X5 coming home tomorrow after gearbox re-con..

[ianst0028]

it's only happened once and the gearbox seems to be fine .... the solenoid is easy enough to change i'm just a little worried because i've read all the "changed my oil and the box went bang" stories
the only hope i'm clinging on to is that the 3.0 petrol engine doesnt seem to put the gearbox under as much strain as the higher torque engines (still half wish i'd got a v8 though)

[Smeeagain]

[quote="ianst0028"]
it's only happened once and the gearbox seems to be fine .... the solenoid is easy enough to change i'm just a little worried because i've read all the "changed my oil and the box went bang" stories
the only hope i'm clinging on to is that the 3.0 petrol engine doesnt seem to put the gearbox under as much strain as the higher torque engines (still half wish i'd got a v8 though)
[/quote]

Then don't change the oil if you are at all worried ......

[Smeeagain]

Would've thought being a specialist they could've upgraded the software for you bud?? Mine was done at the same time as the rebuild
[/quote]

I wondered that too

Smell

[X5Sport]

A1 Premier Transmissions who did mine had an arrangement with the local Bosch Specialists and took the car to them to be programmed.

[henrym3]

ianst0088 as far as I'm aware none of the V8's have the GM gearbox, they have the ZF. I have convinced myself that the "changed the oil and g/b went bang" bods just waited to long to do it and the box had got to a state where it was about to go bang anyway. I changed the oil and filter 30k ago and will do it again at 150k. I just don't get my head round the fact that nice new oil and filter destroyed my g/b. I know the theory of the old oil sealing things up but surely in one of these g/b's you want every tiny little passageway and solenoid as clean as possible and all the crap that will naturally come off the clutches with miles on them to be drained out.
There again other people think different :wall:

[grumpywurzel]

[quote="Smeeagain"]
[quote="jonnyivy"]
Yeah bud,... it's a facelift 3.0d sport,.... there's 140k on the clock, full service history but Birch says the gearbox oil was original ,..never changed,..black and contaminated.
The dreaded Lurch !!,...yup it had that too,..although its not nearly as bad now , its still there,...  he recons it needs a software update from BMW to sort that out >>> ??
[/quote]

Glad it is sort and while it is a shame that it then has to be taken somewhere else to have firmware/software updated, it is really interesting to note that a a gearbox rebuild does NOT get rid of the lurch. Many folk on here assume their gearbox is on the way out when they have the lurch and that is clearly not necessarily the case.

Thanks for sharing all your info

Smee
[/quote]

I had the lurch first, hand on heart I didn't speak to my anyone about it as it seemed to be an X5 glitch from reading on here. When my box lunched itself my gearbox guy did say the problem with the lurch could be-

1. Oil and/or filter change
2. Software update
3. Complete box rebuild due to an internal fault, obviously with my transmission errors I had to do the bloody expensive option,typical me.

Did the lurch have any impact on the box failure? Well my personal opinion is that it cant do the box any good having a jolt going through the drive train,  but that's my two pence worth. Others have had the lurch for years without issue.

I must of been lucky to find a specialist who could do the rebuild and updates!

[grumpywurzel]

[quote="henrym3"]
ianst0088 as far as I'm aware none of the V8's have the GM gearbox, they have the ZF. I have convinced myself that the "changed the oil and g/b went bang" bods just waited to long to do it and the box had got to a state where it was about to go bang anyway. I changed the oil and filter 30k ago and will do it again at 150k. I just don't get my head round the fact that nice new oil and filter destroyed my g/b. I know the theory of the old oil sealing things up but surely in one of these g/b's you want every tiny little passageway and solenoid as clean as possible and all the crap that will naturally come off the clutches with miles on them to be drained out.
There again other people think different :wall:
[/quote]

I think the issue is that the world believes the crap about gearboxes sealed for life, changing the oil on a box that has failing components like the clutches will make the symptoms worse but that's not the clean oils fault.

[henrym3]

I just want to ask How long do these g/b software upgrades go on for. Do you go and get one done when you get a hiccup from the g/b, at set intervals or what. How much do they cost and can anyone report a success story.

[X5Sport]

These updates are just patches to bring the firmware up to a newer state that changes one or other of the solenoid timing during the changeover sequence of a gear shift.  The ZF boxes have an overlap clutch timing sequence.  Patches typically take a few minutes to an hour to do and are part of a regular update pattern (at a Dealer) in the same way computer patches are issued but less often. 

I doubt there have been any new patches for the E53 in a few years now as it's not a current model.  Many cars did not have it done as it came out of the warranty period, or after the cars went out of the Main Dealer service network.  Or it may not have been done unless BMW Technical suggested it.

A main Dealer will charge an hour's labour at a guess.

I never had the lurch on mine, however it may have been patched without my knowledge, or the box digested itself and the rebuild had all the patches applied by Bosch as part of that.

[henrym3]

Thanks for that.

[themoog]

You can do a trans fluid and filter change for £110 at home easy.

[grumpywurzel]

[quote="themoog"]
You can do a trans fluid and filter change for £110 at home easy.
[/quote]

I used to do mine on other cars, along with most of the servicing (apart from brakes, never did like like doing my own but would do everyone else's?  Odd I know) Just haven't attempted anything on the X, odd n lazy now I guess.

Time is free, oil on the other hand is a tad expensive!

[IanP]

I changed the oil on my 4.6 at 70000 miles with no problems, The oil was in a pretty poor state at that point (obviously changed the filter at the same time). The 'lurch' improved slightly with this but never disappeared fully. I used to knock the box into Sport just before stopping which helped.

[ianst0028]

Comma list the gearbox oil and having spoken to their technical team they assure me that its fine to mix the 2 (because you can't drain the whole system)
But I'm slightly nervous about using their oil even though it's more than half the price of the dealer oil

[Smeeagain]

[quote="themoog"]
You can do a trans fluid and filter change for £110 at home easy.
[/quote]

Really? Specifically what brand of oil are you using?