Any truth to this? Post from another forum

N

Newff

Member
On another forum this is a quote form another poster in a BMW Z4 thread..he told a girl not to get the auto Z4 because..

"BMW's are notorious for their automatic transmissions going away/byebye at around 90-120K. $3500 to replace. No repair, replace... "

I planned to buy an automatic Z4 but this scares me a little but it may not be true?
 
i love my auto, this first i've heard of any problems and i would suggest its untrue
 
I have never heard of one going in a Z4 but it was a pretty common problem for them to go in a 330 E46. They said there sealed for life but it was recommend to get the oil changed at 50K to pro long the life of the box. That said you tend to hear of problems on forums thats what there for. I'm sure that there are loads out there which are trouble free
 
Newff, you mentioned on another thread about going for a car with 20k on the clock, so any gearbox problems (if at all) will be so far in the future for you, no point worrying about it.
 
No experience of a Z4 auto, but have a 5er auto with just under 300bhp going through it and it was brilliant, the kick down is super fun as well.
 
TBH you could say that about almost any car part after 90-120K :) engine, brakes, diff, etc all nearing the time when problems start. Never heard of auto boxes being a problem on the Z4 though.
 
Err, I did 174,000 miles in my 3 series back in my 30's. :driving: No problem at all. Just need to service it as prescribed.

They are talking rubbish. Everyone knows of an example somewhere, where a 'friend' has had a duff car. A friend of mine had a Boxster engine blow up in the first year of ownership. That doesn't mean that all Boxsters last a year. :wink:

(did p*ss him off a little though...)
 
I've run half a dozen BMW's with Auto boxes and pushed many beyond 150k miles. Only problem I ever had was a 535i Sport which went into 'limp home mode' once but disconecting and reconnecting the battery fixed it.

It sounds like the kind of rumour that a competitor would spread.
 
BMW don't make the Auto box anyway. It's a ZF Friedrichshafen unit and they are like Bosch, I.e. Supply multiple car makers...including Porsche, so to suggest 'BMW boxes go pop' it's too specific
 
The only BMW gearbox I know to avoid is the early SMGs and I don't think they were used on the Z4.

Reality is you can pick up another one from a breakers for only a few hundred depending on model.

A few posts around on a few common problems, have a search but doubt you'd find any serious posts on gearboxes.
 
I've had two 7-series, and got rid of both of them when the auto gearbox started playing up
1993 730 V8 - 120k miles
1996 728 - 138k miles
 
Autoboxes will always generally be more reliable than manuals because, in theory, its difficult to over-stress them. In reality, they do fail for a variety of reasons but nowhere near as often as manual boxes.

As for not being able to rebuild, what a load of tosh.

And as said, if your auto box did go, your car would be sufficiently old that a scrapper box wouldn't be an unwise choice. :thumbsup:
 
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