Trany shifting delay after my X5 parked overnight
 

I am experience a trany shifting delay after my X5 parked overnight or during the day when I get out from work. It’s just does not engage when I switch the gear do D and press the accelerator pedal for 5 seconds or so. It is not jerking or making any noises. It only happens when my car parked over long period of time. It is fine when I switch the gear to reverse to back it up but as soon as I switch the gear to D I feel that delay.
I tried to park my car front end first so I don’t need to switch the gear to reverse and I feel the same way. It is not engaging right away.
I was thinking maybe there is not enough pressure because it is low on Trany fluid.
It was properly checked and fluid level was fine. Besides that the trany is fine, shifts smooth without any hesitation.
Could you please tell me what I should do to get it resolve?

Could be a sticking solenoid.

I had the same problem in my 3.0i. I changed my transmission fluid and filter and the issue went away. Prior to the full fluid and filter change, I flushed the transmission fluid only and the problem did not go away. did the change at 129k miles.

Do you remeber what filter brand and fluid brand did you use to fix the issue with the trany shift delay?

yep. I used this filter: Filter and this fluid: Fluid

The fluid spec (Texaco ETL7045 or Texaco ETL8072 B, I forget which) is listed in the Bentley manual and is met by the redline fluid. This is for the 3.0i engine only, so if you have a V8, the fluid is different. It would probably be a good idea to go with OE fluid, but I already had the redline stuff and it meets the same spec, so I went with it. Haven't had any issues so far. With the filter, there were 3 orange o-ring kind of things on the new one whereas the old one only had one. I had to take one of them off the new filter to get it to fit.

You'll also need some sort of suction gun or similar device to put fluid back in the the transmission through the fill plug. There's no way to just pour it in. something similar to this: Suction gun. Your local auto store should have one.

How old is your battery? Have you ever had it load tested. I have seen many an E38 trans act funny or go into failsafe when the voltage is to low.

And a failing battery will often first show it's true colors the longer it is left between charges fro the Alt.

Might want to check that just to be safe

my 0.02

My battery is pretty new but tends to get a bit low on voltage when the car sits for a couple weeks or more. That said, my issue seemed to be more temperature related than anything else. I did get the trans failsafe, which was due to the car sitting around for a while. I had the shifting issue prior to that though.

I am the lucky winner of an X5 that does this. I'va only had the car since last weekend, I bought it from a local stealership. Clean Carfax, only 66k miles, cherry. Of course, my
only test drives were after the dealers had started it and driven it, so I was getting the car already warm each time.

The first day after I bought it, I pulled out of my driveway and put it in drive, and the engine just spun up like I was in neutral....I figured as a newbie owner I didn't shift it all the way or something, so popped it back into park then drive again and it took off. I spent a good chunk of the rest of the day trying to reproduce it, and failed, so I thought all was well until the next morning when it did it again, and I knew something was up.

After researching the forums, I found the BMW TSB on it that my tranny is out of spec and needs between 5 and 30 seconds to pressurize on first use daily. It could have been fixed under warranty if the previous owners had caught it in time. I am sure the stealership knew of the problem, they probably figured the trans was starting to go, which explains the good deal I got. They took my first offer, lol

Anyway, now that I know what I am dealing with, it's all good. I just start the car, step on the brake and drop it into drive, and wait for about 30 seconds (fiddle with my radio, check my phone, etc) and THEN reverse out of my garage and go on my way. I really love the X5! Maybe down the road I'll swap out the tranny but for now it's not a big deal.

You bought it from a dealer less than 72 hours ago and the transmission is cooked, and you're not standing in front of the dealer principal right now - instead you're posting online?!?

Get up in their grill, man! Driving around the problem will be a very very short term solution, until you're no longer driving AT ALL!

Car was sold "as-is", so other than giving them some snarky reviews on social media, there is no recourse. No lemon law in my state, so caveat emptor and all that. I had my indy mechanic go over it and he doesn't feel the trans issue will degrade with time, it's more of a quirk. BMW even tried to spin it as a "feature" to get out of fixing it back in 2003, lol! So my indy suggests waiting until 120k or so and revisit the issue then talk about possibly swapping it out.

In the future, I'll only buy a car like this from a member of the flock with a stack of receipts and documented history. Buying from a stealership (and a non-BMW stealership at that) was a foolish thing to do.