E46 touring

[Bill R.]

My wife's e46 touring that i purposely sought out with the ZF steptronic trans decided to spit part of its little guts out at 68k miles....Thinking the zf was a better choice than the GM strassbourg.
My mistake. Cheapest zf factory rebuild i found was 3100 so it looks like i'll be doing it myself

[shogun]

easy for you, Bill.
I like transmission repairs, especially valve bodies.
We usually do it with 3-4 wrenching buddies.

[John B.]

Sorry to hear about it. Pretty pathetic service life for any auto tranny, especially one in an expensive German car. BMW's motorcycle trannys have been mediocre for decades & I believe those come from ZF also. The French GM automatic in my 95 Touring is still going strong at 154K knock on wood.

[Tiger]

I think it all depends on what type of driving... but 68K miles shouldn't need a rebuild... gotta be a sensor or something.

[Bill R.]

Sorry Stan, the pieces in the bottom of the pan tell me its not a sensor problem and if i look up above the valve body i can see pieces broken off of the drum. Go to no reverse.org for more info, except ours has reverse just fine, its the forward gears that are screwed up.

www.noreverse.org

[John B.]

Seems like this issue: Possible No-reverse solution for GM tranny owners. Important information! Read - E46Fanatics in the GM Steptronic might be prevented by flushing the fluid every 30-40k. Hard to believe the screen would clog if the fluid was clean.

[Tiger]

5HP19 Tranny huh? Take a look over here Bill.

http://freddiestransmissions.com/htm...9.html#damages

Click on the 'typical damages'

Can't believe a snap ring and drum would break! I wonder how much of a deal you can get from Kirt in MI.C

[ryan roopnarine]

It really isn't fair how much people like to pile on to the Strasbourg 4l30e, I was missing multiple thrust washers for nearly 100k miles and the thing was still shifting fine (only found out about this when I opened it up after the case suffered a crack). Significant metal on metal wear where the washers were supposed to be, but I couldn't tell by driving the car. the metal they made the case out of is utter crap, though.

[Ross]

At least you are better able to cope with this than most. I feel bad for the poor schmo who gets to cough up thousands.
Does BMW recommend any servicing on these or are they "lifetime fill" like the earlier ones?

[whiskychaser]

Looks like they are using the same D/G drum 1056373032 in the 5HP19 they used in the 5HP18. I think the drum is about USD 150. Hopefully you dont find any more damage:
http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/5-ser...trip-down.html