E36 Jatco transmission problems

[monsta72 0]

Thanks for the usefull info Mark.My slushmatic has the jerk also.Will pay a visit to aceomatic.

Hope all is working out for you on trademe.I am curious as to who the new member of your bavarian family is going to be.

[leithcm 0]

Hi, I have a 01/96 E36 323i coupe, JATCO transmission. With only 17,070 km's (verified) on the odo, it exhibited the soft shifting (flaring) particularly 2nd to 3rd. Only did it if the throttle was set so the engine revs at gear change was about 2500 - 3000, anything higher and problem was never here.

I did a bit of research, and found out that there was a new TCM introduced in Oct96 which was used until the E36 was phased out in mid '97. I managed to get a TCM from a 04/97 E36 320i, I fitted that in place of mine, and, hey presto! problem solved!!

I twigged this MIGHT be the problem as when I reset the TCM (key in 2nd position, foot on accelerator pedal for 30 seconds, wait for "clunk" as transmission reset, key off, start, away) it was fine for a while, then back to the old habits. Suspected a troublesome TCM, so when one came up I gave it a go, and it seems to have worked. Just an idea, that's all!

Cheers, Chris

[Wom 0]

Just got my car back from the mechanic ... $3,000 to fix the Jatco jerk ... damn glad I bought that warranty

[kiwi328i 118]

I thought I'd post this as an informative resource for others with this problem commonly known as "the Jatco Jerk". I'm in the process of having this fixed on my car and I'll post more information as it comes to hand.

The "Jatco Jerk" affects 6 cylinder E36 and M50-engined E34 BMW's assembled in Japan. These "Japanese BMW's" were fitted with a Jatco transmission that has been used in a variety of cars including the Nissan Skyline.

The Jatco transmissions commonly develop problems with poor shift quality that can worsen over time if not attended to. Including:

- A jerky change between first and second gear (more noticeable when cold)

- Soft-shifting or "flaring" between 2nd and 3rd gear and sometimes between 3rd and 4th gear. (transmission briefly returns to neutral before selecting the next gear)

My car is currently in the capable hands of Aceomatic Automatic Transmission Services on Stanmore Road in Christchurch. They were recommended by my BMW specialist and often service BMW's for many of the European car yards. The transmission is out of the car and being pulled to bits as I type this to determine the exact cause of the problem. Thankfully my car has a mechanical warranty, so it makes sense to have the current transmission repaired with a guarantee as opposed to fitting a secondhand transmission that is in unknown condition.

I'll get the full diagnosis on what was wrong, the repairs needed and the breakdown of costs and post it here for everyone's information. Likewise, if you have any knowledge of this topic feel free to post here so we can help others with similar problems.

UPDATE 21/10/08

I have the car back and it drives beautifully. I'm actually thinking about taking it for a drive for the sake of driving again!

Here's the invoice breakdown incl. parts and labour and the total cost:

1 GASKET $6.10

1 PUMP GASKET $15.28

1 HIGH CLUTCH SEAL KIT $24.81

1 PUMP O'RING $8.41

1 CONVERTER SEAL $8.26

5 HIGH FRICTION PLATE $192.50

1 CUSHION $23.71

1 INTERMEDIATE BAND $63.09

1 FILTER $29.54

1 SCAN TOOL CHARGE $35.00

1 CLEAN AND TEST SOLENOID $25.00

1 POWER FLUSH COOLER $90.00

8 LITRES TRANNY FLUID $120.96

+ 12 HOURS LABOUR $734.28

ROAD TEST AND CONFIRM CUSTOMER CONCERNS, SCAN FOR CODES. PUT VEHICLE ON HOIST AND DRAIN TRANSMISSION FLUID, REMOVE THE PAN AND ADVISE CUSTOMER OF FINDINGS. REMOVE THE TRANSMISSION AND DISMANTLE AS REQUIRED. CHECK OVER FRICTION MATERIAL AND SEALS AND SUPPLY THE CUSTOMER AN ESTIMATE TO REPAIR.

REMOVE AND DYNO TEST PRESSURE CONTROL SOLENOID. REASSEMBLE - REPLACING FRICTION MATERIAL AND SEALS AS LISTED AND REFIT TRANSMISSION TO VEHICLE. SET UP ALL CONTROLS AND FILL WITH TRANSMISSION FLUID. ROAD TEST AND RECHECK FLUID LEVEL, RECHECK FOR CODES AND FINAL OKAY.

TOTAL COST INCLUDING GST $1125.80

TOTAL COST TO ME (CAR UNDER MECHANICAL WARRANTY) $250.00 Get one they're worth it!

So there you have it, that's how much it cost to have my Jatco jerk fixed. The mechanic did say to me however that I had quite a mild case of it and that it gets much worse. He said that later E36's with this problem often cease to select first gear altogether and simply start off in 2nd. In these cases the labour costs start to really pile up.

 

Right, I took my Jatco out, fairly straightforward as far as autos go. All up me brothers driveway...secure! All we did was check and clean, pulled out the fluid which was pretty burned and I had all ready replaced a year ago so something wasnt quite right, pulled out all the clutch packs and one was a little too loose and on closer inspection the friction plates in that one were pretty worn, I replaced them, blew everything out with the air gun, cleaned the magnet, I didnt even replace the filter, gasket or plug. Threw it all back together and wallah...it still had a bit of a jerk..&^*&%^%$^%er!!!

So I called Gavin up at Hi velocity and apparently I need to 'clear the adaptions' (how the hell would I know), anyway did that and wallah...no more jatco jerk, its only been a week, but it works well now, it may play up later but it is very driveable and apart from labour cost me 90 odd for auto trans fluid and 40 bucks for the friction plates and plenty of thanks to my bro (ex super mechanic) lots of elbow grease, I am back to being a proud 328i owner, who doesnt have to nanny the bloody thing anymore. So thats as rangi as you would want to get I reckon, other than that I wouldnt have bothered with secondhand or a full rebuild as the cost effectiveness just isnt there in these cars (jatco equipped).my 2c.

[Dave@nz 11]

Hi, Could you please explain "need to 'clear the adaptions" as I am not familuar with this process,

Mine has the cold jerk into second and is a bit of a shame for a quality car.

Dave

Edited March 31, 2010 by 87M3@NZ

[BM WORLD 1258]

convert it to manual , then its sorted

[Wom 0]

Hi, Could you please explain "need to 'clear the adaptions" as I am not familuar with this process,

Mine has the cold jerk into second and is a bit of a shame for a quality car.

Dave

the gearbox adapts to your driving style and sometimes resetting the computer so it re-learns your driving style can help with the Jatco jerk

[soarer260@hotmail.com 0]

convert it to manual , then its sorted

Agreed!

I would have but since I am going down a 1UZFE Manaual conversion in a few months I decided just to keep the auto in mine.

Terrible gearbox imo.

[rusteee 52]

sorry for carrying this thread on a bit, but I have a Jatco transmission in my 320I, and it suffers the jatco jerk slightly, depending how i drive, plus when its warmer it tends to lack a bit of torque between 2000-3000 rpm then it drops a cuple of hundred RPM and power really kicks in (im assuming this is related to being a dodgy Jatco, unless this is just how the little 320i's are?? lol), other then that it cruises fine. Its seems they are too expensive to fix. In your opinion would it be worth converting to a manual, or just buying a new Beema already manual. Its a 97 320i and its only done 113,000kms.

[1rotty 40]

Try getting the trans adaptions reset before you do anything else.

If it hasnt got major issues will make a noticeable difference.

[rusteee 52]

Oh really, how do I get that done?

[Wom 0]

Any BMW mechanic or transmission specialist will be able to do it for you

[1rotty 40]

& should be VERY cheap-had my 328 done this avo while I waited-took about 5 mins.

[rusteee 52]

& should be VERY cheap-had my 328 done this avo while I waited-took about 5 mins.

Oh true, sounds good to me I suppose its worth a shot. Let me know if it made any difference to yours..

What exactly does it do, does it reset it back to factory and then change to your driving style or something?

[Wom 0]

yep very cheap and quick to do, they just plug a scanner in and reset it

it resets the transmission computer back to stock factory settings, and from there it will adapt to your driving style over the next thousand km's or so

[edit] didn't really do anything on mine, but my gearbox had other major issues

but I have heard of success in some cases, and it's the cheapest quickest thing that you can try out

Edited April 12, 2010 by Wom

[1rotty 40]

I'll let u know tomorrow after a cold start .

[*Glenn* 854]

Transmission driveability problems are not always EGS or transmission related. These driveability problems can be caused by other faults ie: Air Mass Sensor or Air Flow Meter (trans load signal) I suggest if your having problems... get it checked properly. All drive systems should be checked for fault codes DME, EGS, ABS & ASC. If no error codes are present, then clear all adaptions and check live data while driving, especially AFM or MAF Kg readings. AFM or MAF will not throw a fault code when its out of scale normally, only when its dead.

Edited April 12, 2010 by *Glenn*

[Wom 0]

thanks Glenn, that's quite handy to know

[1rotty 40]

+1,Glenn.

Rustee-FYI have run my car from cold starts twice now & it no longer jerks between 1st & 2nd.

I hasten to add tho,given the fact its a beemer (& my luck) I'm not holding my breath re longevity.

[kiwi328i 118]

Hi, Could you please explain "need to 'clear the adaptions" as I am not familuar with this process,

Mine has the cold jerk into second and is a bit of a shame for a quality car.

Dave

Any BMW workshop with the appropriate scanner should be able to do this. I fixed the mechanical problems that were causing the jerk, so the clearing of the adaptions are just complimentary I believe.

[*Glenn* 854]

I fixed the mechanical problems that were causing the jerk.

Did you use your brothers FBH to do this ???

[1rotty 40]

Slightly OT but I was talking to the guys at Jeff Grays today & they have 4 e36's(parts cars) all with Jatco's,all done between 200 & 210 k's & all with stuffed transmissions.

Their point was that if serviced regularly they can be ok.

Oh,& Greg was looking very sharp in his new BMW livery

Edited April 14, 2010 by 1rotty

[kiwi328i 118]

Did you use your brothers FBH to do this ???

FBH?

Sorry Glenn dont ring a bell, but I did buy some stuff, have a gander at my post on this very thread and you may find the info you are looking for? We use all manner of tools to get the job done, so who knows. What I did use from my brother is his knowledge on cars and that he has in spades, thankfully free. The jatco jerk is no more and thats all that matters to me. Hopefully someone may find my resolution to the jatco jerk useful in some way.

Personally, I would advise most people to go straight to a garage. Its not for the amateur thats for sure.

[rusteee 52]

I havn't managed to have the gearbox tcu reset yet, but was wondering if that gas pedal trick works on the e36? If it does indeed work lol, or does it just have to be reset using the tool?

[1rotty 40]

I tried it on the 328 - it didnt work for me