Auto Trans Decisions

[B33GFTD]

What is the life of these transmissions on average? What would you do?

[KillahKal88]

GM makes the auto trans on these cars. Manual transmissions were manufactured by ZF. Either way, these transmissions both manual and auto last quite a bit assuming that regular fluid/filter changes have been done (manual gearbox lasts a little longer). If you're not sure, I'd go ahead and get the filter and fluid and get it changed.

Average lifespan I've seen is around 200-250k.

Other things to consider is replacing the valve cover gasket as it tends to leak/burn oil. What makes you think that the head needs to be replaced?

[flyfishvt]

GM makes the auto trans on these cars. Manual transmissions were manufactured by ZF. Either way, these transmissions both manual and auto last quite a bit assuming that regular fluid/filter changes have been done (manual gearbox lasts a little longer). If you're not sure, I'd go ahead and get the filter and fluid and get it changed.

Average lifespan I've seen is around 200-250k.

Other things to consider is replacing the valve cover gasket as it tends to leak/burn oil. What makes you think that the head needs to be replaced?

Sorry to disagree here but the GM auto tranny seems to start having issues around 125k. You could be one of the lucky ones who goes 200k but there are enough threads here from people who have issues way before that. The tranny itself is acutally pretty good. The problem is that BMW decided that the fluid should not be changed for the life of the car. They expected the life of the car to be about 100k.

You pegged the temp gauge and now you're loosing coolant. Your scenerio is very common. It takes a while for headgasket issues to show up after a severe overheat episode. To confirm this you need to have a compression test and a cooling system pressure test.

Do your own headgasket job and its about $500 and a couple days. Have a shop do it and its at least twice that. The tranny is fine now but I wouldn't trust it to be problem free much longer.

If you work on your own car then I would do the head gasket and consider getting the tranny rebuilt. Even though its not showing any signs of problems...if you read through just the last two months of posts you'll find plenty of auto tranny posts that will make you understand why I recommend that. You can pull the tranny and take it to be rebuilt while you do the head gasket or if you are really adventerous you can buy the rebuild kit and do it yourself. Its not technically difficult.

Or you could just dump the car.

[scooper]

If the fluid and filter in the auto hasn't been changed you should do that first. GM trannies, while not as sexy as the zf 5 speed, work ok. 160k+ on the 328 with no issues. Changed out the fluid using Redline ATF D4 at 116k with no issues. Also, we use the e-brake regularly when parked and shift into neutral when stopped at lights.

Do what flyfishvt recommends and see what needs to be done regarding the headgasket. If you're lucky you might not need to do anything for awhile.

[ConvGeorge]

I would take a look at the fluid (difficult I know in these car) before I changed it. If it's a nice red, go ahead and change it, but don't do a flush, just a normal filter and fluid. If it looks brown, smells burnt, well...your transmission is already dead, and just doesn't know it. New fluid could strip away what's left of the friction material and hasten the demise of the transmission. Start saving for a rebuild or a used transmission.

Incidentally, the auto in my former 318 made it to 200k miles before it gave up the ghost, and I just swapped in a used one with 100k miles that worked fine.

[westfield]

The auto trannies are all about regular fluid and filter changes plus non-abusive driving. Follow those two tenets and your tranny will do fine. I know...boring, but it is an auto...My auto is at 100K and doing fine with proper maintenance.

[fun2drive]

Pegging the temp gauge even once is a pretty good way to cause a failure of the headgasket and your symptoms are certainly in line with that.

You never said how handy you are but one thing is for sure you will be extremely lucky to get this done in a couple days. You do need a friend from time to time just to help get the old head off and the machined head back on. Feeding the cam chain through the head is the main reason also this isn't real heavy when it is just the head but the head with exhaust with cams is.

You need to be sure who ever does the work gets the head pressure tested, decked (meaning no more than 0.010" deviation) and a roughness average (RA) of 50 or better. That allows the head gasket to move around and not tear when expanding. Use standard head gaskets. I am partial to Elring but VR recently bought them so I guess you will get a VR. You don't need anything thicker than stock if the shop doesn't plane the head more that what is allowed.
Standard head bolts and get your copper nuts for the exhaust, new valve cover gasket, etc. Now would be the time to change the O ring and seal on the VANOS too.

Realistically you will put in close to 35 -40 hours to do this first time. You will find this will take a lot longer than you thought it would be so what if you are doing it. You then know for sure what you have.

I would prefer to work on a car I know than buy someone else's problems.

Tranmission is built in France and is robust only if the ATF, DEXIII is changed on a regular basis. If this was my 328 I would drop the pans and replace the fliter refill the transmission and check for correct level and hope for the best.

You are lucky since you can use DEXIII or a synthetic version of DEXIII for a reasonable price compared to the ZF auto which takes Esso LT 71141 or Pentosin AFT1 both known as Lifeguard5.

Good luck and post what you do...

[KillahKal88]

Also you can check for metal debris while the transmission fluid is being drained. It should give you a good indication on how well your transmission is doing (aside from visually inspecting the old fluid).

[flyfishvt]

Vanos is very simple. Here is a link to a thread I did on it. Actually its a thread I did on a video that explains it all.

The first two links in that thread are for the same video. For some reason the first link doesn't work but the second one does.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1631732