Re: E36 Auto Tranny failure at 56K miles -- Any thoughts?

["shawn . moyer" <shawn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Terry_Thornton@domain.elided wrote:

> The only thing I know of to prolong the transmission life is regular (30-40k
> miles) fluid changes and letting it warm up before aggressive driving.  I have a
> '94 325is automatic with 96k miles.  I have been autocrossing for 3 years and
> shift manually when racing.  On the street I leave it in D most of the time.
> The transmission seems to be holding up well.

Cool. Thanks for actually providing me with useful information... :) I'd
say it seems like my tranny's failure is most likely a fluke, hopefully
I won't have a similar failure on the new one in another 50K miles. As
far as the fluid change, still not sure what to do about that -- is the
'94 the "maintenance free" as well? I think I will probably go ahead and
have it flushed every 25K regardless, I don't see how this could do any
harm...
 
> After owning several GM vehicles that I used to tow a good size ski boat, I feel
> that GM automatics are very reliable.  My last Blazer towed the boat 2-3 days a
> week.  When I sold the Blazer at 242k miles the transmission was still shifting
> like new.

Yup. General consensus seems to be that BMW moving from the ZF to the GM
trans was a good thing -- I just happened to get a bum one, I guess.





- --shawn

- -- 

s h a w n   m o y e r
shawn@domain.elided

"May the forces of evil become 
confused on the way to your house."

                    --George Carlin

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