Transmission Reliability

[m5james]

Originally Posted by HPIA4v2

Wonder if diesel with high torque cause the trans failure on yours. But again we've heard so many trans failure on petrol engine as well.

"lifetime" is made up word by lawyer since it's vague in terms of quantitative (no mileage can be put on it) and different people have different expectation in longevity. The old timer of Benz owner will balk for anything to fail under 200K miles, but new owner of benz lease theirs for 3 years.

That is quite a low mileage and out of the norm. I agree w/ your lawyer statement as well.

[m5james]

Originally Posted by X5Sport

Had my E53 back for about three weeks now following a transmission rebuild. It's fitted with the same 6spd auto that the V8 4.8 has. The failure occurred at 41,890 miles and was nothing to do with the fluid - changing it would have made no difference.

The failure was within the torque converter and not the actual transmission but the broken plastic (yes plastic!) parts from the TC were ingested by the tranny oil pump destroying both it and the downstream clutches when the pressure failed. There were no warnings at all.

I've suggested this before, but never really researched it. The TC from a 740i sport has a higher stall speed than a normal 740iL. While I've heard of shifting problems in the E38 forums (my assumption is mostly due to lack of fluid changes), it's not as bad or complete failures like I read about here. I've always wondered if we could swap in the 740i Sport TC, hoping that maybe it's a little more stout since the stall speed is different, plus it'd might be a nice little upgrade.

[cheappc]

Lets get serious guys, the transmissions are bad, lets be real here, I have my indi mechanic that has been servicing all of my BMW's for years and he told me "before" I bought my X that the transmissions fail... to make sure I really want to buy the "X"..

Also, another customer of mine who owns a car lot, told me the same thing, these are 2 people who dont know each other.

Now think about it, these people that their transmissions are going bad are not even on this board! so we may have a big problem here, just that not enough people are on boards like these to report them all....

my .02

[willgabriel]

Originally Posted by cheappc

Lets get serious guys, the transmissions are bad, lets be real here, I have my indi mechanic that has been servicing all of my BMW's for years and he told me "before" I bought my X that the transmissions fail... to make sure I really want to buy the "X"..

Also, another customer of mine who owns a car lot, told me the same thing, these are 2 people who dont know each other.

Now think about it, these people that their transmissions are going bad are not even on this board! so we may have a big problem here, just that not enough people are on boards like these to report them all....

my .02

EXACTLY. Again, anyone who insists there is not an issue that calls for BMW to provide a better remedy may need to reveal what his/her financial and/or emotional ties to BMW are. BMW has an issue on its hands with these X5 transmissions, and I find it appalling that they are placing a cost/benefit ethos above quality customer care when it is BMW that insisted the auto transmissions in the 2000-2008 were "maintenance-free" ... Transmissions on X5's seem to have failed before 150k miles due in part to BMW's insistence that the transmission fluid is a "lifetime" fluid. "Lifetime" may be legal jargon in some sense, BUT a REASONABLE PERSON would say the lifetime of a transmission in a $60k SAV should absolutely be greater than 150k miles.

[cmartin248]

Many times the transmission is repaired or replaced when the fix can be very simple. For the past few months my 4.4L X5 has been having a transmission problem. While driving it would suddenly down shift 1 to 2 gears and rev the engine to the point of backing off the accelerator. After searching the boards and using some logic, it did not appear to be a mechanical problem. The problem was electrical because it did not slip or act like a mechanical failure. I found a couple of articles where drivers had replaced the internal transmission wiring harness due to a short to the temperature sensor. The harness cost $250 and is way over priced. My thoughts were to find the short and repair the harness. After removing the pan, I found two temperature sensors. Both had a double push on spade connection. I took the sensor and stuck it into the spade connection, one side at a time. I found one of the connections was not tight at all, so I sprung the spade connection back tight and everything has been fine for several hundred miles, more than enough for the problem to occur again. Total cost was $25 for the fluid and about 2 hours work. Too many people have a transmission problem and simply drive it to the shop at the mercy of the mechanic. If the torque converter fails, why replace the transmission? If the clutches fail, why replace the TC? You guys act like the transmission is a magical box that only the magicians can fix.... I diagnose the problem make the repair and fix what's wrong. Wish all mechanics did that, but then it's not financial advantagious for them.

[Werewolf]

Originally Posted by willgabriel

EXACTLY. Again, anyone who insists there is not an issue that calls for BMW to provide a better remedy may need to reveal what his/her financial and/or emotional ties to BMW are. BMW has an issue on its hands with these X5 transmissions, and I find it appalling that they are placing a cost/benefit ethos above quality customer care when it is BMW that insisted the auto transmissions in the 2000-2008 were "maintenance-free" ... Transmissions on X5's seem to have failed before 150k miles due in part to BMW's insistence that the transmission fluid is a "lifetime" fluid. "Lifetime" may be legal jargon in some sense, BUT a REASONABLE PERSON would say the lifetime of a transmission in a $60k SAV should absolutely be greater than 150k miles.

What he said. The Germans are racing to the bottom on this. Wasn't that long ago I got 200k out of a MB tranny

[cheappc]

I believe cmartin as well, I noticed on my BMWs what I thought was something "HHUUGGGEEE" was something quite simple to fix!

Example 1, my cylinder 5 was misfiring on my e36, my car was shaking, it wouldnt go over 30 miles an hour, I was scared, I was like "oh crap" my motor is going out, then I read on the boards that it was a coil pack for cylinder 5, changed it, voila, my car ran like new! it was $115 total fix out the door.

The same thing for my door handle carrier on my X.

But let me be honest, im not that mechanically inclined to do what you said up there on the transmission, ill be up the creek if something like that happens to my transmission, I would be at the mercy of the mechanics around here... Any part of the transmission shouldnt fail

I have my 1986 Astro Cargo Van, with ** 24 years old **, 285,000 miles with the same transmission...

Im not BMW bashing I love my bimmers, but sadly its true....

[kally]

my car would reverse but was slipping and would require a lot of gas actually move.

i was hoping it was just and adjustment - i have since heard theres a part that wears and the car wont engage into reverse properly.

to see what the problem is they had to remove the trans and open it up to diagnose the problem.

when they did open it they noticed they needed to replace that reverse thingo and the internals of the box were in good condition that led them to check the torque converter and upon inspection they noticed that it had failed and that was what caused the oil contimination.

my torque converter failed.

they suggested replacing the torque converter with a factory bm unit as they cant get the recond ones to work properly (shuttering and general problems)

since the trans was taken apart i would assume theres certain gaskets etc that need replacing and because there was metal in the box i reckon new kit was put through it - i also took out a 3 year extended warranty for $275.

I used the same company bm uses because when i had a trans failure in a mazda 626 we had i used a little guy and the trans failed again he didnt cover it so for peice of mind i wanted to use a larger company this time.

[c4racer]

once the converter or clutches fail, you really need to rebuilt the entire thing. Once those metal shavings and burnt fluid are in there everything else gets messed up. But it is also true that the electronics are much more likely to fail than the mechanicals on these trannys. And many times a dealer doesn't want to diagnose the actual problem - anything related to transmission = replace the entire thing to them.

BTW - my neighbor had the trans go out at 140K miles on their 740iL. Wife drives it. From what I see she isn't too kind to the car. Still. They were not thrilled about it on such a premium car. And again - this problem with transmissions is not limited to BMW. The older 4 speeds in BMW's and MBZ's were much more reliable going past 200K easily. The newer 5,6,7 speeds seem to be more fragile, likely because of additional complexity. I've heard about just as many failed MBZ transmissions in the 2002+ models as with BMW's. Same thing with Jag and Audi for that matter.

[ncsucarjock]

Well, and the other issue I'll state here is...you've got to pay to play. Should BMW do something about transmissions that fail before 50k? Sure, I think so. Should they do something about transmissions that fail at 100k? Well, I'm not sure. Over 125k? Definitely not. If you want reliability, go by a damn Hyundai (used to be toyota...but...no more... or a Honda).

If you want a premium new German mobile, you'd better be prepared to maintain it. And though the old MB's and BMW's also lasted a long time, they have some pricey bits on them too. Maintaining and fixing one of these cars is going to be more expensive than your average Asian Appliance.

It really is your choice. So a tranny fails every 100k miles, so what? $6k to fix (presumably), that's one years worth of $500/month car payments. No way can I pay off a new X5 in one year at $500/month. Heck, I can't lease a decent one at $500/month, and then I'm *significantly* mileage limited.

Will I be happy when I have to do the tranny on the X? Probably not. Will I accept it as normal, and have money in the bank to pay for that? Yes. Is it cheaper than a new car? Yes. In order to get to where buying something newer to me makes sense, I will have to spend $8k/yr on the X for two years running. Then, and only then, can I justify the monthly payment, the increased insurance, the increased tax bill, and the hassle of finding another new vehicle that I want. The X might have some pricey things break. No doubt. But, once fixed, they're generally good for a long time after that. So even if you hit a bad streak, you've still got a long way to go before you hit 8k/year.

Just my thoughts...and I drove my 37k miles last year...