BMW 525D

in article DKVgl.28104$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.virginmedia.com, Chris Bartram at snipped-for-privacy@delete-me.piglet-net.net wrote on 1/31/09 2:29 AM:

The 500 series is a nice ride .. with the 2000 or better model you have all the new technology in there for gas mileage and the like.

There is a computer printout of all the BMW certified mechanic repairs done to the car ... get it and see what the history is.

When purchased .. new tires, new brakes, and new oxygen sensor ... keep up the schedule repairs and maintenance. Likely do just fine over time. Water pump will need replacement in 30K miles likely .. but I would suspect that would be it.

sumbuddie hopes this helps

:?

Suspension knocks. These cars are hard on front wishbone bushes.

Normal symptom is wheel shake at around 60 mph. It's difficult to assess wear in the ball joints as they're fluid filled and have some movement when new. However, complete track control arms ain't that expensive and are relatively easy to change. Fitting just the balljoints is really a workshop job.

Auto-box failure. Resulting from mainly no-fluid change interval.

tim

Care to be more specific? What fails due to 'worn out' fluid?

Clutch material and brake bands.. All the 5 speeders are affected.

tim.

Is this the one where there's no change interval and no capacity stated? ISTR Car Mechanics having a project one.

Chris Bartram gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Coo, narrow it down a bit... That's most autoboxes made in the last decade.

"Sealed for life". Yep, the life of the autobox is exactly how long the oil lasts...

And you can be sure that changing the fluid will prevent this?

It's an interesting point in that auto boxes unlike engines don't actually cause contamination of the fluid. Or at least when they do - due to excess wear in the friction plates etc - it's too late for changing the fluid to help. If it did they'd be fitted with proper filters. Sealed for life gearboxes ain't new - many final drives have been like this for 30 years or so. I'm just interested if anyone has proper research on whether this fluid does deteriorate in normal use. Problems with the 5HP ZF series ain't that common in the UK. The US GM version might be different.

Indeed - mine came from factory with no recommendation for fluid changes, now it's at 30000 then every 60k thereafter or something odd like that.

I don't know what the current BMW situation is with the latest boxes - in the US at least they amended the 5HP fluid change from never to about

90,000 miles. But if course it's near impossible to change the oil in an auto anyway as so much remains in the torque convertor.

That's part of the reason why changing the fluid regularly is important, since you are basically changing only half the load each time.

But then, I'm one of those guys who changes the fluid at 50,000 in manual transmissions too. It's 20 minutes tops and can't hurt.

--scott

It certainly hurts the wallet if it's not needed. BMW ATF costs.

Manual transmissions are a bit different - you often get waste products from the gears themselves - hence the usual magnetic drain plug to catch some of it. You don't normally get this in an auto. If you do it's past it anyway. ;-)

Another good reason for choosing a manual as Redline MTF is still pretty cheap.

Tom

If it's the same box that CM magazine had, the fluid is procey, and no refill quantity is specified (or is there no level plug?). They had a transmission oil coller leak, and so had to guess the amount IIRC.