523/525/530 Steptronic Gearbox...

[t2ribena]

may I check with you guys regarding the steptronic mode/manual mode of your AT Gearbox...on this mode lets say when you are travelling at M4 or M5 gear position...would it upshift itself or it hold on to that gear only? thanks for the feedback in advance...:top:

 

[initialM]

On Manual mode it will not upshift until u push it up & only engage if it the engine running at reasonable speed set by the ECU. However it will auto downshift if ur car slowdown but it will be faster if u do it manually. I'm driving at manual mode most of the time to optimize fuel efficient & to be ready for downshift just in case I need to smoke the car behind hehehe:top:

 

[initialM]

Uh just notice u post at E60 thread. Sorry mine is E39 528 not sure it will be the same as E60:stupid:

 

[t2ribena]

Uh just notice u post at E60 thread. Sorry mine is E39 528 not sure it will be the same as E60:stupid:

bro no prob as i think they shud operate the same way...

the prob with my car's manual mode is that the gear will up shift itself...sometime when i downshift it will instead upshift...i think sudah gila...i test drove other cars similar to mine also no such behaviour...AB SA told me they need to check and confirm first if it is not suppose to be like that...thats wat make me pening...

 

[initialM]

Aiyoh another problematic E60. Why newer BMW does not as durable as before. Sorry bout yr car man.
Saw quite few E60 parts kaput although the car quite new. Get the AB rectify or probably change new gbox if it still under warranty. :top:

 

[leforte]

may I check with you guys regarding the steptronic mode/manual mode of your AT Gearbox...on this mode lets say when you are travelling at M4 or M5 gear position...would it upshift itself or it hold on to that gear only?

thanks for the feedback in advance...:top:

for a smg transmission, no it will not upshift, but for a steptronic transmission, it will automatically upshift when you hit the preprogramed shift point which in most case would be somewhere before the engine's red line even if you are in the sports/manual mode, its a fail safe feature to protect the engine and the gearbox.

 

[t2ribena]

for a smg transmission, no it will not upshift, but for a steptronic transmission, it will automatically upshift when you hit the preprogramed shift point which in most case would be somewhere before the engine's red line even if you are in the sports/manual mode, its a fail safe feature to protect the engine and the gearbox.

in my case it shifts anywhere between 3k to 5k rpm apart from the fail safe upshift at 6800rpm...

 

[initialM]

for a smg transmission, no it will not upshift, but for a steptronic transmission, it will automatically upshift when you hit the preprogramed shift point which in most case would be somewhere before the engine's red line even if you are in the sports/manual mode, its a fail safe feature to protect the engine and the gearbox.

Yup correct. Totally forgot that as I never tried redline when on manual mode.
Always manually upshift when nearly the redline. Another thing it also will not downshift at certain speed & gear even if u manually do it. Again to protect the engine & gbox.

Tribena, keep us update once AB troubleshoot the problem.

 

[ess530i]

t2ribena i think the upshift issue has got to do with your engine/tranny overheating problem. the gearbox goes crazy when overheated. suggest you look into the cooling system first before spending money on the tranny. i think the ZF gearbox in the e60 is very robust and not easily damaged even by hard driving. i had similar problem with the tranny and occasional overheat problem before turn out it had something to do with the installation of my supercharger. a leak in the sc caused rapid misfires which increased engine heat & gave wrong signals to the tranny. the tranny communicates with the ecu and reduces engine power during gearshifts so there may be some miscommunication there. now the sc is properly installed and absolutely no more problem with the tranny even with on wheel 257HP/325NM power. changing the tranny & differential oil helps too. this is just my opinion from experience...

u may do a little reading on the ZF transmission at http://forums.e60.net/uploads/1162137709/gallery_237_213_323991.pdf

 

[ess530i]

in my case it shifts anywhere between 3k to 5k rpm apart from the fail safe upshift at 6800rpm...

i dont think u can upshift at 6800rpm...the limit is around 6500rpm. what mods do u have on your car? if you have an open top filter that could also be a source of your engine heat coz the e60 engine bay is really hot and not much fresh air coming in which is why i opted for BMC CAI which reduced intake temp at idle from 75 to 50 degrees C

 

[t2ribena]

t2ribena i think the upshift issue has got to do with your engine/tranny overheating problem. the gearbox goes crazy when overheated. suggest you look into the cooling system first before spending money on the tranny. i think the ZF gearbox in the e60 is very robust and not easily damaged even by hard driving. i had similar problem with the tranny and occasional overheat problem before turn out it had something to do with the installation of my supercharger. a leak in the sc caused rapid misfires which increased engine heat & gave wrong signals to the tranny. the tranny communicates with the ecu and reduces engine power during gearshifts so there may be some miscommunication there. now the sc is properly installed and absolutely no more problem with the tranny even with on wheel 257HP/325NM power. changing the tranny & differential oil helps too. this is just my opinion from experience...

u may do a little reading on the ZF transmission at http://forums.e60.net/uploads/1162137709/gallery_237_213_323991.pdf

bro the manual mode issue hit me first before the overheating...i forgot to mention...i actually suspect due to this crazy manual mode that cause the engine overheated...

 

[t2ribena]

i dont think u can upshift at 6800rpm...the limit is around 6500rpm. what mods do u have on your car? if you have an open top filter that could also be a source of your engine heat coz the e60 engine bay is really hot and not much fresh air coming in which is why i opted for BMC CAI which reduced intake temp at idle from 75 to 50 degrees C

bro the redline of my car which is on the N52 engine is at 7000rpm...but the trigger point for the gear is 6800rpm....even though triggered at 6800rpm the gear change only happens at 7000rpm...

 

[k3nny]

bro no prob as i think they shud operate the same way...

the prob with my car's manual mode is that the gear will up shift itself...sometime when i downshift it will instead upshift...i think sudah gila...i test drove other cars similar to mine also no such behaviour...AB SA told me they need to check and confirm first if it is not suppose to be like that...thats wat make me pening...

Bro not to panic.

I had this problem also. I think my E60 had every problem before. Haha.

My E60 steptronic when you push + to upshift, it will jump 2 gears from M3 to M5.

When you are downshifting from M5 to M4, it will upshift instead to M6.

It was gila lar. Just jumping all over the place in manual mode. But Sapura Auto reinitialized the transmission and reprogrammed it i think? Took 4 - 6 hours.

After that the transmission felt different. Smoother infact in the gear changes but abit more hesitation. Maybe its still learning my driving pattern but no more issues with steptronic.

Im at 130,000kms now and the car is exactly 3 years old.


Btw, i just noticed your post above. And yup, this happened when my car overheated the 5th or 6th time otw to singapore too. But when i changed the water pump, they also "fixed" the transmission for me as i complained about it at the same time by reprogramming it. And it seems all is good now. So maybe you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone? hehe

 

[t2ribena]

AB reinitailized the tranny and reprogrammed the EGS/SMG control module but the problem still there...

 

[k3nny]

AB reinitailized the tranny and reprogrammed the EGS/SMG control module but the problem still there...

Even after the overheating problem was solved?

 

[t2ribena]

Even after the overheating problem was solved?

yes...and now they just did another coding and it seems to be ok liau...:top:

 

[k3nny]

yes...and now they just did another coding and it seems to be ok liau...:top:

*phew* on your behalf.



maybe they didnt do it the first time and they were praying the problem would go away by disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it?

HAHAHAH

 

[ess530i]

lucky u brought it to the right party to resolve the issue...when i was havin the tranny issue, called 2 BMW tranny specialist (the 2 most famous one) and both said 'must be the valve body'...'need to replace & overhaul'...'cost around RM8-10k' only...'many e60 got the same problems and we repair oledi'...conclusion is dat the e60 tranny is robust and can take some serious beatings only thing its got a slight mental problem so need to be 'brainwashed' once in a while anyway...congratulations to yet another problem solved...