2006 4.4 5th gear lurching

[Duc]

Hey everyone,

Under warranty the P.O. took it in for hard shifting about a month or so ago. BMW replaced the seals on the mechatronic unit (square one, and the one that notoriously leaks at the terminal), as well as the 4 little round ones and put all new fluids and filter in. The P.O. believed this fixed the issue (which it likely mostly did). Unfortunately the real issue was never identified by the P.O. or BMW and now the X5 is out of warranty.

Alright, so onto the issue.

1. Intermittent hard shifts from 1st to 2nd when cold. Seems like it holds the gear too long and then drops it hard into 2nd. If you let the tranny get up to temp for a few minutes in the morning this issue isn't present. But if you hop in and go, bang, hard shift. Rest of the shifts after that are buttery smooth, even the next 1-2 shift.

2. Now this is the one that really worries me. When in 5th gear the transmission feels like it's skipping or lurching. This is ONLY in 5th gear. RPM stays steady. It almost feels like the transmission is going to shift. I can get it to do it consistently if I stay in 5th in manual shift mode, or if the trans selects 5th while in regular D. This isn't present in any other gears. There is no other slipping in any other gears, everything else is buttery smooth.

Based on my research, I think both of these issues will be fixed with a rebuild of valve body using a zip kit and new ZF solenoids. But I would like to know for sure. I'm hoping an expert on here can tell me whether or not issue 2 is likely to be resolved by the valve body refresh, or if you think its an issue inside the transmission itself. I'm really hoping it's not a bad clutch pack.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated here!