Hi All

I've been on for a short while now, I have a 2005 2.7HSE with a few mods,(full colour code and de-badged, 22's) to name a few, So I went down to Chamonix with the family not long back, I had previously had a reduced power warning and a F05 gearbox fault so had this checked and it came back with 'Brake light switch' so I replaced this and all seemed ok, so off we went, well it came back a few times on the run down but was all good after switching it off and on so got there no real issues. so we came back and I realised it was when it went into 6th gear the fault appeared after driving about 70miles so I kept it in manual and 5th and all seemed well until the last toll booth in France 20 miles from Calais and the same fault appeared (F05 and reduced power) as I was going through the tollbooth (with tag so never actually stopped) I tried to accelerate off but no drive luckily I managed to get to the nearside of the motorway and into a parking area while still rolling. So I checked all gears and nothing even in reverse, but I did notice a very small forward motion in all gears (even reverse) but not actually moving the car.
So to cut a long story short I had to get it recovered to the UK (a word of warning you have to pay a local motorway licensed recovery truck to get your car off the motorways in France as they are private roads, your breakdown cover cannot arrange this, you have to pay them and claim it back (270€ for 200m through a gate next to the parking area I was in )
So now it’s back in the UK and I have a replacement gearbox and convertor to be fitted. Unfortunately I had to come back to work here in Sunny Sudan, so it’s all sad alone at home at the moment. I am looking for someone in the area of Stafford who's wants to change the box if anyone's interested (I have a local mechanic who was going to do it unfortunately his ramp is not strong enough to lift it ) he's looking at using another ramp at the moment as well.

And to top it all, it’s my fault of course, it must be true as that’s what the missus thinks

Life's good when it's running that is, at least it's sunny here (mid 40's)

How many miles on the box and did you ever change fluid ?

Hi
The car has 125k on it and ran well, I changed the box sump to a metal one and refilled as per instructions a couple of months before. sods law I think as it was running great I bought it early December and drove it home from Newcastle to Stafford and ran great until the errors started appearing, must have been in early Jan when I changed the sump.
The end of the day happens, the Mrs will have to drive round in the 335i cab though she doesn't like that now as its only 2 door until the RRS is fixed when I'm home.
I will be getting a Mega flush on the replacement box when fitted though, just to make sure.
Darren

Hmmm - well you hear of stories of people changing fluid and then the box goes becuase whatever gunk was holding it together disappeared with the flush. Makes sense to change fluid earlier I think - before gunk can build - I did mine at 70k. Will do again at 140 -150 if I get there. But 125-150 on one of these boxes is probably not bad anyway - sure you hear people going longer. Did you use dealer or zf 5 fluid when you changed the pan ? I think the metal pans also need more fill ?

Thx

Thinking on when I changed the oil in the box along with the sump the oil wasn't to bad (I suspect it may have been done before) as for when I refilled it I followed the procedures for it and also re-checked the level the next day.
realistically I think it was on its way out previously ah well the joys of motoring.

Cheers

Forgot to mention the oil used was
ROCK OIL TYK500050 FULLY SYNTH TRANS FLUID

Cheers Current RRS 2.7 (de-badged Black) & 335i Cab for the sunny days.

I'm not sure I would put anything other than zf lifeguard 5 fluid into our boxes - or dealer if u cannot get that. If it has zf approval - rock might be ok - but I'm not familiar with that

Lifeguard 6

Meyle ATF PLUS 6 is also compatible, and available for £10 a litre