Mechatronic Sealing Sleeve - Help

[ard]

Originally Posted by kuhllax24

To update the group (if anyone cares): I had a mechanic show up on Saturday to assist. He was able to disengage the parking brake, and then we called a tow. Supposedly he left the gear in neutral, but when the tow showed up (tow of shame, hah!), it was in park. The tow guy said that he could tow it from the rear wheels, and that since the car has a limited slip differential, it wouldn't screw up the xDrive. I'm pretty concerned about this b/c I don't know if the car had an LSD, and hope that nothing's wrong with the awd when I get this car back. If there is a problem, I'm going to have to duke it out with the tow guy..

Unbelievable.

So if your tranny or diff is toast, how do you plan to ‘duke it out’?!?!??

Hire an attorney and file a lawsuit?

Cause all they need to do is tell you to pound sand and ignore you. There is no ‘dad’ here that will say ‘Yeah, they ruined the trans. Pay him’.

They know that it will cost you THOUSANDS to just FILE a suit.

In this day and age, with the information available on a phone (or in your glove box) that people get into these situations.

Your diff may be ruined. It may be an expensive lesson.....

None of us like dealers at $130 an hour...but we have also learned that letting that fear drive you to $20 an hour mechanics can be a very bad sign. We’ve also learned to be cautious. In listening to to ‘experts’.... in prying apart a fitting....in how hard to turn a wrench..... all takes time.


Sorry.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by ard

We’ve also learned to be cautious. In listening to to ‘experts’.... in prying apart a fitting....in how hard to turn a wrench..... all takes time.

School of hard knocks unfortunately. I learned to be more gentle with the stupid mechatronics harness tab after it broke on my wagon.

Doesn't help your situation kuhlax24 but know we've all felt your pain working on a vehicle. Something seemingly simple turns into a major mission. Hope you're able to get it sorted with as little financial hit as possible but the condition of that harness locking ring has me skeptical.

[Mistercamp]

Guess I didn't address the connector. You could probably do more research and find what the actual connector pn is. Heard of people using the 8hp in classic cars, meaning some sort of retrofit with the harness. Hell, I would try to design and 3d print one first before taking in. But have a look here, maybe not the specific one you need but I bet you could find the proper connector with enough looking into it. These are just some of the first ones I saw although you would have to carefully repin the new connector. Also saw whole valve body/tcu assemblies for as low as 120 euro on de eBay.


https://m.aliexpress.com/item/328327...6682a41&is_c=Y


https://m.aliexpress.com/item/328953...bilesitedetail

[kuhllax24]

Hi guys,

I thought I'd give you an update.

After the tow of shame the car sat in the shop a few days until the BMW technician showed up to moonlight on the car. He suspected that I damaged the pins when I reinserted the harness connecting plug, so asked my permission to drop the transmission ($700). Giving the go ahead, he discovered that when I reinserted the plug back into the mechatronic sealing sleeve, I somehow pinched two pins together. This caused the system to short out. He was hopeful that I just blew a fuse, but unfortunately, I blew out the entire transmission computer/control unit. I don't know the exact name of the part and couldn't find it on RealOEM, so I'd be helpful if anyone helped me out.

Anyway, the cost to replace that computer with a new one and to program it is $1,400. So, I'm in $2,100 and will probably finish out at $3,000 in repair bills when this is all said-and-done (need to replace the harness too after I mangled the collar). I will note that I also have a misfire on cylinder 3 on account of not torquing a new spark plug perfectly that I'm going to have him fix, and I also changed out the valve-cover gasket and suspect I messed something up there as well. So, just the botch with the tranny-oil change will run me probably about $2,300.

This was an expensive lesson, and I'll summarize what I learned in my next post to save the next soul some headache. But ultimately, I don't know how I screwed this up so badly when there's a notch in the sleeve that you have to guide the harness connecting plug into, otherwise it won't go in. Obviously you guys weren't there to see how I made the mistake, but my wife was helping me and she still doesn't believe how I could do this either. But in essence, there was so little room to work with to guide the harness connector back in that I was already at a disadvantage.

[Cyrix2k]

That's the actual EGS which is just the German abbreviation for "Electronic Gearbox Control". Unfortunately you hit pretty much the worst case as the 8-speed EGS in the E70 cannot be replaced with a used one (I think there's one Russian that can do it if you send the EGS to them by mail). On RealOEM, it looks like it is not available separately and instead part of the mechatronics (computer + valve body) - part 24348687798

https://parts.bmwnorthwest.com/p/BMW...348687798.html

[ltemup4650]

I don't know why he would need to drop the entire trans to see the pins. Maybe you mean dropping the valve body. $700 to drop valve body is crazy expensive. $700 to drop entire trans is reasonable. Anyway, I have two spare mechatronics (used) for sale. Buy mine or another one and have it programmed to your X5. Going this route would be $400 or so. Here is an example of a programming service on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-F-Serie...EAAOSwLB5elpDX

Also, here is a service not on ebay but explains what needs done really well:
https://bimmerscan.com/products/bmw-...f-6hp-8hp-dct/

[Cyrix2k]

Originally Posted by ltemup4650

I don't know why he would need to drop the entire trans to see the pins. Maybe you mean dropping the valve body. Anyway, I have two spare mechatronics (used) for sale. Buy mine or another one and have it "virginized" and it will sync to your car when installed. Going this route would be $400 or so. Here is an example of a programming service on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-F-Serie...EAAOSwLB5elpDX

Also, here is a service not on ebay but explains what needs done really well:
https://bimmerscan.com/products/bmw-...f-6hp-8hp-dct/

Their wording is somewhat misleading, note that they do not virginize E70 8HP EGSs. I likely have the same tools they do and while I can do F-series 8HP and E70 6HP, the E70 8HP falls into a void

[ltemup4650]

You're right. The E70 8HP programming needs the key and CAS from the donor. That sucks. "NOTE: E-Series 8HP (E70/71/84) Requires original CAS and key or DME from donor."

Originally Posted by Cyrix2k

Their wording is somewhat misleading, note that they do not virginize E70 8HP EGSs. I likely have the same tools they do and while I can do F-series 8HP and E70 6HP, the E70 8HP falls into a void

[sgrice]

kuhllax24 - So sorry to hear. I agree that it is so tight up there (at least on the 6HP and have no reason to think its much different on the 8HP) that getting the connector in sideways and bending pins would seem nearly impossible - and yet it has been reported numerous times. This is the first one I've heard of where a module was consequently shorted out. In other cases I've read about people having to drop the mechatronic in order to straighten out the pins. But nothing worse than that - at least that I've heard of.

I know it doesn't make it any easier, but we've all made our share of mistakes along the way. All we can do is pick up the pieces, learn from the experience, and move forward.

Stephen

[SF2000x5]

I admire the great help I’m seeing in this post and other posts in the past, which is why I’m here. (Mostly lurking for info)

Anyway, I guess the lesson is choose your battles. You’ve mentioned you found the VCG replacement to be easier. So you’ve KD saved yourself a few hundred there that could offset the cost of this transmission work.

Only think I can recommend is find a good euro or BMW independent shop.

Best of luck and thanks for the updates. Most leave us in the dark after a couple posts.