E34 Gear Not Smooth
- Thread starter Beem
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I think you are low on transmission fluid. You've likely got a leak around your gasket, or if you did some work on your trans recently, the mechanic did not put enough oil back. You'll need to top up oil, change the oil seal and filter as well (ideally). If not, just top up oil will do. Refer to the Bentley manual for E39s for the oil top up procedure. The gearbox needs to be warmed up to a certain temperature, the engine needs to be running, and someone needs to shift through all the available gears in manual mode, while someone else pumps in the transmission oil. Best to use the same transmission oil that your car came with, althrough Dex6 should be fine as well.
Another symptom of low trans fluid.....drive fast then do a hard brake. Once the car stops, release the brake pedal and do not step on the accelerator. If the car takes a few seconds to begin moving instead of moving almost immediately, then its confirmed. What happens : during a hard brake, trans oil is slushed to the front of the gearbox, temporarily depleting the rear. The gbox detects low oil around the gears and does not engage. It waits for oil to flow back to a sufficient level before engaging....this is to prevent damage. If you have enough oil in the gbox, there'll be enough oil left een after a hard brake. Please do this only after your car/gbox is warmed up and behaving normally. Let us know how it goes.
Another symptom of low trans fluid.....drive fast then do a hard brake. Once the car stops, release the brake pedal and do not step on the accelerator. If the car takes a few seconds to begin moving instead of moving almost immediately, then its confirmed. What happens : during a hard brake, trans oil is slushed to the front of the gearbox, temporarily depleting the rear. The gbox detects low oil around the gears and does not engage. It waits for oil to flow back to a sufficient level before engaging....this is to prevent damage. If you have enough oil in the gbox, there'll be enough oil left een after a hard brake. Please do this only after your car/gbox is warmed up and behaving normally. Let us know how it goes.
If its the valve body, any bmw shop with a scan software like DIS and GTR will be able to spot it as the solenoids in your gbox will register fault codes. Have them clear the fault codes immediately....sometimes that fixes the problem permanently ! Should not charge you more than 50 for all of this.
The mechanic who told you 'valve body' immediately is out to make a fast buck imo. Anyway, stuck valves in valve bodies can be unstuck by cleaning out the valve body (vb) with a degreasing solution and low pressure water hose. Sometimes, stuck valves can be unstuck by the simple addition of products such as Lucas Transmission fix (generally only available on ebay not locally) to the gearbox, which break up deposits without doing harm to seals.
You have alot of options. Especially if this suddenly happened, and you haven't done anything to your car as yet, I'm pretty sure that you've got error codes in your VB solenoids which have disabled them or put them in something called 'limp home' mode, which artificially degrades their use in order to prevent further damage under normal or severe use.
Error codes can often be deleted by the owner by simply disconnecting both battery terminals for about 10 minutes and reconnecting them. However, this procedure may vary from car to car, so I suggest you google for that information. Perhaps deleting the codes will solve your problems straightaway (as mentioned earlier).
In any case, I think its a good idea to get your car scanned to see what went wrong....
The mechanic who told you 'valve body' immediately is out to make a fast buck imo. Anyway, stuck valves in valve bodies can be unstuck by cleaning out the valve body (vb) with a degreasing solution and low pressure water hose. Sometimes, stuck valves can be unstuck by the simple addition of products such as Lucas Transmission fix (generally only available on ebay not locally) to the gearbox, which break up deposits without doing harm to seals.
You have alot of options. Especially if this suddenly happened, and you haven't done anything to your car as yet, I'm pretty sure that you've got error codes in your VB solenoids which have disabled them or put them in something called 'limp home' mode, which artificially degrades their use in order to prevent further damage under normal or severe use.
Error codes can often be deleted by the owner by simply disconnecting both battery terminals for about 10 minutes and reconnecting them. However, this procedure may vary from car to car, so I suggest you google for that information. Perhaps deleting the codes will solve your problems straightaway (as mentioned earlier).
In any case, I think its a good idea to get your car scanned to see what went wrong....
Just read through your initial posts again. 
Its normal for a car to take longer to shift up gears when the engine and g/box is cold. This is to generate more heat, which will bring up the car to operating temperature quickly. However, something is indeed wrong when the distance involved/rpm involved in shifting gears in the morning gets longer and longer. How is your engine temperature? Is the car taking longer than normal to get to operating temp from cold? Has this been happening for the past 2 months? If that's the case, then the solution is fortunately very straightforward. Thermostat. Your thermostate is faulty, and is either open all the time or opening too quickly preventing the coolant in the block from heating up fully before being allowed to circulate through the radiator circuit to cool down. Thus, the gearbox delays gearshifts to generate more heat.
Start your car in the morning when cold and leave it at idle. Don't drive. Note the time. You should reach operating temp in less than 5 minutes that way. If its taking longer then you've got a problem with the thermostat.
The solution is dirt cheap and equally simple. Change the thermostat (and o ring and thermostat housing gasket too usually) to a new one right away. You can also change your water pump if you haven't done so in the past 2 years...these two items usually have identical lifespans. Your engine belts will also typically have the same lifespan as the water pump so you can change those out too if you like. Use only conti belts not that bando shit. All in all, a cheap and very useful fix that is also a thorough servicing of some of the car's key components so its not really a waste if this doesn't fix the problem.
Its normal for a car to take longer to shift up gears when the engine and g/box is cold. This is to generate more heat, which will bring up the car to operating temperature quickly. However, something is indeed wrong when the distance involved/rpm involved in shifting gears in the morning gets longer and longer. How is your engine temperature? Is the car taking longer than normal to get to operating temp from cold? Has this been happening for the past 2 months? If that's the case, then the solution is fortunately very straightforward. Thermostat. Your thermostate is faulty, and is either open all the time or opening too quickly preventing the coolant in the block from heating up fully before being allowed to circulate through the radiator circuit to cool down. Thus, the gearbox delays gearshifts to generate more heat.
Start your car in the morning when cold and leave it at idle. Don't drive. Note the time. You should reach operating temp in less than 5 minutes that way. If its taking longer then you've got a problem with the thermostat.
The solution is dirt cheap and equally simple. Change the thermostat (and o ring and thermostat housing gasket too usually) to a new one right away. You can also change your water pump if you haven't done so in the past 2 years...these two items usually have identical lifespans. Your engine belts will also typically have the same lifespan as the water pump so you can change those out too if you like. Use only conti belts not that bando shit. All in all, a cheap and very useful fix that is also a thorough servicing of some of the car's key components so its not really a waste if this doesn't fix the problem.
Rastabimmer
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Does anyone know how much is the full rebuilt kit for gecko gearbox for M50B25 vanos engine? Normally how much is needed to rebuilt the whole auto gearbox?
Sub-ZeroE34
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To top this up, which is cost saving or I would say recommended? change the gearbox or repair it? need the advise from all the sifu's...Rastabimmer;585004 said:
Rastabimmer
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Sub-ZeroE34;585343 said:
Any sifu's need ur help... hear that jetco gbox around 1k+..
yusriyacob
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Same problem as in here try to solved....mine is not smooth change gear also till one day its came out with * indicator ....switch off engine for 10 second and start it back and back to normal again when shifting from 3rd 4th gear along da way and the indicator thing is back to light again and same thing will do again and again and again until i heard a noise came out from inside the gear box as i suspect the 4th gear are torn and kaput when its not shifting from 3rd to 4th gear.... so i took a long drive home from k.l this morning to k.bharu kelantan with top gear is 3rd , and can drive only up to 90kmh and reach k.b at 6pm today. Many of my friend advised me to repair or change to a 2nd hand GM gbox...what is you guys is going to say..???? i need help ...plisssssssssssssss.zzzzzzzzzz
Sub-ZeroE34
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Rebuild/Repair is the best option, at least we know we have change damage parts to a new one..little bit expensive but I guess worth to spend...
yusriyacob
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well for that opinion and i already sent my baby to workshop for an overhaul the gearbox.....waiting...repair kit only cost me about RM700.00Sub-ZeroE34;588777 said:
fitri jusop
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my GB also has quite similar prob as i starting my ride,during the 2nd gear (about 50km/h) it hard to engage to 3rd gear until i rammed to 4000 or 5000rpm . sometimes (or many times) OK but sometime it will slipped . so i just pull the knob from D to 3..then,when i stop at traffic lite or something, GB wont decrease to lower gear . thats the prob i face for about 3 months.
recently i went to SPS shah alam and the mechanic told me that was a very common prob for ZF GB.he recommend me to do gearbox flushing for approx. 1 day. the job will requires some 20 liters of ATF (1 liter=RM80) and the labor charge is RM300 (duh!).
so i WTA,does anybody had done this before? the result ok or not? wat about the price?
thnx!
recently i went to SPS shah alam and the mechanic told me that was a very common prob for ZF GB.he recommend me to do gearbox flushing for approx. 1 day. the job will requires some 20 liters of ATF (1 liter=RM80) and the labor charge is RM300 (duh!).
so i WTA,does anybody had done this before? the result ok or not? wat about the price?
thnx!
yusriyacob
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Finally my e34 is fixed with an overhauled gearbox .... smooth like new GB and cost me only RM1900.00 net...ermmmmm those peole who live in Kelantan is advised to do the GB job in this Place
call 0179547509
call 0179547509
Sub-ZeroE34
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Bro yusri...where is the place bro?
yusriyacob
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somwhere near pengkalan chepa bro...
