530i m sport autobox issues
Discussion
Hi Guy's
Well how gutted am I, 3 months into my BMW ownership and the drive is empty as the 530 is at the garage and the outlook is not good.
Went to work as normal and parked up, worked hard all days as normal lol, jumped into my car for the return trip, selected reverse and nothing, didn't move an inch.
I've had no issues with the car before today apart from a slight steering wobble between 40-50 but was booked in later this week for that anyway, but never any trans issues.
A friend helped me push the car back enough for me to drive out, so selected drive and it was like nothing was wrong, kicked down right, tiptronic worked, shifted through all gears, perfect. But still no reverse.
Anyway I have now been surfing the net for the last 3 hours and it would appear that this is a common issuewith failure of the reverse drum clutch or something like that affecting auto petrol cars between 99-01 and to resolve requires a full rebuild at around £2000 give or take, great.
To make matters worse 3 weeks ago I had the car coverted to lpg at a cost of £1800, I couldn't be happier with the convertion and currently save around 50% of my previous fuel bill but hell this is going to be one expensive E39. Balls could have bought an M5 lol
The car is a 2000(X) 530i M-sport Individual with 107k.
Well how gutted am I, 3 months into my BMW ownership and the drive is empty as the 530 is at the garage and the outlook is not good.
Went to work as normal and parked up, worked hard all days as normal lol, jumped into my car for the return trip, selected reverse and nothing, didn't move an inch.
I've had no issues with the car before today apart from a slight steering wobble between 40-50 but was booked in later this week for that anyway, but never any trans issues.
A friend helped me push the car back enough for me to drive out, so selected drive and it was like nothing was wrong, kicked down right, tiptronic worked, shifted through all gears, perfect. But still no reverse.
Anyway I have now been surfing the net for the last 3 hours and it would appear that this is a common issuewith failure of the reverse drum clutch or something like that affecting auto petrol cars between 99-01 and to resolve requires a full rebuild at around £2000 give or take, great.
To make matters worse 3 weeks ago I had the car coverted to lpg at a cost of £1800, I couldn't be happier with the convertion and currently save around 50% of my previous fuel bill but hell this is going to be one expensive E39. Balls could have bought an M5 lol
The car is a 2000(X) 530i M-sport Individual with 107k.
Hiya
When my E39 gearbox failed at 172K miles (150K which was done by the Police in it's first 3 years) I had it rebuilt for £1275+VAT at Automatic Man in Acton, West London.
Now, 3 years later it's been absolutley fine and I have no problems in recommending them. Just saved you £500 or so!
Cheers, Dennis!
When my E39 gearbox failed at 172K miles (150K which was done by the Police in it's first 3 years) I had it rebuilt for £1275+VAT at Automatic Man in Acton, West London.
Now, 3 years later it's been absolutley fine and I have no problems in recommending them. Just saved you £500 or so!
Cheers, Dennis!
Lol I will do some shopping around for the best price/deal, however i have spoken with a local BMW specialist today and he has dealt with a large number of vehicles this problem and uses the same trans rebuilder everytime. He said he isn't the cheapest but is good value and has done a large number of BMW boxes without further problems, so I might have to dig deep and play it safe. On the plus side he said the rebuilder will inspect the box when stripping down and has in the past found that many do not need at full rebuild and only require the damaged parts replaced and new fluid along with a full health check , this if it's the case could bring the bill by many £££ under what I expected to pay so fingers crossed.
Hi Sirrom,
That's exactly what pretty much all gearbox reconditioning specialists will do. The now known weaker internals of the gearbox are replaced, everything else is checked and renewed if needed. Now I'm not saying that everything internally is replaced but if there's something really obvious apart from the known often failing parts, that'll be replaced as well pending it can be included within the costings. If by any chance it's a major component costing X amount of hundreds extra, then a phone call would probably happen to inform you/the customer.
From memory, it's some sort of 'spline' which deteriorates and it's not a gradual reduction in useage/performance, it'll just 'go' and it's that part which is now known commonly to eventually fail. To get to it, the gearbox has to be split open and semi dismantled, so even if yours is in good working order and the fault is indeed someplace else in your gearbox, they should renew it anyway seeing as the gearbox is open!
I did ALOT of research when mine gave way, including speaking to people within the Trade and between everyone who was reputable I pretty much heard the same all over. I'd be skeptical if anyone said they'll recondition the gearbox fully for hundreds of pounds less that that £1500-2000 figure as it'll most likely not be a full on reconditioning that'll be actually happening.
It may well indeed turn out to be something that's a relatively easy fix and perhaps doesn't need a gearbox rebuild - very hard for anyone reading your post to figure out, but the signs indicate it'll probably will be needing a full reconditioning job.
cheers, Dennis!
That's exactly what pretty much all gearbox reconditioning specialists will do. The now known weaker internals of the gearbox are replaced, everything else is checked and renewed if needed. Now I'm not saying that everything internally is replaced but if there's something really obvious apart from the known often failing parts, that'll be replaced as well pending it can be included within the costings. If by any chance it's a major component costing X amount of hundreds extra, then a phone call would probably happen to inform you/the customer.
From memory, it's some sort of 'spline' which deteriorates and it's not a gradual reduction in useage/performance, it'll just 'go' and it's that part which is now known commonly to eventually fail. To get to it, the gearbox has to be split open and semi dismantled, so even if yours is in good working order and the fault is indeed someplace else in your gearbox, they should renew it anyway seeing as the gearbox is open!
I did ALOT of research when mine gave way, including speaking to people within the Trade and between everyone who was reputable I pretty much heard the same all over. I'd be skeptical if anyone said they'll recondition the gearbox fully for hundreds of pounds less that that £1500-2000 figure as it'll most likely not be a full on reconditioning that'll be actually happening.
It may well indeed turn out to be something that's a relatively easy fix and perhaps doesn't need a gearbox rebuild - very hard for anyone reading your post to figure out, but the signs indicate it'll probably will be needing a full reconditioning job.
cheers, Dennis!
Thanks for all the advice guy's, I will speak with the guys recommended by the BMW specialist about the options and if it means the whole lot then so be it. I would rather pay more out and be safe then spend well over a grand and the box only last a limited time, target is to see it well for at least another 100k, lol. I have heard that later models 02 onwards used uprated thicker redesigned parts that are stronger and greatly reduce the chances of another failier, but this again is something I want to speak with the trans guys about.
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