XSeries-forum

Hi Guys n Gals....Ho ho ho and all that.....
I was driving up quite a long and steep hill today and experienced power loss. It was partial loss but had my foot to the floor and it felt like 3rd gear.  Electrics not affected. Also over the last 6 months X5 very slow to get moving in the morning ie I put the car into drive but have to rev for about 5 seconds before any of the power transfers to the wheels. Other thing is I have noticed is a faint squealing noise (not the turbo before you take the pi**)when flooring it from low revs.  Apart from booking it in has anyone got any tips? Thanks... Ho ho ho
R :xmastongue:

if you have potential gearbox issues be a guinea pig for a new found cure thats curing slip in landrover gearboxes all over the world, literally, dr tranny of ebay £8 a tube, 2 x tubes added, its all over the disco and range rover forums some having done 50k trouble free miles since adding it!

Doesn't sound good.....Could be torque converter or one of the clutch packs.  An Indy with the right systems or a BMW Dealer will be able to read the fault codes.

Gearbox issues do not always bring up the warning on the dash - mine didn't - but drive loss was one of the symptoms I had as the hydraulic pressure failed and once that happens then the worm can lid is beginning to peel off.

Sorry.....

Richard

Thanks for the replies...
Strangely I took it down to my local mechanic who took it for a spin. We used the manual gear select option and all the gears were selecting fine. Basically the car has been behaving itself since the 2 episodes. Seeing as it was only playing up for a day it may just be an electrics glitch. I've got scanner 1.3 so will see if any new error codes pop up. Otherwise will pay nearest BMW Indie a visit. Anyone know any good ones in or near Bristol BTW?
Thanks again.
R

one of the best diagnostics to do is to confirm / monitor the gearbox pressure.

There is a tapping point on the LHS of the box just by the cooler pipe connections.
It is a M10 fine thread.
Connect a pressure gauge in there and monitor it for a bit.
Gauge will need to be able to go to 16Bar (236psi) as that is what the Pre facelift 3.0D boxes can give out..
(It will be the GM 5L40E box slightly modified by BMW)

On tick over in neutral expect 50-65psi
Reverse with foot on brake 125-175psi

Easiest way to confirm if gearbox pump is OK is to start car then unplug the gearbox electrics.
Plug is on the rear right of the box.
This will send it to "Trans Failsafe" mode.
With no power to the box it should lock it in 4th when in drive. (5th if vehicle was moving)
Also the pressure regulating valve opens fully and the box should put out full pressure.  Expect 180-230psi in this mode.

The major killing points in these boxes are worn valves - these can be replaced / modified, and any wear in the oil pump...  And i mean ANY wear.  as a little score under the impellor will cause recirulating flow and drop the overall pressure.

Don't forget to plug it all back in afterwards.
The error will clear but will remain in teh shadow memory in teh module, but will not affect driveability.

Dodgy batteries have also been linked to slipping boxes btw.
Might be an idea to change it if you don't know the pedigree as it is a reasonably cheap thing to try and will save you a lot of headaches later on.