Blown Transmission on a 95 318 - I don't believe this is common

[cmtyree]

I love my 95 318ti and the car has only 129K miles on it. All of a sudden last week without any warning the transmission went. The transmission place wants to charge me $3K to rebuild and they are trying to tell me this is common for this car and I have having a difficult time believing them. Can someone tell me if this is true and if $3000 is too much money to have a transmission installed and rebuilt? They are giving me a 2 year warranty and I intend on keeping this car.

Thank you so much....

[Antiburn]

for a rebuild yes, for a new tranny, not really.

[Celsdogg]

i dont think its common for the car either. . .

[Celsdogg]

but im not sure how seriously they will take "WELL IN THE FORUM, THEY SAY IT'S NOT COMMON!!!"

[Dudesky_E36]

Depends on what happened exactly. There are a few common issues with E36 tranny's, ranging from 2nd gear blowing out (mine did), synchro's going bad, and popping out of gear. Not very common, but well documented nonetheless.

As for cost, it should be around $2300 so try to get a second opinion or another quote. No one gives you a new tranny. In fact, very few transmission places actually rebuild them. They just swap out the old one for a rebuilt one from a supplier.

[Honda Gal]

When i owned my Beema , it done practicaly the same thing, but yours is nearly 8 years newer than what mine was so i'd say its not that common for beemas but i only paid $2000.00 to fix mine, but we are talking NZD here! and tha fact that i think mine had had a hard life before i bought it!

[beemer5]

take it to a good BMW dealer that you can trust.. I had the dealer replace my trans (225,000 mi) with a used one for $800

[jon528i]

Did your tranny light come on, and you could not go because it would not stay in gear? If so, that happened to me while driving on the freeway... sucks!! I thought the tranny was a gonner. luckily I have a mechanic in the family that checked it out and found that It was simply out of transmission fluid. Unfortunatly there is no way to check your trans. fluid on those because they are factory filled and sealed...no dip stick. but in order to lose your fluid there has to be a leek. In my case the transmission cooler (located by the radiator) and hose, had been damaged and needed to be replaced, because it drained all of my fluid. Pretty easy fix. We filled my trans. with fluid. good as new! Now if I didnt have someone in the family with the know how, I would have taken it to a shop, that I have no doubt would have charged me $3000 to do the same thing but tell me they had to replace the transmission. Having a brother that is ASE certified comes in handy! I've caught other mechanics in thier lies with him on my side. None of this may apply to you, but I would be very carefull about who you let work on your car. In my experience dealerships are not usually going to lie to you about whats going on with your car. They have enouph warranty clientel that they don't need to nickle and dime people with non-existent problems...plus they give you a loaner car to drive while they fix yours! They are fast,(same day usually) honest, and expensive. but in the long run you pay less cause your not getting ripped off. Just my experience. Good luck!