LOL, nothing better than "peace of mind".

 

After that, I bought a magnetic parts pan

 

I have a 08 528xi and have witnessed the trans fail safe mode twice. After the first fault and following this thread, i changed the oil and filter. Things felt a lot smoother, but unfortunately experienced the second fail save within a month of doing the work. I have 4F85 and 4F83 codes along with 2E30 and a DSC 5DEC. Are the fuel injection and DSC faults somehow related? Do you think doing the solenoids will save me are should I consider a rebuilt valvebody? I have really had no harsh shifting. In fact things feel quite smooth. I guess I'm in the club too....

 

Yep, you're in the club. those two first codes are ratio monitoring codes, i.e. you have slipping clutches. I think there are a couple of members here who have found a cheap, reliable source for fully rebuilt valve bodies. If that's the case, I'd probably go that route versus just replacing the shift solenoids. But definitely do something about it soon or you'll be buying a gearbox $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

good luck.

 

Thanks Kyle,

Do you know how I might track down those suppliers. My searches have put me to sleep.

Kerry

 

I called my local Indy BMW garage. You can also call http://www.thectsc.com and see if they have a name of local Indy garages who are set up w/ accounts.

Or try ZF directly and they'll give you the name of suppliers who sell ZF factory rebuilt valve bodies. The suppliers can then tell you which Indy garages have accounts in your area.

 

Thanks for the inspiring writeup Kyle! I have a few questions concerning the 6HP26 valve body/mechtronics unit. I'm getting the impression the TCU can not be separated and it must be specifically programmed to contain the VIN and Transmission Serial number. Without doing this, you will have a dead car. I've located a few places on the web that sell rebuilts (thanks to you guys!) but only one mentions requiring the VIN/Tran ser #. Can you shed some more light on what is going on here and if this is going to be a safe operation to attempt.

BTW - If any of you are interested, here are some great overviews of these transmissions:

Quick overview of some of the issues and thus my question:
http://www.furitech.com.au/index.php...-transmission/

P 71 discusses some of the flashing issues
http://www.ukrtrans.biz/files/2012/1...ineBUS_eng.pdf

Great overview of the tranny from a software perspective (sorry its not a Beemer, close enough for gov work )
http://www.europeantransmissions.com.../6hp_trans.pdf

 

You should most definitely be able to remove EGS (aka TCM) from the valve body block itself. Here's a thread from another forum where solenoids were changed on a 6HP26 valve body. Hope this helps.

How to: ZF 6HP26 Mechatronics Solenoid Replacement / Valve body removal - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

 

Thanks for your response Kyle. I went thru all the posts and no mention of it. As you said most, were replacing the solenoids. One guys chimed in and said don't make the mistake I made, replace both the noids and valve body.

These guys are offering the complete setup, I'm assuming so they can calibrate everything in the factory.

http://europeantransmissionscom.x-sh...roductid=16350

My hunch is that the following should occur in a best world scenario:

1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Mechatronic version should be matched with the TCU - however, this still doesn't get you 100%. (that is, if you do not perform step 2, otherwise if you perform step 2 it wouldn't matter, because step 2 will handle this issue)

2 BEST SOLUTION. TCU software should be calibrated on the bench, (or in the car on the lift) to the valve body/solenoids that have been matched up because each combination will have a different electro/mechanical response. My guess in what is occurring is the solenoids have slightly different electrical characteristics (and mechanical) and the valve bodies have slightly different mechanical characteristics (pressures). Therefore to get them correct, you much bench calibrate them before driving the car and once this is done you can then allow the adaptive software to polish the final calibration. (sorry my lingo is probably not correct, but hopefully this gets the point across)

The reason I think step 2 may be important is from the slides here: http://www.ukrtrans.biz/files/2012/1...ineBUS_eng.pdf P 72. where he says Tuning the Mechatronic is paramount and 'basic' settings must be performed or there will be drivability issues. I'm guessing when he says 'basic' settings he is referring to step 2 above.

Another hunch is that in today's world, since manufacturing techniques have gotten so precise, a lot of people are probably able to get by without going thru step 2 because manufacturing tolerances are so tight.

Of course all of this is just a guess, and I presented my hunches in hopes for getting a better explanation of these issues

BTW: Here is a video of the bench testing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tri...ature=youtu.be

 

You can definintely separate EGS from the valve block on a 6HP26. I know it's a time lapse video that I posted, but if you look at the 2:09 mark you can see where he has the EGS removed from the valve body, the valve body is in the center of the screen and you can see the black EGS at the upper left corner.

Best solution in my opinion is to buy a rebuilt valve body and swap your EGS onto the new one. No coding required if you do it that way, just reset adaptations and go