BMW 330i E90 Auto Gearbox

gunpaths

New member
Greetings, I have a question regarding the auto gearbox on a E90 330i - I find the gear changes to be on the rough side when compared to a E46 330 auto. Is the E90 330i auto gearbox normally rough and sometimes "slow", or should I take my car in before the motorplan runs out.

Your comments are much appreciated.
 

P1000

///Member
Your car has a GA6hp19Z ZF gearbox, it should be smooth as silk, definitely it should be an improvement in both speed and shift quality over the previous generation in the E46. I would take it in, they will most likely try to do a software update and see if it works. They might reset your adaptation values, eventhough they are not allowed, for very good reasons. If they do that, it might shift smoother for about 1000km, and then go back to being harsh. This would be because the software is not designed to learn on a box with a lot of miles on it and it will adapt incorrectly. Then you should keep on complaining until you get a new gearbox out of them.
 

gunpaths

New member
P1000 said:
Your car has a GA6hp19Z ZF gearbox, it should be smooth as silk, definitely it should be an improvement in both speed and shift quality over the previous generation in the E46. I would take it in, they will most likely try to do a software update and see if it works. They might reset your adaptation values, eventhough they are not allowed, for very good reasons. If they do that, it might shift smoother for about 1000km, and then go back to being harsh. This would be because the software is not designed to learn on a box with a lot of miles on it and it will adapt incorrectly. Then you should keep on complaining until you get a new gearbox out of them.

Thanks for the response, I have had the dealer reset the software, there is an improvement but its not ideal. I will take it back continously until I have some joy.


 

Ricky318i

Member
P1000 said:
Your car has a GA6hp19Z ZF gearbox, it should be smooth as silk, definitely it should be an improvement in both speed and shift quality over the previous generation in the E46. I would take it in, they will most likely try to do a software update and see if it works. They might reset your adaptation values, eventhough they are not allowed, for very good reasons. If they do that, it might shift smoother for about 1000km, and then go back to being harsh. This would be because the software is not designed to learn on a box with a lot of miles on it and it will adapt incorrectly. Then you should keep on complaining until you get a new gearbox out of them.


Is that the same gearbox you have in the 323i and 325i? Was the gearbox changed in the 2009 LCI?
 

P1000

///Member
Ricky318i said:
Is that the same gearbox you have in the 323i and 325i? Was the gearbox changed in the 2009 LCI?

They all have the same GA6HP19Z box, however, the BMW part numbers differ, so there was most likely an update to the box at some point. It could be that they used 2nd generation GA6HP boxes in later models, which are much quicker on the shift as well as some other improvements.
 

Ricky318i

Member
I checked RealOEM: there is a newer box available, called the GA6L45R. I'll search the web for info on what changes there are in the new one.
 

P1000

///Member
Ricky318i said:
I checked RealOEM: there is a newer box available, called the GA6L45R. I'll search the web for info on what changes there are in the new one.

Where did you find that? I also checked realoem, that gearbox number is for a Getrag gearbox, AFAIK, they do not make autos?

Edit, found it. However, they list both the GA6l45R and GA6HP19Z for the same car. So, no one knows which box is in that car. Seems only 2009, though. It could also be that they only shipped the car with that box to certain countries.

Seems I made a mistake, its a GM box, not getrag.
 

Ricky318i

Member
It's pobably going to be a matter of you getting under your car and looking which box you have. (if this is really important to you). To me it isn't that important cuz I feel my Gearbox is good and right for the application.

It has it weak spots, i.e.: slow upshifts.
 
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