carlos916

sup guys.. so ive been looking all over the forums and Internet and haven't found any other 530's with my tranny problem.. I'm aware of the surge, metronics issue and some what of a kick on the 545's but nothing particular to my model (2005 530i steptronic ZF transmission)

so my problem is that when I'm driving mostly while taking off from a stop i get a kick while the car is shifting gears, sometimes its a hard kick to were the car and rps jumps 1k to even almost of a slip .. and this happens while its engaging the next gear.. ive only had the car for about 3 months now.. (about 1 month total it was in the shop for other reasons) so really ive only been driving it for about 2months.. it currently has 65k miles.. and yes every time it has been in the shop i had made the problem known and documented at the dealership but like every time they just tell me that since the car isn't throwing out a code or light they cant really diagnose the problem.. also they have told me that they ran a scan, checked the fluid and level and nothing.. everything looks normal..

one day i took the car in for a brake fluid change and again i told my SA about the problem and like always he told me to try to reproduce the problem so that they can verify whats going on and actually know how to reproduce the problem..so once day i decided to drive the car and try to reproduce the problem (but the thing is that this kick happens randomly and almost at least 3 times a day with out me even trying to reproduce it) any way i tried and nothing would happen until i decided to try driving in manual mode .. and there it is i got the transmission to kick and its only doing it in and out of 3rd gear.. so manually i can make the kick happen but whats odd is that it does it while in auto or SD mode??

the day of the brake fluid change i told my SA that i was able to reproduce the problem so they had the shop Foreman come for a ride with me and i was able to show him the problem and he even felt the kick.. and after leaving the car there for a couple of hours.. i was called that the car was ready..so upon receiving my car my SA said they still couldn't find any thing and that it could be normal because of the combo of engine and tranny i have.. and this is were i raise the BS flag..

so my q's ..
does anybody have this kick?
is it normal?
could it be because of my engine and tranny combo?
ideas what it could be and what can i do to get this fixed with out paying for this?

any help will do and sorry for the long post!

Percy_991

Don't know if this will help, but its free; reset the tranny settings. Search the posts for this as its a simple process which takes less that 40 seconds.

Also, what sort of mileage she done? If she's been around the block a few times it might be worth getting a gearbox oil change.

Shlooky

There has been a huge amount of posts regarding this, the Mechatronics replacement (Transmission) seems to be the only way to fix it, but the cost is over $4K!!
Check this forum I just found today... http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=401524 There are 14 pages of complaints from people having the same issues as you and me. So yes this is a huge issue with E60's and may cost me $5K to fix these kick issues if a software upgrade doesn't fix this.

Percy_991

When I had transmission problems, the stealership initially changed the oil pan and replaced the gearbox oil. However, the Transmission Failure message was still displayed on the iDrive screen and the car was still in 'safe mode'. They then told me that I needed either a new mechatronics unit or new gearbox. Also, if a new mechatronics unit did not fix my problems, a new gearbox would be required.

Lets hope your software upgrade will fix this and it is not a deeper rooted issue.

carlos916

hey thanks for the reply.. i did see that post on bimmerfest.. and its funny cuz i left a post a while ago but no one really replyed to it lol.. but i did go to an indy shop and have them inspect and road test the car and ran a software update but my car has the current version for the tranny i have although they did tell me that my tranny oil was a bit dark for its milage 65k? and said that its recommended to get it changed although it might not solve the problem

yeah like i said above i had the software scanned but there is no update and i have the current one.. i do think its the matronics but the guy from the indy shop said that those with the matronics problem are mostly 545's and u can feel the problem (surge) while driving at 40mph.. he said that the rpm will jump a bit at that speed.. and also yeah ur right what if the matronics dont work..

im so tempted to go and trade in the car for another e60.. yeah i might lose like 4k but it would be about the same if i had to put in a tranny and had to pay for it or even if BMWNA went halfs with me lol

im going back to the dealership this week and going to have a talk to my SA and Service manager and hopefully we can work something out..

Percy_991

Good luck with this.

carlos916

update:
got back from the dealer earlier today and explained to my SA whats going on .. and he gave me the thumbs up to bring the car in 2 weeks so i can get inspected by a BMW NA rep so hopefully i can find out exactly whats going on.. one thing i kept pushing was the fact that i didn't want to pay for anything dealing with the transmission and my SA said not to worry since it was documented well when it was under warranty so there shouldn't be any problem with BMW replacing or fixing anything at no charge so cant wait and ill give an update when i do the drop off and recive any word!..

btw does anyone have like a video describing their transmission issue due to the metronics failure? thanks!

luigi524td

I reported finding a leak on driveway (under my car) and during next regular service the valve was repaired under warranty. There were no symptom or alerts prior to that.
BMW Automatic transmission issues have been well known for more than 15 years; moreso on V-8 models though.

Shlooky

I did update the software which was o=pretty old, so far so good with the A/T, no kicks or 5th gear anomalies.

Having said that. I am looking for a 6 speed model to replace mine.

k Wang

I have a 2005 545i and had the similar problem. The dealer found the problem and replaced the "Mechatronics unit". After that, the problem solved.