toxic_bimmer

Hi guys, I dropped off the car (08 528i) at the BMW service center couple of days ago, have to replace the GWS (gear selector switch) along with SZL.

1. My question is why do GWS and SZL break down in the first place?


I remember I was driving it couple of weeks ago in DS mode, parked it for couple of mins, and when came back forgot to switch the lever back to D mode (as I used to drive X6 and several other bimmers with e-box and as far as I remember they always returned the shifter back into D mode automatically). The car wouldn't start and I was pushing that shifter several times forth and back trying to "unstuck" it, until I saw that it was still in DS mode. Switched it back and she started just fine, but the problems I wrote about in my other post appeared. In the end, had to replace the whole module.

2. So could it be me? or it's just a normal wear?

Thanks!

toxic_bimmer

Just asked an adviser at the official BMW service center about possible reasons and got the most stupid answer one would expect from someone who performs the service and is supposed to know at least the common causes for specific parts to break down.

So, the answer was... "We don't know the cause, we just scan it and do as computer tells us to do"... And to make him tell this I had to repeat my question for 4 times, at least: "What would you, as a specialist, say to be the most common cause for those modules to fail?" I guess, he was really baffled by this simple question...

seems that the "good" services is limited to getting you a cup of coffee or tea... Isn't BMW supposed to hire people who actually know something about cars?

Wolrab

They would have to charge a LOT more for that...

hooch999

It's not you but it's not "normal wear" either - just poor quality/reliability.
Mine failed too, my car was just 4 year old at that time, I would get tranny jerks when going in reverse mode. Took me 3 visits to my stealer for them to acknowledge and fix.
BTW the gear selector still does not return from "manual" mode to "D" after engine turned off 8 out of 10 times.

John@Motorcepts

Because those idiotic steering angle sensors has an optical lens so if dirt and grime gets in between, it cannot read it. Just really need to clean it properly but no one cleans it. Everyone replaces it. I believe there's a magnet inside which fails.

AchtungE60

As I've always said, and this is based off of more than 10 years of direct contact with BMW techs, they're no different than any other technician..actually you can find smarter. They're script boys! They happen to only work on BMW so statistics is in their corner. Any knowledgeable technician that works on European cars will be able to tell you a guesstimate. BMW put out a bulletin for repairing an SZL and the optical lens does become dirty often.

toxic_bimmer

Thanks guys for your replies! Helped a lot to understand what I'm dealing with!

Got the car back on Friday, GWS and SZL replaced. Drove around 100+ km, well, so far so good. Looks like it solved the problems, but again, will have to drive it a bit longer, as the problems I experienced, appeared very randomly, so knock on wood

To sum it up:
- Cost: around 1.9K (parts, labor and programming)
- GWS replaced (including the shifter itself, I asked them if they could have replaced the module only, to save the cost, but BMW said that they replace it as a whole, mmm... well at least I got a new shifter, leather at the back of it feels smoother strange, but OEM shows that you can actually buy them separately...)
- SZL replaced, as a result, may be it's just my false feeling, but the steering feels a bit tighter, may be I'm wrong.
- No previous electrical problems... hope that it will stay like it (looks like the faulty sensors caused all those glitches)

Will keep you updated as it goes.

BMWTECH612

I guess you don't know much about the car industry. A service advisor is just that, they tell the guest what the Tech found. Why would you try to diagnose a vehicle through a Service Advisor. Maybe talk w/ the people that are trained and fix the vehicles?

You get what you pay for.....Just saying. Also they don't get you coffee or tea. You really have not a clue.