Well,

I finally got my car into the indy to look at it after waiting a week.

Some of your guys might recall on my post two weeks ago. I was getting the TRANS PROG message once in a while, especially when coming to a stop.
1992 E34 525IA M50 (~155k miles)

I decided to try a tranny filter/flush. Whilst in the midst of the R&R of the filter, I broke the connector on the solenoid that sits on the rear of the tranny.

My indy put the car thru a test that showed it slipping a lot. Verdict - the tranny is on the way out. He said he could fix it but it would soon leave me stranded somewhere. He is honest and I trust what he says. I decided to bite the bullet and have a factory rebuilt transmission (4L30E) put in for $2200 installed.

Also, I had to get an idler arm, all belts, one punctured tire, and one trans mount done/fixed.

My total bill should be around $2600 for the visit today. He is rebalancing all four tires for free, since I complained about the 55 mph shimmy.

Does this sound like a decent price for all that work? Yes/No/Hell no?

He said my front shocks are leaking, but I decided to wait a bit to replace the inserts. Does $650 installed seem like a reasonable price for those? By the way, the Sachs kit at BMA is no longer $640 as advertised on BMWE34.NET. It is now $720. Still, I think that for four matched inserts and springs for that price is decent.

One last stupid question from the officially clueless: Will the idler arm help with the shimmy a bit and will it help get rid of a clunk that I have been hearing when pulling into my garage (sharp right turn)?

Thanks in advance,

JD