ZF4HP22 automatic transmission clicking

[Kibokojoe]

Last Friday my sons e32 starting making a clicking noise when we pulled away from a light. He told me that he had heard this before and his fix was to pull over and turn the car off for sixty seconds and when he started the car back up the clicking would be gone. To me the clicking sounded as if someone put a car in park before it had fully stopped. Don't ask me how I know this ;). Has anyone ever experienced this phenomenon before? If so do you know how to fix this? I looked on bmwfans and found this diagram. Is there an adjustment to the linkage to stop this? The weird thing about this is my gut tells me this problem is hydraulic, if not why would you have to wait sixty seconds for it to go away. I know this series of transmission has historically had problems with pressure and the valve body. I know my sons transmission has a tendency to erratically shift gears when you are cruising at about 38-42 miles per hour when in "D". My sons cure for this is to manually shift into 3rd. Goes right away. I have looked this up online and found this is a sign the valve body is dirty or needs balls and springs replaced in the valve body.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj225/kibokojoe/e32parkinglock.jpg

[genphreak]

Sticky valves in the VB... I bet if you take the effort to pull it, clean it and replace the check balls and the little 'button' it will help. I imagine that for the parking lock to engage at speed, it would need to be able to move 'on' to the notched wheel... and that would take some non-factory persuasion, i.e.

1) has the console been out or
2) is there some debris or damage to the linkages somehow underneath, perhaps a stick is caught up there somewhere...

[Kibokojoe]

Is removing and cleaning the valve body a complicated as it looks? The little balls I have heard of but "little button" haven't heard of this one. I will check out he linkage.

[genphreak]

Look for Shogun's VB repair pics... he's got it well covered, also a recent thread over at bf on an e38 having its 5HP18 done by ZF themselves. Lots of pics and discussion.

[Kibokojoe]

Found the shogun site but not the other


Look for Shogun's VB repair pics... he's got it well covered, also a recent thread over at bf on an e38 having its 5HP18 done by ZF themselves. Lots of pics and discussion.

[Mr._Graybeard]

Here's a link to a PDF directory with some interesting 4hp22EH information.
http://openpdf.com/ebook/zf-4hp22-eh-pdf.html

Since the tranny problem seems to go away when the car is stopped and restarted, I wonder if there is a problem in the electronics, like a sticking solenoid or something else that is electronically actuated. I noticed some solenoid test specs on one of those PDFs -- maybe they'd be helpful.

As for guidance to rebuilding the valve body, the kit for my 5hp30 came with pretty good instructions. I had a pictoral too, but didn't really need it. One good tip from the write-up, though: use a bar clamp to hold the end caps in place when you're reinstalling the retaining screws.

[Kibokojoe]

Thanks for this. Yes we are leaning towards rebuilding the valvebody. Good tip on the bar clamp. I also see where the selector switch is subject to moisture damage if the breather tube is damaged. I will be looking here also.