New owner and transmission Leak

[rjahl]

I'm new to this group so I'm not sure if this will be posted in the correct place. A few months ago I broke from my tradition and purchased a used 2007 Z4 as an experiment, I’ve been driving Lexus vehicles for 12 years and have had flawless treatment by the cars and workshops.

So far it has not been good for BMW, after owning the car for two weeks the alternator bearings started to whine, the key remotes acted up and one of the speakers died. I forced the dealer to eat those problems, not a CBO car but got a good deal.

Now after 4 months the transmission has sprung a leak. Seems like the Connector sleeve was the offending part and I took care of that repair myself. Purchased new sleeve, oil pan and ZF fluid on-line. First time I have taken a wrench to a car in 15 years but I think the operation was a success.

I’ve learned a lot about the car through these forums so I’d like to give a little back,

Firstly, not changing your transmission fluid until the gearbox fails is a mistake. Mine clearly liked the new clean fluid ( only 45,000 miles on the car). A rough 2-1 downshift is now smooth. The old fluid was dirty.

Second, In my Opinion the sleeve leak is a BMW problem and should be repaired by BMW under recall. The oil rings are the wrong material. The original sleeve was very easy to remove with the o- rings providing very little resistance. The new sleeve was really hard to push in place. If I had purchased this car through a BMW dealer, I would certainly be fighting them over this.

Third, on the Z4, you will need to disconnect the engine exhaust and remove the transmission support in order to gain access to the sleeve. I removed the sleeve with the exhaust in place but could not install the new one without the extra space provided by disconnecting the exhaust pipes. Not having a normal dip stick on the transmission is a real pain, the procedure for filling and checking fluid level is horrible.

Fourth, This car has needed far too much repair work for a modern vehicle with less than 50,000 miles.

[rsutoratosu]

I think the sleeve is the mechtronic sleve ? I heard all 07 and newer has that issue.. I had mine at around 38k

[rjahl]

Yes, Mechtronic Sleeve was the problem. From what I read it's a common problem. The o-rings on mine seem to have shrunk and allowed transmission fluid to leak. The new part had a different material for the o rings, black on the new and red on the old.

[Hamtaro]

I have a late 06 z4 auto with 12.5k miles that has sprung a tranny leak.

I haven't had a chance to check the leak source but does anyone this would be covered by BMW even though the car is out of warranty?

[Jax543210]

07 z4 my sleeve started leaking at about 34k miles