Transmission question

[philpa]

I recently purchased a 97 318i. Noticed when in 50's, or colder that automatic transmission is slow to shift to ALL gears until car warms up. After a few minutes all is okay. I had transmission serviced and new fluid installed and filters. No difference. Any suggestions? Is it normal?

[m44droptop]

I recently purchased a 97 318i. Noticed when in 50's, or colder that automatic transmission is slow to shift to ALL gears until car warms up. After a few minutes all is okay. I had transmission serviced and new fluid installed and filters. No difference. Any suggestions? Is it normal?

dont worry its very normal :thumbup:

[my_e36]

It's designed on purpose. No worries!

It does that so everything warm up to working temperature quicker.

[niteridder]

Hi there so welcome to bmw's automatic trans. I've had lot's of bmw's from 1973 2002's to my now 97 m3. The problem is the GM auto trans, it's a piece of junk, but that's all there is, their in all kind of cars, like honda toyota you get the picture. Once they start acting up, it's going to be more trouble in the future. My biggest problem with most of them is when they get hot like in traffic like most of the time they will skip some gear and act like they're in a mistry grear and then a big boom like the trans fell out, and that is the most common problem, and after a while they all do it.....Good luck. They will call it a 4l30-e or something like that. You had to get a 530, 540 or 740 or 750 they all got the german 5sp auto trans, far superior. Here's the bottom line nobody rebuilds these autotrans, and can guarentee them. If you go to the dealer they don't fix or repair them, only replace them starting @ $3500.00, if that cheap...

[Jim Spence]

Don't let anyone scare you when it comes to automatic transmissions. They're no more prone to fail than a standard transmission is (as long as they're cared for), and during the life of any car an owner will probably spend just as much replacing all of the parts in a standard transmission as they will in an automatic.

There's one poster here who is closing in on 600,000 miles on the original automatic transmission. Granted, this is the exception rather than the rule, but the point is that ANY transmission can and will fail.

So just take care of them, and they'll take care of you.

And, yes, what your car is doing is perfectly normal.

[E36 Phantom]

Jim, sorry, but simply due to the complexity in an auto, they will be prone to fail sooner.

Plus, they're made by GM. That alone speaks volumes....lol.

And we don't know that's the original tranny. That guy is on Bimmerforums and hasn't owned the car for *all* that long.