Yaaaayyyyy, I'm $3641 lighter now

Thanks, Mr. E36, my friend. You've been very well maintained; you been pampered like a baby, and driven by a gentleman. You've been a bit of a problem child, but I forgave you. But now, you're pressing your luck a bit.............you may find yourself with a new and not so nice owner in the not too distant future.

I just knew it was about time for some new problem to arise with this fink of a car, and boy did it. Auto trannie began the slip less than two weeks ago...diagnosis from three different BMW shops: replace. Done. Total drive out cost: $3641.62 Car only has 86,400 easy miles on it.........

I've 1979 Fords more reliable.

Reply to
Victor Faraday
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It's hard to find a reliable auto tranny that can last as long as a 5-speed.

Autos overheat and fail. External tranny cooler help some, but some designs are flawed.

Reply to
SQ

Funny, I wore out 2nd gear syncros like crazy but have had stupid good luck with autos.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

Why didn't you get the transmission rebuilt by a specialist? Would have cost about half that and make no difference to the resale value of the car.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In the course of those 86,400 miles, how many times did you drain and refill the fluid?

R / John

Reply to
John Carrier

It is a rebuilt transmission, which was my only option apparently, and was built by GM France. I could have taken it to a place like AAmco, and let them go into it, but felt that even if they could get it to behave, the repair wouldn't have lasted with this crappy trans, and I would've had to replace it anyway, throwing who knows, maybe $1500 (a guess) at AAmco when it would be a complete waste.

Reply to
Victor Faraday

Lifetime fluid, no service required so say the materials. Besides, every BMW service dept. says TOTALLY unnecessary if under 100,000 miles. My shop said servicing would've almost certainly made no difference. The guy told me that BMW have put such bad trannies into their cars that in years past, they actually had a sign (no joke) saying to customer that if transmission failed while car in their possession, they were not responsible!!

Enjoy:

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Reply to
Victor Faraday

It is a rebuilt transmission, which was my only option apparently, and was built by GM France. I could have taken it to a place like AAmco, and let them go into it, but felt that even if they could get it to behave, the repair wouldn't have lasted with this crappy trans, and I would've had to replace it anyway, throwing who knows, maybe $1500 (a guess) at AAmco when it would be a complete waste.

Reply to
Victor Faraday

is that 3641 US dollars? i think that's seriously overpriced... when you say 'bmw shops' does that mean dealer or just bmw specialists? i would imagine an auto rebuild would come in at under $2000 unless the hard parts were also stuffed

86000 miles is a joke, they should go 150+ ..
Reply to
furious gibbon

Yep.

Agreed, but it was the only show in town. I checked with four differenct places, and they were all quoting the same.... actually one place said I could take one for $4500, also rebuilt.

I mean BMW repair shops, not dealerships. Of course one place also worked on Volvos.

I agree 100%, they should, and have for me in past cars.

Reply to
Victor Faraday

Ah - it's a GM transmission. Don't know who you'd blame about that - all other countries got the better ZF.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

SNIP

True enough, BMW is not noted for the longevity of their auto transmissions. Lifetime fill was changed to 100,000 mile service several years ago ... evidently even the boys in Munich had doubts. It's possible nothing would have helped the box, but most transmission specialists think 30K fluid flushes improve the life of the beast.

R / John

Reply to
John Carrier

is this a problem with earlier cars? i took a quick peek at the consumer affairs site that was posted and all the complaints appeared to be for cars from 2000 on. i'm asking b/c i've been looking at cars from the mid-90s and a transmission replacement appears to cost about the same as their blue book value = >:(

Reply to
Leigh

Would that be the GM or ZF? Many seem to say US autos last more than

200,000 miles, but this one failed at less than 90k. My last ZF was fine at 140k+.

It might do if useing Dexron II. But that fluid has been superseded.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Exactly. If you go "by the book" and only use the prescribed Shell LA

2634 you'd go broke changing it every 30k miles.

Of course, there are those risk takers out there that have discovered that Penzoil sells the same stuff as Multi-Vehicle semi-synthetic ATF for a small fraction of the cost of the Shell offical stuff.

Reply to
Fred W

My father worked for GM for many years and drove nothing but GM cars. The one thing that always seemed to be very reliable about these cars were their transmissions.

Reply to
Jack Dotson

Yes - at one time they were the choice of Rolls Royce, Jaguar and other UK makers who didn't make their own and could seek out the best from around the world.

They seem to have lost the plot recently, though. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Stirling Moss once said something like "Why on earth would you choose to shift a manual when you Yanks make the best automatic transmissions in the entire world?"

Reply to
Rex B

I doubt he'd say that now. The toss up would be between M-B and ZF.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

IMO the lesson of all this is that BMW is best with a manual.

Not so much for performance as for reliability.

I recently had the clutch replaced on my 87 325i, turns out it was original with ~200K miles on it.

Agree about the '79 Ford. The old 3-speed-no-overdrive domestics were, and still are more reliable modern 3-speed+overdrive.

Reply to
SQ

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