2003 325 transmission issue

[arod540]

Hello all,
I just bought my daughter a 03 325i 120k miles on it.
She had it in sport mode on freeway then went back into drive after exiting freeway. Car gave her (!) Next to drive and went limp. We parked it then notice some oil but not pink stuff. Mechanic says tranny is gone, I'm not sure what to do next.

Thanks in advanced

[Leothelion092]

Have you done the service on the transmission? If you haven't I'd say start with that and try unplugging your battery to reset transmission ECU and see if it changes anything, but at that mileage I don't see how the transmission would poop. Was it acting weird before that happened?

[Pelican Parts]

Hello - before spending any money, pull the car's codes. This will give you a definitive answer as to where the problem is and if a new trans is in fact needed. If you're going to be doing any maintenance or repairs on the car yourself, take a look at the link below to our site's DIY tech articles on the E46 platform.

BMW 3-Series E46 (1999 - 2006) Technical DIY Articles

[arod540]

Have you done the service on the transmission? If you haven't I'd say start with that and try unplugging your battery to reset transmission ECU and see if it changes anything, but at that mileage I don't see how the transmission would poop. Was it acting weird before that happened?

We have not done any service to the car, just bought it a few weeks ago. Car won't seem to move now. I took it to a friend's shop to pull codes hopefully it not bad

[dhurley34]

BMW factory trans fluid is brown/tan, not red.

[MarcoZandrini]

You need to have the engine computer (DME in BMWeze) and the tranny control module (EGS in BMWeze) scanned for codes. That'll give you an idea of what's going on. Also, what's the maintenance history of the car. Have the tranny fluid and the filter ever been changed? Lifetime fluids was a marketing ploy and not a maintenance philosophy.

[arod540]

Hello all,
I just bought my daughter a 03 325i 120k miles on it.
She had it in sport mode on freeway then went back into drive after exiting freeway. Car gave her (!) Next to drive and went limp. We parked it then notice some oil but not pink stuff. Mechanic says tranny is gone, I'm not sure what to do next.

Thanks in advanced

Well just had car scanned, all kinds of different codes, sorry I didn't write them down, looks like I need a tranny. Damn.
Any suggestions on where to get a used or rebuilt?

[djb2]

The original transmission fluid is closer to olive green than brown. It could pass for "burnt" and "old" even when fresh.

What failed?

If you saw a trail of fluid on the ground and it's not engine oil, it's likely that the input bushing seized to the torque converter nose. The bushing spinning in the casting wore it off-center, allowing transmission fluid to bypass the seal (and putting a bunch of metal dust from the oil pump into the transmission). The fix is a new transmission oil pump ($150-$200), fresh torque converter ($300-$500) and lots of labor ($$??) to remove and clean. Most shops won't touch transmissions except to swap.

[Eaglesail]

Sport MODE holds each of the 5 auto-ratios longer in order so that the higher engine rpms deliver greater power in each of the 5 speeds....I'd guess that the daughter exposed the big problem sooner than would have been later...Not her fault!