I've been busy 

You need to fill up with the screw off until water comes out.

You version didn't make this clear.

Alot of poor info dished out here. Take the bleed screw off, start the engine with heater on low fan and to the face. Fill the expansion tank until fluid comes out of the bleed screw hole, screw the bleed screw on by only one turn and wait for the bubbles to disappear then tighten down the bleed ...

Armchair auto mechanics/engineers. Gotta love them.

[quote="Spartanx5"] If you have the knowledge of a system and equipment you should be able to find to ANY problem, as an engineer I find I prefer people to give me as little info on faults as possible so I can look for them whilst checking the whole system is doing what it's supposed to, I know you ...

[quote="X5 West Midlands"] MMMM Some interesting replies here - thankyou guys. I will hunt out a couple of these garages to get my Gearbox Oil service done next week..... I'm wondering If I could actually make a damned good living repairing & servicing E53 gear boxes alone from what I've read here ...

Just leave it. It's quite rare to seem them coked up that badly like you see on online pictures.

It won't do any harm cleaning it though and you won't trigger anything.

[quote="X5Sport"] From my then local BMW Dealer, who has now gone, in Milton Keynes. Their quote when my box broke was £7k for the box plus £3k for the Mechatronics Unit inc fitting + vat. A1 Premier Transmissions did it for £2.2k plus £1500 for the new MU inc fitting, coding and VAT. Richard [/q ...

Could be the transfer motor gear.

I need some codes...

Where abouts are you getting the prices for these BMW bits?

That solenoid customer was quoted £1700 for the Mechatronics from BMW ? It wasn't over 3k?

Correct.

[quote="X5Sport"] [quote="moar"] Automatic transmission issues are quite rare, if we did start rebuilding the amount of equipment required would be crazy along with the very specialist training required. It's not a feasible business proposition that would never pay off. [/quote] They're what!! Rare ...

For the sake of 4 bolts just take it out and let the mess go into a tub or cleaner.

You an also clean the "boost solenoid" on these cars but they're actually called the pressure converter solenoids. I have had to replace in the past due to the filter getting clogged in the past.

[quote="Steamyrotter"] [quote="moar"] Sadly once we confirmed it was the solenoids his old ones went back in and I assume he was quoted a brand new mech unit or transmission. [/quote] Although that doesn't surprise me it just goes to show the contempt some dealers have for their "customers".. If it ...

You're not fitting one of those bypass EGRs are you?

New Aux fan time if fuse is ok.