Gearbox problem (the Lurch) SOLVED

[Entwicklung34]

Hi. Not been on the forum for some time but I posted many times and spent a lot of time researching on here about the common lurching / jerking problem of the auto boxes when coming to a stop.

The x5 I bought had this problem and it worried me a lot, but I finally solved the issue so I thought I'd get on here and give something back to a forum that has given me a lot since buying the x5 a few years ago.

My lurch was bad, bad enough sometimes I thought somebody had bumped into the back of me at the lights as I came to a stop... However here's what It took to solve it;

1). A complete oil/filter change for the gearboxchange (around 90,000miles iirc) with correct oil and using the correct filling procedure at the correct temperatures etc (all the info is on this site).

2). There is a 'mechatronics sleeve' that i changed at the same time as the gearbox oil and filter (do a search, it wasn't that difficult whilst the sump was off).

3). I used INPA to do a reset of the 'adaptation values' for the gearbox... at this point the shifting went VERY BAD and I though I'd broken the box - panic stations!!

4). I did some set routines of getting to speed  then letting the car gradually come to a stop then shifting to neutral for so many seconds then repeating etc (I'm sorry it's been a while I can't remember what the procedure is called but the information on it I found when looking into the adaptations reset I talked about in step 3)... it's what you do to help the gearbox learn the shift points again.

5). I changed the differential oils front and back (much less daunting than the gearbox oil job and cheaper too.

6). I changed the fluid in the transfer case (fluid from be used).

Then... over time the jerky changed caused by the adaptation reset became better and better and suddenly one day I noticed it... NO MORE LURCH!!

I can't say how long it took but it was worth it. Possibly it took a couple of months for the  box to fully learnt the correct way of dealing with the 2-1 downshift when coming to traffic lights or whatever, but now i get the feeling it changes after I'm completely stopped, not just before with a bang.

I hope this is useful to others in the same position because that lurch caused me some serious stress and I'm sure it wasn't good for the car/gearbox either... it took a long time to research everything but at least this serves as conclusive evidence that it can be solved. I'm my own mind the adaptations reset combined with the gearbox oil change is what fixes the problem, but the computer had to learn what to do again which took some time.

HTH.

[moggyboy]

Good write up and well done for sticking with the problem.