Hello, I just wanted to say hello and mention my appreciation for the club and all the info available here. This is my first BMW and I'm enjoying the experience. I purchased it used from Fairfax Honda but the car had an extended warranty and seems fine. Today I had the trans filter and fluid changed and the Herndon Reston Transmission repair shop in Herndon VA mentioned there was alot of sludge in the magnets and "this is what it looks like when they are going bad or need a 3500 rebuild. I've uploaded some pictures as it looked to me, a thin layer of sludge on the magnets and dark fluid would be normal for 101k miles. Any help or comments are appreciated! thanks, Mike
Can't the sludge just be... cleaned... off? If someone can "clean" off a car's engine that did 60k miles on an oil change (SLUDGE GALORE), then pretty darned sure a couple of tiny magnets will be no problem... lol I wonder if that transmission shop knows what they're talking about.
It could be that by 'sludge' your transmission shop is referring to an inordinate amount of metal shavings and debris in your transmission -- I would ask the shop to be more specific in their reasons for their assertion that your tranny is going bad -- then you know where to go from there.
