XSeries-forum

Hi,

I've noticed when i come to a halt, the car seems to jump. Is that normal?

Also how can i tell when a gearbox is about to die?

E53 late 2005 3.0d sport auto.

You have just answered your own question I think.
Search the forum for posts on "The dreaded Lurch."
It's often described as a violent down change whilst cruising to a stop,  many say it is ok when cold, but when the gearbox oil gets up to temperature it happens. Some sellers only take the buyer on a short test drive so they don't experience it before they buy.
People have had the gearbox serviced and the latest software done, some say it improves things, others don't.
Have a read up and see if this is the same symptoms you are having. 

mine has had the lurch since ive owned it 5 years ago,
it was annoying at first but ive just got used to it now, ive had software updates and oil changed but it made no difference to mine.
apart from that its a good gearbox, im sure its not about to die just yet! 

I heard a soft reset usually does the trick.

1- Key in position 2 (before engine start)
2- Depress gas pedal all the way down and hold it for 40 seconds
3- Foot on brake and start engine.
4- Drive for two weeks for tranny to relearn driving style.

The jerking only happens when I stop at traffic lights/give way. However, i've noticed when i brake lightly and stop smoothly, the car dosnt jerk.

Anything else other than the procedure above that can remedy this issue?

I would just live with it if I were you. I have had a software update on mine but it still does it.
I have got into the habit of knocking it into sport when slowing down and then back into drive before I pull away again or just drive in sport all the time.

Wouldnt that consume more fuel (driving in sport)

Depends how you drive it.  In theory yes it will because it alters the change points and holds the revs to the red line (if needed), but you can use the Steptronic to change when you want.

Slowing down and starting from stop means it uses 1st gear instead of 2nd.

Richard

When I know I'm going to come to a stop such as approaching red lights I just knock the gear shift into neutral to avoid it lurching. 
Pressing the dsc deactivation button seams to stop the lurch happening also.

They are all like that, Sir

Very funny car

i think what you're talking about has nothing to do with the gear box, its to do with the dsc and/or brakes.

Mine did the dreaded lurch which I only noticed a little while after buying it. It showed 118k miles at the time. We changed the oil and it made it much much worse. I eventually paid top money for a proper warrantied recon, £2.5k and it's fine now but I suspect that had I not changed the oil I could have lived with it.

The gearbox specialist tells me it happens to most higher mileage X5's with that particular ZF box ( and a few other cars with the same box too.)

Wierd thing is it is also apparent in the GM 5l40E as fitted to an awful lot of cars...inc the early E53s

It's an issue across all sorts of automatic gearboxes.  One suggestion .i heard was that it may be due to the number of elements involved in each up or down shift.

I wonder if that is why the latest boxes have far fewer 'shift elements', just 2 on the 8-speed instead of up to 5 on earlier boxes?

Richard

the STUPID thing is that all this time i thought this was an issue with the traction control/brake system, although i knew my brakes worked perfectly.. i thought it was some electronic braking aid thingy..  :dead:

anyways its been there on mine from day 1 and i never bothered with it and its also got no better or worse.. hope i don't get to see gear wheels spread along the road pretty soon :crazy1: