I have had my mini for almost 3 years now, I bought it with 70k miles and am roughly at 110k. I drove an hour away from where I am and had a fine drive to many places. My tank was pretty low so I stopped to get gas noticing my car was acting funny. When I parked my car it jolted a bit and I became really concerned. I got my gas and when I started my car again, an EP error came up on my screen and my car would jolt from park to drive. I then started to drive forward noticing my car was not shifting on its own or when I tried to manually shift it. The entire ride home I had to drive in 2nd very carefully. I made it home safely and come to find out no one around here can work on a mini when it comes to transmission. I have called everywhere and my final stop is to call the dealer in Grand Rapids... I am very scared I will have to replace the trans and its going to cost me more than I can imagine. Please, any advice will help. I am hoping this is just a computer issue and not a full transmission.

 

The dealer will probably only want to replace the whole tranny at a high cost. Probably more than the car is worth.

I don't know much about the automatics but they can be fixed. I don't know if your symptoms are caused by a bad valve body but I remember people commenting on those going bad. I've never read anyone having a computer problem with the auto trans so I really don't think it's going to be any easy fix. Some have tried changing the fluid but I don't know if that helped them or not.

Hopefully you can find a shop that will work on it. The Mini isn't that hard to work on and any shop should be able to work on it. Did you try any transmission specialists? I'm not familiar with Grand Rapids at all but we have a lot of them in the Milwaukee area.

Sorry I'm not much help but there are a few automatic experts on this website. Your post gets a free bump from me anyway .

If nobody else responds maybe search some posts on automatic transmissions and ask for help in their thread. That way they'll get notified and hopefully respond. Good luck.

 

Thank you, I am actually from the battle creek area and the closest mini dealer is in Grand Rapids. I have called everyone I can think of around here and no one works on them for transmission.. my local belle tire has always serviced my car but they don't do transmission.. so I'm kind of in a pickle here.. I don't want to replace the whole entire transmission cause I can't afford it for one.. and what am I supposed to do with a car I can't drive. it's very hard and I love my mini so I am heartbroken. I am still going to keep calling around because my appointment is next Friday at mini.

 

Other manufacturers use the Aisin 6 speed. Take a look at this and see if it helps:


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ed-at-80k.html


Regards,
Jerry

 

Hey, just thinking maybe someone partially drained your transmission fluid accidentally instead of the motor oil. The drain plugs can be easily confused if you're not paying attention. Can you get someone to drain and fill the transmission?

 

Here's how to service an automatic transmission. Changing the filter requires lowering the subframe on the R56, not sure about the R53. Fluid change only is fairly easy.
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...uid_Change.htm

 

how is that possible when the transmission fluid is compleatly sealed and it will cost $500 to get it checked and filled... and that may not be the problem to fix.. I don't have money to just "check".. unfortunately I'm not sure what I'm going to do

 

The R56 automatic transmission is not sealed even though MINI claims it is a lifetime maintenance free transmission. I am not familiar with the R53. If you have no money, at least look under the car for a drain plug on the bottom of the transmission.

Read the Pelican Parts article. It will help you understand your transmission a lot, just be aware the article was written based on one particular transmission model (there are multiple models) but also written to apply to various MINI models, so the photos and some things may not exactly match your car, but the principles are the same.

If money is super tight maybe you can just squirt/pour/pump some new fluid into the transmission fill port, and forget draining it or trying to replace the filter and gasket. I'd stick something in the fill port to check the old fluid color first. Be sure to use the correct fluid. Some new fluid bottles have a small hose attached to the top to make it easier. Or harbor Freight sells cheap fluid pumps. Not sure how well they work.

Also, try this site to find a MINI shop: http://www.minirepairshops.com/search

 

Also contact Pelican Parts, ECS Tuning, Way Motor Works, or Detroit Tuned (they're in Michigan so they would be a good option for you) and ask for advice. Maybe they'll recognize the problem based on your description. You can reach some of them on this board too, and they even troll the posts and might respond to your post.

 

I am not sure, I have R53 model and everything I am reading says they cvt trans has to be replaced by MINI and it cost like 8k... more than what my care is even worth. I'm very frustrated at this point and eveythig I've read states that my fluid is sealed. no on here will even look at my car to help me cause they don't know anything about them and that's the most frustrating.. if my "plug" got knocked or anything I feel I would have had this problem a long time ago but I'm coming up on an oil change so it's been some time since anyone's been under the hood.

 

The title of your post says you have a MINI Cooper S and the post above says R53 so it seems certain you don't have a CVT. Only the 1st generation non S(R50) had the CVT. The Aisin automatic in the S can usually be repaired or serviced.

 

Call Detroit Tuned tomorrow. Everything will work out one way or another.

If you send me your VIN, I may be able to tell what transmission you've got, or you can type it in to myminivin.com or bimmer.work, or any MINI VIN decoder site.

 

that's is what I thought but I have paddle shifting and everywhere else I read states that's the cvt transmission. I really thought I had the other till i read about many S models having cvt.

 

WMWRE33565TG98458 that's my mini and it's R53.

 

Yea you have the Aision six speed in your 7/2005 production R53 w/ paddle shifters.

That link above is a good place to start :

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ed-at-80k.html


I would check the linkage to the shifter itself, check the fluid level, check the harness to the transmission computer, then the computer, then you would have to take it apart the bottom pan and see if its then the main valve body or one of the synchros. Valve body is linked in the thread.


If you do get a scan tool , like this and see what pop up on the transmission codes. This would also be a good start. This tool will help read more then standard OBD2 and you will see the stored faults codes.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d-q-and-a.html

 

Call Detroit Tuned. They may be able to replace the solenoids quickly and relatively inexpesively (relative to a new trans).

 

All the auto R53's had paddles, but none had CVT's. Hopefully Detroit Tuned can help you out. Otherwise, try looking for a place familiar with VW auto transmissions. Essentially the same transmission is used in a lots of VW's.

The three main issues with this transmission seem to be low/dirty fluid, a bad valve body, or one of the solenoid sleeves getting stuck in the transmission.

 

OP, what did Detroit Tuned say?

 

Betheridge, any progress getting out of second gear, or still stuck..?