No...I didn't need a new Transmission
07-25-2011, 07:36 AM
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I have been an owner of a 04 545 for the last 4 1/2 years. The car has been virtually flawless over this time, I have put nearly
135K miles on the car bringing the total to almost 175K, the only things I've done in the 4 1/2 years is brakes, sparkplugs,
filters, throttle body cleaning, filters etc. and last winter, a water pump. All of these I did myself in my driveway.
last winter I noticed a loss of about 1 mpg, historically I had averaged about 24.7 mpg on my 110 mi a day commutes.
By June I began to notice subtle irregularities in the shifting seemingly not having the 'pull' from a stop that I was used to, also shifts became rough. Pulling the splash guards off revealed what I expected.. a leaking pan gasket.
Here is one problem with not having a dipstick..you cant easily check the fluid level.
I loosened the fill plug with the car off and took a sample of the fluid...it looked really dirty, so I decided to replace the pan and fluid. Thanks to Amazon I had a pan in 2 days and I picked up 2 cases of Castrol Multi-vehicle Import ATF and a pump at Walmart.
drained and filled the transmission per proper procedure, drove the car to work the next day and noticed that the car would 'slam' or drop from 3rd to 1st gear every time when coming to a stop...I didn't panic... I knew I needed to do one more drain and fill to have most of the original oil out of there..I figured maybe the new wasn't mixing so well with the old. So I did that but the 'slam' remained as did a slip from starting out from a stop.
I did a little research online and found that a number of users have had the very same issue when changing the transmission fluid.
Solution : Reset the Transmissions Adaptive values.
I made an Appointment at Fairfax BMW, and brought the car in and explained the history to the service rep and let him know that
others had had this issue fixed with a transmission reset.
2.5hrs later he came out to find me and told me that they had run every test and there was no codes coming up.
The next step was to leave the car and they would take the pan off and start looking for mechanical issues.
He also questioned me regarding my fluid change procedures, how did I check the proper level etc....I could tell that they thought I had messed it up somehow.
I asked if they had reset the transmission and he stated that 'he thought so' I went online and copied down the procedure and asked him to give it to the mechanic and please do that before taking anything apart.
2hrs later the service rep came back out to tell me that they 'tried everything' but the transmission was slipping and therefore the only solution was to replace it. He confirmed that the Mechanic had tried reseting using the procedures I provided, but they had test drove it in the lot and confirmed it was slipping and therefore bad. He went on to explain that they recommended against changing the fluid because more times than not this was what happened...he explained how the 'dirt actually helps the old transmission work' and by flushing out the dirt I had killed the transmission.
I paid my diagnostic bill and drove the car out of the bay, by the time I got to the end of the block all the trouble with the 'slamming' and slipping had stopped. I have now driven the car about 250 miles with no issues the transmission feels like new, the car feels much more aggressive more like it is in sport mode now. The Reset had done the job but he dealer had not taken the time to verify.
Makes me wonder how many of these transmissions have been replaced needlessly. Also re-enforces my distrust of going to the dealer, not because I think they are crooked..but just because they don't always have the knowledge we expect. This was not an unknown issue..the solution was one of the first things that popped up on this site when searching 'Transmission'.. for the dealer to not be able to understand and resolve the true issue without my help is inexcusable. Especially so since I pointed him to the solution initially. Its why people are scared to own BMW's out of warranty.
I dont know what the solution to the dealer inadequacies is, but I post this here in hopes that others will find it and possibly save their wallets or perhaps their car from the junkyard.
Oh.. and my mileage is back up to precisely 24.7 so I feel like this may be one of the earliest detectors of needing a transmission flush.
135K miles on the car bringing the total to almost 175K, the only things I've done in the 4 1/2 years is brakes, sparkplugs,
filters, throttle body cleaning, filters etc. and last winter, a water pump. All of these I did myself in my driveway.
last winter I noticed a loss of about 1 mpg, historically I had averaged about 24.7 mpg on my 110 mi a day commutes.
By June I began to notice subtle irregularities in the shifting seemingly not having the 'pull' from a stop that I was used to, also shifts became rough. Pulling the splash guards off revealed what I expected.. a leaking pan gasket.
Here is one problem with not having a dipstick..you cant easily check the fluid level.
I loosened the fill plug with the car off and took a sample of the fluid...it looked really dirty, so I decided to replace the pan and fluid. Thanks to Amazon I had a pan in 2 days and I picked up 2 cases of Castrol Multi-vehicle Import ATF and a pump at Walmart.
drained and filled the transmission per proper procedure, drove the car to work the next day and noticed that the car would 'slam' or drop from 3rd to 1st gear every time when coming to a stop...I didn't panic... I knew I needed to do one more drain and fill to have most of the original oil out of there..I figured maybe the new wasn't mixing so well with the old. So I did that but the 'slam' remained as did a slip from starting out from a stop.
I did a little research online and found that a number of users have had the very same issue when changing the transmission fluid.
Solution : Reset the Transmissions Adaptive values.
I made an Appointment at Fairfax BMW, and brought the car in and explained the history to the service rep and let him know that
others had had this issue fixed with a transmission reset.
2.5hrs later he came out to find me and told me that they had run every test and there was no codes coming up.
The next step was to leave the car and they would take the pan off and start looking for mechanical issues.
He also questioned me regarding my fluid change procedures, how did I check the proper level etc....I could tell that they thought I had messed it up somehow.
I asked if they had reset the transmission and he stated that 'he thought so' I went online and copied down the procedure and asked him to give it to the mechanic and please do that before taking anything apart.
2hrs later the service rep came back out to tell me that they 'tried everything' but the transmission was slipping and therefore the only solution was to replace it. He confirmed that the Mechanic had tried reseting using the procedures I provided, but they had test drove it in the lot and confirmed it was slipping and therefore bad. He went on to explain that they recommended against changing the fluid because more times than not this was what happened...he explained how the 'dirt actually helps the old transmission work' and by flushing out the dirt I had killed the transmission.
I paid my diagnostic bill and drove the car out of the bay, by the time I got to the end of the block all the trouble with the 'slamming' and slipping had stopped. I have now driven the car about 250 miles with no issues the transmission feels like new, the car feels much more aggressive more like it is in sport mode now. The Reset had done the job but he dealer had not taken the time to verify.
Makes me wonder how many of these transmissions have been replaced needlessly. Also re-enforces my distrust of going to the dealer, not because I think they are crooked..but just because they don't always have the knowledge we expect. This was not an unknown issue..the solution was one of the first things that popped up on this site when searching 'Transmission'.. for the dealer to not be able to understand and resolve the true issue without my help is inexcusable. Especially so since I pointed him to the solution initially. Its why people are scared to own BMW's out of warranty.
I dont know what the solution to the dealer inadequacies is, but I post this here in hopes that others will find it and possibly save their wallets or perhaps their car from the junkyard.
Oh.. and my mileage is back up to precisely 24.7 so I feel like this may be one of the earliest detectors of needing a transmission flush.
07-25-2011, 08:49 AM
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Wow, great write up... I'm experiencing this same problem so I will try the transmission reset as you have done. Thanks for this.
07-25-2011, 09:01 AM
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Just for clarification...the "Step on the Pedal for 30 seconds" reset is NOT the same reset this one, that one did nothing for me..Though I could here the clicking noise in the trany. The adaptive values reset is done via the INPA software.
07-25-2011, 09:10 AM
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Need to find a local shop with INPA knowledge now.
On other note, what do you think of the Castrol ATF? I think you're the first person who used the Catrol fluid in his tranny that I read about. Please keep us posted on the fluid condition if you do ever decide to do a re-fill.
I do agree with you that just because the mechanics work for BMW, it does not mean that they are more knowledgeable. That's why I spent lots of my free time reading from various forums to learn more about my car just in case sonething goes wrong with my car.
On other note, what do you think of the Castrol ATF? I think you're the first person who used the Catrol fluid in his tranny that I read about. Please keep us posted on the fluid condition if you do ever decide to do a re-fill.
I do agree with you that just because the mechanics work for BMW, it does not mean that they are more knowledgeable. That's why I spent lots of my free time reading from various forums to learn more about my car just in case sonething goes wrong with my car.
07-25-2011, 09:15 AM
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I've not been a fan of BMW of Fairfax since stopping by there a few times and a few stories to include on from my brother and sister in law. I've always had them on my avoid list. BMW of Sterling doesn't seem too bad but they made my last appointment a huge cluster (all their fault), which caused me to lose some faith with them. Anyway, hopefully people see this, read it, and keep it in mind if they end up in a similar situation.
07-25-2011, 09:30 AM
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Regarding the Castrol... i was somewhat hesitant..but you know the GA6HP-26Z Transmission has been in use before the 545 was used in 540 I believe as well 745 and 740 maybe others.. I found a number of people that had used Castrol in the other cars. Also verified the Castrol Tech doc which stated it was compatible...but still you never know. I know they DON'T claim its lifetime...that is a joke. If you could have seen how bad the fluid looked when I drained it....from now on I will drain and fill at about 25K intervals hopefully that will avoid the 'shock' my transmission went into.
One other point of interest.. I did a inspection of the pan I removed..just a little bit of fine metal dust on the magnets..far less than
I saw when doing the same on my Dodge Truck. I don't think I would bother to change the pan out again unless we get to some VERY high mileage, of course the determining factor could be if the gasket breaks down and starts leaking as my original one did.
One other point of interest.. I did a inspection of the pan I removed..just a little bit of fine metal dust on the magnets..far less than
I saw when doing the same on my Dodge Truck. I don't think I would bother to change the pan out again unless we get to some VERY high mileage, of course the determining factor could be if the gasket breaks down and starts leaking as my original one did.
08-01-2011, 06:24 AM
#9
I have been an owner of a 04 545 for the last 4 1/2 years. The car has been virtually flawless over this time, I have put nearly
135K miles on the car bringing the total to almost 175K, the only things I've done in the 4 1/2 years is brakes, sparkplugs,
filters, throttle body cleaning, filters etc. and last winter, a water pump. All of these I did myself in my driveway.
last winter I noticed a loss of about 1 mpg, historically I had averaged about 24.7 mpg on my 110 mi a day commutes.
By June I began to notice subtle irregularities in the shifting seemingly not having the 'pull' from a stop that I was used to, also shifts became rough. Pulling the splash guards off revealed what I expected.. a leaking pan gasket.
Here is one problem with not having a dipstick..you cant easily check the fluid level.
I loosened the fill plug with the car off and took a sample of the fluid...it looked really dirty, so I decided to replace the pan and fluid. Thanks to Amazon I had a pan in 2 days and I picked up 2 cases of Castrol Multi-vehicle Import ATF and a pump at Walmart.
drained and filled the transmission per proper procedure, drove the car to work the next day and noticed that the car would 'slam' or drop from 3rd to 1st gear every time when coming to a stop...I didn't panic... I knew I needed to do one more drain and fill to have most of the original oil out of there..I figured maybe the new wasn't mixing so well with the old. So I did that but the 'slam' remained as did a slip from starting out from a stop.
I did a little research online and found that a number of users have had the very same issue when changing the transmission fluid.
Solution : Reset the Transmissions Adaptive values.
I made an Appointment at Fairfax BMW, and brought the car in and explained the history to the service rep and let him know that
others had had this issue fixed with a transmission reset.
2.5hrs later he came out to find me and told me that they had run every test and there was no codes coming up.
The next step was to leave the car and they would take the pan off and start looking for mechanical issues.
He also questioned me regarding my fluid change procedures, how did I check the proper level etc....I could tell that they thought I had messed it up somehow.
I asked if they had reset the transmission and he stated that 'he thought so' I went online and copied down the procedure and asked him to give it to the mechanic and please do that before taking anything apart.
2hrs later the service rep came back out to tell me that they 'tried everything' but the transmission was slipping and therefore the only solution was to replace it. He confirmed that the Mechanic had tried reseting using the procedures I provided, but they had test drove it in the lot and confirmed it was slipping and therefore bad. He went on to explain that they recommended against changing the fluid because more times than not this was what happened...he explained how the 'dirt actually helps the old transmission work' and by flushing out the dirt I had killed the transmission.
I paid my diagnostic bill and drove the car out of the bay, by the time I got to the end of the block all the trouble with the 'slamming' and slipping had stopped. I have now driven the car about 250 miles with no issues the transmission feels like new, the car feels much more aggressive more like it is in sport mode now. The Reset had done the job but he dealer had not taken the time to verify.
Makes me wonder how many of these transmissions have been replaced needlessly. Also re-enforces my distrust of going to the dealer, not because I think they are crooked..but just because they don't always have the knowledge we expect. This was not an unknown issue..the solution was one of the first things that popped up on this site when searching 'Transmission'.. for the dealer to not be able to understand and resolve the true issue without my help is inexcusable. Especially so since I pointed him to the solution initially. Its why people are scared to own BMW's out of warranty.
I dont know what the solution to the dealer inadequacies is, but I post this here in hopes that others will find it and possibly save their wallets or perhaps their car from the junkyard.
Oh.. and my mileage is back up to precisely 24.7 so I feel like this may be one of the earliest detectors of needing a transmission flush.
135K miles on the car bringing the total to almost 175K, the only things I've done in the 4 1/2 years is brakes, sparkplugs,
filters, throttle body cleaning, filters etc. and last winter, a water pump. All of these I did myself in my driveway.
last winter I noticed a loss of about 1 mpg, historically I had averaged about 24.7 mpg on my 110 mi a day commutes.
By June I began to notice subtle irregularities in the shifting seemingly not having the 'pull' from a stop that I was used to, also shifts became rough. Pulling the splash guards off revealed what I expected.. a leaking pan gasket.
Here is one problem with not having a dipstick..you cant easily check the fluid level.
I loosened the fill plug with the car off and took a sample of the fluid...it looked really dirty, so I decided to replace the pan and fluid. Thanks to Amazon I had a pan in 2 days and I picked up 2 cases of Castrol Multi-vehicle Import ATF and a pump at Walmart.
drained and filled the transmission per proper procedure, drove the car to work the next day and noticed that the car would 'slam' or drop from 3rd to 1st gear every time when coming to a stop...I didn't panic... I knew I needed to do one more drain and fill to have most of the original oil out of there..I figured maybe the new wasn't mixing so well with the old. So I did that but the 'slam' remained as did a slip from starting out from a stop.
I did a little research online and found that a number of users have had the very same issue when changing the transmission fluid.
Solution : Reset the Transmissions Adaptive values.
I made an Appointment at Fairfax BMW, and brought the car in and explained the history to the service rep and let him know that
others had had this issue fixed with a transmission reset.
2.5hrs later he came out to find me and told me that they had run every test and there was no codes coming up.
The next step was to leave the car and they would take the pan off and start looking for mechanical issues.
He also questioned me regarding my fluid change procedures, how did I check the proper level etc....I could tell that they thought I had messed it up somehow.
I asked if they had reset the transmission and he stated that 'he thought so' I went online and copied down the procedure and asked him to give it to the mechanic and please do that before taking anything apart.
2hrs later the service rep came back out to tell me that they 'tried everything' but the transmission was slipping and therefore the only solution was to replace it. He confirmed that the Mechanic had tried reseting using the procedures I provided, but they had test drove it in the lot and confirmed it was slipping and therefore bad. He went on to explain that they recommended against changing the fluid because more times than not this was what happened...he explained how the 'dirt actually helps the old transmission work' and by flushing out the dirt I had killed the transmission.
I paid my diagnostic bill and drove the car out of the bay, by the time I got to the end of the block all the trouble with the 'slamming' and slipping had stopped. I have now driven the car about 250 miles with no issues the transmission feels like new, the car feels much more aggressive more like it is in sport mode now. The Reset had done the job but he dealer had not taken the time to verify.
Makes me wonder how many of these transmissions have been replaced needlessly. Also re-enforces my distrust of going to the dealer, not because I think they are crooked..but just because they don't always have the knowledge we expect. This was not an unknown issue..the solution was one of the first things that popped up on this site when searching 'Transmission'.. for the dealer to not be able to understand and resolve the true issue without my help is inexcusable. Especially so since I pointed him to the solution initially. Its why people are scared to own BMW's out of warranty.
I dont know what the solution to the dealer inadequacies is, but I post this here in hopes that others will find it and possibly save their wallets or perhaps their car from the junkyard.
Oh.. and my mileage is back up to precisely 24.7 so I feel like this may be one of the earliest detectors of needing a transmission flush.
At any point did you get the transmission failsafe light come on?
08-01-2011, 08:08 AM
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was your old fluid much darker than mine? look here:
https://5series.net/forums/topic/115...id-comparison/
https://5series.net/forums/topic/115...id-comparison/