Long story short, I'd been working my old '05 R53 up for sticky fore-aft motion on the shifter. No problems with gear engagement and no odd noises from the tranny (aside from a light squeak when moving the shifter fore-aft), just a very heavy shift effort between gears. The cables checked out fine, so I was left with the linkage on the box or the internals of box itself. Since I could not find a single instance of a Getrag 6-speed failing on one of these cars, I figured it must be the linkage - right? I tried dousing it in grease and penetrating oil, but nothing helped. I could see there was a rubber bushing on the "shift weight set" (see #6 here) that could have logically been causing the problem based on my manipulations of the linkages, but I couldn't get the part off the car to inspect it. At this point, I brought the car to the dealer and asked them to change the part for me. The SA wanted to let the tech do his own work-up of the problem, which I OK'd even though I was fairly confident in my own diagnosis. The next afternoon, I get a call from the dealer, who informed me that the problem was "the internal shift mechanism", and since there are no rebuild parts available through BMW, the only fix was to replace the transmission at a cost of almost half the car's total book value.

Obviously I'm still getting over the initial shock of being told the car I'm trying to sell needs $6k of repair work, but I'm still shocked none-the-less that this was the diagnosis they came up with. I was under the impression that the Getrag boxes on these cars were fairly bulletproof, and I feel the lack of documented 6-speed failures here and elsewhere supports that. I'm not going to sugar-coat things and say I babied the car, but I know guys who track R53s more than 10 times a year and haven't had any trouble with the gearbox. However, the dealer claims it's "not uncommon at higher mileage, especially if the car has been raced". The car has seen maybe 10 autocross events and 2 track days in it's life, and has only 76k on the clock...

Sounds like a load of ******** to me, right?

 

can't speak to the failures, can't say I've heard of many. But it's not to hard to find used, even low mileage tranny up for sale. No way I'd give the dealship 6k.

 

Anything is possible...maybe a slight mechanicl defect at production, or a bad sfit hurt someting...low oil,, etc.
I second to bring it elsewhere...and get a used tranny...the 2005's+ are sold at a premium due to the gearing, but as long as folks are wrecking cars, used ones should be around. Seems a safe bet, since they rarely fail unless severly abused.

 

It occurred to me today that the part I told the dealer was the problem actually comes with the whole tranny they want to order as well - so they're essentially doing what I told them anyway, just with an additional 4k in parts and 2k in labor... I hate to be such a conspiracy theorist, but I do still have the *pristine* clutch they told me was bad and proceeded to change sitting in the garage with a big "never trust the mechanic" sign on it...

 

I understand this thread is 9 years old but I would like to share a similar story. The shift weight set on my 2005 MCS with six speed Getrag would seize up from the heat of 15 minutes of driving making it almost impossible to change gears. To fix this you can loosen the hex bolt so there is a small , 1 mm gap between the head of the bolt and the washer. It can be a temporary fix until you change the seizing part for a new one. Put the shifter in fourth gear to allow space to use a 13mm extended socket. Its a little tricky but it can be done with patience. Also, keep in mind the hex bolt is secured from the factory with thread locker so it takes quite a bit of torque to loosen and it when you have managed this, it still wont spin freely because of the tread locker. If you like you can completely remove the hex bolt and shift weight for inspection. However, to remove it you must first remove the shift lever unit which is in the way. The shift lever has two hex bolts also secured with thread locker. If you have ever tried to loosen a bolt with thread locker it feels like your going to twist the head right off but its just the thread locker giving you that feel. Make sure your socket is secure on the bolt head and take your time. Loosen it a little and wind it back in. Repeat and slowly remove the hex bolts. You may find that the shift lever unit is a little seized in addition to the shift wet set. The other components are the shift cables but they really don't get stiff however, be careful disconnecting them from the shifter lever because the "press fit" bushings may be worn and pop out. If this happens now you have to replace them which involves jacking up the car, pulling down the exhaust and the heat shields and the shifter box. There is a good video on the internet which shows how to replace the cables.