New Transmission £9698

[tj67]

Hi all,

a week ago i bought my first x5 2010 e70 30d (privately), the car came with 12 months mot, i love the car and it's been fine except on one occasion when it jolted between 1-2, so i thought i would get it serviced at the local BMW dealership and get them to just check the transmission with a diagnosis, and generally give the car the once over.

The following day after dropping it in i got a call from them telling me the car had a number of faults, but the worst was to come, i was told the transmission box needs replacing at a cost of £9698 all in, over £8000 of this being the cost of the ZF box.

How can it be that i need a gearbox when it seemed to be working fine ? This is a big dealership, i like to think they are telling me the truth.

I paid £11.5k for the car with 93k on the clock, i was happy with my car until i took it into them.

Not decided what to do yet, i live in rural area, hard for me to find somewhere to get recon fitted properly without half a week away from home/work.

Whats the chances of the transmission completely failing on me ?

Waking up is hard when you just got hit with a £10k bill.

[Rick G]

Take the car to an independent a BMW dealer will just rip you off. Here in Australia to reco a ZF26 would cost around $2000 plus installation time so around $3000 total in UK pounds no more than 2000 possibly a bit more as extra tax might come into the equation.

[marti]

I would ask for a print out of the faults....there are a few things that can make make the box operate incorrectly......get back to us with the results.

[tj67]

I would ask for a print out of the faults....there are a few things that can make make the box operate incorrectly......get back to us with the results.

I hope to see my car again this week sometime, i will ask for a print out and return here for further help, thanks for your advice.

[X5Sport]

BMW only replace and not repair.

You need to see what the printouts of the faults actually are, but they will almost certainly not need a new box.

You don’t say whereabouts you are, but there are firms who will recover your car, rebuild the gearbox and return it. That will typically be anything up to a month to complete, a recon swap out will be faster and cost about the same (~£2-3k).

Any comeback on the seller? I suspect that they knew exactly what was wrong and hence ditched the car sharpish!

[tj67]

BMW only replace and not repair.

You need to see what the printouts of the faults actually are, but they will almost certainly not need a new box.

You don’t say whereabouts you are, but there are firms who will recover your car, rebuild the gearbox and return it. That will typically be anything up to a month to complete, a recon swap out will be faster and cost about the same (~£2-3k).

Any comeback on the seller? I suspect that they knew exactly what was wrong and hence ditched the car sharpish!

I am in Herefordshire UK, close to the Welsh border.

The seller refutes the bmw claims and insists the car was sold as seen. I did test drive it for 20 miles or so, their was no problems. When i took it to the bmw dealer and the technician drove it around with me sat next to him, he said "it feels fine, but we will hook it up and do a diagnosis". That is why it came as a shock when they contacted me the next day with the "new gearbox required" news.

Thanks for your reply.

[X5Sport]

Private sellers can use the ‘sold as seen’ statement, unlike car dealers who can’t.

Definitely needs an independent view as BMW will say it needs replacing for anything they are not allowed to touch in the workshop. I had the same with my E53 several years back and (in my case it was toast) had the car recovered from the Deakership to a specialist near home who then fixed it, provided a 12-month warranty, and brought it back to me.

No idea on who might be in your area, worth looking at ZF UK website to see your local support. Mine was fixed in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire so not exactly on your doorstep

[marti]

It can even come down to a dodgy MAF.....which will give bad gear changes....

We await the fault print out.....

[Alan Gunn]

I would take it to an indi and get them to do a oil/filter change on the auto box.
Ask them to clear all the codes while the have it plugged in doing the box reset.
Then just drive it as normal and see how it goes.
Some codes could well be old ones that never got cleared so best to start again fresh if you know what i mean.
I am sure the indi will oblige you with a code scan after a week or two just to see what if any come back.

[Leslie]

Get it to someone who rebuilds boxes as spending 10k on a car that cost 11k doesn't make an sense and as for a private sale its game over and no comeback I'm afraid plus if it drove ok for 20 miles pre sale so surely there can't be that much wrong and if the 93k Is genuine it should have plenty of life left yet .

[tj67]

I would take it to an indi and get them to do a oil/filter change on the auto box.
Ask them to clear all the codes while the have it plugged in doing the box reset.
Then just drive it as normal and see how it goes.
Some codes could well be old ones that never got cleared so best to start again fresh if you know what i mean.
I am sure the indi will oblige you with a code scan after a week or two just to see what if any come back.

Thanks. I shall remember that.

Whilst i'm waiting for the return of my x5 i have been hunting down a reputable garage, i got a list from the zf uk website, i selected garages that do car auto transmissions, and was surprised to find 3 within a workable distance, one of them is a 30 minutes drive and right next to a train station, which is only a 30 mins direct train journey from my local train station, that could be handy.

I'll wait until i have the print out and report back here in a few days, then, thanks to you kind people, i may have some more information about my problem to take to an indi garage and be less susceptible to being fleeced by the main dealers.

[tj67]

Get it to someone who rebuilds boxes as spending 10k on a car that cost 11k doesn't make an sense and as for a private sale its game over and no comeback I'm afraid plus if it drove ok for 20 miles pre sale so surely there can't be that much wrong and if the 93k Is genuine it should have plenty of life left yet .

Thanks for your advice.

As we speak i dont have the money to pay £10k anyway, i have another car so it's not life or death thankfully. The car has genuine mileage as its been serviced at every interval through the main dealerships, so im ok on that one. And y es it did test drive fine, and then a 40 mile drive home fine as well, and another 40-50 miles since then, probably done over a 100 miles in those few days just driving around getting the feel of it, and only once i had the jolt from 1-2.

[Leslie]

If it only happened once Id be inclined to drive it a bit and see how it goes

[tj67]

Hello again......

I got my 30d back this morning, £3000 service (4 new tyres, 4 brake pads, usb nav update, cv joints, engine oil/filter, engine steam cleaned.....

I asked for the print out for the trans diagnosis, and was told they dont supply these as they are the property of BMW and of no use to non BMW techs.

On the paperwork the trans diagnosis just says transmission jumping gears, trans oil very dirty needs replacing.

When i dropped the car off last week and asked about trans fluid service they came out with the 'lifetime' line.

I have found a specialist near by who can do a full fluid change with pan/filter and sleeve.

My question is now this.

Should i get the fluid change and hope that it doesn't make things worse ? I don't mind trying this out to help the transmission perform better, but i don't want to go and make things worse. And if i should change it, should i do a x2 refill ? empty, fill,empty, fill ?

Cheers !!

[Alan Gunn]

I would get the fluid/filter changed and see but i think it will be ok.
Could well have been down to the tyres but well worth a g/box service.