i think bmw's policy is to just replace the trans, instead of repairing it.

personally i think the transmission slam has to do with the mechatronics, and more specifically the shift solenoids.
if you look at the valve body on the trans, there are a series of shift solenoids that move valves which control the transmission shifts by selecting which way the pressurized fluid flows, which in the end pressurizes the specific piston to activate the clutches for the specific gear. my guess is either the valves or more likely the electric solenoids become "sticky" either due to dirty fluid or the trans "learning" system is not computing properly.

 

I havent been monitoring this thread I started for quite a while but since someone pinged me with a question this morning I thought I would post an update. We are just shy of 190K absolutley no transmission troubles since the flush and reset of the adaptive controls. Transmission is smooth as silk. Planning on a drain and flush at 200K. Also no problems obviously with the Walmart Tranny fluid ! I think the problem occurs due to 'shock' when the oil is very dirty and then is swapped out with clean. Probably want to avoid that by drain and fill every 30K max. I think the advice of BMW that the fluid is lifetime or even 100K is horrible advice and has probably led to the purchase of more than one unneeded transmission.

 

Thanks for update. I'm looking to replace mine as well.

 

Just to add some indirect info: Volvo went to lifetime T-fluid some years back and spawned lots of good info on the Volvo sites, all of it supporting 30k or so fluid changes as optimum. Interestingly, in the actual Volvo manual, the T-fluid is called lifetime, except that if you tow a trailer, change it at 52k intervals. I wonder if BMW has any similar statement in Europe where they support trailer usage for BMW's (US is only market I know of that BMW does not rate the cars for towing). As a specific case, I changed the fluid on my wife's '07 Volvo XC70 when it was at 15k, since I planed on owning it for some years. The fluid was not much cleaner than the dark fluid in the early pics on this thread, due to initial break-in wear. I changed it again at 35k, and it was essentially clean. My conclusion from that test is that it would pay to do an early change to get rid of the break-in junk, and then go to a regular change interval like 30-50k. Ended up trading that Volvo on an '09 XC70 T6, so someone out there got a very well prepped used car .

 

I had this exact problem. Leaking trans pan. Took it to an indy to switch pan and put new fluid in. Trans started to slam. Took it to BMW for reset. Works perfect ever since. I'm also using the Castrol trans fluid.

04 545i 130k kms/80k miles

 

I cant believe the complete crap that comes out of the mouths of some of these Service Advisor's

According to BMW's own TIS here in the UK someting in the region 70% of all light bulbs replaced under warranty and returned to BMW to support the claim are found to be perfectly serviceable.
Left to their own devices they would have binned a perfectly good transmission and sent you the bill for its replacement.

 

According to BMW i Flensburg(Germany) lifetime gearbox oil for an E60/E61 is 120.000 Km
They will change it there, if the car is serviced by them.

 

Interesting post. I had a leak n got my pan n fluids replaced. A few days later the shifts started to slam and I now get intermittent transmission faults comin up on idrive. Will need to pay a dealer a visit for this reset n hope it cures it. I