hi, as i mentioned in another post i'm new to this forum and bmw ownership. i'm also new to automatic transmissions. give me a gun and a time machine and i promise all cars will be manual with turbos. all i know is the clutch, the only auto i've ever drivin was the neon i took my road test in and that was for about half hour. can you guys explain the automatic tranny to me...the do's and don't?

i've got park, reverse, nutrual, and drive down pack but what is s1,s2,s3?
i was told i could shift from drive through s1 while driving, is this true? when am i going to wanna do that kind of shifting?

It is my understanding that it is sport mode, a lower gear. my 540 has s1, s2, s3, s4 because it is a 5 speed auto. it doesnt shift down so soon, keeping at a higher rpm while driving is what ive noticed in s4.

just put it into drive and go. lol. if you want a bit more of a "sporty" ride, put it in s3 but other than that, thats about it. dont do brake stands.

why shouldn't i do brake stands?

why shouldn't i do brake stands?

Because you will fry your transsmission and eventually you'll hear your transmission go "clunk" because it just fell out from underneath the car.

:lol: i was actually thinking because the torque converter would overheat and it would also put stress on all of your driveline.

:lol: i was actually thinking because the torque converter would overheat and it would also put stress on all of your driveline.

Well... same difference... what i said probably would have happened eventually if you continued doing brakestands and dropping the clutch on an auto.

well thats obvious. i thought there was a specific reason. for example i can't do burn outs in my saturn because saturns have weak differentials. it's because there's nothin holding the diff pin in place when one wheel spins alot faster than the other so the pin slips out and blows a hole in the tranny.

is there anything like that i should know about the 5 series tranny, or any other part of the car for that matter?

well thats obvious. i thought there was a specific reason. for example i can't do burn outs in my saturn because saturns have weak differentials. it's because there's nothin holding the diff pin in place when one wheel spins alot faster than the other so the pin slips out and blows a hole in the tranny.

is there anything like that i should know about the 5 series tranny, or any other part of the car for that matter?

Not really, that's the best part about an automatic. Pretty much just hit the gas and go. As far as maintenance goes. I believe that the BMW auto tranny has a lifetime tranny fluid change interval. I havne't heard of any problems with that. I will just have to see down the line how my tranny performs at 100k.

im @ 182k miles and my auto tranny is still as smooth as butter.