ryan roopnarine
07-29-2009, 08:29 PM
I'll admit my screwups here.
I finally finished installing a used dipstickless 4l30e transmission on my 92 525i in may. it only had about two quarts in it (residual draindown) when i picked it up from vines in november. in december, i drained out the residual and flipped it upside down to change the filter in it before i put it into the car. i did not think about the reprocussions of the small front pan draining up into the tranny when i flipped it upside down. i loaded it with 3-3.5 quarts of fluid when it got stuck into the car (december). i allowed the torque converter to drain into a dish and loaded it with fluid until it couldn't take any more before i put it into the transmission.
fast forward to this month. i followed the running procedure and loaded it with another 3 quarts or so. the dry fill specification for this trans is 8.8 quarts. the cooler/cooler lines had plenty of time to drain out completely (months) so i assume these need to fill too.
i assumed that, since the box wasn't rebuilt, that the unit wasn't completely dry. consequently, after loading it the second time, i attempted to drive it, and found that the trans program would come on after the car moved about 50 feet. on its longest drive attempt, the transmission clunked hard into 2nd before the car was unable to move. a restart and quick shift into D got it back into the drive. when the transprogram comes up, the car does not lock into 3rd, it only slips.
i loaded another 1.5 quarts of cold fluid into it after this, with the same result as above. from my experience in maguyver type driving, rwd cars usually have to lose at least 2 cold quarts of fluid before they are immobile.
my question is....how the hell do i know when the thing is filled? do i have to just sit there and load it over and over until i've tried five or six times? i'm not seeing any specific dry refill instructions in service manual no. 8. if i knew how difficult this would have been, i would have kept better records of how many quarts i put into it, but i didn't. my old unit had a dipstick on it, but that is neither here or there, this dipstickless arrangement is a pita. i don't want to take it off of stands and have it start slipping on me again, i've done that about 2 or 3 times already and don't want to do any permanent damage. i'm thinking that i should jack one side of the car way up into the air and pump a shiatload of fluid into it cold before i make another operating temperature filling attempt. thanks for reading all of this.
I finally finished installing a used dipstickless 4l30e transmission on my 92 525i in may. it only had about two quarts in it (residual draindown) when i picked it up from vines in november. in december, i drained out the residual and flipped it upside down to change the filter in it before i put it into the car. i did not think about the reprocussions of the small front pan draining up into the tranny when i flipped it upside down. i loaded it with 3-3.5 quarts of fluid when it got stuck into the car (december). i allowed the torque converter to drain into a dish and loaded it with fluid until it couldn't take any more before i put it into the transmission.
fast forward to this month. i followed the running procedure and loaded it with another 3 quarts or so. the dry fill specification for this trans is 8.8 quarts. the cooler/cooler lines had plenty of time to drain out completely (months) so i assume these need to fill too.
i assumed that, since the box wasn't rebuilt, that the unit wasn't completely dry. consequently, after loading it the second time, i attempted to drive it, and found that the trans program would come on after the car moved about 50 feet. on its longest drive attempt, the transmission clunked hard into 2nd before the car was unable to move. a restart and quick shift into D got it back into the drive. when the transprogram comes up, the car does not lock into 3rd, it only slips.
i loaded another 1.5 quarts of cold fluid into it after this, with the same result as above. from my experience in maguyver type driving, rwd cars usually have to lose at least 2 cold quarts of fluid before they are immobile.
my question is....how the hell do i know when the thing is filled? do i have to just sit there and load it over and over until i've tried five or six times? i'm not seeing any specific dry refill instructions in service manual no. 8. if i knew how difficult this would have been, i would have kept better records of how many quarts i put into it, but i didn't. my old unit had a dipstick on it, but that is neither here or there, this dipstickless arrangement is a pita. i don't want to take it off of stands and have it start slipping on me again, i've done that about 2 or 3 times already and don't want to do any permanent damage. i'm thinking that i should jack one side of the car way up into the air and pump a shiatload of fluid into it cold before i make another operating temperature filling attempt. thanks for reading all of this.