[igzekyativ]

I reached out to a Euro/BMW shop near me, just to see what he had to say about the 328xi trans. Here is what he came back to me with:

"Has anyone retrieved diagnostic codes from the transfer case (VTG)? How many miles are on the car? The reason that I asked about mileage is because that transmission is not a particularly robust unit. If you have more than 100,000 miles and you can't be sure that the transmission fluid has been serviced with OE fluid, then we would not want to do the job. I would hate to charge anyone $4000.00 dollars and have the transmission crap out 6 months later (a real possibility) because the new fluid flushed out all the sediment that was providing friction. Thin ice..."



I sent the above to a friend of mine (service advisor) and asked him Should I have any concerns about changing out the TC and fluid? He told me:


"I understand his hesitance. It's a complex drivetrain and no matter what course of action you take at this point its going to be a pricey repair with results that can't be guaranteed.

The VTG was scanned during one of the initial visits as documented on the attached invoice. If I recall correctly, those codes were related to some work you had recently done (transfer case fluid change and replaced the transfer case actuator motor) and after clearing & calibration they did not return.

Obviously I can't say whether or not the fluid had been changed prior to you owning it (I bought the car at 98,000), but the fluid we put in was the OE (AC Delco Dexron VI) fluid. Of course there are varying opinions on changing trans fluid on high mileage cars. Some techs don't recommend it over 100K if it had never been serviced before due to similar concerns mentioned above regarding flushing out friction-providing sediments. In your case it was kind of a last resort option and seemed to be beneficial, albeit temporarily. But with that in mind, in addition to the frequency of problems BMW had had with the torque converter (enough to issue that TSB), I would be of the opinion that it's safe to rule out the VTG as a cause of your issue."