2004 transmission problems

[jballance]

My wife has been driving 5 series BMW since 1988 and she feels very safe ( she has had several wrecks, totaled 2 cars) none of them were her fault. I can't afford to buy them new, we usually wait until they are about 5 years old and I just bought her a 2004 525. It has 60000 miles and when I drove it the 1st time I noticed at about 45 miles per hour the transmission would go back and forth between gears like it could not decide which gear to to into. I think it was 4 th and 5th gear. As I would accelerate it would go ahead and shift. It does not seem to do it everytime. Does anyone have any ideas?

[dello]

Maybe the computer is trying to figure out your driving style. The adaptive transmission tend to be indecisive when it doesn't recognize the the driving style of the driver. Everytime my wife drives my car it will adjust to her driving style which at best is very slow, so it tends to hold the gears a little longer. However, when i drive my car after my wife has driven it, the transmission tends to be perplex and have moments of stall when I floor the throttle. You can probably go to the dealer, and see if they can reprogram the transmission from the previous owner, or just take a little road trip and let the car get use to your driving style.

[jballance]

thanks for the reply I went to the dealer and the shop mgr is a friend and rode with me. He mentioned reprogramming. Since I just bought the car I won't to make sure there is no major transmission problem. I have not gone on a long trip but 3 or 4 hours & still same issue.

[CoveCat61]

I read on another board that you can reset the transmission by turning the key on the the 2 position, i.e. electronics on, and depressing the accelerator for 25 seconds -- make it 60 to be sure. Supposedly that will reset so that it can re-learn. I did it on my 04. I dunno, might be sugar pills, but give it a try. I think mine is shifting less harshly from 1 to 2 now.

[MinervaBtfl]

My 2004 525i also does the finicky gear-hunting game. It makes me feel like the transmission is going to fall out when it shifts hard. I always just figured it was because the car is so heavy and so underpowered, which might still be part of it on our cars (in addition to the adaptive tranny).

[spaceroach]

It is most likely a bad valve body in the transmission. BMW calls the valve body "Mechatronics".

BMW has put out a service bulletin about it. My 04 had the same problem. It is an expensive fix. Aprox four to five thousand dollars.