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      04-01-2013, 12:45 PM   #29
Mr_SDP
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Drives: 2012 335i F30 Sedan Manual
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Texas, United States

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aperture Vision View Post
It'll take a couple hours once you get it up on stands, remove the splash guard for the transmission, drain the pan, remove the 24 bolts to drop the pan (which entails moving an exhaust hanger out of the way), remove the electrical connector from the mechtronic unit, unlock the sleeve pull it out without rotating it and paying attention to where the key is, putting the new sleeve in and making sure it lines back up without damaging pins, then putting enough force on the sleeve to get it to lock into place (I used a pry bar with leverage to get it to seat all the way in), then installing a new pan, putting in all the bolts and tighten/torque them in a criss-cross pattern, and refilling the transmission. I just completed the job yesterday.
I just did it yesterday too! I would say its a medium job where the only challenging part is the mechatronics sleeve replacement....

1. Jacking up the car and draining the fluid was very easy.

2. Removing the pan bolts and pan was easy. Just unscrew them and pull the pan down (and all the fluid with it!!!)

3. Removing the retaining clip to the mechatronics sleeve was easy. I used a flat head screw driver to do this.

4. Unlocking the sleeve was easy too...just pull the locking mechanism down.

5. Removing the sleeve was a bit challenging. Luckily, I had a tool that is sort of like some really long tweezers that are very rigid. This helps grab the sleeve after it has been unlocked to pull it out of the hole. It is even more helpful when setting the new sleeve and pushing it far enough back into the hole to lock it in place (via the locking mechanism). Since it is very difficult to get your fingers up in that area to grab/move/push/re-orient the sleeve, a tweezer like tool makes it much easier.

6. Putting the new pan and bolts back in was easy. I cleaned the mating surface with some 'sandpaper-like' wipes to get any debris that could potentially cause long term damage to the pan gasket.

7. Filling the the trans with new fluid was easy, just a little messing when the fluid started overflowing after 3 'start/stop and fills'.

8. I ended up only filling about 3.5 to 4 qts of fluid. Each time I started the car I let it run for 15 mins. After the last start/stop, I tried filling it but as soon as I opened the fill hole fluid started coming out of it. I assume the remaining fluid of the 6-7 qt capacity was in the torque converter.

9. Took me a total of 2 hrs to do all of the above. I kept the car on all 4 jacks when I started/stopped it.

Hope this helps anybody thinking about doing this job. It really is not tough at all...just make sure you have a good tool to maneuver the mechatronics sleeve!
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