e36 transmission

[Rob Champlin]

my son's e36 started to slip when hot.checked out to find fluid dirty and filter clogged.also found flesh colored shim material in front pan.how serious can this be?I have done the service but have not driven the car yet.any advise?

[97alpineM3]

Well you can do one of two things....

Either park the car.. and get it towed to a service place to get them to look at it... and tell you that it is or is not important.

Or you can drive... and see if your transmission is slipping all to hell.. which will probably end up resulting in a transmission rebuild.

Either way you go... no one in their right mind is gonna tell you that it is ok to drive that thing with an obvious piece of evidence of something missing in the transmission. Atleast I would hope they wouldnt.

That is probably the reason your tranny started to slip.. because it lost one or more of its connectors throught the gears. I'd get it looked at to tell you the truth. But that is just my opinion.

GOOD LUCK!

[jllphan]

In my last car (1993 5er) 2nd slipped just a hair on occasion. I was told by the local BMW tech to leave it alone. He said either leave it alone or rebuild it. Servicing an automatic ZF tranny with a lot miles is not believed to be a worthwhile task as they are believed to die a slow death.