Tranny!

[Roderick]

Had the filter and fluid changed in my 95 540i with 107,xxx miles, it had the famous whinning sound. After the change the car shifts fine, but still has the whinning sound when I first drive the car about 1 mile or less. If the car temp is at half, the car runs like a champ with no whinning. I replaced the fluid with Penzoil Muti-ATF and it used 8 quarts. I will just live with this, I love this car. any ideas on what else I may have to do?

[BillionPa]

luckily you changed the fluid early. change it again after 30K miles

if you can find out which part is causing the whining, then you can replace or repair it, but you need to take it apart first.

[632 Regal]

the whining is because the "O" ring supplied with the filter is too small. Either double them up or get the right O ring, dont change that fluid out yet as it can shock the system.

another note, it's cool others are testing non recommended fluids for us, after membership drops we will se the results.

[Mr._Graybeard]

Hi Roderick, I wonder if you used a factory filter/O ring kit or aftermarket. If your filter didn't say Filtran on the back, you got a cheapo.

Buy a real filter kit from BMW or Jaggi or Kirt Koeller. Your dealer is probably easiest. The $45 is worth getting the right hardware. The aftermarket parts market is full of crap these days, lots of counterfeit stuff from the Fourth World. Somehow much of it seems to end up at the Big Box auto parts vendors. Not that everything they sell is shite, but this is a part of the car you don't want to be digging into that often.

That said, my personal opinion is that multinational petroleum companies like Royal Dutch Shell, owner of the Pennzoil/Quaker State brands among others, has the research capability to produce a transmission fluid that's compatible with the 5HP30 transmission used in numerous European cars. I've been using Pennzoil MultiVehicle ATF myself, and I know I'm not alone. My personal opinion is: if you do not have a Filtran kit in the car now, drain the fluid and replace the filter and o-ring. Then, in 5K-10K miles do another drain and fill. With three drains and refills you should have nearly 100% fresh fluid in the sump.

Frankly, I've also come to suspect that Shell's OE product in the 5hp30s wasn't that great. It wasn't the OE fill for all that long before Esso came along, and a lot of the transmissions from the period seem to need valve body rebuilds at a relatively youthful point. That's my personal opinion. I also worry about the TCM circuitry, but that's another topic.

[stargazer_61]

Where did you have the work done? If it was the dealer, I'm sure they would have used the Filtran. Anywhere else and it would be questionable at best.

Mr. Graybeard is correct. Drive it 5-10k then change it again. If you aren't doing the work yourself then buy the filter from the dealer and take it with you for the next change and make sure they use it. He passed this same advice to me and I followed it. I did my own fluid/filter change last week, for which I still need to do a write-up, and was terrified of the dreaded "trans program" upon startup. By following his advice and other steps I found on the 'net, I didn't. The trans shifts better than it did, but still needs at least one more change. It is a nasty job but after doing it once it will be much easier.

[shogun]

I am using cheap Chevron stuff on my 4HP24, but change every 6 months, so about 3 litres come out of the tranny and new 3 litres come in. DIY
http://8810.teacup.com/750hiline/img/bbs/0000543.jpg

12 Pack Case of Dexron III/Mercon ATF (Costco has Chevron brand ATF for abt $10.oo/ case)

[Roderick]

Yes, I did get the filter from the BMW dealer, the mechanic( not BMW), but a import shop that worked on the car said it had the original filter in the tranny stamped 1994. I did notice that the o-ring seemed very small in the sealed pack that came with the kit, I did order a extra ring though. I do have a aftermarket and the o-ring in the kit is twice the size of the BMW ring?

[Mr._Graybeard]

Re-reading your original post, I wonder if the shop didn't underfill the transmission a little bit. When the fluid warms up as you drive it expands, filling the sump to the point where it doesn't whine anymore.

If the car wasn't allowed to cool down fully before the fresh fluid was pumped in, it would be pretty easy to underfill.

I'd take the car back and ask them to check the fluid level with the transmission stone cold.

[bmwrp8]

I am using cheap Chevron stuff on my 4HP24, but change every 6 months, so about 3 litres come out of the tranny and new 3 litres come in. DIY
http://8810.teacup.com/750hiline/img/bbs/0000543.jpg

12 Pack Case of Dexron III/Mercon ATF (Costco has Chevron brand ATF for abt $10.oo/ case)

shogun a quick question...I too am using a cheap DextronIII ATF and changed all 8lit. just about 2months ago...I'm planning to change it again soon but with a synthetic one...Do I have to drain all the ATF again incl.the ATF in T.converter or its ok to just drain the 3 lit.then put 3lit of syn.ATF?

[shogun]

Sorry, no experience on this.
I am quite happy with the Chevron Dextron III/Mercon.
Actually I think no need to change to more expensive stuff, better change the fluid more often.

No problem for me at all, have 3 more trannies on stand-by from my parts cars.
Just repaired one with new balls for the valve body.