Tranny... - BMW Forum

mr d fly · 12-08-2009, 07:32 PM

My tranny is finished. It's seen it's last days. Now, it's time to replace it. Right now the car ['94 325i] is at the dealership i bought it from. They are telling me $900 for the transmission itself [used with 160k/Auto] and about $900 for labor...totalling $1800.

Does this sound about right or could it be done for less?
Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated as this is not my area of expertise.

marti5 · 12-09-2009, 03:31 AM

Dont but a box with 160k on it for a start.....try some breakers and find a box with lees miles.

Torque · 12-09-2009, 06:50 AM

Agreed. They are GM transmissions ... they are notorious for giving right above 100k miles; buying one with a 160k is just basically asking to throw away 900 dollars and be right where you started.

Have you considered converting your car to a manual trans.?

carguy13 · 12-09-2009, 12:40 PM

lol @ the name of this thread...

mr d fly · 12-09-2009, 05:57 PM

Yes, Torque. That was my next thought...would it be more expensive to put in a manual rather than just replacing the automatic?

As far as letting the stealership do it, eff that. My uncle is a mechanic and he could probably rebuild this one for much less than $1800. It's only 1st gear thats iffy...all other gears are fine.

marti5 · 12-10-2009, 03:13 AM

Manual is possible, but you have to cut the floor pan etc to accommodate the extra pedal and new EGS and ECU remap + + +, If your uncle can rebuild it they are not that difficult, just a bit mind throwing, once you start its just like a meccano set. But you have to have a big work bench and it has to be pristine like a hospital operating table, not a job to be done on the lawn in the garden.....

Torque · 12-10-2009, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marti5

Manual is possible, but you have to cut the floor pan etc to accommodate the extra pedal and new EGS and ECU remap + + +, If your uncle can rebuild it they are not that difficult, just a bit mind throwing, once you start its just like a meccano set. But you have to have a big work bench and it has to be pristine like a hospital operating table, not a job to be done on the lawn in the garden.....

You don't have to cut anything.

The chassis is exactly the same, you just have to swap parts over. Honestly, you can probably find a complete manual swap for less than the cost of the 160k auto box. It's fairly straight forward as far as swapping ... the hardest part is swapping the pedal box in and then bleeding the clutch hydraulics once you're done. Everything else is just unbolting one thing and bolting another back in.

If you uncle can rebuild an auto trans, I don't see why he couldn't help you swap a car to a manual -- comparing the two, the latter is like taking out a splinter compared to brain surgery.

marti5 · 12-10-2009, 07:55 AM

Thats interesting Torque as you do on the 5 & 7 series, maybe to accommodate the parking brake foot pedal ??

mr d fly · 12-10-2009, 04:39 PM

Thanks for the help guys. If my first gear is gone (actually not even completely gone) and the other gears are fine, shouldnt that be a pretty simple fix? Not something youd have to replace the entire transmission for?

marti5 · 12-11-2009, 03:20 AM

If your going to replace 1st, I would do the lot while its out, but yes you can just do 1st if you want to.

mr d fly · 12-11-2009, 06:03 PM

and i would do the lot marti, but unfortunately $$$ is an issue right now. so, i may just end up doing 1st.

thanks for the help fellas.

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With automatic transmission
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In Estonia is very very very much BMW-s.
And parts are cheaper too than USA.

And cheapest driving e32

http://eng.auto24.ee/webcache_kasuta...auto24_ee.html