Here is something I wrote last night reviewing some of the postings in AW.

Hope this help those newbie with automatic transmission problem.

I noticed there are less and less postings at the BMW Fascination forum in Autoworld (AW).

As the AW forum's space is limited, old posting tends to be removed and not archived. There are already several technical discussions posted in 2001 that have been pruned from the AW server. We need to keep the technical information alive so that more and more E36 325i owner can access to them. I went through the forum again and pick out a few discussions on this problem and summarized in here. Hopefully this can be posted at the new BMWCLUB.COM.MY website.

The E36 325i uses the General Motor 4L30E 4-speed gearbox. This gearbox is manufactured in GM plant in Strasboug, France. The same gearbox is also used in other make such as Isuzu’s Trooper and Rodeo! Internally, BMW label this gearbox as A4S-310R in the ETK/TIS CD. The discussion of this problem is related to local CKD E36 325i model only. The E36 328i and E34 520/525i also uses the same gearbox so some of the discussion also apply to those models.

There has been a lot of discussion on the Net the failing of this gearbox after 150,000km. Here is a posting by Nazrien, a 1995 E36 325i owner:

Hi Fellow Bimmers,

Finally I found a place where I can express my anxiety
and excitement on Bimmers.

However this time is more of concerns.
I've been told by my mechanic that the E36 325i is
prone to having auto tranmission problem. Usually at
150,000km the auto transmission needs to be overhaul.
Anybody out there has overhaul their transmission at
this mileage??

I'm having problem during hard accelerations my
tranmission warning light keep coming out. This only
happens when I ram the car above 4-5 thousand rpm.
I've already change the speed regulator sensor and
body valve (that's what the mechanic said to me).
But it's still coming out. Lastly he said just ignore
the warning light because he can't do much more...what
a advise!!

So please please anybody out there help me out on this
problem!! Or recommend me a good mechanic to check
this out..

Cheers,
Nazrein

The above symptom is quite common with E36 325i fitted with the GM gearbox. Possible cause for the transmission warning light is that the transmission control unit senses faulty conditions and places the transmission in a fixed gear, no shift condition. Some industry call this the “limp-in mode”. In limp-in mode, the gearbox will shift to the highest gear that allows you to drive (slowly) to the nearest workshop to fix the problem. Sometime, the problem could be due to one of the five sensors inside the gearbox is faulty. Again, there is no way to tell from the transmission warning light. You have to use the MoDIC machine to diagnose it. The five sensors are:

Solenoid Valve 1st+2nd/3rd+4th Gear
Solenoid Valve 2nd+3ed Gear
Brake Band Solenoid Valve
Torque Converter Solenoid Valve
Pressure Regularor Solenoid Valve

Another major culprit is the valve body inside the gearbox. The valve body controls the hydraulic pressure of the gearshift. Once the pressure dropped, the gearshift becomes rough and then you start to feel sticky shifting of the gearbox, in particular from 2nd to 3rd. The valve body is not a replacement part in BMW ETK CD. BMW only offered full set rebuilt automatic gearbox and not individual parts. The sensors are however replacement parts. Local junk yard will not sell you the valve body alone so pray hard that the valve body is not faulty. There are companies in US that sell the valve body but most of them don’t keep stock as the demands for this valve body is low.

I understands from other sourced that it is possible to serviced the valve body but so far I have not know of any shop that does the valve body servicing.

What do you do when you have a problem with your GM 4L30E gearbox. You can either live with it until it break down all together or your can fix it. Fixing it can be either by buying a used gearbox or overhaul it. Here is what I posted in AW:

Over the weekend, some of us in this forum had the opportunity
to witness an overhaul of a GM auto gearbox for a E36 325i. I
also had the opportunity to test drive the car after the rebuild
and can confirm the overhaul does work.

There has been some debates among the members here whether
it is better to overhaul the gearbox or purchase a 2nd hand unit.
After observing the entire overhaul process, I can confidently
recommend an overhaul.

I also spoke to the gearbox specialist and got to understand a bit
about the overhaul work. The GM gearbox has a Bryco
replacement kit consists of a set of gaskets, seals, o-rings etc.
The specialist dismantled the entired gearbox, scratch off all the
remnants of the old gaskets, clean all the parts, dry them, and
then rebuild the whole gearbox using all the new gaskets, seals
and o-rings. In this rebuild, the valve body was reused.

According to the mechanic, GM gearbox for E36 should be
overhaul before it reaches 200,000km use. Even though the
gearbox maybe shifting ok, the rubber parts and gaskets inside
the gearbox would have been harden hence it reduces the
smoothness of the shift. Again, I think this is really up to the
individual. Some may want to do it sooner some later. Not every
part in the gearbox can be replaced. If those parts are grinded
too thin/deep beyond repair, it is better to purchased a 2nd hand
unit. So, it depends on the condition of your gearbox. There is no
silver bullet in an overhaul job after all (what a oxymoron). In
DaveAnand's case, his gearbox has some parts that cannot be
replaced so even though he has overhaul his gearbox, his minor
gear shift problem will remained.

Well, I am glad that I have seen the overhaul work personnaly
and am very happy with it having test drove the car. The price
different between a 2nd hand unit and the overhaul job is not
much. I will definitely go for the overhaul route in future.

Also, the whole overhaul job took only two days. If anyone want
to do theirs, I am recommending Zoneway.

blu, I suggest you start planning for yours.

Nazrein, if you need to visit Zoneway, please contact
DaveAnand again.

The part number of the BryCo Clutch Packs is 31681A. It has 16 Steel Plates inside the pack.

After the gearbox is reassembled, it will be refitted with a new oil strainer and new gaskets. After the ATF is filled, the gearbox will be as good as new. I have since driven 4 E36 325i with gearbox overhauled by M Speed (previously Zoneway) and can confirm all of them work like a charm.

The cost of such overhaul (assuming all non-replaceable part are OK) is about RM4000 inclusive of labour. The cost of a 2nd hand gearbox is around RM3,800. Include the cost of the new gaskets, new oil strainer and labour, it would be approximately RM4,200. The advantage of the overhaul is that you keep your original gearbox with all the replaceable part new. With a 2nd hand unit, you are only extending the life of the gearbox with the new ATF and oil strainer but sooner or later, the 2nd hand unit will also failed once it reaches it life span. Of course, there are also positive results from 2nd hand unit such as the experience from DesmondTeo with his gearbox problem:

I bought the 2nd hand gearbox (A) for RM8,500 I think
(1 year warranty period). It was a bill for a lot of
other things as well...hehehe...decided to do my fron
t lip and all then.... I was at the high point of
selling my car as I was fed up with her and the cost
of keeping her. But, decided against selling and
pampering more now
The first time I got bak my car, my gearbox was
giving me a lot of faults (the warning signal lights
comes on when you hit 100km) so I went back to my
mechanic and he replaced it with another. He found
faults with that after he installed it and gave me
another one. I'm using that now for about 2 months
now and so far it's beautiful.
My mechanic is Nathan from MPower in Taman Mayang.
He's good but a little slow only lah. But he knows
his stuff. I used to go to M1 but after a combination
of 10+ years servicing my car and my dads, they
started getting lax and clumsy.

This discussion does not apply to CBU E36 325i. The CBU E36 325i either come from Europe or South Africa use a different gearbox. It is normally fitted with ZF 5HP22 5 speeds gearbox. The ZF gearbox last longer and don’t have the typical symptom like the GM 4L30E.

Why don’t Auto Bavaria uses the ZF 5HP22 gearbox in the first place. The simple answer is the cost. The cost of the GM 4L30E was much cheaper compared to the ZF 5HP22. When Auto Bavaria decided to launch the E36 325i back in 1994, they decided that the price point of RM170K+ can be satisfied with the GM 4L30E. Hence we are stucked with a GM gearbox ever since. Only when BMW launched the E46 model, they replace the gearbox with a ZF 5HP19 5 speed gearbox.

As modern gearboxes get more and more sophisticated, the new school of thought for such problem has become “Don’t try to fix something until you know what’s broken”. This is also help with the fact that more and more electronic components are going into the gearbox hence the diagnostic machine help is many way. However, if the problem is due to hydraulic in nature, there is still the traditional way of “get it out and get it stripped”. This is the option available for E36 325i.

I have also posted some reply to another forummer on his E36 320i’s ZF 5HP22 problem. Hopefully he will do an article on his problem to share his experiences.

This article looks ok with Microsoft Word but once I paste it here, all formatting is gone. Hope you make sense out of it!