knklhead

Hi, everyone. Paying it forward!


I get so much info here, I wanted to go over my troubles with my beloved 525i with 140,000 miles on it. It rides as nice and any new car I have test driven, bu t who wants a new car payment?


The issue was, while coming to a normal stop, regular p, fooon brake pedal, the car would jerk hard when downshifiting, I am guessing gears 3-2 and 2-1. It was driving me nuts. It felt as if someone might be hitting me from the back end and it was very noticeable. t also drove me crazy that mechanics would say, "I think that's normal." ARGH. I might also note when backing out of my garage, slight downhill, I had to press the brakes much harder than I thought I should, not sure if that's related.


I took my car to an Auth'd BMW dealership in the State of NY (for now I will not say the dealership's name, as they've been very understanding. More on that later.) They said, no problem, we can fix that by dropping the pan, ensuring fluid levels are right and by definition, putting in a new filter (part of the pan?) and Transmission reset. I was specific when I asked (for this 2004 with 140,000 miles) "will this correct the problem?" Thinking, maybe I have to trade it in. Cheerfully the client specialist said, "Yes, this will work." Sadly, same issue the instant I got the car back. I took the head mechanic for a ride and he did acknowledge the problem. The services manager said he'd try to find me a deal on a third party that could rebuild my transmission. He suggested he'd offset further costs by $1400. We'll see. That's where forums like this are so valuable. I did a bunch of research on this issue and found quite a bit. This doesn't work, that doesn't work, this doesn't work -- but I found lengthy posts about solenoids and sleeves that looked promising.

Fast forward. After reading tons and tons of info on my specific transmission (I think it's a ZF GA6HP19z.) I decided to buy a solenoid kit and mechatronics adapter from CTSC from Klaus, who was awesome. (I have no relationship to Klaus or this company except one-time happy customer,.)

https://www.thectsc.com/products/sol...ft-36-115.html
and
https://www.thectsc.com/products/mec...p21-44-45.html.,

I asked around town and found a great (albeit extremely busy!) transmission shop called Buchholtz Transmission. Mark the owner is the nicest, most honest guy ever, and great/knowledgeable guys in the shop,. Any way, I told him we were in this together, I wanted to have him install these two PNs, I'll take the chance, but needed to wait quite a while for him to fit me in. (Understandable -- these guys have unlimited work!)

He finished my car this afternoon. Wow. No jerk,!!!! Smooth as silk! Downshifts are unnoticeable coming to a stop (the way they should be!). I hugged my wife when I got home, told her I now don't want to buy a new car (that she gave me the thumbs up to do!) Now, it could be new fluids, the reset, the solenoids or the mechatronics sleeve -- but this combination seemed to do the trick. And yes, could there be a further issue? Sure! But at least we know the transmission/hardware is fine! I hope this helps someone else out there. I found this info on an e39 post in another forum. (Mark, you are a great guy and the world is better because of you.)

"
So: Before you spend $5000 on a new transmission or a rebuild, this may work for you, too. I am looking for a credit or compensation from the Auth'd BMW shop for my $1400. They've been very good to me and I am confident they will do the right thing and possibly credit me.


I hope it helps others.

"The best car on the road? One that's paid for." - free advice

seanjordan20

That's great you got your car back on the road with the issue resolved. In this forum we have a lengthy thread just for this issue and how to correct it. I'm glad the zip kit worked. Some send there VB off to be professionally remaned and others just change the solenoids, sleeves and new filter with fluid. There's no right or wrong way.

The success story gives hope to others with the same issues. Thanks for posting.

knklhead

The 5-ers are very welcome. I know I have an older car than most and was hoping if I was specific about what I was feeling/seeing it would help. Example, I'm not sure that whether it's the solenoid kit, valve body, transmission reprogramming or other that the issue would be exactly the same? Any way, I want to thank all the other posts from other members on the forum regarding this topic.

Sirius815

If you decide to keep the car for a long time, be sure to do a fluid flush again in 50-80k miles. A few other things that can happen which are cheap to do while the transmission pan (filter) is out are the rubber sleeves above the mechatronics unit. If any of these have any cracking they can cause similar issues in the trans. They cost ~ <$40 parts and labor if the pan is already down so it's a no-brainer to go ahead and do them. Glad you got the trans fixed. I know we are when we did ours and the car is back to like-new!

bluechipBMW

I had solenoids replaced and new filter with fluid but it did not fix my problem. I'm on the fence on what to do next. I started looking into replacing the valve body or rebuilding it to as far as looking into a remanufactured transmission. I don't want to invest another $1k to find out it didn't fix the problem and should have invested in a remanufactured transmission.

Sirius815

BluechipBMW - When they did the solenoids on the valve body, did they also do the rubber pieces above the mechatronics? Also - what problem do you have and what codes are being shown, if any?

E60Japanese

I love reading these success posts.
It always seems to come down to the points you have mentioned.
Congratulations having your car working again.
Thanks for posting! It will help others wondering what to do as well

bluechipBMW

Sirius815 - That's a good question! I'm not sure if the rubber pieces were changed but I am almost sure they weren't. I will have to ask the mechanic. I have never gotten an error/codes. These are the issues I experience:
- slowing down and coming to a stop I feel a jolt.
- driving through side streets where I am barely doing 30 and coasting and when I start slowing down I sometimes feel the car shutter
- On the highway if I am slowing down and then push the gas to someone I feel the shutter/hesitation

Allo the above was definitely worse prior to the solenoids being replaced and in the winter they happen more frequent. I also noticed it also happens when I put the car in sport mode and I start driving more aggressive.

Sirius815

We had similar symptoms. Though I firmly belief that our fluid was the culprit, however because so many others have shown pictures of broken or deformed rubber, we chose to do them as well as any leak can affect the working pressures. Doing the work yourself isn't too bad. The new fluid makes it a bit pricey to do just over $140 depending on which brand fluid you choose.

Rana Tariq

You have done great job.

I will try to ask my garage pro to perform the same job you have mentioned and hopefully it will be fixed.


Will share the results from this fix to further strengthen the fixing the problem.