E70 4.8 Transmission Issues

PhoenixM3 · #1 03-06-2007, 12:24 AM

I just wanted to post to see if anyone is sharing the transmission oddities that I am experiencing. I have about 1700mi on the car and the transmission seems to do odd things. I can feel downshifts when coming to a stop and sometimes when I am pulling into a parking spot the downshift makes the car jump. The most frustrating part is that the transmission seems to get confused and not respond very quickly and sometimes takes a bit long to upshift. I have taken the car to the dealership and they said it passed all the tests, but that does not mean the programming is the best. I drove an E53 and the transmission seems flawless. I love my X5 though. Just an early production issue I imagine.

X5FX · #2 03-06-2007, 12:34 AM

I experience the same issues on a 3.0...if you search "hesitation" in this forum you will find others with similar issues. What is your build date?

I think the issue is the trans is downshifting to 1st gear way too early or at odd times...I hope this can be fixed w/ a software update. I am witing to bring mine in when a hitch I have on order comes in. I'll report my experience.

Is there any way to see on the display what gear we are in while in automatic, I cant find an option to display this. This would help diagnose the issue.

btw- did you ask them to ride with you and experience the issues?

Blue Mountain Raider · #3 03-06-2007, 01:12 AM

man you would think that during testing the bmw engineers would discover this problem, grr...

PhoenixM3 · #4 03-12-2007, 01:56 AM

Just an update. My car has been at the dealership since Thursday and they have been going back and forth with BMW support and trying to get to the bottom of this. They have another round of tests to run tomorrow morning per BMW's suggestion. I have great confidence in the technicians at my dealership. If they can solve the issue, they will. I am guessing we will see a remap of the transmission software.

bsklar · #5 03-12-2007, 08:57 AM

My 4.8 also has the same issue. I got it back from the shop about a week ago and they claimed that it was all within spec. Service guy said several complaints of same issue. They were telling most folks that the adaptive transmission takes a while to learn driving habbits but mine has over 2000 miles and is still doing it. Particularly notcable on steady inclines. Will not shift t the next gear at the appropriate times.

PhoenixM3 · #6 03-12-2007, 09:44 AM

They told me that the first time too, but when I persisted a bit they moved forward and got BMW corporate involved. I have a feeling this issue may be moved up in priority as more people complain.

alex md · #7 03-12-2007, 06:29 PM

i had similar problems with my x5 4.4 2006. the issue was when i was slowing down and going from 4th to 3rd gear, the car would suddenly accelerate. another issue was that there was a delay from the start and very slow transmission up shift.they were trying to fix it...software but could not. two months later, the car started making weird rambling noises that authorized dealer tried to repair three times. after long discusssion with the dealer and BMW of North America, they are replacing my x5 4.4 2006 (7 month old 10, 000 miles) with a 2007 x5 4.8i. i just hope that this new car will be "bug free" and i will not have any more problems with the transmission. my wife and my daughter both have an x3 (2005) and the transmission is absolutely flawless.

thank you,
alex

ps iam glad to become a new member of this fascinating forum

CGSTL · #8 03-13-2007, 12:34 AM

:xoutpost:
You'll love this place!

Quote:

Originally Posted by alex md

i had similar problems with my x5 4.4 2006. the issue was when i was slowing down and going from 4th to 3rd gear, the car would suddenly accelerate. another issue was that there was a delay from the start and very slow transmission up shift.they were trying to fix it...software but could not. two months later, the car started making weird rambling noises that authorized dealer tried to repair three times. after long discusssion with the dealer and BMW of North America, they are replacing my x5 4.4 2006 (7 month old 10, 000 miles) with a 2007 x5 4.8i. i just hope that this new car will be "bug free" and i will not have any more problems with the transmission. my wife and my daughter both have an x3 (2005) and the transmission is absolutely flawless.

thank you,
alex

ps iam glad to become a new member of this fascinating forum

sfdoc · #9 04-16-2007, 12:13 AM

I talked to the service guy at the dealership. He was well aware of the problem. He states that the late 06/early07 models do experince this problem. According to him, this is a software problem related to the "hill shifting function" of the adaptive transmission. Apparently the software needs some "fine tuning"-whatever that means. I scheduled an appointment later this month to have the problem fixed. We'll see what happens. Anybody else come up with anything good yet?

UoweDucks · #10 04-18-2007, 04:18 PM

You can add me to the list for this problem. Now at 2000 miles still not shifting at right times. I see it most going up steep hills. I have the 3.0.

I have an appt scheduled... Any updates on this?