Problem with BMW’s Automatic transmission 5L40e…

[Dackelone]

Hi Guys,

Last weekend on German Tv (VOX channel’s) Auto Mobile (formerly known as Auto Motor und Sport Tv: They ran an interesting story on BMW’s automatic trans.

I believe this is the same trans used in the 128i ??? I am sure someone will correct me on that.

You can google the BMW 5L40e transmission (five speed auto) and find many BMW cars with this transmission. From 3er to 7er and X-series. I think BMW started using this transmission since the e36 and still uses this transmission today.

What I found interesting was that the tv show was talking about BMW’s stand on “Life Time” fill transmission fluids – and how it just is NOT a lifetime fluid!

The Problem: Basically one of the staff from TV car show, had a 2002 e46 330d with this auto transmission. The owner had EVERY service done at his Germany BMW dealer. He had all the inspections and stamps in his warranty/service book.

He was coming back from a long three hour trip on the autobahn. Got off the autobahn and stopped at a red traffic light. When he went to take off when the light turned green. All his car would do is rev up. No to little movement from the car. Even though the trans was in DRIVE! He has 150K kilometers on his car.

He had his car towed to his local BMW dealer… they told him…. Yea… it’s the transmission, a new rebuilt one will run you 4,500 euros installed! He asked how come the trans failed and the dealer said it is a common thing. It happens. Next…

The owner did some research on the internet and found a company up in North-Western Germany, in Essen. LENK in Essen.

http://www.lenk-trade.de/
Btw… at the above website from LENK they have that tv show hyper linked… but it doesn’t work on my pc from some reason. ?

LENK said they could take his transmission out of his car, rebuilt the trans AND give him a two year guaranty! All, for around 3,000 euros. Hence the tv show spot.

What I found interesting about the show… was the technician over at LENK said that even though BMW says: “Lifetime Fluid” it is not! He said you should only go 40K kilometers!!! And then change the fluid AND filter! IF you do this… the trans will last 300K kilometers. But IF you go with BMW’s lifetime fluid BS… your trans will die a terrible slow death.

I was quite shocked at their (LENK’s) transmission fluid change intervals! I would have thought every 100K kilometers would be fine. But they were adamant that nothing longer than 40K kilometers! They said GM makes a great transmission for BMW. It is just that you simply can not expect it to last with no transmission fluid changes. They also highly recommended changing the ATF filter too at that time.

LENK said that in Germany an ATF fluid change runs between 180 to 240 euros (plus 19% MwSt/Tax) depending one who you have change it.

So… for all you guys keeping your slush boxes… you might want to look into changing your ATF and filter.

Even for me… I drive a manual transmission… I will be changing my fluids regularly too. Probably every 30K miles. Transmission and diff fluids.

[DSB128i]

The 128 uses the GM GA6L45R automatic

[moveswiftly]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Hi Guys,

Last weekend on German Tv (VOX channel’s) Auto Mobile (formerly known as Auto Motor und Sport Tv: They ran an interesting story on BMW’s automatic trans.

I believe this is the same trans used in the 128i ??? I am sure someone will correct me on that.

You can google the BMW 5L40e transmission (five speed auto) and find many BMW cars with this transmission. From 3er to 7er and X-series. I think BMW started using this transmission since the e36 and still uses this transmission today.

What I found interesting was that the tv show was talking about BMW’s stand on “Life Time” fill transmission fluids – and how it just is NOT a lifetime fluid!

The Problem: Basically one of the staff from TV car show, had a 2002 e46 330d with this auto transmission. The owner had EVERY service done at his Germany BMW dealer. He had all the inspections and stamps in his warranty/service book.

He was coming back from a long three hour trip on the autobahn. Got off the autobahn and stopped at a red traffic light. When he went to take off when the light turned green. All his car would do is rev up. No to little movement from the car. Even though the trans was in DRIVE! He has 150K kilometers on his car.

He had his car towed to his local BMW dealer… they told him…. Yea… it’s the transmission, a new rebuilt one will run you 4,500 euros installed! He asked how come the trans failed and the dealer said it is a common thing. It happens. Next…

The owner did some research on the internet and found a company up in North-Western Germany, in Essen. LENK in Essen.

http://www.lenk-trade.de/
Btw… at the above website from LENK they have that tv show hyper linked… but it doesn’t work on my pc from some reason. ?

LENK said they could take his transmission out of his car, rebuilt the trans AND give him a two year guaranty! All, for around 3,000 euros. Hence the tv show spot.

What I found interesting about the show… was the technician over at LENK said that even though BMW says: “Lifetime Fluid” it is not! He said you should only go 40K kilometers!!! And then change the fluid AND filter! IF you do this… the trans will last 300K kilometers. But IF you go with BMW’s lifetime fluid BS… your trans will die a terrible slow death.

I was quite shocked at their (LENK’s) transmission fluid change intervals! I would have thought every 100K kilometers would be fine. But they were adamant that nothing longer than 40K kilometers! They said GM makes a great transmission for BMW. It is just that you simply can not expect it to last with no transmission fluid changes. They also highly recommended changing the ATF filter too at that time.

LENK said that in Germany an ATF fluid change runs between 180 to 240 euros (plus 19% MwSt/Tax) depending one who you have change it.

So… for all you guys keeping your slush boxes… you might want to look into changing your ATF and filter.

Even for me… I drive a manual transmission… I will be changing my fluids regularly too. Probably every 30K miles. Transmission and diff fluids.

BMW has been using 6 speed automatics since 2004 or 2006.

[Lucky1]

Inconsistencies aside, I'm not sold on BMW's "lifetime fluid", especially for automatic transmissions. The story as you reported it sounds a bit fishy but it still hit on one strong point and that you should probably take care of your fluids no matter what BMW says. Their marketing people would have you believe that a car that is sold after 50,000kms and a car that is kept and driven to 250,000kms can run on the same tranny fluid from the factory. They also tried to convince me that the transmission is a "sealed unit" and once that seal is destroyed the warranty is over. I've spoken with many other owners and the transmission is in fact not sealed (unless you count a few screws or whatever on the transmission pan as sealed). Also, I'm no expert in fluid mechanics but I'm not aware of any such unobtanium fluid that is impossible to break down. Not to mention the fact that even if the fluid itself was good forever you don't want metal shards in your tranny fluid floating around for a long time.

[dragon1761]

for some reason my car does that when i start the car up cold. I step on the gas and i dont see much movement but my rev goes high. I usually let it move by itself for a min or so then everything would be back to normal. So is it my transmission that has issues?

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by Lucky1

Inconsistencies aside, I'm not sold on BMW's "lifetime fluid", especially for automatic transmissions.

That was my main point too. IF you buy into BMW's "life time fluids" and you intend to keep your car a long time... you will most likely be buying a rebuilt tranny sooner or later!

I say some article in one of the German auto mags... something like 75% of new car sales are lease sales. Most Germans do not keep a car a long time. Only a few years... bc of all the tax laws and maintenance costs... it just makes sense to ditch the car after a few years. Just like they do with their handy (cell phone) contracts! lol

These semi (two or three year old) new cars then get exported to Poland or Czech or some other eastern block country.
The really old crap (10 years plus) het sent to Africa!! No joke.

Originally Posted by dragon1761

for some reason my car does that when i start the car up cold. I step on the gas and i dont see much movement but my rev goes high. I usually let it move by itself for a min or so then everything would be back to normal. So is it my transmission that has issues?

Sounds like that is not normal to me. Has your car always done that? Is this only in the cold winters? Do you park outside? Any other info?

bye
David

[BrokenVert]

Originally Posted by dragon1761

for some reason my car does that when i start the car up cold. I step on the gas and i dont see much movement but my rev goes high. I usually let it move by itself for a min or so then everything would be back to normal. So is it my transmission that has issues?

Dragon. You have an AT right? There is an issue with the 6HPs that are in the E82 and E88. The transmission has a decoupling feature. It decouples the transmission from the driveline at stops inorder to reduce wear on the torque converter.

There is a sensor within the transmission that tells the transmission to reengage when you apply the throttle. This sensor looses sensitivy and at times will not reengage the transmission. My car had this issue, a service buliten came out on it less than 2 weeks ago.

[dragon1761]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

That was my main point too. IF you buy into BMW's "life time fluids" and you intend to keep your car a long time... you will most likely be buying a rebuilt tranny sooner or later!

I say some article in one of the German auto mags... something like 75% of new car sales are lease sales. Most Germans do not keep a car a long time. Only a few years... bc of all the tax laws and maintenance costs... it just makes sense to ditch the car after a few years. Just like they do with their handy (cell phone) contracts! lol

These semi (two or three year old) new cars then get exported to Poland or Czech or some other eastern block country.
The really old crap (10 years plus) het sent to Africa!! No joke.



Sounds like that is not normal to me. Has your car always done that? Is this only in the cold winters? Do you park outside? Any other info?

bye
David

I park my car inside the garage. It only does that when i start cold from my garage. It happens maybe once or twice a wk. I have 9k miles on the car.

[dragon1761]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

Dragon. You have an AT right? There is an issue with the 6HPs that are in the E82 and E88. The transmission has a decoupling feature. It decouples the transmission from the driveline at stops inorder to reduce wear on the torque converter.

There is a sensor within the transmission that tells the transmission to reengage when you apply the throttle. This sensor looses sensitivy and at times will not reengage the transmission. My car had this issue, a service buliten came out on it less than 2 weeks ago.

yea its auto. Im just waiting for the service light to go on before even wasting time at the dealer. No light= no problem= no fix at dealers.

[BrokenVert]

Originally Posted by dragon1761

yea its auto. Im just waiting for the service light to go on before even wasting time at the dealer. No light= no problem= no fix at dealers.

Not true at all. The sensor does actually fail, it simply looses its sensitivity, so no code.

[Atomic Drifter]

I got the same answer from the dealership I brought my 2010 128i to for an oil change. Does anyone know if there are any instructions on how to change the tranny fluid?

AD

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by Atomic Drifter

I got the same answer from the dealership I brought my 2010 128i to for an oil change. Does anyone know if there are any instructions on how to change the tranny fluid?

AD

There has been one or two DIY's on changing fluid here on 1Addicts. I have seen a few over on the e90post.

This shop offers fluid change kits. You just need to know what trans is in your car. There is a label on the AT pan, under the car. Or try using Google.

http://www.thectsc.com/

Also if you Google ZF and your trans code... you can find the service manauals online at ZF.com

Good Luck
Dackel

[TheSt|G]

Originally Posted by Atomic Drifter

I got the same answer from the dealership I brought my 2010 128i to for an oil change. Does anyone know if there are any instructions on how to change the tranny fluid?

AD

It's like any other BMW auto, you need the auto trans fluid swap kit which is the fluid, gasket, bolts, and tray.

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...72&hg=24&fg=15

It sucks compared to 6MT, much like everything else auto.

[Atomic Drifter]

I have the GM 6L45E transmission, not the ZF.

AD

[Suprgnat]

Beating (a non-applicable) dead horse.

[TheSt|G]

Originally Posted by Atomic Drifter

I have the GM 6L45E transmission, not the ZF.

AD

It's the same idea.

[BeamerandBimmer]

Originally Posted by Atomic Drifter

I have the GM 6L45E transmission, not the ZF.

AD

Where did you find this info? Just lost Reverse and 1st gear in my auto tranny today. If mine is a GM that would be great news as I have a guy that can rebuild it if its a GM tranny.

[bozola]

This is the 128 section. The 135 auto is different.