transmission oil and water mix, vibration...
 

Hi mates,

So here goes

I week ago my wife drove the car to work and back (~26km) and she called me saying the car is vibrating like hell when accelerating.

Next day i kept it at home and went to the shop being sure that the guibo is gone and also the center bearing.

The mechanic changed these parts but the problem didn't go away. When the look inside the expansion tank, i had the famous milk shake inside.

Tranmission oil cooler went bad. They found out also the driveshaft having a lot of wobbling so i changed that also.

They flushed everything, the gearbox 3-4 times with cheap ATF oil, remove the solenoids and drained everything inside, then filled it with BMW/ZF fluid.

The car still vibrates starting from 50km/h to 80km/h then it stops vibrating. Tried it on M1-M5 and it vibrates more in M3 than in M2 (as i felt it, but not sure too much, didn't have room to speed more )
This time the vibration comes from the center console (under the front seats).

So to recap:
- new driveshaft
- new guibo
- new driveshaft bearing
- new gearbox mounts (rubber ones, right and left side)

Now they said they couldn't get all the milkshake out , so i need to drive and maybe it will improve , and after one month or two to flush it again and change filter again.

From your experience, what am i looking at, another gearbox ? rebuild everything ? I'm guessing if this is the case, a scrap gearbox with filter and oil changed will do the job, maybe also change the solenoids. Rebuilding it from scratch including mechatronics will be very expensive.

Appreciate your inputs.. Could the vibration come from inside the gearbox ?

The car is BMW E60 LCI from 2008, N52 engine and 6HP19Z transmission and only 133000 kms

It doesn't take much water inside of a gearbox to destroy it, and once water is in there it doesn't take much distance to destroy it either - 20 miles is enough to do it.

I'd be surprised if the gearbox isn't damaged. the gearbox probably should have been removed, torque converter drained to get ALL of the contaminated fluid out immediately.

if you do decide to replace the gearbox with a good used unit, i'd swap your existing valve body into the replacement, and make sure that your VB is very, very clean.

good luck.

Thanks, i will send it tomorrow to the shop, i drove the car after came out from the other shop and i still vibrates but now it's consistent with "whole car vibration" not rear end or symptoms for damaged driveshaft or guibo.

From 70 miles /h and up it stops vibrating. Shifting is good, no judder, no clunks , nothing. One guy from St Louis who is specialized in AT told me on youtube that this might come from the torque converter if i don't have any clutches slipping on the gearbox. The gearbox doesn't have any error codes.

I agree, could very well be the torque converter, especially since you say shifting is normal over 70 mph.

Good luck.

Hi Kyle

Shifting is normal at any speed or gear. But over 70 mph the vibration goes away which leads me to think that gearbox doesn't have any problem. Anyway, it will be removed to inspect/remove TC and will see then.

This is note to self for every BMW owner: change oil coolers once you buy the car (i didn't know, being my first BMW), or else you will suffer :D

What do people suggest for the cooler mileage before replacement?

Same as the ATF replacement? 100000km?

I have 133k km (and had stealer extended service until 100k km) and it broke, but depends on what type of weather do you have. Here the car sits to 40+ degrees Celsius most of the time except for 2-3 months. So i suggest when hitting 100k km to do a major maintenance on the car and change aluminium things that can damage seriously other things.

On the other hand, i found out what my problem was: it seems that the guys at the first shop, while their manager left for vacation, tried my car to see if everything is fine after the oil flush & stuff, and probably they drift it into a sidewalk with right rear wheel.

So, i went to my mechanic and he found out that wheel was bent (not visible, just when you run it at 80km/h), rear right driveshaft was bent (not visible) and differential bearing was cracked, hence the vibration.

I changed everything: differential, driveshafts, main driveshaft, flex disc, center bearing, rear right low carrier arm (this one was also a little bit out of place, half finger compared to left side).

on top of that, the first shop mounted my wheels backwards...rotation of tire was to the back :|

now the car runs better than before... but the repairs got me broke, almost 5000$

So why isn't the shop paying for this, since they caused the problem? Also, sounds like you should be changing shop!

Because they tricked me very well when they handed me the car and signed for it they said: "please mate come after a month to reflush the gearbox oil, it might get better or not, we advise you to sell the car".

I was thinking that i still have some oil/water mix inside and maybe the torque converter would vibrate. But now i have 500kms with the new setup, i've reset the adaptation values and the gearbox switches gears just fine.

While thinking "western style" like me, it seems that here in ME continent things are a little behind with consumer protection ...

Still, very weird behavior from them, as my car is 2008 and only 133000 kms, i bought it in 2016 from the second owner at 93000kms and with BMW extended services enabled up to 100k kms.

Still loving it and i plan to keep it instead of trading it for a F10 and start all over again changing things just to be on the safe side.