Worked on a 97 528i yesterday that one of my customers had

[Bill R.]

bought at the dealers auction, he drove it away and it had transmisson problems, would jerk and not engage right away after coming to a stop and would not engage right away when cold... he ordered the filter and gasket kit from Patrick and i pulled both pans and there wasn't 3 quarts of atf fluid in this thing, some twit at some dealership had done a trans service and only filled it up to the filler plug with the engine off... and when it didn't shift right they shipped it off to the dealers auction to get rid of it.. So my customer ends up with a nicely equipped 528 with less than 100k miles on it for 7k

[western99]

there are some donkeys in this world!

bought at the dealers auction, he drove it away and it had transmisson problems, would jerk and not engage right away after coming to a stop and would not engage right away when cold... he ordered the filter and gasket kit from Patrick and i pulled both pans and there wasn't 3 quarts of atf fluid in this thing, some twit at some dealership had done a trans service and only filled it up to the filler plug with the engine off... and when it didn't shift right they shipped it off to the dealers auction to get rid of it.. So my customer ends up with a nicely equipped 528 with less than 100k miles on it for 7k

[JonE]

I'd like a deal like that on a nicely equipped, low mileage 328iC please!

[Kalevera]

I wonder what the long term implications of running the trans without enough fluid will be? Perhaps it was only for a few miles.

As if it needed to be said again, DEALERSHIPS SUCK!

best, whit

[Jr ///M5]

Good for your customer, at least he was smart enough to take it to you for a check first.

From all indications that I've been reading, the so called "Lifetime" fluid that is used in the newer 2000-up BMW's, is being changed by the owners at 60-70k miles, despite BMW's claim to wait till 100k. I know you've checked into the service procedure for the 323 and have considered changing the fluid in it. I've been finding out that the fluid can be found for considerably less than buying it from BMW. What do you think?

Jr

[emw525E34]

You know guys, long-life fluids and consumerables are good, provided other things don't go wrong with the car. Like in this case where, not enough was filled. There could be leaky seal and what nots. So it pays for the owner to check periodically. These cars are still made of moving parts, so things are not always what they seemed.

Hmm , the E39 528 is slugglish since it is really heavy. I prefer a E34 95 model which drives much like a smaller car and had a bit more space inside!.
I got a E34 Touring 95 with manual tranny which is better than both those sods!. Yes, the S5D 310Z tranny same as the E36 M3 3.0. Now I need a Euro M3 shifter to get the short-shift action.

[Bill R.]

cheaper? If its cheap enough i'll start changing mine every 20k

Good for your customer, at least he was smart enough to take it to you for a check first.

From all indications that I've been reading, the so called "Lifetime" fluid that is used in the newer 2000-up BMW's, is being changed by the owners at 60-70k miles, despite BMW's claim to wait till 100k. I know you've checked into the service procedure for the 323 and have considered changing the fluid in it. I've been finding out that the fluid can be found for considerably less than buying it from BMW. What do you think?

Jr

[Jr ///M5]

Take a look at this site and see if this helps us out. I haven't had a chance to call to find out more. The cheapest oil around is the VW stuff @ $13 a liter. It takes about 8 or 9 to do the 525. Don't we have the procedure on disc? Seems like I ran across it somewhere, and if I remember correctly, there were about 3 different temperature measurements that had to be taken before the transmission was considered full?

Anyway, here's the link....www.jie.com/oilref.htm

Jr