Transmission issues summary

[740ilDuke]

That could be it! Unlock your cluster and you can monitor your voltage. When you have done this, turn the key to pos 1 and you can see your battery voltage at rest. GL!

[TiAgX5]

Or just drop $5 and pick this up. When I road trip I always have one in the vehicle. 1000th post!

[stunt]

Good news! I guess it must have been the battery being low. No issues going out for a bite to each for lunch. No error message, and smooth shifting into R and going through all the gears just fine, and I was able to manually select gears in sports mode.

I had no idea this transmission is so sensitive to voltage. The engine cranked over this morning with no signs that the battery was low.

[leifegil2007]

Hi ,hope u can help me ,have a 2002 x5 3.0 D , the transmission has been replaced at ca 180000km with the last owner ,it has now 220000 km , the problem is that now it has this : rrrrrrrrrrrr and vibration at 1400 rpm ,its the same if its in D or S , no other problems ,no slipping and no other sounds .
Hope u have a clue what this can be .

Ps : im from Norway ,so my english is not so good )

[bcredliner]

Check out post #1 of transmission related symptoms. Sounds like it might be a torque convertor issue.

[bcredliner]

It has been impossible for me to determine if all the transmission problems posted happen to all the transmissions or if some are more problematic than others. Further, I can't decipher what transmissions are prone to which particular problems.

One of the reasons I am interested, while I am not having any transmission problems, I am over 100,000mi on the original transmission. When I have transmission problems I would like to be able to consider any other compatible transmissions that would be more reliable and able to handle more torque than my original transmission. Thus far, my take is I would have to pay big bucks for an aftermarket improvement.

[bcredliner]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

It has been impossible for me to determine if all the transmission problems posted happen to all the transmissions or if some are more problematic than others. Further, I can't decipher what transmissions are prone to which particular problems.

One of the reasons I am interested, while I am not having any transmission problems, I am over 100,000mi on the original transmission. When I have transmission problems I would like to be able to consider any other compatible transmissions that would be more reliable and able to handle more torque than my original transmission. Thus far, my take is I would have to pay big bucks for an aftermarket improvement.

Can anyone answer the question of which transmissions are problematic, which are prone to what problems?

[srmmmm]

It appears to me the people with the most problems are those who number one: perform frequent fluid changes (possibly with the wrong fluid); number two: reprogram or modify their transmissions, and number three: misinterpret worn driveshaft splines or low vehicle voltage as a transmission problem. I think the units are quite reliable under normal driving conditions. However, due to the higher performance characteristics of the X5 itself, many of us take on a more "spirited" driving attitude, thus advancing the normal wear cycle of the driveline. I have 242,000 miles on my 3.0 with a build date of October 2002. The fluid has never been changed and I have done at least 15,000 miles of towing a 1300 pound PWC & trailer in Texas heat with no problems at all.

In past lives with GM turbo 350s, 400s, 200Rs, a fluid and filter change every 30,000 miles was the norm. But with newer synthetic fluids and the precision of electronic controls, the internal wear factors have been sharply reduced.

[TiAgX5]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

It has been impossible for me to determine if all the transmission problems posted happen to all the transmissions or if some are more problematic than others. Further, I can't decipher what transmissions are prone to which particular problems.

One of the reasons I am interested, while I am not having any transmission problems, I am over 100,000mi on the original transmission. When I have transmission problems I would like to be able to consider any other compatible transmissions that would be more reliable and able to handle more torque than my original transmission. Thus far, my take is I would have to pay big bucks for an aftermarket improvement.

Brian, I think we have the same trans (5HP24) except you have a slightly larger TC (due to the extra grunt of the 4.6). I did a fluid/filter change (3 drain/fill, new filter on last fill) at 100k miles. 173k miles now with no issues (even using the Castrol Multicar Import, some on here and B'forums stated failure would soon follow because of missing "friction modifiers"). Planning another series of drains/fills soon and will be checking the pan mags closely.

There's no such thing as a lubricant with infinite life (even syns) and I'm suspect of BMWs motivition in making such a claim at the EXACT time they began no charge sched maint. Even the maint sched provided with my X stated 100k fluid swaps, when I pointed it out to the Senior SA at a Florida BMW dealer it was dismissed a printing error. In the same breath he informed me that BMW translates trans lifetime as 100k miles.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

Can anyone answer the question of which transmissions are problematic, which are prone to what problems?

I don't think there is any consensus on that question. All of the automatics in the X5 (GM, ZF, 5 speed, 6 speed, 4.6 variant) have had some amount of failures. Those failures don't appear to have been related to wear out due to overheating or overloading most of the time, but rather sensors, actuators, and random failures that are not precipitated by distance or load. The exceptions to that would be the 4.6 torque converters, and the early diesels (the GM trans was under-spec'd in the first diesels). It is really difficult to engineer in reliability after the product has been designed and manufactured. It involves a long development and testing process; neither is practical for an owner. You can't improve base reliability by doing things that aren't related to the common failure modes, ie replacing the fluid. That particular one usually won't hurt, but it isn't likely to help.

I don't think it is practical to swap in a different automatic. You would give up the electronic integration most likely. You could swap in a manual, but that seems like a lot of work.

Personally, I would just work to reduce the risk to the minimum possible, within the constraints presented. That is why I recommend ZF fluid and OE filters, for example. They aren't necessarily that much better, but they are lower risk.