Gear box issues?

[VolvoT5]

First thing in the morning pulling away the car will kind of 'clunk' into gear with quite a noticeable thud, but this only happens once?  In general the gear shifts are not that smooth and sometimes it feels like it is hanging onto a gear too long and is waiting too long to change up or down. 

All these issues seem worse when cold.

Any thoughts?

[grumpywurzel]

The thump is a common thing on the x5, called the lurch >:( . But you say your gear changes aren't smooth? Probably a good idea to get the gear oil flushed out, it's what I have been thinking of but have no idea of price. What are the gear changes like in sport and manual modes?

[X5Sport]

Sounds like an issue with the 'cold' program which will be what the box runs in until the oil hits the right temperature.  It changes the shift points and clutch overlap timings.

It might be worth getting the transmission error log read just in case.  That will then give you a pointer as to an oil/filter change or something more complex that needs investigating.

Not all 'errors' logged will trigger a warning light.

[fenj66]

mine has been doing similar, first start of the day. when changing up from 1st to second gear, a big thud into second gear. its done it ever since i had the gearbox oil changed and gearbox ecu updated, about 4 years ago. it s been doing it ever since. i have learnt to anticipate when the gear change is about to happen then come off the accelerator pedal just a bit, and it changes up much more smoothly. give it a go.  after driving for a couple of miles it always goes back to normal changes. im assuming when the gearbox oil gets warm whatever is wrong sorts itself out.
my scanner 1.4 doesn't show any gearbox errors incidentally.  :blink:

the lurch is something that happens when slowing down to a stop or near stop when the gearbox down changes harshly from 2nd to 1st.  mine has also done this all my ownership of 8 years. gear oil change made no difference...

[VolvoT5]

Yeah it does the cold 'thud' thing from 1st to 2nd.  Then by what others have said I think it has 'the lurch' too. 

Generally gear changes are smoother when fully up to temperature BUT still not as smooth as other auto cars I've driven (though I've not driven another X5 auto I have driven a 5 series of similar age).

Sometimes like I said it seems to hang onto the gears too long, like it is reluctant to shift upwards.

Car has around 100k on the clock.

[robsey29]

I had the same issue as you and just had the valve body rebuild it now drives like brand new, i tried a box oil change first did not make a blind bit of difference, the chap i use showed me all the parts replaced and they were all well past there sell by date best £450 i have spent.

[fenj66]

[quote="robsey29"]
I had the same issue as you and just had the valve body rebuild it now drives like brand new, i tried a box oil change first did not make a blind bit of difference, the chap i use showed me all the parts replaced and they were all well past there sell by date best £450 i have spent.
[/quote]

who did you use for the rebuild?

[VolvoT5]

Research seems to show quite a of X5s with gearbox issues which is quite shocking for a prestige brand really.

I've driven 20 year old 200k cars (on original autoboxes) that are smoother than the X5.

[Greydog]

For what it's worth I believe several Car manufacturers not just BMW now quote gearboxes as "sealed for life" and this is at the root of the problem.
We routinely change engine oil even brake fluids and coolant yet a gearbox manual or automatic gets ignored unless it's broken or failing, the boxes require lubrication and much more for the autobox and all lubricants degrade that is a simple fact. BMW state "sealed for life", yet ZF who make the box in my X5 advise service at 80k to 100k Kilometers not miles. The X had 70k on the clock when I got it first job was engine service and suspension bushes then gearbox service.

Moral of the story, well 2 really (1) Don't have a BMW without a Warranty (2) Don't believe the manufacturer as they know that problems wont normally show until after their responsibility is ended, 60k 3years in most cases.

[VolvoT5]

[quote="Greydog"]
For what it's worth I believe several Car manufacturers not just BMW now quote gearboxes as "sealed for life" and this is at the root of the problem.
We routinely change engine oil even brake fluids and coolant yet a gearbox manual or automatic gets ignored unless it's broken or failing, the boxes require lubrication and much more for the autobox and all lubricants degrade that is a simple fact. BMW state "sealed for life", yet ZF who make the box in my X5 advise service at 80k to 100k Kilometers not miles. The X had 70k on the clock when I got it first job was engine service and suspension bushes then gearbox service.

Moral of the story, well 2 really (1) Don't have a BMW without a Warranty (2) Don't believe the manufacturer as they know that problems wont normally show until after their responsibility is ended, 60k 3years in most cases.
[/quote]
Yes I do agree the sealed for life thing seems like nonsense..... unless you want or expect the life of a box to only be 80 to 100k... and I reckon most people would expect a box to last quite a bit longer than that, it isn't uncommon for modern cars to do 150 or even 200k+ miles on these days.

[Steamyrotter]

"sealed for life" in respect to BMW view is that the useful lifetime of the vehicle is 60k miles

So you look at £1 per mile of your initial investment........


Pretty appauling really

[X5Sport]

It wasn't BMWs fault.  Every car manufacturer who used those two box 'families' in 2 & AWD variants suffered problems.  They were made to a price and some engineering corners were cut.  The later Mk2 ZF 6 speed has proved much more reliable, as it seems has the 8-so to date.  There are still failures but the rate is much much lower.

The place that fixed mine specialised in ZF and he had examples of every on of the cars that used these boxes in his car park, and that was 7 years ago!

The annoying thing was for BMW to insist there was no problem despite losing a class action in the US and seeing hundreds of premature failures elsewhere in the world.

[VolvoT5]

Mine is the facelift model so pretty sure it has the 6 speeder?

[robsey29]

[quote="fenj66"]
[quote="robsey29"]
I had the same issue as you and just had the valve body rebuild it now drives like brand new, i tried a box oil change first did not make a blind bit of difference, the chap i use showed me all the parts replaced and they were all well past there sell by date best £450 i have spent.
[/quote]

who did you use for the rebuild?
[/quote]

A chap i know that has done gearboxes for 35 years but sold his business but still does things at home, he knows these boxes inside out and showed me a thing or too, basically most places will just go the full rebuild route as this is the safest route to cure the problem and they do not want a comeback but so i was told this is not always needed most of the time, he also did the same to someone elses x5 box with only a few parts needed on the valve body and this also drives like new. Not saying anybody wont need a full rebuild but if you get the right person that knows these boxes well its not always needed as is the case with mine and a friends done last month.

[X5Sport]

[quote="VolvoT5"]
Mine is the facelift model so pretty sure it has the 6 speeder?
[/quote]

It will be unless a 3.0i which retained the 5sp.