Well I rebuilt the trans today. Sorry no pics. Camera was dead. Thank you civd for the pointers. As was expected. The oring in the a drum was broken. The rest of trans looked great. I did replace the b hub axial bearing as it looked very worn. It wasn't broken but I could tell the race was very worn. Paper thin. I used Valvoline oil that specified for our trans. It was that at 6.00 vs Royal Purple 15.00 a quart. Used a total of 8 qrts. I did drain as much fluid out if the torque converter as I could. I can only assume there was still a qrt in there. I started at 7am and was done 7pm today with the help of and old friend. Thanks again for the pointers. It runs great. Time will only tell how well I did.

Excellent!!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Yeah, I run whatever universal stuff; started with Mobile, but did just a drain type change to Redline last year, which means I have some unknown resulting concoction in there now. :D I don't generally promote that idea when folks ask (like you did in an earlier post in this thread, bit i stayed quiet on that item). But, now you already pulled that trigger, thus my above comment.

Wow, when i think about it, I've put almost 30k mi on that trans I did coming up on 3 years ago, even though I didn't post about it for a few months after that. Your satisfaction with an economical weekend repair will not soon wane.

Congrats on the rebuild. Some serious DIY'ers on this forum.

Thanks man. Its gratifying to see it run correctly after its done, but my body is killing me today from all the straining I did.

Ok, so let me get this straight, you spent 12 hours wrestling with the transmission rebuild and then you throw in some generic fluid that Valvoline says is ok (but it doesn't meet the ZF specs or it would have said it meets them). "No bartender, I don't care what's in my drink, just pour in that equivalent stuff..." :confused:

I don't get it. ZF Lifeguard oil is available from online vendors (I got mine from the California Transmission Supply Company). Why put in generic oil after all that work? :dunno:

Per Valvoline, yes it actually does meet LT 71141 fluid specs. When I recieved the parts in the mail I started to analyze them. The biggest thing that I saw was the friction disks. They look exactly the same as any other friction plate out there. Why does it need ZF fluid?

After disassembly of the valve body I met the same conclusion. This valve body works like any other valve body aside from the solenoids being inside covered in oil all the time. Does the ZF fluid have certain additives to control the breakdown of the plastic?

After inspecting the drums and the respective friction plates I came to conclusion that using the ZF spec fluid was uncalled for. What part of the transmission is so different from any other that required ZF only fluid?

Do I want to wrestle that transmission again anytime soon? No but it was a great experience and I hope I can be a guide for some that are needing to rebuild the transmission.
Also it was not about the money either. I saved myself a whole fifty bucks. Not a big thing when looking at grand scheme of things.
Lastly I emptied out that trans of most of the old fluid. I say most because I couldn't get all of it out of the torque converter. I do believe what was left was a half quart to one full at most left in there. It was really my choice as to what fluid to put in there as I was starting fresh.

It's been a week since the rebuild and so far so good. I drove it Sunday all day in the hot Texas heat and it shifted better than before the breakdown. I gave it back to my wife that night and she has been driving it to school everyday and she even commented on how smooth the X feels.

Addiction, this is a topic that has been rehashed to death on here.

The following are all true statements:

You can't go wrong using the specific fluid called for by mfr.

A number of people have been quietly running whatever other fluid(s) he or she felt like running. For years.

You will likely never convince either camp to alter position (nor should you try, IMO).

At the end of the day, it's still a used car. Interesting, but not life altering.

Your absolutely right. I just want to give that person my thoughts behind it. I'm not a BMW engineer. They know why they chose that fluid and wouldn't argue it. I just chose to use that based upon my research.

my transmission makes noise when its at idle either in Rear or Drive...? just makes a weird noise like something is breaking. Should I be worried? I just put it in neutral on idle and the sound goes away for now. ride fine and shifts the same.

Been using Castrol Multi Import tranny fluid in my X5, ZF for years now. Never a problem.