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My 550i ('08) transmission is FLARING?

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Old 12-01-2014, 02:29 PM
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My Ride: 2008 550i DINAN
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Default My 550i ('08) transmission is FLARING?

What does that mean? I noticed when the car is cold it will not shift out of second gear on its own but when it warms up it shifts out of second gear. Is that what it means?

the shift it does do is extremely hard, almost yanks a cup o coffee out of your hands, well kinda puts it more "into" your shirt.

Anyway, anyone ever heard of this?
Old 12-01-2014, 04:54 PM
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how many miles do you have on your car? When was the last fluid change?
Old 12-01-2014, 10:02 PM
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change the guibo first, its a rubber flex disk
Old 12-02-2014, 02:40 AM
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Originally Posted by cakes
how many miles do you have on your car? When was the last fluid change?
This. Service your transmission with a new pan and fluid, and reset adaptations.

Originally Posted by seven11
change the guibo first, its a rubber flex disk
A worn guibo is going to present itself in ALL gears, not just second. And it certainly isn't going to resolve itself once the car warms up.
Old 12-02-2014, 05:35 AM
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It has 92K miles. I have never changed the fluid but it's been topped off when it was discovered at 50K the "seal" of wires that goes in the side, I forget the name of it, was leaking and they (replaced it) at the dealer. The symptom was a 1-2 gear yank as my op said, but I have spent about 4 hours on the forum and see that the common fix is the adaptive reset. I sure hope my indy shop tried that before sending it to the transmission shop.

I'm checking with them, but at this point, the transmission is already dropped and its apart at the shop.

I think the car will also have to be reflashed with the Dinan software? Doesn't the EMC (or whatever it is) have to "re-recognize" the transmission and be reset and then the Dinan software flash again? I do realize the Dinan flash does not necessarily control the transmission changes, but it does do the engine mod... so just thinking out loud here. Any suggestions are open, I'm certainly no expert.
Old 12-02-2014, 07:51 AM
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Originally Posted by mancho
It has 92K miles. I have never changed the fluid but it's been topped off when it was discovered at 50K the "seal" of wires that goes in the side, I forget the name of it, was leaking and they (replaced it) at the dealer. The symptom was a 1-2 gear yank as my op said, but I have spent about 4 hours on the forum and see that the common fix is the adaptive reset. I sure hope my indy shop tried that before sending it to the transmission shop.

I'm checking with them, but at this point, the transmission is already dropped and its apart at the shop.

I think the car will also have to be reflashed with the Dinan software? Doesn't the EMC (or whatever it is) have to "re-recognize" the transmission and be reset and then the Dinan software flash again? I do realize the Dinan flash does not necessarily control the transmission changes, but it does do the engine mod... so just thinking out loud here. Any suggestions are open, I'm certainly no expert.
At 92K miles, you are well outside of when ZF recommends a full transmission service. The key to longevity when it comes to ZF's transmissions is to keep a steady supply of clean fluid circulating through it. What the dealer replaced is the Mechatronic sealing sleeve. They reused the old fluid, because BMW thinks Lifeguard6 is a 'lifetime' fluid. They couldn't be more wrong...it's scary that misinformation like that runs rampant at the dealer leve.

The transmission is dropped and apart?!?!?! What exactly are they doing?

Transmission operation is controlled by EGS, and the EGS control unit is integrated into the valve body assembly. The valve body is inside of the transmission casing.

The common first attempt is resetting adaptations. I'd say it's about a 50/50 shot that it's going to fix the problem, maybe less than that. At 92K, I won't be surprised if you have a hard failure in one of the Mechatronic components, as it seems to be the biggest achilles heel for ZF 6HPXX transmissions.

I'm no DINAN software expert, but I'm going to guess the flash has no affect on the EGS; I wouldn't worry about it.

I'd be very curious to know what exactly your transmission shop is doing. The only reason to fully remove the transmission from the car would be for a rebuild or replacement.
Old 12-02-2014, 12:50 PM
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Thanks KyleB for the awesome insights! Much appreciated. Wish my indy would of made me service it earlier, but he might be thinking don't change it until it has problems.

I bought an extended warranty and it was premium, everything covered except obvious wearables (thats not how the policy is written of course) and no deductible.

You're right on the sleeve, I am too lazy to pull my SM off the shelf because it's not digitized

I do NOT know actually what they are doing. They could just be dropping the pan, and maybe changing out a filter and testing....

But the warranty company is tough, they sent out an inspector (rightly fast I might add) and he tests drives it at the tranny shop and agrees.

So what they say, is the inspector could NOT find a visible external cause (as if I bottomed the car), anyway... so the tranny shop has to break down the tranny to show the inspector where the SINGLE POINT of failure is, and provide an estimate. you would think the insurance company has to bet on either replacing it, or having it repaired. I'll get 12 months of warranty on it before the fun runs out. $7 to $8K for a tranny vs $3,500 (my guesstimate).

What is slightly settling, is the fact my indy shop, who I have used (12 years +) since my '95 740il, and I trust w my life, he's that good... he states he sends "his" and customer cars there and never in 10 years have had any repair issues coming from them. Apparently the tranny shop only does Euro but thats hard to believe. They were so backed up it took the tranny shop 1.5 weeks to even get driving it and the claim opened.

What is not that relaxing is I did get concerned when reading the hyperbole on this site, is the 50/50 Tranny reset would fix the world. I asked my indy and he stated w no concerns, absolutely not, this is way beyond resetting adaptive settings. So I trust him and we move forward. My Indy is greek and is the best business man ever, I send anyone w any serious car issues to him.

Soooo on almost 2 months since I've seen it (it was in the body shop for 4 weeks while everyone including me was looking for a tiny bumper part, thats another thread)... and I miss it.

I had to go look up my car photos when I first bought it.... awwww dammit, I miss that crazy car! Its too fun not to own, even though it can be probamatic, thats why I did the extended warranty. They are a bit tired of me... who cares? LOL

When I bought the lease out last month, I got a tiny loan and the bank offered extended warranty through the same exact insurance company, and the cost of my CURRENT extended warranty WAS LIKE 10K for 24 months LOL the bank didn't even know the history of the car. I'm sure as the app hit the insurance co. they would be like, "uh no"...

Good news is I have almost every major thing replaced that was or did fail and I just have the $1,600 bar to do as soon as the leaking gets bad enough. Well, and the drivers lumbar bag leak, and the front motor knee seats, and it goes on... but I still love that damn car!


Mancho
Old 12-02-2014, 01:05 PM
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Around 120k miles (10 yrs old), I had an abnormal periodic shifting and then a slam start occurring when shifting down into 2nd and it started doing the same thing shifting down into 3rd only not as bad. Lifetime fluid doesn’t exist.
The shop replaced transmission pan and fluid, and the slam STILL existed. HOWEVER, after driving 300+ miles, the 2nd slam issue completely went away and soon after, the 3rd slam went away. All fixed because of a fluid change.
Old 12-02-2014, 01:31 PM
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Originally Posted by mancho
I asked my indy and he stated w no concerns, absolutely not, this is way beyond resetting adaptive settings.
based on what you describe, I tend to think the same thing. Resetting adaptations resolves minor complaints such as "I wish the car would hold second gear a little longer", etc. Slamming, slipping, etc are often indicators of a hard failure in some component of the gearbox, except in the cases of:

Originally Posted by jgbmw
Around 120k miles (10 yrs old), I had an abnormal periodic shifting and then a slam start occurring when shifting down into 2nd and it started doing the same thing shifting down into 3rd only not as bad. Lifetime fluid doesn’t exist.
The shop replaced transmission pan and fluid, and the slam STILL existed. HOWEVER, after driving 300+ miles, the 2nd slam issue completely went away and soon after, the 3rd slam went away. All fixed because of a fluid change.
When I worked for an independent BMW/MB specialist years ago, I was always amazed at how many major transmission problems we were able to resolve simply by replacing the filter and filling the gearbox with fresh fluid. In my opinion it's always the first thing to try before replacing hard parts in the transmission.

I bolded jg's one sentence to reinforce that there is NO SUCH THING as lifetime fluid, no matter what anyone at BMW says. Don't believe the hype!
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