a rebuilder who will honor their warranty. All this guy would do was give you the run around and wait for you to give up..
after all the hassle we sold the car and bought a turbo rdx.

 

+1 on the OEM MINI Trans filter. R53 Cooper S auto / R52 Cooper S auto . Our kit comes with the pan gasket

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/24347551087KT/ES2602655/

 

KB30 sorry to hear about your terrible experience with that ebay seller and sorry to hear that you're leaving the Mini community. Thanks for your contributions to this topic as you probably saved someone some grief with buying the valve body from Pacific coast transmission.

 

I just got my car back from it's second valve body replacement and it is now perfect. I had the VB replaced last May, but it was never 100% fixed, it got worse over the winter. Strangely the tranny shifted harshly when cold and was pretty good when warm. Now it is all good from the first shift cold or warm. Excellent! Thanks to Valve Body Builders who warranteed the first replacement and provided a fully operational VB.
Now I can enjoy this thing with summer on the way. Onto the next issue of strut mount replacement and mushroom stomping.

 

Can we get a list of all the parts needed for the valve body replacement? With part numbers?
whoatemyrice, I might be bringing my mini there since they did your mini with success. I have an aftermarket warranty that will cover this but will the shop order the parts or is that something I have to do?

 

Just get the valve body, pan gasket, strainer and 5 quarts of royal purple max ATF. Done don't bother with the bolts.

 

part numbers were in an earlier post go through them. I ordered my gasket and strainer through pelican parts, valve body through rev max, and redline d4 atf through amazon. After changing the valve body my car does shift hard for the first 10 minutes on a cold start from gears 1 to 2 AND 2 to 1. But the rest of the gears are fine. What I did to resolve the issue was warm up my car for a 1-2 minutes, rev it 1-2 times to warm up the tranny fluid, and the symptoms subside. Anybody else have this issue? I found online that people have complained about redline d4 atf shifting hard on cold starts. Would switching back to stock fluid is a good idea?

 

I doubt the very expensive MINI fluid will help. It is likely something that is not perfect with the new VB, it may improve with long term adjustment by the TCM. If it gets worse I would be looking at a replacement VB before the warranty expires.
My first VB replacement was similar with hard shifts when cold but the new one is fine.