[cbyrne]

Just did a drain and fill on my 2011 328i transmission.

Used genuine BMW pan gasket and fluid

Symptoms last night, after the change:

- suction noise at idle (pressurized air moving with the fluid) that became a bit harsher during driving, but went away at highway speeds.

- some surging/flaring in lower gears

Symptoms this morning after a 12-hour cooldown:

- Car is in "neutral" regardless of my gear selection. I had it parked on an incline last night and the Parking lock kept it in place. But when I went to put it in reverse, nothing. Drive, nothing. Car is sitting at the bottom of my driveway and needing to be pushed.

(EDIT): No codes being thrown at first, and no lights on the dashboard

But - once I put it in gear and tried to give gas I got the yellow transmission gear warning and 2 codes

56B8 EGS Ratio Fault R
56C5 EGS shift valve B - stuck in off position

Is this possibly an indication of an overfill or underfill?

Anyone?

[e91Owner]

Originally Posted by cbyrne

Just did a drain and fill on my 2011 328i transmission.

Used genuine BMW pan gasket and fluid

Symptoms last night, after the change:

- suction noise at idle (pressurized air moving with the fluid) that became a bit harsher during driving, but went away at highway speeds.

- some surging/flaring in lower gears

Symptoms this morning after a 12-hour cooldown:

- Car is in "neutral" regardless of my gear selection. I had it parked on an incline last night and the Parking lock kept it in place. But when I went to put it in reverse, nothing. Drive, nothing. Car is sitting at the bottom of my driveway and needing to be pushed.

(EDIT): No codes being thrown at first, and no lights on the dashboard

But - once I put it in gear and tried to give gas I got the yellow transmission gear warning and 2 codes

56B8 EGS Ratio Fault R
56C5 EGS shift valve B - stuck in off position

Is this possibly an indication of an overfill or underfill?

Anyone?

That sounds like an underfill. It's pretty hard to overfill it enough to matter. You did top it off with the engine running after the initial fill and running through the gears, correct? Meaning you actually followed the fill procedure, right?

[cbyrne]

Originally Posted by e91Owner

That sounds like an underfill. It's pretty hard to overfill it enough to matter. You did top it off with the engine running after the initial fill and running through the gears, correct? Meaning you actually followed the fill procedure, right?

Correct

Once the pan was bolted back up:

- Filled it cold, it took about 1.5L, hand tightened the fill plug

- Started the motor, ran through P-R-N-D and left in D for a bit while idling, then killed the motor

- Filled it (pan was warm to the touch) and it took another L, let a few drops of excess drain, hand tightened the fill plug

- Started the motor again, ran through gears, this time including D/S and M1 - M6, then idled in park for final fill

- Last fill, pan was very warm, and it took another 0.5L or so. Torqued the fill plug

Based on reports it seems like people are usually able to get 4-6 L back into the pan. I was only able to get 3 so I have been working under the assumption that it may have been underfilled. Maybe I was not level enough when filling - I will top it off and report back

Edit - I did not use live data to monitor the exact temperature when adding fluid, which I will do this time around to be certain

Thanks

[e91Owner]

Originally Posted by cbyrne

Correct

Once the pan was bolted back up:

- Filled it cold, it took about 1.5L, hand tightened the fill plug

- Started the motor, ran through P-R-N-D and left in D for a bit while idling, then killed the motor

- Filled it (pan was warm to the touch) and it took another L, let a few drops of excess drain, hand tightened the fill plug

- Started the motor again, ran through gears, this time including D/S and M1 - M6, then idled in park for final fill

- Last fill, pan was very warm, and it took another 0.5L or so. Torqued the fill plug

Based on reports it seems like people are usually able to get 4-6 L back into the pan. I was only able to get 3 so I have been working under the assumption that it may have been underfilled. Maybe I was not level enough when filling - I will top it off and report back

Edit - I did not use live data to monitor the exact temperature when adding fluid, which I will do this time around to be certain

Thanks

You have an extra step in there that isn't necessary, but wouldn't necessarily hurt anything. After the cold fill, start and run through all of the gears. Don't kill it. While it continues to run fill until it starts to drip out of the fill plug. Ideally, you do it at the specified temperature range; however, at least with my car, it has always been in that range anyway when filling it.

I use a cheap garden pump sprayer to fill mine. Works awesome. Just pulled the sprayer part off of the end. The resulting stick happens to be the same outer diameter as the inner diameter of transfer pump tubing, allowing me to leave the transfer pump tubing in the fill port with the sprayer on the ground.

[cbyrne]

Originally Posted by e91Owner

You have an extra step in there that isn't necessary, but wouldn't necessarily hurt anything. After the cold fill, start and run through all of the gears. Don't kill it. While it continues to run fill until it starts to drip out of the fill plug. Ideally, you do it at the specified temperature range; however, at least with my car, it has always been in that range anyway when filling it.

I use a cheap garden pump sprayer to fill mine. Works awesome. Just pulled the sprayer part off of the end. The resulting stick happens to be the same outer diameter as the inner diameter of transfer pump tubing, allowing me to leave the transfer pump tubing in the fill port with the sprayer on the ground.

Nice idea - my transfer pump tubing is long enough that I don't need to lay beneath the car while pumping, thankfully.

The issue I'm pondering at the moment is will I do damage to the tranny by trying to drive the car back into the garage so I can jack it up again… initial drive following the drain&fill felt fine.. but after throwing codes and having no gear engagement it feels risky to ask the car to go up a bit of an incline into the garage.

[e91Owner]

If you're concerned, you can manually put it in neutral and push it in. It varies by model, but you can put all BMWs in neutral via an override.

[cbyrne]

Originally Posted by e91Owner

If you're concerned, you can manually put it in neutral and push it in. It varies by model, but you can put all BMWs in neutral via an override.

Tranny handled the drive-up fine. I waited for it to reach 30 Celsius before taking it out of park. Not enough hours in the day unfortunately, going to have to wait another day or two to finish the job

Thanks for your input - I will update the thread again once I have answers

[cbyrne]

It was definitely an underfill

I was able to get about 2L into the car with the engine running and trans reading 36° C

I believe the issue was that I had the front jacked slightly higher than the rear when I was wrenching it this past weekend (I don't remember specifically if that is the case, but I do know that the front was higher at one point, so that offers a likely explanation as to what led to my error)

Car now shifts like a DCT, absolutely butter!

[e91Owner]

Originally Posted by cbyrne

It was definitely an underfill

I was able to get about 2L into the car with the engine running and trans reading 36° C

I believe the issue was that I had the front jacked slightly higher than the rear when I was wrenching it this past weekend (I don't remember specifically if that is the case, but I do know that the front was higher at one point, so that offers a likely explanation as to what led to my error)

Car now shifts like a DCT, absolutely butter!

Great!