Hey all, great forum over here. Looking forward to being a part of it. I have owned a few Bimmers, and just last week I bought a 2005 4.8is for DD duty. 112K miles. I have been a longtime member of m5board and I know the rules, but there are so many trans threads and I cannot pinpoint ALL of my symptoms, so I am tossing this in my intro thread in the hopes that you will overlook the fact that this is really yet another trans thread...

I checked the car out pretty thoroughly when I bought it, did not do a PPI as I learned from PPIs on the other e53s i had looked at what I needed to look for. It has a bit of smoke, so I know the valve seals are inevitable, but I am ok with that as I intend to use the AGA kit. A couple small hose leaks up front, needs two new CV axles up front.

Perhaps not doing a PPI was a bad idea. I pulled the codes with my Peake and there was nothing of concern. What I did not realize at the time was that the Peake does not pull trans codes. Oops. On the test drives, the car shifted well. It was a bit firm in the shifting, but from my reading I was expecting that a little based on the nature of the 4.8is. That and I suppose I had limited frame of reference to understand any warning signs.

I know I need the trans codes, but with the expenses on the horizon, I want to get an idea which path I need to look at the most. Don't want to replicate costs along the way.

Anyway, after a week of ownership, I have the following issues:

Hard shifting: seems to 'hang' between gears sometimes, then kick pretty hard into the next cog. Worse in sport mode.

2 to 1 lurch: especially in sport mode

Slippage: at first I was unsure of this, but after you see the next symptom, it is clear that it is occurring. 3-4 k rpm mostly

Will not shift our of first gear: This is what I cannot find info on. If I pin it from a stop, whether in sport or comfort, it will spin to redline and not shift to second (that is IF it does not failsafe first - next point). If I get out of it and the RPMs drop it will shift when i get back on gently. It will also not upshift from first in the event of a 3-1 or 2-1 kickdown.

Trans Failsafe: Especially in sport mode, if I am to stand on it (70%+ throttle) it feels like it slips a little around 3-4k and immediately goes into failsafe. I feel as if sport mode is unusable at surface street speeds because i run the risk of downshifting into these gears if I stand on it to move quickly for any reason. This does not inspire confidence.

Furthermore, I was testing it in a parking lot tonight. In manual sport mode, set to 1st or 2nd gear, it will spool and kick into failsafe. When I do this in 2nd gear from a stop, it spins to 4K, HANGS LIKE IT IS SLIPPING and goes failsafe. Otherwise manual mode seems to work ok as long as I am not heavy on the throttle in 1st or 2nd. It shifts pretty cleanly when asked to.

In every case where there is a failsafe, it is reset with a restart of the car.

Now, when I am driving casually in comfort, it behaves pretty well with some occasional stiff gear changes. At highway speeds on a 2 gear kickdown to merge or pass, I feel like it has been slipping a little in the 3-4K rpm range there too. I wasn't initially sure, but tonight I definitely saw slippage in the parking lot in 2nd gear, so I think it is safe to conclude I was right about feeling it at highway speed when I downshift hard enough....

Note, I have done the trans adaptation reset (key in position 2, floor pedal 30 sec, etc) and it *seemed* to improve a little for a couple days only. I understand this is not the same as a tech doing the reset.

I am unsure if the vehicle has ever had the software update I have read about.

So after much research, I am looking at the following:

Fluid: I have no idea if it is low or old. I need to get under it tomorrow and see if there is anything coming out of the fill hole when it is around operating temp. It *almost* feels like my old wagoneer does when the trans is leaking and the torque converter has to deal with low fluid (solving that with a LS motor swap, but that is another story). I say it almost feels the same because the x is locking up pretty well under normal load as far as I can tell.... Obviously if it is low, I will add to see how it behaves when full.

Should it prove to be full or close to, I am considering a full flush at my indy. Not just a drain and fill but a flush to clear the TC and trans of all fluid and fill with new. They told me that they had an e60 in there last week with similar problems (stiff changes, wouldn't get out of first) and it was night and day after the flush. This procedure will include pulling the codes.

Solenoids: Not sure that this is the case. Hard to conclude a solenoid swap is going to fix this. A VF specialist shop told me that a solenoid failure will result in a failsafe that WILL NOT reset with a vehicle restart. I have since heard that is not true, so I do not know what to believe.

Valve Body: I am worried this is the issue. I hear the piston seas in the VB will wear and let oil pass when it should not, resulting in low pressure situations. I have heard that as VF does not sell parts for the valve body, so any fix requires a total machatronic replacement. The 'rebuilt' VBs are essentially repaired in such a way that they use non-VF replacement part solutions and will inevitably fail again. Can anyone confirm this on the rebuilt valve body? Have any of you used one?

New trans: A rebuilt unit or one from a wrecked x. Expensive and a roll of the dice on reliability anyway....

So there I am. Guess this is my initiation. I am trying to stay positive but it seems that most of the options here are bleak....


Thanks all, Looking forward to the collective outpost wisdom.