<E36> Transmission failure at 7000 mi

["Jerry A. Cohen" <Cohen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I took my 1998 328is in to my local dealer, as I mentioned I was going to
do.  The local dealer is Direct imports, not Global  (which is in Atlanta,
and an excellent dealer in my single experience), as I misspoke in my last
message.  The purpose was to get the door latch mechanism adjusted, which
they did.  They also greased it a little more, and now the door opens
easily.

While there, I asked the technician to drive the car and tell me if he
didn't think the shift into first and then to second had a little too much
resistance.  I said I would accept an informed opinion that said it was
normal, and I'd adapt.  It realy wasn't awful, but I occasionally have a lot
of trouble going from neutral into first, and its clunkier than it should be
going into second, when warmed up.  I only have the old Honda Accord 4 speed
I traded a couple of years ago and the memory of my '81 Prelude (quite dim,
now) to compare to and they were better.  So I was surprised that the
technician thought that I was right, that a BMW ought to shift a LOT
smoother.  He said it acted as if the clutch was not all they way in (which
it clearly was), but that it  was actually the transmission, possibly
related to the pilot bearings.  Here I am way over my head and may have
misunderstood.  He called BMW NA to see if they wanted him to fix it or
replace it.  He got to them and back to me in 3 hrs, and BMW NA said to put
in a new transmission; a nice clean fix.  Apparently, they have had several
complaints like this, but I might be reading between the lines too much.  I
was really surprised and pleased that they not only didn't tell me "they all
do that," and also that they also had no trouble deciding to put a new one
in.  I await the work to be done in about ten days for my final opinion, but
I am impressed with the service, so far.  This dealership is under new
ownership and has made a quantum leap in service, since last June.

Has anyone had a similar tranmission performance problem?  If so, and you
were told "they all do that," apparently they don't.  What might cause this
to happen - some sort of misalignment in the shift mechanism?  It seems
clearly best to just throw the sucker out and put in a new one, but are
there any problems in doing this?  What would eventually happen if I let it
go and did nothing (no way I'm going to do this when they offer me a new
transmission, but I'm curious)?  Do they really give you a brand new,
straight from Germany, replacement transmission, or a rebuilt job?

------------------------------