gmakishima

Hi Everyone,

I just sold my 2002 e39 M5 and purchased a 2008 535i. My car has comfort access and yesterday I took my iPod out to sync new songs so I was sitting in the passenger seat doing this. Pressed the start/stop button after re-attaching the iPod to make sure it was connected properly. Everything was fine, locked up the car and went to bed. This morning when I went down to my car, I started it with no problem and noticed that the P on the steptronic shifter on the center console was blinking... usually it does not blink. I pressed in the actuator button so I could shift into reverse and couldn't shift. I tried hitting the park button on top of the shifter, but nothing seemed to help. I turned the car off and back on, no help. I checked all the warning indicators and nothing was wrong.

Could I have accidentally engaged a safety feature? I don't think there would be anything wrong with the transmission. The thing that has me stumped is the blinking "P" indicator on the selector lever on the center console.

Thanks everyone for your help.

djr77

I don't have that year car so I'm not sure, but is your foot on the brake. I can't take my car out of park unless my foot is on the brake.

kscarrol

+1! No foot on brake = no shifting out of P...

bigbadbull

I thought if you tried that it would flash a message up on iDrive telling you to engage the break petal if you tried to shift out of park with out depressing it.... or a yellow warning on the Dash information screen.

I don't know cause my 535i has been in the shop since wed of last week...

gmakishima

I'm pretty sure I had my foot on the brake pedal when I tried to shift out of Park. Also, is it normal for the green "P" indicator on the silver control shift lever to continually blink? I don't think I remember ever seeing it blink before I had this problem. If anyone is near their car and can climb in and confirm if they see the green "P" on the silver shift lever stalk blinking when the brake pedal isn't engaged I would really appreciate it.

I'm thinking perhaps I blew a fuse for the sensor that senses if the brake pedal is depressed, therefore I can't shift out of "P".

Thanks!

E60714

I dunno if this helps, but:

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_li...shift_mechanism


read the section under the bold about "the old shifting mechanism."

7117

Try pushing it a little upwards of "P" (till you hear a click). Then try starting again.

gmakishima

Okay, I'm an idiot. I just realized I must've accidentally bumped the shift lever to the left into the sport manual mode when I was putting my iPod back into the car. I moved it to the right and the "P" on the lever stopped blinking. I never bothered checking it was in the original position. I guess it needs to be in the right most position to shift into drive or reverse.

Thanks for the article... I guess the car and driver writers are as dumb as I am since they had the same problem as me!

kscarrol

Look at the bright side, at least you didn't have the car towed to your dealer...

porsche911targa

That would have been funny. I wonder what the techs would have thought?