Brand New BMW 320i - needs new gearbox after 1 week.

[fredKroket]

The 320i has an auto-box from ZF. It's very reliable, and BMW uses it on all models now. Even on some of the M-models.

The 320i is assembled in Thailand. So my guess it's something wrong happened in the assembly line.

I would demand a new car as well. Actually If you don't want get the feedback you want from your dealer, I would head over to BMW at the 4 seasons in Wireless Road, and have a chat with them.

I bought a few cars from Bmw Thailand, and had a great experience with both quality and service.

If the 320i is assembled in Thailand why are they so expensive in Thailand.

Because the parts are imported. A 320i assembled in Thailand is priced at around 2.65m, whereas an 320i Cabriolet imported from overseas is close to 5m. In the real world the difference would only be around 500k, but in Thailand it's close to 2 million. So you see foreign cars assembled in Thailand are better value than those imported from overseas as tax is calculated on the components rather than the complete car, which are two different tax brackets.

[Ace of Pop]

I recon its the Engine,you mentioned the gearbox clonk after the water top up,so somethings lost in translation perhaps.. Why do posters bother mentioning another brand, totally irelevant. Never had that with my 100Bht Truck.

"Why do posters bother mentioning another brand, totally irelevant. Never had that with my 100Bht Truck."

Was that a 100(?) baht BMW truck? Obviously not. Or are you just mentioning another "totally irrelevant" non-BMW brand so that you can berate yourself also?

From a Teacher Man who cant afford a Visa,no doubt,yet alone a B.M.

[belg]

sometimes you better buy the local crap than a fancy overpriced imported one

[Norvabc]

Um, it all seems rather strange.

The only way I can see that engine coolant could get into the transmission is if somebody accidentally poured coolant into the transmission oil filler, mistaking it for the coolant reservoir.

Otherwise, there's no physical connection between the engine cooling system and the transmission that would allow the coolant to get there. And I know of no design that has engine coolant linked in anyway to the internals of a transmission.

If the above scenario is a possibility, I'd be keeping rather quiet about demands from BMW as they may suggest any warranty is void if somebody poured coolant into the transmission.

It was really odd to me too. Although the last car I actually repaired myself was an Austin Metro in 1986.

First off - the coolant only seemed to really disappear en-masse when exiting a car park with a steep downward off ramp. So this was dependent on the angle of the car. The three times it occurred were on an off ramp waiting for traffic to clear and then the light came on.

Also - when they took it away the second time, I checked the driveway after they took it away and there was an amount of fluid on the drive that was white in color and thick in consistency whereas the coolant was blue and watery in consistence.

I doubt anyone poured coolant into the transmission as we got it straight from the shop and the issue first occurred in 2 days when no-one had even lifted the bonnet. We stopped at a service station and called BMW - it was the guys at the service station that topped up the coolant and it was obviously going in the right place.

Also odd that the gear issue wasn't considered until my wife called on the second day of them having the car for the second time. It was almost an aside that we asked them to check why the gear change had been so clunky (since day 1) relative to the loan car. It wasn't more than an hour before they called us and told us about the gearbox.

They found that issue very quickly indeed once we told them the symptoms.

White thick oil on the floor.. water and oil mixed ... 1) Engine head or other raw plug etc leaking .. 2) If the leak was from the gearbox or under the gearbox then gear oil mixed with coolant. Either way the car wants replacing .. and yes they WILL fobbed you off you are talking about a new car loads of money.

[Naam]

BMW and Mercedes way overpriced here due to the import tax. Cannot understand why anyone buys here especially a Farang. Wasted your money...should have bought an Accord or a Camry for less than half the price of your German rubbish!!!

i asked my wife for her opinion whether she would have rather liked that i bought her an Accord or a Camry instead of the one in the middle, not double but four times the money. she [not so] humbly begs to disagree with your advice

p.s. i knew this would happen!

[Naam]

BMW and Mercedes way overpriced here due to the import tax. Cannot understand why anyone buys here especially a Farang. Wasted your money...should have bought an Accord or a Camry for less than half the price of your German rubbish!!!

German rubbish? Maybe the OP could try a British car.......oh wait!

Btw, seriously, the ZF gearboxes are great. There is only one fault with the BMW maintenance policy. BMW says they are maintenance free, but ZF says that at least the oil should be changed after 100.000km. In this case there was a manufacturing error, bad luck and very annoying indeed. Could have happend with any product and brand.

there's nothing wrong with my soon 45 year old British car. i love it as much as i love my wife's German car.

[Naam]

BMW and Mercedes way overpriced here due to the import tax. Cannot understand why anyone buys here especially a Farang. Wasted your money...should have bought an Accord or a Camry for less than half the price of your German rubbish!!!

i asked my wife for her opinion whether she would have rather liked that i bought her an Accord or a Camry instead of the one in the middle, not double but for four times the money. she [not so] humbly begs to disagree with your advice

rubbish.jpg

I would die for that German rubbish or perhaps tweak the "E"'s carbs...................

it so happens that i have some slight problems with the E-Type's gearbox. actually i think it's not the gearbox but the worn out connection shiftstick to gearbox. stopping at a traffic light, shifting into 1st gear and avoiding landing up in 3rd reminds me of having sex when i was an inexperienced teenager.

[monkey4u]

I hope if it is an auto they didn't tow it with the rear wheels on the ground...........

Water in a gearbox, thats a first for me. Except a 60's Mini, forgot.....

The transmission is cooled by the oil passing through tubes in the radiator.

If you have a faulty radiator then you get coolant mixed with transmission oil

It happened to me once in a Volvo

I was really upset as I only clocked up 680,000 kilometers on it

Is nothing built to last

[I knew this would happen]

BMW and Mercedes way overpriced here due to the import tax. Cannot understand why anyone buys here especially a Farang. Wasted your money...should have bought an Accord or a Camry for less than half the price of your German rubbish!!!

German rubbish? Maybe the OP could try a British car.......oh wait!

Btw, seriously, the ZF gearboxes are great. There is only one fault with the BMW maintenance policy. BMW says they are maintenance free, but ZF says that at least the oil should be changed after 100.000km. In this case there was a manufacturing error, bad luck and very annoying indeed. Could have happend with any product and brand.

there's nothing wrong with my soon 45 year old British car. i love it as much as i love my wife's German car.

Of course there is nothing wrong with that car, quite nice. And it is British. Then it became a Ford, and then a Tata

[I knew this would happen]

Of course there is nothing wrong with that car, quite nice. And it is British. Then it became a Ford, and then a Tata

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo, his "E" has always been British...............

His E of course. Maybe I´ve written something misleading here. Meant the company. Sorry for that.

This is of course a forever lasting British icon.

[Naam]

Hmmmmmmmm, from neutral, push the stick left, pull the stick back and "touch' second gear and push forward to first.

But yeh, could have some ware. How many miles has it done ?

if i push the stick a wee bit too much to the left to "touch 2nd" i touch reverse wish the Jag people had thought of a "mask" like what you find in a Ferrari. thinking of having one made.

[Naam]

Of course there is nothing wrong with that car, quite nice. And it is British. Then it became a Ford, and then a Tata

my "E" was built in 1969 when Tata was still building rickshaws and thelas. the only thing slightly "unBritish" is that the steering wheel is on the left because the car was meant to be driven on the right and not on the wrong side of a road.

[Morakot]

wish the Jag people had thought of a "mask" like what you find in a Ferrari. thinking of having one made.

shift.jpg

Would you need to double-(de)clutch with this contraption?

[anfh]

Doesn't make sense, manual gearboxes are no where near the water cooling system, and, if there is a cooling system on the gearbox, this will be oil cooling, not water. The only way water gets in a gearbox is if it's auto and some idiot puts water down the transmission top up inlet . But manual gearboxes don't have top up facility. Even if an engine core plug has gone, the water would affect the clutch first, not the gearbox.

All sounds very peculiar.

[Naam]

wish the Jag people had thought of a "mask" like what you find in a Ferrari. thinking of having one made.

shift.jpg

Would you need to double-(de)clutch with this contraption?

no, gears are synchronised.

[Naam]

Hmmmmmmmm, from neutral, push the stick left, pull the stick back and "touch' second gear and push forward to first.

But yeh, could have some ware. How many miles has it done ?

if i push the stick a wee bit too much to the left to "touch 2nd" i touch reverse wish the Jag people had thought of a "mask" like what you find in a Ferrari. thinking of having one made.

shift.jpg

Hmmmmmmmmmm, perhaps a rebuild is needed, but not in LOS eh.

there's nothing wrong with the gearbox, it's just the gear "selection". but i think you underestimate the Thai chaps who run and work in small specialised workshops. over the years i have seen several miracles, e.g. a Hino marine diesel fitted in an S-class Benz.

[seedy]

it so happens that i have some slight problems with the E-Type's gearbox. actually i think it's not the gearbox but the worn out connection shiftstick to gearbox. stopping at a traffic light, shifting into 1st gear and avoiding landing up in 3rd reminds me of having sex when i was an inexperienced teenager.

May be just the bushings on the linkage worn.

Not a Jag expert, but should be easy to access the top of trans, remove shifter and have all new bushings made. If it uses a round ball to activate the gates, then some slight welding of worn spots and refinishing should set you right.

If using shifter forks, the ends can become worn too, but simple to fix with the shifter removed.

Compensate for the wear and it should shift like new.

[Wong!]

So, in summary...

Lots of different cars have issues and most dealers in Thailand are a bit 'iffy'.

We have US law in Thailand.

Many people on TV know sweet FA about cars.

THREAD CLOSED

[inzman]

Sorry Wong, thread not closed, but you can go elsewhere

[Wong!]

Boo hoo...

[Naam]

it so happens that i have some slight problems with the E-Type's gearbox. actually i think it's not the gearbox but the worn out connection shiftstick to gearbox. stopping at a traffic light, shifting into 1st gear and avoiding landing up in 3rd reminds me of having sex when i was an inexperienced teenager.

May be just the bushings on the linkage worn.

Not a Jag expert, but should be easy to access the top of trans, remove shifter and have all new bushings made. If it uses a round ball to activate the gates, then some slight welding of worn spots and refinishing should set you right.

If using shifter forks, the ends can become worn too, but simple to fix with the shifter removed.

Compensate for the wear and it should shift like new.

thanks! will try one of these days. if it works... you be da man Seedy!

[Naam]

Stuffing an engine into another ride is good fun, been there, As far as I remember your box has no linkage. Everything is internal, similar Aston of the era. There are folk in the UK that have all the parts to bring your box back to factory.

Trans,

shipping the box to some folks in the nowadays not so United Kingdom and then back to the Land of Smiles calls for the question "how many Chang today before sunset?"

p.s. i knew that [good advice] would happen

[justathought]

Office of the Consumer Protection Board

They deal with many cases involving new cars due to the amount of money involved.

There are law firms specialising in consumer protection law that can help you too.

if you decide to use a thai lawyer, before doing that find out what you can do when the thai lawyers screws you for a lot of money

this is speaking from experience

[KIWIBATCH]

Be damn sure you keep every single scrap of correspondence, times, phone calls, dates, names etc etc etc on this matter........

I am just saying that you need to be prepared for the famous Thai fob off any day now.

Retaining records will help you should you need to be dealing direct with BMW's Head office (Germany?) in the future.

Please keep posting the progress on this matter...I am interested in both the (hopefully satisfactory outcome to you) and the mechanical details of the problem.

Cheers

[seedy]

thanks! will try one of these days. if it works... you be da man Seedy!

If you have any questions, let me know. Will help if I can.

[questionsreplies]

Why BMW seem to have more problems than Benz ? I found many posts about bmw problems but not about benz ?

[Naam]

thanks! will try one of these days. if it works... you be da man Seedy!

If you have any questions, let me know. Will help if I can.

[Ace of Pop]

questionsreplies, on 25 Feb 2014 - 19:45, said:

Why BMW seem to have more problems than Benz ? I found many posts about bmw problems but not about benz ?

Heres a strange thing, if you Google Benz Gearbox Probs and not BMW up POPS Benz Gearbox Probs. Hmm, cant think why.

[kartman]

All BMWs are rear wheel drive. There have been some four wheel drive models, but never a front wheel drive.

I have know idea if the OP's car is front wheel drive. If it is not, then the water thing is something I don't understand. Perhaps he is being fobbed off. Sounds like it. BUT, modern stuff is out of my domain, perhaps there is some sort of trans water cooling, I don't know. BL transverse engines and trans used the same oil, they were one, if a head gasket went then water went into the gearbox and sump.

Obviously due to reading this thread and horrified that TV armchair experts have no idea how their products are driven or which way round the engine is.... BMW announce the Front Wheel Drive 2 series Active Tourer to be sold Worldwide including Thailand. Therefore any future threads will have all bases covered

[thailandbeachisland]

All BMWs are rear wheel drive. There have been some four wheel drive models, but never a front wheel drive.

I have know idea if the OP's car is front wheel drive. If it is not, then the water thing is something I don't understand. Perhaps he is being fobbed off. Sounds like it. BUT, modern stuff is out of my domain, perhaps there is some sort of trans water cooling, I don't know. BL transverse engines and trans used the same oil, they were one, if a head gasket went then water went into the gearbox and sump.

Obviously due to reading this thread and horrified that TV armchair experts have no idea how their products are driven or which way round the engine is.... BMW announce the Front Wheel Drive 2 series Active Tourer to be sold Worldwide including Thailand. Therefore any future threads will have all bases covered

So ugly ! Perfect Japanese car !

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car-manufacturers/bmw/10636953/BMW-2-series-Active-Tourer-revealed.html

I used to wonder how could people buy a Benz A-class but compared to this ugly 2-series I now understand that any cheap A-class is better than this Japanese cars copy form BMW...