Broken 2001 BMW 323ci

[.paul]

My pops has an auto 323ci, it is an 01, and he has taken decent care of it. kept up with oil changes and whatever the dealer asked.

recently, the reverse stopped working. when you put it in reverse it SLOWLY moves, but eventually will die out. Drive works with no problems. We have not taken it to a mechanic yet. Was just curious if anyone had any ideas, or would be willing to fix. Will pay with $$ or food/beer if you are willing to fix it.



-Paul

[BLINGMW]

IIRC, the e46 and later have either a ridiculously long, or maybe NO change of transmission fluid spec'd. It's supposed to be lifetime fluid. :evileye: Maybe that was only with the manual, I'm not sure. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that it may never have been changed. Check on that, at least try changing it first if you're not sure. Beyond that, I don't know jack about automatics.

[.paul]

yeah, I was going to give that a go first.

it does not have some stupid thing that i need a machine to flush the tranny fluid? just unplug and let it drain?

[.paul]

also, would bad tranny fluid only make reverse stop working? i feel like it would not work both ways

[Evan]

auto trannys should be taken to a shop with a flush machine for a complete change (IMO)

[.RJ]

auto trannys should be taken to a shop with a flush machine for a complete change (IMO)

+1 - you'll never get all the old fluid out otherwise. I think curry's charged me around $200 to do a trans flush on my truck.

Also, if the trans has a lot of miles on it, best just to leave it alone and dont flush it. Supposedly BMW autos have a "lifetime" fluid and there's no drain plug but I read that on the internets and it may not be true.

[white_2kgt]

You can flush an auto trans yourself, just crack a line in the cooler lines, put the return in an empty bucket and the 'in' down in a bucket of fresh fluid, the trans will 'flush' itself. Sometimes you have to cut a hardline for this, going to the cooler they are low pressure so a little piece of rubber lines with some worm clamps will repair it.

Also the reverse band may be bad, I had that happen on one of my mustangs.

[WRXtranceformed]

+2 on the auto fluid flush. Mine was about $200 as well.

[Maengelito]

"lifetime" automatic transmission fluid just seems incredibly bad to me. i'm not saying it isnt that way, but it just doesnt seem like a good thing in anyway

[.RJ]

It "sounds" bad to me too - BMW's have a habit of everything wearing out by 100-120k miles but the engines/transmissions are almost always pretty stout.

Trade it in

[.paul]

well we are going to trade it in to get my brother a car, but this needs to work somewhat

I was going to goto a shop and get it flushed, but i just do not understand why only reverse would stop.

[BLINGMW]

but this needs to work somewhat

psh whatever, they probably aren't even going to test drive it, even less likely in reverse. :wink:

[.RJ]

i just do not understand why only reverse would stop.

Me neither, but I know nothing about an auto trans - they're voodoo magic black boxes to me.

[white_2kgt]

but i just do not understand why only reverse would stop.

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If the 'band' goes out then that gear will stop working or slip like a manual does in all gears when the clutch starts to go.

[.RJ]

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Yikes. I'll stick to manuel transmissions :lol:

[white_2kgt]

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Yikes. I'll stick to manuel transmissions :lol:

They are not TO bad, just when taking them apart you really have to keep everything in order (just like a manuAl trans, just more stuff) and try REALLY hard not to lose those little check balls/springs in the valve body, lol

[.RJ]

Whats with the maze?

[.paul]

so if this band went bad, a flush would most likely do nothing huh?

[white_2kgt]

so if this band went bad, a flush would most likely do nothing huh?

exactly. much like a fluid change on an manual would do no good if the clutch went out.

Whats with the maze?

That's the flow path for the high pressure fluid to select the correct gear. The springs load, check balls drop into holes, pistons compress, fluid moves and gears are selected. Rebuild manuals tell you where to drop the balls when doing a reassembly so everything will pressurize correctly after putting it together.

[BLINGMW]

place balls here --->__<---