Bimmerboard How-Tos. E32 E34 E38 5HP30 Valve body restoration by Jeff Chia April 2008

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1 Bimmerboard How-Tos E32 E34 E38 5HP30 Valve body restoration by Jeff Chia April 2008 Updated Aug 2009 If this article has helped you, please donate to This doc is possible because of everyone else who have done this before me and posted on Bimmerboard. I ve added more pics and my input to help others as they have helped me. Reasons to do this: Prevent damage to transmission. Symptoms: Reverse takes second to engage. Feels like the handbrake is engaged when reversing. Whining when changing gears with a cold car or when the weather is cold. What can happen if this is not done. Damaged clutch packs in the transmission which require it to be rebuild. A check ball which had worn past its limit causes high pressure in the valve body which damages clutch and other components in the transmission (or so I read) Tools/equipment required - Torx 27 bit - 13mm socket - 14 mm hex key (cut) or 5/8 coupling nut - 17mm hex key or ¾ coupling nut - Impact screwdriver (optional) - electric screwdriver (optional) - Torque wrench - Oil pump - O-ring removal tool or smart pick (optional) - Plastic pan that is as long and wide as the trans oil pan Parts in Canadian dollars - 1xZF Valve body kit Pn: 5HP30VBK $200 Local ZF Distributor - 2xcheck balls are part of the kit - Oil filter and Oil pan gasket $40-22xStainless steel M6x25 bolts, and washers $10 your neighbor hardware store - 12xLitres of QuakerState Multi vehicle Transmission Oil $72-2 cans of Brake cleaner $10 Optional - 2xwire harness O rings $14-4xValvebody riser O-rings $? Steps summary - Drain transmission oil - Remove oil pan

2 - Disconnect wiring harness and speed sensor - Remove filter - Remove valve body - Replace valve body parts - Replace O-rings - Install valve body - Install filter - Install oil pan - Fill with engine off, start engine and fill with engine on - Testdrive for whine - Check for leaks - Wait for transmission to cool down to below 20C - Top up when transmission is below 20C Torque settings Oil drain screw 50 NM Fill screw 100NM Oil pan 71 in/lbs Rear speed sensor - 71 in/lbs VB to trans screws 71 in/lbs Housing screws 53 in/lbs Oil filter 53 in/lbs

3 Drain transmission To start, get you vehicle high enough to get underneath it and out easily. My excuse to get a lift. If possible, make the front a bit lower than the rear so that the trans oil can drain better. Very first step, make sure that you loosen the fill screw in the middle of the trans with a 17mm hex key before proceeding. If you cannot do this step then STOP. No point of doing everything and not be able to fill the transmission with new oil. To remove the oil, the drain plug requires a 14mm hex key. Unfortunately, standard L-shaped hex keys will not fit as there is not enough room to insert it between the exhaust and the drain plug, unless you cut them. Alternately I use a 5/8 coupling nut to loosen the drain plug. Get this from HomeDepot or your local hardware store.

4 I've done some prework and replaced all the rusting torx screws with stainless steel hex ones. I had 5 that were stripped as I tried to remove them by hand. I had to use my impact screwdriver (in the blue metal case) to remove them. Glad I had the lift as it gave me enough room to swing the hammer. This was the color of the 180K km transmission oil. Capucinno, anyone?

5 All the rest of it. Here's a shot of the new and old oil

6 Once the dripping stopped, clean and re-install the oil drain plug with the washer. Mine had a bit of iron filing in it. Leave two screws (one front, one rear) on the oil pan hand tight. This is where the electric screwdriver come in handy. Remove all the others. Lay a couple of sheet of newspaper on the floor for the oil pan and the plastic pan on the floor below the oil pan to catch the drips. While holding the oil pan up with one hand, remove the last two screws. A buddy is also helpful here. Since there is some oil left in the pan, holding the oil pan level, and lower it onto the newspaper. If you stripped the torx screw, which I did for about 5 of them, I dremeled a slot into the head and use a normal slotted tip to turn it. A friend said that he used steel chisel and tap the edge of the screw to force it to turn. Dirty pan

7 Mmmmm Cleaned pan The oil carrier just sits on top of the magnet in 3 holes. Take care not to dislodge it when you install the oil pan. Here is what the magnet looks like with a lot of fine iron stuff on it. Look at what it goes in the previous pic

8 And here it is cleaned. Now loosen the oil filter screws.

9 Lower in the rear so that the oil in it drains. Mine is branded by Zeller the departmental store. Never knew they stock trans filters. Once the dripping stops. Remove it. Another view of the old filter

10 This is what an original FILTRAN filter and O ring looks like from the 750. This has no whine. It should say FILTRAN. Dealer has them at a good price too. Loosen all 12 bigger flat screws that hold the VB up. Remove 10 if you wish, but leave one in front and one in the rear. I left all 12 in with a couple of turns into the housing. Make sure these two do not come off but out enough to lower the VB to have most of the oil in it and the torque converter to drain. Lowering the VB means clearing the two risers at the front. Note the two o-rings that is holding it up which is what you need to lower enough before the oil in the torque converter will drain.

11 Here is a pic of the other side of the valvebody with the two risers that you need to lower enough to drain more oil. While waiting for it to drip, it is a good time to remove the wire harness and rear speed sensor (13mm socket). Spin canon connector anti clockwise. It will push out and back. Remove metal clip on the canon plug by sliding it off.

12 Push the plug into the transmission Here is a shot of the inside view Notice the two white o-rings that you will want to replace as the 5HP30 will always leak here over time. Pay me now or pay me later.

13 Note the notch in the connector, in the upper right of this pic, that you will need to align to a bump on the trans housing when you reinstall it. Remove the rear speed sensor screw and clip Another view with the sensor removed

14 Note how the shift valve on the VB is connected by the slot to the shift lever which connects to the shifter up in the cabin. You ll need to re-align it in the same slot when you install it later. The dripping should have slowed a lot by now. Remove all the flat screws and lower the VB into the plastic tray. It is heavy and will have a bit of oil dripping from it. You will need to jiggle it a bit more before it actually drops as it might still be held up by the riser o- rings. A buddy to hold it up, at this point will be ideal. Trans without VB. The will still be some dripping so keep a tray here to keep the floor clean as you might be laying down on it later on. In my case, my shoes stay clean and not bring into the house, oil underneath my shoes. I hate cleaning floors.

15 A big plastic tray is going to make things easier and cleaner than newspaper or plastic sheets. Mine is 3 times longer than the VB so that I can move stuff around, clean parts on the left, leaving space to work on any housing on the right without having any screw and springs fall under my table. I got mine at WalMart. It is a clothing tray. There s probably 300 ml of oil left in the VB at this point in time. Get a roll of paper towels, or cloth. Start with paper towels then once cleaned, only use cloth. Paper towels tend to shed a lot of particles that you do not want blocking the passages in the valve body. It is also a good time to identify your VB version. Mine is 312. You ll need this to figure out which paper gasket to use or just eyeball the old to figure it out.

16 Also a good time to change out the harness o rings A view of the other side of the VB Remove the screws holding the speed sensor on the VB.

17 Remove all the screws in housing 1 to free it from the VB. All screws off The underside of Housing 1

18 Gunk that has deposited on the metal plate that had flowed through the channels in Housing 1 over time. Opening housing 1 up to replace the springs. I ve found that this might not be necessary if you car forward gear shifts fine. You should open it up and clean the deposited gunk off with brake cleaner whichever route you pick. Be forewarned that when opening the lids for the springs, they are under a good bit of pressure. Remove all springs and valves, clean it with the brake cleaner, replace with new parts and close it up. I use a clamp to help me compress the springs. The middle spring and valves are held by a key that you push out. There is another key lower down, but I found that you do not need to remove it as there was nothing to change there.

19 Housing 1 with everything removed Clamping it to help reinstall

20 Now do the same for housing 2 I ve loosen all the screws first, then use an electric screwdriver to make the job easier. Zip, zip.

21 Other side of housing 2 Removing and replacing all springs from Housing 2 Closing Housing 2 up

22 Cleaned and closed. Now remove Housing 3. Housing 3 is held by the screws on housing 2. One checkball is located here. See if you can find it. Hopefully it has not worn out small enough to cause pressure problems and break something. Where is it? You say. Check here.

23 Now for the channel plate. We will need to remove the two metal bars on the other side which is held by 4 and 3 screws each. Loosen them all and remove 3 and 2 screws each. I had loosened the screws to the 2 bars first then perched it on the edge of the tray and removed the screws from below. This prevented the checkball and orifices from falling out and allowed me to take pictures of where all of them should be. This is the same technique I used to re- install it.

24 Flipping the metal and paper gasket over. Actually the gasket is almost always suck on the housing, so slide a very thin metal in between them and work the edges slowly so not to crack the gasket. You can use a flat 1/2mm cake scoop, drywall taping knife, trowels to slide in between them. Note where everything is. Where is the checkball! My check ball is missing. It should be in the upper right oval channel. Im my case, it has worn out enough (1/16 in) allowing it to pass through the metal gasket to housing 3. This is probably what is causing my reverse issues. Luckily I caught this in time by opening up the VB, as the worn out checkball was in housing 3 but has not gone anywhere else and case more damage yet. I was later told that it not being in its position to block some pressure going the Housing 3 could have cause major damage. Phew, did not. I took some measurements of the checkballs. The one in the channel plate is the most worn. Strangely enough I did the same to my iL with 140,000km which has almost no wear(1/64) on the balls. I think the material is also different-brown(new) vs green(old)

25 Here s a shot of the new and old channel plate filter Incredible how much grime get collected in the channels. Here s the old gasket

26 And the new All the new parts are in place Cleaned with all new orifices in place

27 Here s where the checkball is supposed to be New paper gasket in place

28 Metal gasket in place Whatever you do, DO NOT flip the channel plate over Place the two metal bar on top of the metal gasket and attach the 7 screws from below. This will ensure that the check balls or orifice do not fall out of their position. Now, you can flip them over and torque the 7 screws. Insert the new filter.

29 Here s a view of the metal gasket for housing 3. Reinstall time. Here is another tricky step, make sure that the check ball in housing 3 does not fall out. Before adding Housing 1, make sure that the shift valve is in it first and in the slot as show below ( see the pics further down) Place housing 2 with the channels facing up, align screw holes with the channel plate, put the metal gasket over housing 3 (ensuring that the check ball does not fall out), flip housing 3 over and slide both the metal gasket and housing 3 together into position over the channel plate. Remember housing 3 has a check ball that can fall out. I balanced all 3 at the edge of my tray and screwed them together with a couple of screws, then turned them over to finish the job. This is the new grey shift valve. This triangle tip must be in the notch

30 Old vs new shift valve This is the correct position. Ask me how I knew. Almost there. Last VB step, screw in all the screws and torque them up.

31 Now is your last chance to align the shift lever to the vb shift valve. Failing to do this means you will have to do this again. The trans will lock the shift gate and disable the transmission. Make sure your hands/gloves are very clean as any dirt will definitely plug up the small orifices and the channel plate filter. Have a buddy to hold up the VB, align the shift, seat the risers, and screw in two screws. Then the last 10 screws. Check the torque of the round housing screws (51 in/lb), vb to trans flat screws (71 in/lb. Then you seat the riser of the filter into the VB, buddy hold it up while you put the last 2 screws in (51 in/lb) Nice and clean pan ready to go back.

32 Once the first screw was in, I left it quite loose so that I can ensure that the other screws went through the holes in the gasket. If you can use this as, it will save you a lot of time, it saved me a ton of grief. I bought a few of the other pumps from auto parts store but they were quite lame. It is a garden chemical pressure pump/sprayer.

33 I used this to pump the last 1 liter a morning, two days later. I drove the car for a couple of days and found that there was no whine even though I was low a litre. Looks like a soap pump. It is actually an outboard motor or small engine oil pump I think. Parts in the kit And docs that came with it

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