2005 e53 gearbox trouble.

[Stephen p]

Good afternoon folks. I have been having a bit of trouble with my gearbox. I noticed it was a bit lumpy on take off I mentioned it to my service guy who said it was the gearbox and should look at replacing it. Well I near shat my boxers.
I felt gutted that it might need replaced. I drove it on. Good sometimes but problem still occurred now and again. About 5 months this has been happening.
Today I got into the jeep. Started it up. Let her heat up a wee bit. Then put it into drive. Well what happens next scared the crap out of me.
Ran really lumpy. Then the rear wheels were stopping. I was still in 1st gear. Going very slow it felt like I was driving on oval wheels. Then all of a sudden she kicked into 2nd then 3rd. Went on for about quarter of a mile dead on. Got back home. Then had to do a 60 mile round trip. Done it very carefully. Got home and as I was slowing to park. It happened again.
Can any of you please shine any light in this. Head is now melted completely.
I'm in Belfast n.ire.

[X5Sport]

Your expert was probably right.  The best thing to do now is not drive it and see if anyone local can come out and do a fault code read, or can recover the car and do the same.  That code read will tell you what is wrong.

Gearbox rebuilds are not rare with this box - as a quick scan of the forum will unfortunately tell you.

If the codes record a bad box, then you are looking at upwards of £1,500 to rebuild, less if it's just the torque converter.  BMW dealers don't rebuild, just replace - and you really don't want to know the cost!

[Stephen p]

Thanks. Been reading through and I see it seems to be common. Now my head is just pickled.