OK I did transmission fluid flush on my 02 4.4i

[RRPhil]

Yes, that is the manufacturing date (German for October is Oktober, abbreviated to Okt) but the year looks too smudged to read unfortunately.

Phil

[e30cabrio]

I looked closely and am pretty sure it says 2002.

Thanks

[e30cabrio]

How many miles before I can stop worrying changing the fluid did harm?

I have about 130 on it and so far so good.

[stunt]

I did my 1st fluid change 200 miles ago @ 133k, and now the transmission is stuck in 3rd or 4th all the time when driving.

It lurches when putting it in R backing out of the garage in the morning and again when putting it in D to drive off, but other than is is smooth, except for the slow acceleration with is probably putting a strain on the torque converter.

I'm guessing one or more of the valve body passages got blocked?

[MPDano]

Originally Posted by stunt

I did my 1st fluid change 200 miles ago @ 133k, and now the transmission is stuck in 3rd or 4th all the time when driving.

It lurches when putting it in R backing out of the garage in the morning and again when putting it in D to drive off, but other than is is smooth, except for the slow acceleration with is probably putting a strain on the torque converter.

I'm guessing one or more of the valve body passages got blocked?

Oh Gawd, now this is discouraging news.

[stunt]

Yeah, I finally realized it for the first time this morning driving to work when trying to pass someone. It never down shifted. When I move the shifter to the sport/manual mode, I'm unable to change gears as well.

I had noticed the jerkiness when backing out for a few days, but not that I had been in 3/4 the entire time.

[stunt]

I think it was a false alarm and caused by the battery being low.

In another thread it was suggested that the battery could have been low (which is likely since I have been tuning my new amps without the engine running over the last few days).

Sure enough, when I went out to lunch today, the symptoms where completely gone!

[e30cabrio]

I am at about 400 miles after changing the filter/6.5 bottles of Lifeguard 5. Running nice.

[SlickGT1]

Yea when i did my first fluid and filter change, i started experiencing weird shifts and a reverse issue. Turned out my shift solenoids got some shit disslodged into them. When I swapped them out, all issues went away.

[bcredliner]

There are many posts stating that if you change the transmission fluid there is the risk that the detergent in the new fluid can dislodge particles that can cause damage. In addition, if I recall correctly, I read only one post in this tread that said the fluid looked and smelled new when they changed it.

There are also many posts stating the transmission is problematic. If that is the case, something needs to be changed. Since there are many current transmissions out there with a preventative maintenance schedule for change of fluid and filter that is a easy change we can make.

I think a logical conclusion from this thread is that the fluid and filter should be changed at a frequency that prevents contaminant buildup. Also,the fluid should be changed before the fluid has lost much of it's original color and smell. If that was ones procedure there wouldn't be contaminants lying in wait to potentially destroy the transmission when the fluid is changed.

Another is if you have not changed the fluid for 100,000 or your opinion is no matter the frequency there will always be contaminants there are at least two options. One is to don't change anything.

Another is to drop the pan, save the fluid and just change the filter. The filter is there to remove contaminates. If over time there are particles lying in wait, the filter should be changed before that happens.

Having said all that, The troubleshooting the BMW transmission in the Bentley BMW service manual is the following: "Minor automatic transmission problems may be corrected by changing the automatic fluid (ATF) and the filter. Begin by checking ATF level and condition. Check to see if the fluid is dirty or has a burned odor indicating overheated fluid. The burned odor may be the results of burned discs in the clutch pack. The friction material from the burned discs may clog valve body passages."