kennedylar

I'm up to 69k with my '04 545 with SMG. I remain an entirely satisfied and happy user as I've found the SMG to be great fun to drive. Earlier I had a 540 with 6sp manual (and Dinan) and a 535 w/6sp manual before that. This is still much fun to drive, yet my wife can get in the car and drive it in auto mode. The difference is that she understands that this is NOT an automatic transmission and moves through the gears using the hydraulics. It's not smooth like her Lexus but we see this as a character of the car.

The SMG does take some getting used to but I encourage you to heed the comments and tips here - likely you'll end up loving it over time.

skylolow

Don't listen to any of that tranny reset stuff. That is for autos only.

SMG works like crap in AUTO mode plain and simple. Remember SMG is a manual. So your trying to make a manual shift like an automatic. Well a few things need to take place to switch a gear and because of this you have delays which cause the bad driving experience you had. Could they make it jam into gear quick, sure. Put the car in launch mode and you'll see how fast it can shift in auto mode. But you better have some open in front you, expect some hardcore shifts, and no cops around. Day to day driving it really is just about worthless. It's only an option to even put it in auto because of the marketing side of selling SMG to the public.

Throw that SMG in Manual and leave it there. You'll have a blast. I recommend manual mode with sport on. After about a week or two you'll be driving that thing correctly and very smooth. Secert of driving SMG is to lightly feather the gas pedal(ease off just a tad, very slightly) as the car is making its shift. Once you get that timing down it is a thing of beauty. Rev match downshifts on the car is perfect as can be.

Go back and take the car out for another drive in manual mode only. Drive around for a good 20 mins or so and try it in manual mode for awhile and then in manual with sport on. The later is really what normal should be and sport should be even more quicker, personally.

SMG trannys have been fairly solid. The pump has really been the only thing I've seen failing on them once in awhile. BMW stance is swap out the tranny. But many rebuild kits and just a new pump have been released through the years. So most indy shops can swap out a pump now quite reasonable if it does ever go out.

Being that this car has 85K you might want to check and see if the clutch has been replaced yet. 85K its got to be coming up soon for sure. So you could be looking at a expense very quickly in your ownership of this car if it hasn't been replaced.



P.S.: Now you see why SMG faded away and now has gone to a dual clutch system(which elimantes the faults of SMG). Hard sell when an uneducated buyer experienced what you did. Then add in an uneducated salesman and its an uphill battle from there on 60K car.

EuroCarFan

Really? There are many threads discussing the tranny reset procedure for the SMG. I'll double check but I'm almost positive it was detailed in my owner's manual for an M5 with SMG as well.

AKAlius

Don't for get to put the gear in neutral beofre you pull both paddles back.

So, as Tony said, go about 30-40mph, put the gear in neutral, pull both paddles back for 10seconds.

After pulling back both paddles for 10sec., put the car back into driving gear.

redEYEjedi

Wow I never knew you could reset the SMG tranny. I will definitely try this once I get my car back..

Thanks for the sharing!

TakmaN

I'm surprised at how many people think SMG is an automatic transmission with paddle shifters when they go to buy a car. It's a manual transmission with an electronic clutch (aka the car does the clutch pedal for you). Shifts won't be as smooth as a true automatic in auto mode but it takes a few weeks to a few months to getting used to and then you'll nail smoother shifts. Go to the M3forums as there are countless battles and info threads on the SMG transmission. Also beware that I've seen the SMG hydraulic pump go out as soon as 10k miles to 100k+ miles. And it's a nice hefty $2K or so to fix.

Rizbel

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eurotunerM3

I experienced the same thing when I first test drove mine. But, fear not, the SMG just takes a lot of getting used to. Like previously mentioned, you need to learn how to feather the pedal slightly when shifting up and down the gearbox. There is a strong learning curve with the SMG. It took me about 3 weeks to fully understand how it shifted. Trust me, from one fairly new SMG owner to you, the smoothness of shifts will come once you learn how to drive it efficiently, and I promise you will fall in love with the car.

P.S. Welcome to the forums.