E46 touring

[Bill R.]

My wife's e46 touring that i purposely sought out with the ZF steptronic trans decided to spit part of its little guts out at 68k miles....Thinking the zf was a better choice than the GM strassbourg.
My mistake. Cheapest zf factory rebuild i found was 3100 so it looks like i'll be doing it myself

[shogun]

easy for you, Bill.
I like transmission repairs, especially valve bodies.
We usually do it with 3-4 wrenching buddies.

[John B.]

Sorry to hear about it. Pretty pathetic service life for any auto tranny, especially one in an expensive German car. BMW's motorcycle trannys have been mediocre for decades & I believe those come from ZF also. The French GM automatic in my 95 Touring is still going strong at 154K knock on wood.

[Tiger]

I think it all depends on what type of driving... but 68K miles shouldn't need a rebuild... gotta be a sensor or something.

[Bill R.]

Sorry Stan, the pieces in the bottom of the pan tell me its not a sensor problem and if i look up above the valve body i can see pieces broken off of the drum. Go to no reverse.org for more info, except ours has reverse just fine, its the forward gears that are screwed up.

www.noreverse.org (http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/www.noreverse.org)

[John B.]

Seems like this issue: Possible No-reverse solution for GM tranny owners. Important information! Read - E46Fanatics (http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=706809) in the GM Steptronic might be prevented by flushing the fluid every 30-40k. Hard to believe the screen would clog if the fluid was clean.

[Tiger]

5HP19 Tranny huh? Take a look over here Bill.

http://freddiestransmissions.com/html/zf_5hp19.html#damages

Click on the 'typical damages'

Can't believe a snap ring and drum would break! I wonder how much of a deal you can get from Kirt in MI.C

[ryan roopnarine]

It really isn't fair how much people like to pile on to the Strasbourg 4l30e, I was missing multiple thrust washers for nearly 100k miles and the thing was still shifting fine (only found out about this when I opened it up after the case suffered a crack). Significant metal on metal wear where the washers were supposed to be, but I couldn't tell by driving the car. the metal they made the case out of is utter crap, though.

[Ross]

At least you are better able to cope with this than most. I feel bad for the poor schmo who gets to cough up thousands.
Does BMW recommend any servicing on these or are they "lifetime fill" like the earlier ones?

[whiskychaser]

Looks like they are using the same D/G drum 1056373032 in the 5HP19 they used in the 5HP18. I think the drum is about USD 150. Hopefully you dont find any more damage:
http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/5-series-bmw/41149-5hp18-a5s310z-strip-down.html

[Bill R.]

Hi Ross,
They are filled with the lifetime fluid of course.... I had changed mine twice since we've owned it and its now at 68k