DILEMMA....A/ Trans shot..525i w 204k... Have Indy Rebuild? Salvage Yard ?/E-Bay or?

[spinnakr]

The long saga ....My 17 y.o. son's 92 525i with 204k has major transmission problems.(GM LK model) A week ago,driving a mountain road, trans went into limp mode, After restarting at roadside, no motion in any gear,I finally got it into limp mode,drove it home, ( a few clunks when stoping along the way). fluid check OK,, not a burnt smaell, but dark color.Drove it to indy to run puter diag. Bottom line... (don't remember all the codes he threw at me) trans needs replacing,,! Quality rebuilt unit 1800.00 plus labor for R&R,about 6 hrs @100./hr. plus trans fld etc... I figure 3 grand total.
Option 2 & 3 is Bavarian Auto,, 995.00 plus ship,tax etc..and lifetime parts warranty for xtra 300.00..... or a couple E-Bay stores for 6 to 800.00 + tx and ship..and at most a 6 mo. parts warranty.
Question is,,, if I buy the used tranny what should i have the indy do before installing,,besides the obvious, fluid,filter,clean the pan,, ? Renew the seals... ? several hrs labor and we are back to square 1...the price of a rebuilt from the indy.... Oh the rest of the car is in great shape,we have owned for 2 yrs...but lack the complete history of the vehicle..
We aquired it,from a friend it after someone had vandalized it, and cut every wire and cable under the hood and for good measure tossed all the relays away...It took us many hrs to trace,splice and rewire it...and the only thing we couldn't "fix" was getting the ABS light to extinguish.... We would appreciate any input on our options or those with similar expirences...

[Denton]

First thought it manual swap...

[shogun]

If you have a weekend free and you are interested in such things and belive you could do it, buy the parts and DIY.
We started that way, now we need with some friends one day max to completely reman a tranny.
Single items are available at many places. Buy a repair book for the tranny too, for the ZF 4HP22 or 24 it costs abt. 25 $ only.
You can see a lot of pics of such a repair on my website under tranny repair.

In case that you have doubts for DIY, go for the quality one, which initially costs more, but can save a lot of trouble.
Cheap stuff is often not cheap in the end.

[Paul in NZ]

How long is a used one gonna last???^ 6 month warranty is hardly worth the trouble Its a lot of money in relation to the o/a value of the car,but what else can you do?I would go the rebuilt route.

[attack eagle]

eurodepot had one of the one year only 92 a4s310 autotragics up on the `bay for around 500 bucks. pulled recently from a runnin and driving 77k mile touring for a 5 speed swap.

Seems that when the 92 autos go they just go completely eh? I decided to do the 5 speed swap myself.

[spinnakr]

looked up and called EuroDepot.... unfortunatley that tranny wont fit,,checked it against my vin#,,,,very helpful and honest too, his opinion,,, "go with a good quality rebuilt"...

[attack eagle]

wierd. my understanding was that all 92, sedan or touring, had the same autotragic.

[spinnakr]

Eagle..Don't shoot the messanger,,,,so did I,, apparently,,,even though the type trans (A4S 310R) is the same, the wire harness 8 vs 9 pin and puter are different ..!!! only production dates between 9/91 and 9/92 will work..... go figure.. Makes me lean even more towards the rebuilt trans.

[attack eagle]

well I have a 6/92 touring trans computer sitting as a paperweight if that would make a difference.

[Montreal525]

Rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, reduild and rebuild... Did I mention I would do a rebuild... Trust, I went the used tranny route and wound up rebuilding that one 4 months later. It's one of those thing who have to suck up and pay up for...

Jeff