Stuttering issue!! Gearbox/torque convertor or engine miss? Please help

[bbultman]

mine does the same thing....rpm throttle 'oscillation' like a misfire every 2 seconds. That's the torque converter locking/unlocking. The slight shudder under normal acceleration. I also have seen about a 0.5 mpg decrease. My transmission does all this plus it prematurely locks the TC under harder acceleration so I get this sudden rpm shift while accelerating hard. No codes. There is likely some pressure and solenoid issues in the valvebody causing some of this. I have resorted to installing a new transmission in the very near future. I have 143k miles and if I do the TC, likely sooner or later the trans will need replacement as well so I figure I'll do both now. My transmission shows none of the typical signs of wearing out.

i think you will find most people here will agree with me and likely have been in our shoes. it's unfortunately one of the most failed components on X5s and costly. Good luck.

[02x592]

My '02 4.4i has been doing the exact same thing for some time now. Hasn't gotten much worse. I've been told by a few people on here and elsewhere that it's the torque converter most likely. That and the transmission are original with 132K miles. It actually shifts perfectly and also shows no signs of wearing out.

I actually haven't noticed a real decrease in fuel mileage but then again, I don't keep that good of track to notice a .5-1 MPG drop.