Just from listening to the video, I heard 37100 miles, but now realize he was talking trip mileage. Paid attention and saw that the mileage on the car is 88k+. I figured it was still under warranty, but now I see the answer to my question :).

Damn man, I thought I put a lot of mileage on my vehicles. 25kish per year is pretty hardcore.

hotshark and spacegrey, you both mention the mass air flow sensor. I'm curious why a code wouldn't come up if the sensor was failing? I want to sound somewhat educated when having a conversation with my SA.

Thanks,
monto

For almost 2 years I made almost weekly trips to see my grandparents when their health started to deteriorate at around 250 miles RT. This coupled with a 68 mile RT commute to work over the same period led to the milage. Unfortunately my grandparents have since passed but have also changed jobs and moved to within 3 miles of the office. The short commute is almost to short to enjoy the X!

Cheers,
monto

Oh. I guess you are a BMW dealer only kind of person.

I thought a read of only a sampling of the threads on transmission issues would lead you to the conclusion that BMW dealerships are not trained to troubleshoot transmission failures...



There may be 30 issues that cause a 'transmission malfunction'... I'd want to make sure the two people who said "same thing, bad maf" are actually PRECISELY the "same thing"..not just that final warning, but everything the same...same codes or lack thereof..same diagnostics results...

Also, MAFs deteriorate over time- if it is fully dead, then you will get a code- but it is a known failure mode for mafs to partially 'go bad'. (Probably not know to BMW mechanics at dealerships....they are brainwashed into ''computer tells me what to do" and if there is no MAF code then the MAF must be good....)

A BMW dealer is the last people I'd have working on this....

GL

god I had a tranny rebuilt once. Never again. Rebuilt means old parts just the same (it was a '95, done 2 years ago). It wasn't cheap either. It died again shortly after with a different fault. I guess it's kind of like buying a used car.

New only or nothing.

ard,

Thanks for your posts. I'm not against taking it to an independent shop; I'll start looking in my area. On that note can anyone recommend a shop in the MA, NH, CT area?

Thanks everyone!
monto

Thats a good question, it may be sporadic, the dealer had my car for 3 weeks until they decided to change the MAS. I'm assuming it is'nt someting thats typically related to a tranny, so it is overlooked as causing a tranny problem. Personally I dont think there is anything mechaniclly wrong with you tranny, its probablly an simple electronic issue. IMO tranny malfunction means the tranny is not operating within specs.

1. All depends on who does the rebuild.

2. Afaik BMW only sells re-built trannies, not new.

3. Using the BMW rebuild/reman facility- with many new parts and core assemblies to choose from, ensures that you will get parts that meet spec. It is true that a local rebuild only has your case and your parts to use with the rebuild kit...

Just an interesting observation for the original poster. I sold a Volvo XC90, a really nice vehicle by the way, to a friend. Six months later, he got a transmission warning message. Dealer checked it out and told him it needed a new transmission for $7K or so. Thing was driving and shifting perfectly, and I felt really bad about it, but we decided since it was driving OK, he would just ignore the light and see what happened.

Two years later, the transmission fault light is still on and the XC90 drives and shifts perfectly. Clearly there was no significant problem with the transmission enough to warrant a new transmission.

you said his transmission was shifting perfectly.in the video his transmission doesn't upshift at all.not my idea of a perfect shifting transmission