Another Trans Fail Safe E53!

[brendy]

Hi Folks,
I have an e53 4.6is which has had the gearbox reconditioned last year following noise, loss of power and screeching, did I mention noise? It was a fully reconned affair by a reputable company in NI. recently it has been displaying random instances of Trans Fail Safe message, not starting with normal key (have to use spare) and also more recently again, a whirring on acceleration which has progressed into a slightly louder noise.

I dont think the noise is related , annoying, but unrelated as there is no loss in drive whenever the car does not display the TFS program error. when in TFS mode, moving the gear lever makes no difference and the dash does not display the correct gear/mode.

Any ideas? Ignition ring?

[X5Sport]

If it's going into TFS you will be locked in either 3rd or 5th (on the 6sp box), may be just third or fourth on te 5sp, with no other choices no matter what you do with the gearshifter.

What gear is the display actually showing when the warning has triggered?

Could be a bad key battery on the 'iffy' one, and the noises sound like your transmission is in trouble again. Could be the torque converter this time if it wasn't changed. Best get the fault codes read ASAP to see what comes up.

[brendy]

Shes a 5 speed, no indication of gear from memory, Ill check again next time. Without trying to sound stupid, is the battery in the key replaceable?
The torque convertor was burnt out in the last box and was replaced, it sounds like a slight rubbing noise but only happens under any sort of load, doesnt get much louder and seems to disappear in higher gears though road noise could mask that. Is there anything I can look for? (I am a car nut but dont tend to do much to the X5 myself, swapped turbos, exhausts systems , suspension and remapped my own wrx though so dont mind getting my hands dirty if need be)
Cheers.

[X5Sport]

Key fob battery is replaceable. A couple of folks have done it and saved a fortune, have a search around. BMW want £150 for new keys!

No idea about the box though. You can get a dealer or good Indy to read the error codes to see what shows up. My 6sp box ate itself 4 years ago and was replaced. That was the TC too but the damage was far more extensive as debris clobbered the guts of the box.

[brendy]

Cheers, will give the key a go, our box cost 3k to sort, the TC wasnt discovered be totally useless until after it was opened but to be honest I was braced for the worst anyway.
Any other things I can check myself? fluid level for the noise perhaps?

[gareth82]

Have you had the codes read yet? I am also in northern Ireland and if not to far away I could scan it for you. Whereabouts in NI are you?

[brendy]

Im in Bangor, I do have proscan etc and a cable, will be rechecking it tonight though when I get home, havent went near it in a couple of days.

[brendy]

Plugged in my cable the other night and cleared this fault but it does persist n eventually coming back after a day or two, sometimes less.

[X5Sport]

If memory serves correctly, I think the gearbox control computer module in your car is in a black plastic box right in the back right corner of the engine bay as you stand at the front of the car and partly covered by the microfilter and wiper trims. You will need to remove the end cover that sits just above it and then take the lid off. There are a couple of clips at the back of the lid that are easily broken so beware. Once the lid is off then you can check all the plugs etc are fully home. The ECU may be in the same box and it's possible the wires may have been disturbed if any work has been done in that area. On the 6sp box it's all inside the gearbox so the 5sp is easier to get at!!

[brendy]

A thousand thankyous! Ill have a looksie when I get home.

[maxxuk]

Hi Everyone,

Apologies in advance for the long post, but I have bene tearing my hear out over this for a while, and feel that I need to pass on some info I have gathered thus far, and am hoping to gain further information which I need to take the next step.

I too have a 2001 X5 4.4i with 91000 miles and, "out of the blue" am having problems with the transmission. I was trying to pull away at a traffic light and instead of moving forward, the engine just rev'd up for a moment before the gearbox shifted with a screech and a fairly hard kick (my wife commented "did you just spin the wheels..." with a grin on her face, while my kids on the other hand looked fairly startled).

Then after another short "slip" the dash showed "Transmission Failsafe Prog" and sat in 5th gear till I shut down/restarted the engine. We had to abandon the trip as it was too risky to continue with our 2 sons (one 5yo one 17 months) in the car.

I searched the forums and reset the gearbox logic (push down accelerator, key in position 2, hold for 40 seconds.....you know the drill), then reversed off my drive and still had the same issue- short slip or two, then transm ission failsafe (this is BTW why you guys feel it has lost power- it is sat in 5th gear and obviously does not pull properly that way at lower speeds- nothing to do with engine performance. This is only visible if selecting the manual shift where it indicates gears when the problem occurs; if it happens in Automatic, it is not visible I think.)

Ok, left car on drive for 2 days, then made appointment with local BMW dealer, and to my surprise the gears shifted fine for the first e.g. 3 miles, then the dreaded problem again. Dealer ran diagnostics and did not find anything wrong, nothing logged in the OBD logs. Checking transmission fluid they found it was a little low and "seemed a bit burned" so decided to top it up. A short test drive (I suspsect just around the block) followed and it was all fine (!).

After having the usual exit briefing with one of the sales guys, who told me there was no indication of a real problem, I drove the car home- ever so carefully, as I had doubts. Unfortunately I was right, again after a few miles the problem reoccured.

Booked the car back in with the dealer, and as it was a Saturday the engineer who had been working on my car 3 days before, had time to see me- in fact it was him approaching me. He told me the transmission was failing, and he could not understand why I had not been told when I picked up the car.

He also explained that BMW do not repair these "sealed" units and there were no official replacement parts available. I was given an estimate of £6400.- to replace the transmission. Sadness all around us.

I discussed the physics of transmission viscosity in relation to temperature with another BMW engineer who runs his own garage, and has been working with my parents' cars over the years (yes, we have a family history of using BMW as they have usually been very reliable). I explained what had happened, and that the problem only occurs when the transmission fluid warms up, which to me (I studied a few years of Technical Chemistry at Uni so have a basic understanding of physical chemistry) means that part of the problem is related to viscosity changes in the transmission fluid. I consequently concluded that a fluid change may at least improve the situation, however he warned me that the sensors in the transmission unit may get completely confused by this, as in the past he had transmissions with the same symptoms stalling completely (nothing moving anymore at all) after a transmission fluid change. Dead end.

He also explained that these failures are usually caused by an under-dimensioned e.g. too small capacity oil pump- assuming he knows what he is talking about, I am wondering if 1)BMW know of the extent of the problem, 2) BMW are in denial of the extent of the problem, 3)Someone has already started collecting evidence of the scale of this issue so BMW could potentially be confronted legally, and asked to accept at least part liability and replace transmissions at a greatly reduced cost, e.g. customer only paying for labour? For someone like us, a family of 5 on a single income (I am sure this is unfortunately quite common these days) this would restore some faith in owning a BMW as a safe, reliable, affordable car (petrol prices aside, we only use it for less than 5000 miles a year).

At the moment I am exploring repair or replacement under warranty- I have only bought the car from a dealer 5 months ago and have only done a careful 2000 miles since, and CAB and other consumer groups, and the BMW dealer, are telling me statutory law covers the transmission for at least 6 months in a second hand car, if no warranty was explicitly excluded as part of the sale, and the car was not inspected where the fault could have been diagnosed- where replacement through BMW seems the best, yet most expensive option.

I would therefore be really grateful if some of you could let me know where you had your transmission repaired (I live in Essex just within the M25), what it cost, and how long ago this was so I can get an idea of the life expectancy of a repair/recondition job.

Thanks very much in advance for any replies, input, feedback and info provided!

[X5Sport]

Mine was rebuilt by a ZF Specialist in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire in 2010 for £2,200 with a 12-month warranty. The repair was funded by Warranty Direct, and they chose the repairer (A1 Premier Transmissions). We quickly found issues with the box and it was decided that the rebuild was bad and they replaced the box and it's Mechatronics Unit (you don't have one in that year) under warranty. That cost was for replacing the Torque Converter, Oil Pump, Filter Assembly and fitting a 'Major Overhaul Kit' and 17.5 hours of labour.

There are a number of repairers around you - or at least a few have been mentioned by other members here.

BMW will supply a 'remanufactured' unit only as you have already found that they are not permitted to fix them - but want silly money to do it. I also believe that BMW are in denial about it, but that won't get you very far. Mine failed at 4 years and less than 42k miles, and BMW GB walked away. Others have had goodwill replacements with no problem. The repairer who did mine had a car park full of BMW cars with auto failures - most with the same boxes but to be fair he had a lot of other manufacturers cars too. Auto boxes are complex and statistically more prone to failure. Class Action has been started in the US over gearboxes issues with BMW, but they have different laws.

Longevity wise, I have no idea. We sold the car with nearly 56k on it last September and it had been fine. It will probably depend upon how good the rebuild or even the individual rebuilder is. I would expect a fully rebuilt box to be almost as good as a new one as all the damaged parts should have been replaced.

[maxxuk]

Thanks for the response X5Sport

I have inquired with 2 rebuilders and one (transmissionskent.com in Gravesend) quoted around £2200.- including a 12 month/12000 mile warranty, the other (idealengines.co.uk) ~£1500.- including 6 month warranty. After all I know now I would feel inclined to rather pay the extra £700.- to get at least 1 year's worth warranty hoping that if it failed it would do so within the year, and otherwise would hopefully be fine quite a bit longer than that.

One other thing made me wonder: There is talk about battery issues (and electrical issues in general) which may cause problems with the Transmission electronics- ultimately it is impossible (for me) to know if the clutch slips or the electronics get wrong data hence cause the transmission to stay idle rather than to engage when it should- for the lack of a better discription. Correct? Now, guess what- my battery, which was the original so 11 years old, died on me 2 weeks ago, and I had it replaced by Halfords (I would have preferred BMW but was stuck at a car park outside Halfords with wife and 2 sons in the car- would you believe it!). Coincidence? Probably.

[gchristofi]

sorry I have no substantial help on your gearbox issue but just wanted to let you know you should do a google search for "review Ideal engines".... http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews204329.html

[Steamyrotter]

Sorry to say that trans failsafe on the 5sp A5R390 (ie the GM 5l40E) are usually BAD with a capital bugger.

I know of what i speak...

There are many issues
Main is loss of fluid pressure in the system, could be from dodgy pistons in the clutch packs, dodgy seals (between bellhousing/ oil pump and the gearbox body) excess clearance in the oil pump, or wear in the valve body etc....
After my most recent exploits with my box (yes it is out again!) found a dodgy piston, but think that was my fault for air testing without replacing the snap ring properly..
Also excess wear in the oil pump and a worn AFL valve in the valve body.

If you are mad (like me) you can get the valve body overhauled and tested (now got 12months warranty on that part) oil pump re-machined to tolerance and then do vac & wet air tests.

One thing i have also found out thanks to a very helpful firm, is that there has been a batch of dodgy filters doing the rounds, where the gauze element becomes detatched and gets sucked up the filter port in effect starving the pump of oil. not good. (recommended to get one from stealer as they will be original quality..)
However you cannot tell these things unless you fit a pressure gauge/transmitter to the port on the LHS of the box (10mm fine tapping point) and know the drive current of the pressure solenoid.

Also if you can, have a look at the back of the torque convertor. you could see it through the little rubber bung on the RHS of the bell housing cover plate (if it's in the right position). If there are any heat marks on there it could be signs of the lock up clutch linings worn / detatching.

There is a LOT of info on the GM 5L40E on the web if you know where to look, and i have posted elsewhere a link to a copy of the rebuild manual.
What you need to understand is that this gearbox, (in certain forms) appears in many different cars. Cadillac, BMW (various models) and landrover/rangerovers (L332). I say in certain forms as BMW did actually change some of the clutch packs to a different design to uprate it to 390NM from the original 360.