$500 1997 BMW 318is Update

Late this afternoon I registered the car finally, and my wife and i took it for the first legal drive.

I spoke to a couple of people and it seems that after a fluid change an automatic transmission can take a little while to drive normally as air bubbles can be in the system, and like in braking systems, air can cause some issues. Maybe after about 50kms it might be as good as it gets. Tomorrow I will drive it to work and back (around 80km) so it will be a good test. Hope I make it.

The 4th gear problem seems to have gone already and the 2-3 shift is improving but still far from good. Reverse is very slow to engage which to me is the biggest worry and even if the forward gears improve I suspect I will be faced with the dilemma of whether to have the gearbox replaced under warranty at a remove and reinstall fee of $350 and no idea what condition the next gearbox might be in.

Around slow corners under acceleration it makes a grinding noise as I previously mentioned. Not sure what this is yet.