Gearbox Failure
 

Just over the weekend my dad's 4.6 came to a hault. He was driving along when he noticed a noise coming from the X. Then not long after that the X went into the trans fail safe mode which then wouldnt allow him to select gears or drive up an incline. So being that the vehicle is under warranty I had BMW assist come out and lift the X and transported to the dealership and upon inspection yesterday they have said that it needs a complete new gearbox, apparantly the trans oil was black and needed changed but on the last service at 50,000miles the dealership didnt do this. His 4.6 now has 55,000miles. Best thing about this is, I told BMW just before christmas that I though the gear change was hard on his 4.6 compared to mine, his also had the dreaded thump into gear every so often but of course BMW told me they checked everything and there was no problem, I guess another case of BMW thinking they know what's best!!.......NOT!!!! Anyway all I can say is, thank god he had extended his warranty, a possible lesson to be learned also is a gearbox oil change is something that SHOULD be done at around 40,000miles and to push your dealer to do it as it seems to be an over looked part of servicing the X.

Thanks for the tip Sudesh, I'll add that to my list.

Not sure if the 4.6 came with a manual or automatic transmission, but could you please specify which one you have? Thanks!

Also concerned about my tranny fluid.

-X5 3.0i automatic

Nice heads up!

So much for BMW's "Lifetime" fluid.

4.6's are all auto! Yeah I thought the same about the lifetime fluid after this happened.

Seems that it's a tricky situation with this lifetime fluid. Many of those that have replaced their trans fluid in their high mileage X5s have experienced failure within 10k miles; now here is your dad's X. Seems to me the best practice would be to change the fluid every 15-30k right from the beginning.

I have an '01 4.4 with 130k on it. I bought it with 35k four years ago. At 60 I asked the dealer about the Trans fluid and got the same answer. It's Liftime Fluid. I did not think about it much for a couple of years. Than I found this great site and wow, I was shocked at how many people are having problems with Trans Failure's. I just had the fluid and filter serviced. They put about 9qt's of fresh trans fluid. What a difference. I am now trading my 4.4 for an '03 4.6 with 57k and the first thing I will have done is the trans service.

Glad to hear your are changing the filter along with the fluid..something people usually neglect. It's worth dropping the pan to get this done.

Yea, if you're going to keep a vehicle in the long run, the ATF is not to be neglected. On BMWs, it's suggested by the enthusiasts that an ATF change be done every 30-50k. As for the automatics failing after the ATF, sometimes changing the ATF on a high mileage vehicle may do more harm than good. Then again, automatic transmissions are complex, unpredictable things that may or may not fail between 70k miles and 200k miles.

Buy a manual.