1994 Bmw 530i 171,000 (trying Not To Give Up)

[Green Bimmer]

Joe Here in Orlando
1994 BMW 530I
I took my car to Fields BMW to have my transmission service last week. A young twenty something guy changed by transmission fluid and he said that the fluid was burnt. Well anyway I wanted the fluid and the filter changed. He only changed the fluid. He also didn't tighten the bolt tightly and now my transmission fluid is leaking a little.
One of the service advisors told me that I should not have the filter changed. The transmission is still shifting harshly. Should I have the filter changed or not? He said if I have the filter the transmission would not work anymore (Go FIGURE)
IS THIS THE END OF THE ROAD FOR MY 530i?

[bimmerd00d]

Changing the fluid at such a high mileage is a bad idea. It will cause what was holding it together to come apart and cause it to fail. It's a commonly discussed topic.

[Green Bimmer]

:( The transmission was slipping so I took the car to the dealer and they suggest I change the fluid, So what do I do now that the gasket is leaking? IS THIS CAR TOASTED?


Changing the fluid at such a high mileage is a bad idea. It will cause what was holding it together to come apart and cause it to fail. It's a commonly discussed topic.

[Alexlind123]

:( The transmission was slipping so I took the car to the dealer and they suggest I change the fluid, So what do I do now that the gasket is leaking? IS THIS CAR TOASTED?

Its transmission might be, but thats an excuse to do a 5-speed swap, not an end for the car.

[Green Bimmer]

:( Thanks for the advise, but I don't have that kind of money right now. Maybe I will put the car up for sale and hoping I can get some money out of it.


Its transmission might be, but thats an excuse to do a 5-speed swap, not an end for the car.

[632 Regal]

trans shops and dealers are crapshots. you need to change the filter doh! they want you back for the 8000.00 change. be subjective here and search till you cant... its in here bro, I dont want to retype what i did hundreds of times.

[BillionPa]

indeed, get that filter changed NOW. and replace the fluid again when you do it.
then a week later change the fluid again. if you see crap in the old fluid, change it next week too, and keep doing that till its clean!

[Green Bimmer]

:( So you are saying that it is OK to change the Trans filter? I mean I am at a point that I have no choice but to try changing the filter and the heck with Fields BMW mechanics. I was charged $130 for the young apprentice to change trans fluid, what a waste. From the advise I am getting I wonder has any of you guys actually changed transmission fluid and filter in 1994 530i? I noticed in the Bentley manual there are instructions showing how to change the transmission fluid and filter. I am not a serious mechanic, I am taking the car to a shop that I trust. I mean one way or another I am going to find out whether transmission will fail. Right now God only knows


trans shops and dealers are crapshots. you need to change the filter doh! they want you back for the 8000.00 change. be subjective here and search till you cant... its in here bro, I dont want to retype what i did hundreds of times.

[Green Bimmer]

WOW! I really like your answer. You talk like you have done this job or has it done before. I like it when people give good sound advise (from experience). So again you are saying to change the fuild and filter?



indeed, get that filter changed NOW. and replace the fluid again when you do it.
then a week later change the fluid again. if you see crap in the old fluid, change it next week too, and keep doing that till its clean!

[BillionPa]

since the fluid has already been flushed you really dont have much choice, the damage has been done. cluch disk material is not magnetic, so the magnets in the pan will not pick that crap up, you must rely on the filter. changing the filter will increase fluid flow which will remove more deposits from inside the transmission.

depending on how much, they can either escape the filter and get in the valve bodies, or be caught and only cause a problem when too much of them escape. thats why you need to keep changing the fluid till its clean.

if you do the work yourself its not that expensive, you just have to be very patient and work with the car on a level surface to ensure the proper amount of fluid is loaded.

[Green Bimmer]

I won't being do the job myself, the mechanic is charging me $75 just for labor, I am buying the filter and gasket from Triangle Auto Parts in Winter Park, Florida.


since the fluid has already been flushed you really dont have much choice, the damage has been done. cluch disk material is not magnetic, so the magnets in the pan will not pick that crap up, you must rely on the filter. changing the filter will increase fluid flow which will remove more deposits from inside the transmission.

depending on how much, they can either escape the filter and get in the valve bodies, or be caught and only cause a problem when too much of them escape. thats why you need to keep changing the fluid till its clean.

if you do the work yourself its not that expensive, you just have to be very patient and work with the car on a level surface to ensure the proper amount of fluid is loaded.

[mattyb]

ring those ****ers at Fields and tell them to do it for nothing. The fluid should not have been changed like that at that mileage without consideration and discussion to the effects and outcomes of changing fluid at that mileage. It is a constant source of discussdon here, a search will give you endless hours of reading to do but it is worth it.

[Green Bimmer]

Fields BMW could care less, all they want is the money. Customer Satification is out of the door there. Trust me I've called them and complain, now they want me to bring the car back for service and the chief advisor told me he would charge me the difference for a full transmission which is roughly $150 more. They never advised me against changing the fluid at all.


ring those ****ers at Fields and tell them to do it for nothing. The fluid should not have been changed like that at that mileage without consideration and discussion to the effects and outcomes of changing fluid at that mileage. It is a constant source of discussdon here, a search will give you endless hours of reading to do but it is worth it.

[billy]

They never advised me against changing the fluid at all.

not trying to argue here, but why would they - presumably you went there and asked them to change the fluid...which they did
if they advised every customer that doing one job MAY cause another problem, they would never get any work

maybe im missing the point!

[Green Bimmer]

I didn't say or did I know anything about BMW advisory policy. Please read all the comments before making one like this.


not trying to argue here, but why would they - presumably you went there and asked them to change the fluid...which they did
if they advised every customer that doing one job MAY cause another problem, they would never get any work

maybe im missing the point!

[billy]

I didn't say or did I know anything about BMW advisory policy. Please read all the comments before making one like this.

Rather presumptuous of you to think I didn't

Personally i think Fields have been very accommodating, having knocked the cost of the service off the cost of a new transmission - they didn’t have to do that

[mattyb]

a dealer is supposed to be aware of the vehicles specific needs and nuances. That is why they are branded such, charge what they do and are endorsed by BMW. duty of care extends to knowledge and provision of such advice. like wise the absence of this provision of advice constitutes the breach.
They should have known better, given the fluid was burnt. I say give them hell and take it to BMW head office or the operations head in the states at least.
They work they have done has now most definatley spelled a death sentance for the box. it would have been better left for a rebuild.

[billy]

[QUOTE=mattyb]
They should have known better, given the fluid was burnt. QUOTE]

they did know better according to the poster ' A young twenty something guy changed by transmission fluid and he said that the fluid was burnt. Well anyway I wanted the fluid and the filter changed'
he told them to change it anyway...

[mattyb]

"Should I have the filter changed or not? He said if I have the filter the transmission would not work anymore (Go FIGURE)"

assuming you mean "If i have the filter changed"; it wouldnt be the filter change that would fuk it, it was the oil change that would fuk it.

Raise hell!!!!!!

[mattyb]

sure, i agree with you there no worries, but at the end of the day for the uninformed it was the worst thing that could have been done at that time. if they had presented the consequences to him and then he said to hell with your advice i said change the goddam fluid etc i think that would be differant.

[mattyb]

i used to go to the stealer when i first got my car. but each time I went for something or rather i beagn to question excatly what was happening and exaxctly what would cost what, eg service 2 fuilds bal bla bla. eventually i realised that often they knew absolute shite and couldn;'t give a toss. i thought that they should as they are BMW but all they ussually do, and I am sure there are exexptions out there, like you rightly point out is work out how money is in the equation. Iam sure there is a book of explanations and excuses regarding curios customers they are trained in. unfortunatley for our friend this is the learning curve that will see him be referred to a quality professional in this discpline or start learning to do the work himself.

[Green Bimmer]

This is going all wrong. I never said that Fields was replacing my Transmission. What I said "Fields wants to complete my transmission for additional $150.00." Please read the comments above. I am not buying a new transmission, I am just trying to find out information on changing the fluid and filter. What a mix of words!


Rather presumptuous of you to think I didn't

Personally i think Fields have been very accommodating, having knocked the cost of the service off the cost of a new transmission - they didn’t have to do that

[DanDombrowski]

Am I missing something here? It sounded to me like the transmission was slipping before he had the fluid flushed, and now the transmission is shifting, but roughly, but mabye I misread.

In any event, I'm not one of the ones that believes that old transmission fluid holds a transmission together. I don't have an airtight case and respect people that believe it can cause problems, but I believe that there is a distinction that most people leave out between jiffy-lube type power flushes and a proper draining, cleaning, filter change, and re-fill of transmission fluid, which can cause two largely different outcomes.

I think the majority of people's problems with transmission flushed is caused by shops that force fluid through the cooling lines and stir up the clutch material on the bottom of the trans. Again, I don't have an airtight case for this, but I have yet to see someone whom dropped a trans pan, cleaned it thoroughly, replace the filter, and re-filled the transmission have a problem. That's just my 2 cents, don't want to start another auto-trans-fluid 10 page debate.

Why am I even posting this? Two out of my 3 cars polled reported not even having auto transmissions....

[Green Bimmer]

Talking to Fields Service Advisors is like talking to my child when something goes wrong. I learned a valuable lesson, don't trust Fields BMW for any services.


"Should I have the filter changed or not? He said if I have the filter the transmission would not work anymore (Go FIGURE)"

assuming you mean "If i have the filter changed"; it wouldnt be the filter change that would fuk it, it was the oil change that would fuk it.

Raise hell!!!!!!

[Mr._Graybeard]

:( Thanks for the advise, but I don't have that kind of money right now. Maybe I will put the car up for sale and hoping I can get some money out of it.

Judging from this thread, I'd say get rid of the car. It's probably got more life in it, but it's going to be a money pit if you're paying for service. Changing the transmission fluid/filter is a classic example. You're going to want to do it several times to clean things up. Paying the dealer for that is unpleasant just to think about.

If you're not a recreational grease monkey, it doesn't pay to own a car this old, IMO.

[Green Bimmer]

Now again, I did not know the fluid was burnt until after they changed the fluid. I went into BMW for a transmission service. They take your car into their shop and you don't see the car until they are finish and know one comes out to talk to you at all. I thought they had serviced the transmission completely. After I left BMW service department I called the manager and they told me that they would change the transmission filter for an additional $150.00. I HAD NO IDEA THAT THE TRANSMISSION FLUID WAS BURNT UNTIL AFTER THE GUY CHANGED THE FLUID. BOY THIS IS A REAL WINNER


[QUOTE=mattyb]
They should have known better, given the fluid was burnt. QUOTE]

they did know better according to the poster ' A young twenty something guy changed by transmission fluid and he said that the fluid was burnt. Well anyway I wanted the fluid and the filter changed'
he told them to change it anyway...

[Gayle]

Green Bimmer

While changing the fluid is not recommended, it is not fatal.

Poll:Does Changing Lifetime Fluid Kill Transmissions? (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=15765&highlight=change+transmission+fluid)

You are asking what to do now that you have changed the fluid. As the discussion has gone so far, the question sort of breaks down to (a) continue to deal with the dealer (2) do it yourself and follow billion pa's recommendations (3) sell.



As far as work on your car, their are 4 choices: Dealers, bmw independents, generic independents, do it yourself.

1. Dealers tend to mostly work on newer cars. By the time cars get to the age of ours, people usually take them to indys or do the work themselves. The junior mechanics may not be as knowledgeable about the nuances of older BMWs. There have been many discussions on this forum about people being unhappy with the combination of dealer rates and partial repairs.

2. Indys who belong to this organization are often good. Plus you generally can talk with the guy actually working on your car rather than having them come out after the work to tell you what they did. There tends to be more of a love for the cars rather than a big bureaucracy approach.
http://www.bimrs.org/IbmwspFrame.htm

3. Generic indys--It doesn't work to take BMWs to mechanics that don't have a lot of experience with them--not that you did that.

4. Do it yourself. There is a huge bias on this board to this because you give your car more care in the repairs and it is the cheapest option.

Give us some context. Is there a reason that you don't want to work on the car yourself? There are many people on this forum who have never worked on cars before who have undertaken major repairs and come out of it feeling very accomplished. Others live in condos where they can't work on the car or have other reasons that they would prefer to pay someone else to do the work.

There are endless discussions here of how it is almost always a better economic decision to repair your car than to buy a newer one. Repairs are expensive, but so are car payments. There are few cars more beloved than the e34 so even if you just get a slightly newer used car, it probably won't be the engineering marvel the e34 is and it will have repairs also.

Since you entitled this thread "trying not to give up", let the people here help you solve your problem.

Summary: My .02--work on it yourself following either billion pa's advice or other advice you will undoubtly get or take it to an indy specializing in bmws. With all due respect to my aussie friend Mattyb, I don't think complaining to the dealer will get you very far.

[Gayle]

And one more thing. Take Jeff's advice and do a search on "change transmission fluid." Take a few hours and read the threads.

There are a lot of very knowledgeable people here and there are also a lot of opinionated know-nothings (like me :) ). Reading the old threads will give you a breadth of opinion. Gradually a course of action will start to make sense to you when you hear people who seem knowledgeable saying the same thing. Not all of the knowledgeable are here every day for every thread. You can't expect to get the definitive answer given to you in this thread.

[Green Bimmer]

Thanks for your comments. I have done some work myself but I live in a condo and I can't change transmission fluid at my place.


Green Bimmer

While changing the fluid is not recommended, it is not fatal.

Poll:Does Changing Lifetime Fluid Kill Transmissions? (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=15765&highlight=change+transmission+fluid)

You are asking what to do now that you have changed the fluid. As the discussion has gone so far, the question sort of breaks down to (a) continue to deal with the dealer (2) do it yourself and follow billion pa's recommendations (3) sell.



As far as work on your car, their are 4 choices: Dealers, bmw independents, generic independents, do it yourself.

1. Dealers tend to mostly work on newer cars. By the time cars get to the age of ours, people usually take them to indys or do the work themselves. The junior mechanics may not be as knowledgeable about the nuances of older BMWs. There have been many discussions on this forum about people being unhappy with the combination of dealer rates and partial repairs.

2. Indys who belong to this organization are often good. Plus you generally can talk with the guy actually working on your car rather than having them come out after the work to tell you what they did. There tends to be more of a love for the cars rather than a big bureaucracy approach.
http://www.bimrs.org/IbmwspFrame.htm

3. Generic indys--It doesn't work to take BMWs to mechanics that don't have a lot of experience with them--not that you did that.

4. Do it yourself. There is a huge bias on this board to this because you give your car more care in the repairs and it is the cheapest option.

Give us some context. Is there a reason that you don't want to work on the car yourself? There are many people on this forum who have never worked on cars before who have undertaken major repairs and come out of it feeling very accomplished. Others live in condos where they can't work on the car or have other reasons that they would prefer to pay someone else to do the work.

There are endless discussions here of how it is almost always a better economic decision to repair your car than to buy a newer one. Repairs are expensive, but so are car payments. There are few cars more beloved than the e34 so even if you just get a slightly newer used car, it probably won't be the engineering marvel the e34 is and it will have repairs also.

Since you entitled this thread "trying not to give up", let the people here help you solve your problem.

Summary: My .02--work on it yourself following either billion pa's advice or other advice you will undoubtly get or take it to an indy specializing in bmws. With all due respect to my aussie friend Mattyb, I don't think complaining to the dealer will get you very far.

[Green Bimmer]

By the way I did change my water pump in August 2006.


Green Bimmer

While changing the fluid is not recommended, it is not fatal.

Poll:Does Changing Lifetime Fluid Kill Transmissions? (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=15765&highlight=change+transmission+fluid)

You are asking what to do now that you have changed the fluid. As the discussion has gone so far, the question sort of breaks down to (a) continue to deal with the dealer (2) do it yourself and follow billion pa's recommendations (3) sell.



As far as work on your car, their are 4 choices: Dealers, bmw independents, generic independents, do it yourself.

1. Dealers tend to mostly work on newer cars. By the time cars get to the age of ours, people usually take them to indys or do the work themselves. The junior mechanics may not be as knowledgeable about the nuances of older BMWs. There have been many discussions on this forum about people being unhappy with the combination of dealer rates and partial repairs.

2. Indys who belong to this organization are often good. Plus you generally can talk with the guy actually working on your car rather than having them come out after the work to tell you what they did. There tends to be more of a love for the cars rather than a big bureaucracy approach.
http://www.bimrs.org/IbmwspFrame.htm

3. Generic indys--It doesn't work to take BMWs to mechanics that don't have a lot of experience with them--not that you did that.

4. Do it yourself. There is a huge bias on this board to this because you give your car more care in the repairs and it is the cheapest option.

Give us some context. Is there a reason that you don't want to work on the car yourself? There are many people on this forum who have never worked on cars before who have undertaken major repairs and come out of it feeling very accomplished. Others live in condos where they can't work on the car or have other reasons that they would prefer to pay someone else to do the work.

There are endless discussions here of how it is almost always a better economic decision to repair your car than to buy a newer one. Repairs are expensive, but so are car payments. There are few cars more beloved than the e34 so even if you just get a slightly newer used car, it probably won't be the engineering marvel the e34 is and it will have repairs also.

Since you entitled this thread "trying not to give up", let the people here help you solve your problem.

Summary: My .02--work on it yourself following either billion pa's advice or other advice you will undoubtly get or take it to an indy specializing in bmws. With all due respect to my aussie friend Mattyb, I don't think complaining to the dealer will get you very far.

[mattyb]

probably right as usual dear gayle!

[Ross]

Changing the fluid on a neglected high miler is iffy. The cruddy thick old oil is taking up worn clearances and giving grip to shot clutches.
If you survived the fluid change then the filter should be no problem, it is only restricting flow.
Filling the GM trans to the proper level is also a bit of a trick.
Make sure the level is correct and change the filter is my advice.
If it was slipping already it might be ready to go.

[Mr._Graybeard]

Eureka, I have an idea.

Up in Gainesville there's a shop called Continental Imports. Steve Brotherton works there. Google his name -- he's got posts all over the place regarding service and repairs to BMW and Mercedes automatics. If I were having AT problems in Florida, I'd go there.

http://www.continentalimports.com/

[632 Regal]

if you dont get an OEM filter than it will suck air around the "O" ring and you will be doing all of this again in a short while.

Hope you get this before you go buy the filter.


I am buying the filter and gasket from Triangle Auto Parts in Winter Park, Florida.

[DanDombrowski]

Hmm, Steve posts here? I had no idea.

When I went to school in Gainesville I took my E34 to them for a clutch job and control arms, before I started doing most of my own work.

Good shop, great prices, know their stuff.

[Mr._Graybeard]

Hmm, Steve posts here? I had no idea.

When I went to school in Gainesville I took my E34 to them for a clutch job and control arms, before I started doing most of my own work.

Good shop, great prices, know their stuff.

I don't know if he posts here -- I suggested googling his name, not searching this forum. I have seen him post on other forums.

His 2000 Import Car article on the 5hp30 transmission is required reading for anybody with an E34 540ia.