I'm afraid guys

So tonight I was driving my car, got in it reversed out of my parking spot and drive off. When coming home I started the car and started driving home then my car wouldn't shift out of 2nd gear. Would redline to 6000 the all of a sudden shifted really hard. Then worked okayfor like the next mile till my house where I parked it. I have an auto tranny, reverse works perfectly, 209000 km on it. But lately I've noticed the tranny takes a while to engage into drive like I usually put it in drive, keep brakes on and it takes like 5 seconds to engage into forward drive. Which seems longer to me.

Also tonight it's minus 2 celcius here. First cold night we've ha this fall.

Should I be worried guys ? Is this early signs on tranny failure? What's the costs of new transmissions/parts. My cousin has rebuilt his Allison tranny himself so I feel like we could figure out how to rebuild mine if necessary. What are these costs like ?

Any help would be great !

Yes, you're on your way to tranny fail.
Few can rebuild their own; so good luck if you two are able.
Costs for rebuilt is $3500 US in, approx. Depending......

You are better off buying a used transmission warranty from a junkyard with low miles and warranty. $1500-ish

Or buy one locally. $ depends..

-2C, and this is the first cold night?

My God, you Canucks must have balls of steel! We had 70F the other night, I had to set the heater on high.

Huh? -2 is nothing I was out in a sweater. Hahaha February -25 C is coming! Time to ski.


Wow so how long do you guys think I got left before I have to overhaul the trans? What's a manual swap worth? To be honest for that kind of money to keep auto I might just part out the car and cut my losses. well this is a sad day.

And by the way I keep my house set at 68F pretty much year round.

a proper fluid/filter change would be the first course of action, for sure.
Pleasee do not listen to the flood of people who come in saying do not change fluid. they simply do not know what they are talking about. judging by your car i am guessing you have the GM transmission but please post full make and model and refer to the transmission sticky on the front page to determine your model.
Use ONLY oem fluid. PLEASE.


If the tranmission is a complete gonner then, you can shop around/ have it rebuilt, swap, etc. dont worry about it, have fun with it.

sell car now before it breaks

take it to a bmw shop, not a dealer, and have them look at it.
it might be worth your time in the long run. don't part out your car. just get a used tranny as a worst case scenario.
if you want to sell it, i'll buy it off of you for super dirt cheap. lol

Throw it at an auto auction while it still drives...

Ive done my research on my tranny, it's gm ZF 5HP19. Can a fluid change actually maybe fix this. I'll go to an Indy shop and see what happens. I have no fault codes at the moment so It got a little life in her.

I believe you are saying you have the ZF 5HP19

ZF makes one tramsission
General Motors Makes the other.

If you have the zf, make sure to use the OE Zf lifeguard fluid . Have a shop do this for sure if you arent experienced . Def worth it to take it to a good indy. Search around for recommendations.

bimmershops.com
this should help. hopefully they have canada. not entirely sure.

Oh ok I thought they were all gm trans. So can fluid breath new life into the zf trans or will I get the spontaneous failure?

Originally Posted by DBrown

Oh ok I thought they were all gm trans. So can fluid breath new life into the zf trans or will I get the spontaneous failure?

Ironic that the transmission threads have all been revived when I'm just complaining about reaction to tranny issues!
I have the same box as you and mine is having an oil and filter change next week. It's only done 64K miles. Mine's going to a gearbox specialist and when I mentioned the lifetime fill we both laughed heartily for about a minute.
Surprisingly, even the gearbox manufacturers recommend an oil change if the car is driven hard, or is over 10 years old, so, it's not really lifetime is it...
As has been said, use the correct fluid (LT71141) if you do an oil change and what's to lose? If it don't work then consider a second hand tranny...
(Slipping into gear like that doesn't sound too good though... sorry!)

Well im gonna go to friend of mine here and see what a fluid flush entails, what it will cost me. At the moment this is a bad time cause im in school, if it were in the summer i would be doing this fluid flush probably myself. i was thinking of getting rid of the car this coming summer, so im just at a fence of how much i still want to invest in it. Anyway whats a fair price for the tranny service, fluid flush and fill, filter and whatever gaskets may need to be changed?


and the lifetime fluid thing makes me laugh too, stupidest ****ing thing ive ever heard. my uncle owned the car before me, and claims the fluid has been changed but him and his mechanic are both retards so who knows what really happened. just frustrated right now, really appreciate the help guys !

Ok good... One thing though... I wouldn't "flush" it... That can move all the crap around and lodge it in places it couldn't get into before and will cost you more... Just loosen the fill plug, (to make sure it will come off!) then remove drain plug and measure how much comes out... should be about 6 L then refill... If things improve do it again in a few months... The sump kit filter and gasket are cheap but the oil is more... Dont make the mistake of putting the wrong fluid in that can cause issues too. Estimated cost $200 to $300 but thats a guess im british! Its costing me £150 next week. There is a set procedure for the job specified by the tranny maker but im not at home right now if you need it pm me or ill send you a link...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Bimmer App

If you're already having problems I seriously doubt a fluid and filter change will do anything. But for your sake I hope I'm wrong. Even a used xmsn can be pricey.

ps. the fill plug and drain plug are only accessable from UNDER the car. The filler under the hood that people sometimes think is for the gearbox is infact for the power steering!!! EEK! ;-)

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im gonna get a shop do it, found a specialist for bmws here gonna see what he says