2nd Gen JCW Most liked posts in thread: Maintenance Question

You need to use a long reach 14mm, thin wall, 12 point socket..... Outmotoring sells them...
http://www.outmotoring.com/bi-hex-magentic-spark-plug-socket.html

27mm oil filter socket...

Suggestion
Only use oem or Mann oil filters.... Never aftermarket.. Pay attention to the large "O" ring on the filter housing... Apply a light coating of oil so it doesn't roll up when you reinstall the housing or you will rediscover the oily fountain of utes is located in your engine bay....

And of course, only synthetic oil...

 

:cornut:

 

I'm just getting into the Mini maintenance since the factory maintenance program is gone.

If driven hard, how often will the automatic transmission fluid require changing? I occasionally autocross the wife's JCW when my car is not working. The brake pad notification came on, I believe it was followed by another soon after (wife's car, she sees it daily). In resetting the pad light, I think I may have reset both notifications. I'm going to change the engine oil and brake fluid regardless, however we are approaching 50k miles and I don't want to take a risk. Thoughts?

Are auto transmission fluids every 45-60k or more like 75-100k?

Thanks a lot everyone!

Adrian

 

MINI says the ATF is a "lifetime" fluid, tho they never say who's lifetime! :biggrin5:

I changed mine at 60K, however, even that is a bit of a misnomer, as draining the pan only gets you a small percentage of the fluid, most of it is in the torque converter. So I drained, it - refilled it 4 times, to try and dilute the used fluid with as much new fluid as I could.

There is a procedure for doing this you need to follow.....

Bring the temp up tp 90-100*F, remove the drain plug, then remove the standpipe and drain fluid. Reinstall the standpipe and add fluid - warm trans up again to 90 -100, and add fluid till it just dribbles out, install plug. Run transmission thru the gears several times, then repeat......

It's a good idea to keep track of how much you drain out and add that amount till it's time to do the final check. Warm to 90-100, remove drain plug. Fluid should just dribble out - if it does, you're good to go. If it doesn't, add fluid till it does.

 

Wow, that's interesting.... life time ATF. Is that the same for manual transmission MINIs?

 

No NEVER. I change mine every 3 years because I am OCD. :ihih::lol:

 

Look up a guy that goes by Genik here on MA. He's a whizz at MINI maintenance.