Hi all, I'm Fabio and I'm trying to sorting some issues of my L322 TD6 gearbox

First of all I want to fill the gearbox with the correct lubricant hence the 5L40E seems to be very affected by oil quality

In Italy, where I live, I'm struggling to find Texamatic 7045E

It seems to be available only at stealership sold in 1L cans at a crazy price

While searching for a 20L barrel online I discovered that many lubricant sellers says that Texaco replaced the 7045E with the ATF HD 389

The only things that I can't understand is that Texaco, on their website, states that this oil may be used in GM 5L40E on gasoline application

You can find here under 'Applications'

What does it mean? I can't use it on diesel gearbox? Does it make any sense?

When the Dexron III licences expired in 2006, GM moved users on to Dexron VI. The issue with Dexron VI is that its viscosity (new) is lower than Dexron III. Not necessarily a good thing if your valve blocks are worn, which is a particularly common issue with the 5L40-E. The justification is that the better shear stability of Dexron VI means the viscosity remains at its design specification for longer i.e. after a period of use it will be higher than ‘worn out’ Dexron III.

The fluid you’ve mentioned (Texaco ATF HD 389) has a kinematic viscosity of 7.1 mm²/s at 100⁰C and 34.9 mm²/s at 40⁰C. This compares to 7.4 & 33.8 for the original Texamatic 7045E fluid and 5.8 & 29.5 for Dexron VI so, on the face of it, it would seem a more suitable replacement for Dexron III than Dexron VI.

What the relevance of the ‘gasoline models’ reference is, I have no idea. It doesn’t seem to make sense. For example, the 5L40-E was used in both the BWM E53 3.0 M54 petrol & the BMW E53 3.0 M57 diesel models. Why would the transmission fluid specification be different?

Click image to enlarge

First of all thank you Phil for sharing your knowledge

I read all your write up on 5L40E all over BMW and Land Rover forums

I'm happy that the 389 would be (almost) as good as the 7045E

The problem I'm trying to sort out is that sometimes, while changing from 3rd to 4th gear and 4th to 5th I have to lift the accelerator otherwise the gearbox won't engage the next gear. The same happens while downshifting

I tried to address it to a particular condition, but it happens totally random, there are even days when it doesn't even happen

Car is around 190000miles, I don't know if the gearbox as ever been previously overhauled, the only thing I have is an invoice for gearbox oil change around 12000 miles ago

I dropped all gearbox fluid which looked clear with no contamination just a bit low in level about 1,5 liter less than what fitted when I filled it again

Before dropping the whole gearbox I would like to remove the valve body only to check it and see if I can address the problem inside of it