5HP19 tranny ran out of oil.

[demetk]

I just acquired a 2000 330ci with a bad tranny on a trade for my old ride on mower with a good tranny.

The short story: The cooling fan blew up and the resulting shrapnel put a small dent in the hood, a small hole in the rad and a large hole in the tranny oil cooler. The car eventually stopped moving on its own power and that's when it was finally towed and given up on.

I put in a new rad, tranny cooler and cooling fan and added Valvoline Maxlife fluid to the tranny. I started the car and let the engine idle to normal temp. The engine sounds fine but the tranny is a bit worse for wear. It has no reverse gear and a very weak forward gear but I did I manage to get it in the garage and on the lift. Neutral and reverse spins the wheels in the forward direction and drive erratically spins the wheels in the forward direction. I'm going to be pulling the tranny today and taking it apart. Opinions on what I should be looking for would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

[whiskychaser]

The D/G drum on the 5HP19 is the same as the 5HP18 - sometimes breaks and you lose reverse. So if you have sharp bits of metal in the pan, it may well have let go. Depending when, you might only find the bits above the valve body. You can get bits in places where they do not belong so clutches can apply when they should not. If you are looking for a cause, check out the pressure regulator. If it has overheated due to the damaged cooler, the clutches will be burned. If you have not got the manual already and would like it, drop me a quick PM with your email address and I will be happy to send it to you. It has all the specs you will need

[demetk]

Thanks very much for the offer. I'll PM you.

I'll post up some pics when I have the tranny disassembled.

[Muzz258]

Did you fill the transmission following the correct procedure?
- car level on jack stands
- engine running
- Cycle the shifter through all gears (with foot on brake) to bleed air
- transmission between 30 to 50 degrees C
- Filled to over flowing.

If not, you may still have too little fluid in the transmission

[demetk]

Did you fill the transmission following the correct procedure?
- car level on jack stands
- engine running
- Cycle the shifter through all gears (with foot on brake) to bleed air
- transmission between 30 to 50 degrees C
- Filled to over flowing.

If not, you may still have too little fluid in the transmission

Yes, that's the first thing I did. Having an e39 touring I am familiar with this procedure. Being under a running car to check the tranny fluid is so uncomfortable for me that I fixed that issue on the e39.

[demetk]

Tranny is out of the car and partially apart. This tranny is real easy to take apart. Are all ZF's like this?





I found nothing weird in the pan. The D/G drum looks to be intact. I'm going to start taking each drum apart and inspecting the clutch packs. If I find nothing unusual then I'll look at the valve body next.

If the steel plates have slight burn marks can they be cleaned up and reused? I'm planning on replacing the friction plates and the o-rings.

[easymoney]

Wow! I don't have the guts to do that. My ZF just dumped all that fluid (I don't have any idea what caused it) and finally after 2 months found a replacement from a smashed front end from the boneyard. I'll probably have it running by next week. Good luck and let us know how successful you are in rebuilding that ZF.

[whiskychaser]

Wow! I don't have the guts to do that. My ZF just dumped all that fluid (I don't have any idea what caused it) and finally after 2 months found a replacement from a smashed front end from the boneyard. I'll probably have it running by next week. Good luck and let us know how successful you are in rebuilding that ZF.

If it dumped the ATF through the bell housing, the pump bushing may have spun. It has been known to happen on this trans. It is just behind the front seal so fairly easy to spot when the trans is out.

[demetk]

Wow! I don't have the guts to do that. My ZF just dumped all that fluid (I don't have any idea what caused it) and finally after 2 months found a replacement from a smashed front end from the boneyard. I'll probably have it running by next week. Good luck and let us know how successful you are in rebuilding that ZF.

I felt/still feel the same. whiskychaser was kind enough to send me a boatload of documentation on the 5hp19 tranny. So I'm off to replacing the friction plates. I'll post pics of the problem areas if any. I spoke with the gurus at eriksson industries about forward motion in R, N and D and he suggests that a clutch pack has a couple of steel plates got welded together. My nephew suggests the valve body.

Some great videos that I watched a bunch of times to build up my courage. He makes it all look so easy.

ZF5HP19 Teardown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=199lGVAnUT8

ZF 5HP19 D/G clutch drum (reverse drum): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQgKJBYsI-I

ZF5HP24 Assembly Tip, A clutch Drum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MynPHsO6TA

ZF5HP19 Front Pump Leak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aY-PjRmPL0

ZF5HP19 Valvebody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQJIxCKoVlU

[demetk]

I started from the rear of the tranny and started taking the clutches apart.



Clutches F, G and D are in good shape so I put them back together and loaded them into the tranny case.



Then I focused on clutch E. It looked dark.



Sure enough something was up with it.





Clutches are fused together.



Looks like the gurus at Eriksson Industries were right. I'll take the E clutch assembly to them and get the replacement parts for it.

cheers

[whiskychaser]

Wow! Looks like you have found your smoking gun. As you know, the E clutch is only on in 4 and 5. So you have to ask how it got like that to prevent it happening again. Look forward to seeing the A clutch. It may be no coincidence that they are right next to each other and may have been fighting

[demetk]

Wow! Looks like you have found your smoking gun. As you know, the E clutch is only on in 4 and 5. So you have to ask how it got like that to prevent it happening again. Look forward to seeing the A clutch. It may be no coincidence that they are right next to each other and may have been fighting

The A clutch is in good shape as both the friction and steel disks look good.

The B clutch needs friction disks. The steel disks have slight burn marks. Not sure if they need to be replaced.



The C clutch is also in good shape.

I just may be able to save this tranny.

[demetk]

The E clutch drum which I thought was beyond saving cleaned up nicely with the help of a pic and a wire brush. I bought new clutches for $57 and installed them. With that done I installed the remaining clutches into the tranny case.



The pan is a little rusty so I'm going to clean it up and then retrofit a dipstick so I can fill it from above.



All that's left is to clean out the valve body and put the car back together. What are the chances of it blowing up at first gear selection?

cheers

[demetk]

Took the valve body apart and cleaned it up. To keep track of the little plastic discs I printed a pic of the valve body and pinned each disc in place.



All done and ready to install.



cheers

[MarcoZandrini]

Nice work!

[demetk]

Nice work!

Thanks but the jury is still out on this.

Getting things ready to put the tranny back and part of the starter housing fell on the floor. I guess I busted it trying to disconnect the starter from the tranny.



So I bought a rebuilt starter, but the new starter solenoid is missing one of the connection plates (yellow circle).



It looks like it's used for an unloader relay circuit? I think I can take the plate off the old starter and install it on the new one.

To get to the stater wiring and to the CCV system so I can junk it I pulled the intake manifold. There is a little oil leak which I will fix.



cheers

[91calysorot]

Thank you for sharing. It will help a lot when i Dismantle my 5hp19 trans for my e46.

[demetk]

Holy Sheets it alive!

Filled the tranny up with tranny fluid (Valvoline MaxLife) from my dipstick . I had the fill plug out so when the fluid started to come out I put the fill plug back in. Checked the dipstick and it showed below the min line so I cut it and welded an extension on it to bring the fluid up to the max line.



You can see where the dipstick comes out just beside the DISA valve.



Naturally something else has to break. This time it was the hood release lever by the kidney grill. So I just wired it up for now.



I fired the engine up and it was idling pretty bad and wouldn't rev. Checking my connections I realized I hadn't plugged the throttle body connector all the way in. Fired it up again and it ran much better.

Then to my disappointment the tranny fault light was on. Scanned for codes and found none. Great now what. So I put the tires on and dropped the car down. Got in and stuck it in reverse and gave it a little gas. It moved. Put in drive and it moved. So I took it for a test drive around the block. As soon it shifted into 3rd the tranny fault light went out.

It needs a bunch more work but at least I can get it off the lift and out of the garage so I can work on the other cars.

Thanks to all who provided me with info and support. Really appreciate it. And you should know that if I can do it so can you.




cheers.

[whiskychaser]

A great and well deserved result