DCT is angry

Well, I may be effed!

I have a 2011 E90 DCT and honestly drive it like a grandma. I'm simply growing older and have kids, so I no longer cruise to work doing 110 in the emergency lane.

The other day, I got a wild hair to burn some rubber. I pulled over in a vacant industrial area, stopped, put it in manual mode and 1st gear and hammered on the gas....no tire spin, but it did accelerate fast until I got to 5k rpm. I then experienced what felt like it popping out of gear and stopped. Trans light came up on the dash so I shifted to neutral, then back to first and gently drove off. dash light went off and all seemed normal.

about a mile down the road while doing about 30mph I floored it and it seems normal for a few seconds, but then it cut power and the trans temp light came on.

I have driven it once since and all seems fine.

Any idea wtf is going on? clutch pack slipping? trans toast?

These trans are almost indestructible. I would not be worried about it being dead.

What code does the car throw? Maybe you have the typical DCT leak that has leaked enough to where there isn't enough fluid in there anymore

Yup, low fluid is the usual culprit due to a weeping pan.

I was honestly hoping that wouldn't be the case. This tranny had a previous leak while it was under warranty. BMW preformed a trans pan, gasket replacement and I've had a gut feeling since then that they didn't put the correct amount of fluid back in. Ever since then trans service, it seemed slightly noisier during gear changes, especially from N-1.

Because of the specific process required to change the fluid, what does a change cost? mine was under warranty so I don't know what it was.

328inOR wrote

I was honestly hoping that wouldn't be the case. This tranny had a previous leak while it was under warranty. BMW preformed a trans pan, gasket replacement and I've had a gut feeling since then that they didn't put the correct amount of fluid back in. Ever since then trans service, it seemed slightly noisier during gear changes, especially from N-1.

Because of the specific process required to change the fluid, what does a change cost? mine was under warranty so I don't know what it was.

There is a DIY DCT Fluid Change HERE---> https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=746269 that shows how to change your fluid. You could use the end of the procedure to add fluid. The gist is that you want to run the engine at 2000RPM for a minute, then get under the car (with it running) and add more fluid until fluid seeps out the fill hole. This should be done fairly quickly so that your DCT fluid temp does not exceed 104 degrees. It's not as scary as you may think, and given your experience and the suggestion that you may have low fluid, you may get greater peace of mind from knowing that you did it the right way, yourself.

i suggest you just refill it yourself. It isn't very hard. It'll make the car happy again and you don't have to worry. I'd use the GTS fill process and feed it an extra quart

SYT_Shadow wrote

i suggest you just refill it yourself. It isn't very hard. It'll make the car happy again and you don't have to worry. I'd use the GTS fill process and feed it an extra quart

Agreed, I did a DCT flush/fill with new fluid and it was much easier than expected. I also replaced the filters while I was in there.

Not a difficult job.

WhiteM3EMC wrote

328inOR wrote

I was honestly hoping that wouldn't be the case. This tranny had a previous leak while it was under warranty. BMW preformed a trans pan, gasket replacement and I've had a gut feeling since then that they didn't put the correct amount of fluid back in. Ever since then trans service, it seemed slightly noisier during gear changes, especially from N-1.

Because of the specific process required to change the fluid, what does a change cost? mine was under warranty so I don't know what it was.

There is a DIY DCT Fluid Change HERE---> https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=746269 that shows how to change your fluid. You could use the end of the procedure to add fluid. The gist is that you want to run the engine at 2000RPM for a minute, then get under the car (with it running) and add more fluid until fluid seeps out the fill hole. This should be done fairly quickly so that your DCT fluid temp does not exceed 104 degrees. It's not as scary as you may think, and given your experience and the suggestion that you may have low fluid, you may get greater peace of mind from knowing that you did it the right way, yourself.

I was not able to add enough fluid following this procedure.
I drained almost 6 quarts and was only able to add 5 back.
I ended up following GTS filling process and added almost 7 quarts in the end.