1st Gen R53 Cooper S More Auto Transmission Woes

discovered this forum while searching for similar problems. my wife has an '06 mcs w/ the 6 speed automatic. i have found tons of articles about cvt problems but few concerning the 6spd aisin auto. the oddest thing is that this problem came with no warning signs at all...no slipping, no leaks, no noises. after a normal night in the garage my wife to leave for work and the car would not engage reverse. it was like another neutral. she took my car and i pushed the mini out of the garage and drove it myself. everything in forward gears was normal except a hard downshift at about 12mph when slowing for a stop. i eased it into neutral when stopping after this and got to work and back that day.
i did some reading and tried the 'battery disconnect and reconnect' to see if things would reset. reverse was back as soon as i restarted, but faded away after a few tries. we took the car to a highly recommended transmission shop but they couldn't get communication to the transmission. their tool would communicate with all systems but not the trans, so off to the mini dealer. still functioning as normal when driving the 45min to the dealer (except for the downshift that i avoided by using neutral when stopping). their diagnosis was almost expected....new trans and new control box-$11000. this, even though the indy shop was convinced that the trans was okay and it is simply a communication/electronic issue. going to try another shop that has mini experience but this is frustrating. hoping for suggestions. help!

 

thanks for the tips. picked the car up from he dealer today and brought it home. drove fine other than no reverse and that hard downshift when stopping. will mention these things when i take it somewhere else. did find a local shop on the forum that i talked to today. they can get it in next week. thanks, again.

 

trying to locate the control module/brain box. i hear a buzzing sound from behind the driver side kick panel near the fuses. attempting to remove the panel today and look around. i see a few salvage modules on ebay in the $200-300 range. sounds better than $2300+labor and programming that the stealer quoted for the module. plus they said they wouldn't replace it without doing the trans, too, because it "might not be the problem". they couldn't say that the transmission was definitely bad or what might be wrong with it either, though. could be worth a try.

 

update..after bending and contorting myself for a few hours, the body control box (not what i was searching for) is behind the kick panel on the passenger side ahead of the bonnet release lever. the transmission control box is on the driver side, under the dash and behind the steering column. easy removal. now to locate a replacement.....

 

bought a used control module and tried that solution....same issue/no change (glad i bought a salvage unit for $200 instead of having the dealer change it for $2300 plus labor). next step was taking it to an indy trans shop, and i found one with mini eperience who actually diagnosed the problem and knows how to fix things instead of just replace parts until it works. they did some tests and then opened up the trans....found blackened "lifetime" fluid and some metal shavings, a sign of failure in the trans. they'll pull it and tear it down and get back to me tomorrow with an estimate on a rebuild (how novel), probably in the $4-6k range, depending on what they find. pricey, but definitely better than $11k.

 

well, it came in just under $6k and will be ready tomorrow. a piece broke off the reverse clutch and worked its way around causing trouble in its path. rebuild trans, replacing all clutches and seals, rebuilt torque convertor, and replace valve body. they weren't expecting the valve body so that pushed the cost up. work comes with a two year warranty. all this with only 46k on the odometer! i will definitely recommend to anyone buying a mini to not even consider an automatic trans.