2004 E60 525i ZF6HP19 transmission advice

[Desert525i]

I changed out half the fluid, pan w/filter and all new pan bolts a couple of months ago hoping it would cure the hard upshift at the 3-4 gears. It didn't and now I also have a small hesitation when cold shifting from 1-2. I believe it's time for a valve body job. Does anyone have any reason(s) why they wouldn't change the valvebody with a rebuilt unit and instead go with solenoids only and a new seal plug adapter grommet between the valve body and pump? I can send in my valve body for $650 and get this done in Ohio;

This listing is for Rebuild Service on a BMW ZF6HP19 Valve Body. Due to the difficulty in obtaining cores for rebuild, we currently can only offer our Rebuild Service on this model. We email you a shipping label, you send us your valve body, we rebuild it and send it back to you. You get the same Lifetime Warranty we offer on all of our valve bodies.
Turn-around time may take as long as 14-18 business days, it depends on our backlog and which version separator plate your valve body has. Call to check our current average turn around times. It spends one day on the testing table, tested on a pressure tester and a Superflow Dynamometer to make sure everything meets factory spec. and there are zero pressure leaks. The price above includes UPS Ground Shipping to and from our Rebuild Center.

When remanufacturing your valve body it is updated better than OEM. Valve bodies have: A Stainless Steel Bore Sleeve Installed with an Updated Pressure Regulator Valve. A New Precision Steel Separator Plate, and Sonnax End Plug Kit. Other Sonnax updates may be installed depending on wear and design level of the body. Solenoids are demagnetized, cleaned, rebuilt and tested. Defective solenoids are replaced.

The car has about 120,000 on it now. Someone at sometime was in the tranny because 2 of the pan bolts had been changed to the newer, bigger style. The fluid didn't look too bad but definitely needed changing. An indy BMW shop said only change out half the fluid to begin with using ZF Lifeguard 6 because of the unknowns and the new fluid having detergents which MAY cause further issues if a complete change was done. Made sense to me. The old pan had zero metal at the magnets or anywhere. No sludge or deposits laying in the bottom of it either. It was actually pretty clean but unknown if original or not. If anyone has messed with this and has any ideas about solenoids vs. complete valve body rebuild I would like to know. The car is run mostly on the freeway right now so it doesn't get a lot of shifting which I know could further hurt it in this condition.
Thanks

[XAlt]

Send it out, the PO's (probably incomplete) fluid change probably masked the symptoms for a bit.

[jclausen]

The other issues is the pressure seals between the valve body and the trans case these cause hard shifts when you change the filter you drop the valve body and change the seals. But the bigger question is what are the pressures in the clutch packs which can be read with the auto logic, if these numbers are greater than 300, then after changing the pressure seals you could still have issues. If those numbers are high I dont think replacing the valve body would help. Also after replacing the pressure seals you would have to reset the adaptations

[Desert525i]

Thanks XAlt and jclausen for the input. I have paid for the rebuild by worldwidespecialtypartsvbx and will see how the car does after sending in the valvebody and getting it back and installed. The downtime gives me a chance to change the giubo out and transmission mounts and other maintenance.
Another issue that came up, the bridge seal (square seal between valve body and pump) is pretty much a dealer item now with the exception of a few places that have it like Pelican. May want to keep that in mind if you are looking for one on the early E60. The BMW dealer wanted twice the amount and would ONLY order it if you appeared in person to order and pay, no phoned in credit card orders. Makes a person wonder whats up with that type of service! They probably wanna run a background check on you or something first. Can't have the wrong kind of people buying a bridge seal nowadays, that would make BMW look bad.

[jclausen]

You will have to reset the shift adaptations, yes the pressure seals are a dealer item but they don't cost much. A part like that I would want to know it is a factory part.

[Desert525i]

Here's an update;
First of all, thanks for all input and suggestions. Thanks to KyleB at 5series forum for the excellent write-up he did on this issue. And thanks to Matt Cilwa at World Wide Specialty Parts who arranged for the valve body to be rebuilt by Sonnax (way better than a BMW rebuild I think) for $650 with a true lifetime warranty.
Now to the car, The downtime allowed me to change out the guibo and bolts and nuts, new transmission mounts (support the tranny backend when you remove the crossmember to change them) and some other maintenance. A slight vibration that used to show up around 70 or 80 MPH is gone even though the mounts and guibo looked like they were fine, evidently they were not. Changing the transmission mechatronic sleeve is a PITA to reinstall and get the connector back on. Make yourself a tool to help, I used an old piece of metal strap similar to plumbers tape but way thicker and bent a 90 degree in the end with a 1" tab on it. That allows you to reach in there and pull down on the back end of the plug to help line it up and turn the lock ring back around and lock it in. I didn't trust my 4000 pound jackstands, seemed too unstable with the lifting points that are made of plastic. I made some adapters out of hockey pucks cut to fit in the plastic lift points, then I went to a neighborhood tire shop run by a local family and bought 4 used steel rims 9" wide ($5 each) and an 8' 2x12 , 2 8' 4x4s from the depot and quartered them. Jacked up the car, put the rim down with two 2' piece of 4X4, laid the 2' 2x12 on that and the hockey puck adapter on top of that and lowered the car back down. The car wasn't going anywhere and I felt completely safe under it. Total cost of the items to do that was about $30, $20 for rims, wood was $5 because the wood was in the scrap section and sold for almost nothing. Hockey pucks on Amazon were like $6 for 4. Removing the valve body was easy and the 4 seals were hardened and shrunk compared to new ones, same with the bridge seal. Reinstalling is simple including new seals (all ZF), reinstall pan and new fluid and then reset adaptions with INPA. Very easy to finish and just as others have said, the tranny shifts hard until it learns how I drive. Took it out on the freeway and nailed the throttle, up to 120 MPH in no time, that would never happen before. Tires are not rated above that speed so I backed off. After driving 30 miles or so I encountered several errors, cruise control not working, transmission errors and something about the CANBUS. Used INPA and cleared all errors and drove again, no errors and beginning to shift smoother. Definite increase in power and acceleration, I'm sure the MPG will go up if I don't go over 80-85 MPH!
It is worth it to remove the valve body and have Matt have Sonnax work it over. WAAAAAY cheaper than BMW, just ensure you package it real good so the solenoids don't get broken. 1 week to ship it, 3-5 days for the rebuild and 1 week to return it. Lots of time to do other work to your car while it's in the air. I hope to update this again after several hundred miles on it.

[Desert525i]

Put about 350 miles on it and the car acts like a new transmission was installed. Definitely worth the money for the valve body work. I had an issue with the sleeve not being fully seated which caused some intermittent errors but that got resolved, as I said before, a PITA to install that sleeve. Less than $1000 for all work and parts saved me a fortune. Don't hesitate to do the work if you have the room and tools to do it. KyleB has an excellent DIY on the 6HP19 at 5series.

[pshovest]

Congratulations and thanks for the update. Did Sonnax change/replace any of the solenoids?

[Desert525i]

Here's what they say is done;

When remanufacturing your valve body it is updated better than OEM. Valve bodies have: A Stainless Steel Bore Sleeve Installed with an Updated Pressure Regulator Valve. A New Precision Steel Separator Plate, and Sonnax End Plug Kit. Other Sonnax updates may be installed depending on wear and design level of the body. Solenoids are demagnetized, cleaned, rebuilt and tested. Defective solenoids are replaced.
ALL of our valve bodies and rebuilds come with a TRUE LIFETIME WARRANTY, this is the last valve body you will EVER need to buy! Most sellers only offer 12 months/12,000 miles, but we stand behind our rebuilds for LIFE.

I don't know the status of solenoids in mine but with the warranty I didn't really mind. I know Sonnax is not interested in seeing that valve body again so I feel they did what needed to be done on each one to keep it going without problems.

[pshovest]

I saw that boilerplate. I've always wondered about the "demagnetized, cleaned,rebuilt, tested......" and am curious how many actually get replaced. New solenoids should have been a brighter color than the ones that have been sitting in AFT for ~13 years.

[gmak]

@Desert525i

Did you have any trouble pushing the white locking tab back into place for the sleeve? I have my valve body out for replacing the solenoids and the tab seems to be sticking to where I'm afraid to put any force on trying to see if I can get it to go back into place, before putting the valve body back in the tranny.

I'll just update with 2 items:

1. Earlier zf 6HP trannies didn't have the foam piece on the TCM where the solenoid contacts reside. IT was added later due to contaminants (the grey slush from wear and tear) getting into the valve body and messing with the pressures and operation of small fiddly bits.

2. The white lock tab will only move back up into place if the sleeve is in place. There are two small metal tabs on the lower rim of the socket where the pins reside. This has to be pressed back properly (i.e. the sleeve is properly in place) for the locking tab to move back up into place. I tried this with the mechatronic out of the tranny and it is indeed true.