I had a terrible day with my M5!
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Joined: Feb 2008
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From: Rhode Island
My Ride: See my signature
So today I joined the horrible Red Cog of Death club. Let me begin by saying that the M had none of the typical symptoms to lead up to this. My M has been driving fine ever since the day I bought it a few months ago and have put about 10K miles on. It now has a total of 41K on it.
I was at a light stopped. I went to step on the gas and nothing happened except the awesome red transmission fault message on the idrive. It went into neutral and stayed there. I shut the car off to see if it was a simple glitch then car wouldn't even start back up. I just kept getting that same message when I was trying to start it.
Anyway, it got towed to a dealer tonight. I won't know anything until the morning. It's still under the original factory warranty so I imagine it shouldn't cost me a dime to fix.
Believe it or not I actually have 2 positive things from this happening today. The first is BMW Roadside. They were fantastic and efficient. When I finally connected she asked me about where I was and I informed her I was stopped at a busy intersection. She then connected me to the local police department so I could get my car to the side of the road safely. (the officer came by, stopped traffic, and helped me to push the car) She then connected me to the local tow company and made all the arrangements while I was still on with her. She then called BMWNA or some kind of customer service so they could document what happened. She did all of this in a total of 5 minutes. So I will say that Roadside is great for my first and hopefully only experience in the 3+ years I've owned BMW's
The second positive thing is I am leaving for a road trip vacation with the family tomorrow. We were going to take the M! It's about 600 miles each way through upstate NY. For those of you that have never driven the NY Thruway in upstate NY it's a lonely area. There are 50 miles between exits at some points. I'm thankful that this happened today and not tomorrow when I would have been few hundred miles away from home!
I'm just so irritated. Like I said at least it happened 10 minutes from home.
So sad to see this pic...
I was at a light stopped. I went to step on the gas and nothing happened except the awesome red transmission fault message on the idrive. It went into neutral and stayed there. I shut the car off to see if it was a simple glitch then car wouldn't even start back up. I just kept getting that same message when I was trying to start it.
Anyway, it got towed to a dealer tonight. I won't know anything until the morning. It's still under the original factory warranty so I imagine it shouldn't cost me a dime to fix.
Believe it or not I actually have 2 positive things from this happening today. The first is BMW Roadside. They were fantastic and efficient. When I finally connected she asked me about where I was and I informed her I was stopped at a busy intersection. She then connected me to the local police department so I could get my car to the side of the road safely. (the officer came by, stopped traffic, and helped me to push the car) She then connected me to the local tow company and made all the arrangements while I was still on with her. She then called BMWNA or some kind of customer service so they could document what happened. She did all of this in a total of 5 minutes. So I will say that Roadside is great for my first and hopefully only experience in the 3+ years I've owned BMW's
The second positive thing is I am leaving for a road trip vacation with the family tomorrow. We were going to take the M! It's about 600 miles each way through upstate NY. For those of you that have never driven the NY Thruway in upstate NY it's a lonely area. There are 50 miles between exits at some points. I'm thankful that this happened today and not tomorrow when I would have been few hundred miles away from home!
I'm just so irritated. Like I said at least it happened 10 minutes from home.
So sad to see this pic...
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Joined: Aug 2005
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From: San Jose, CA
My Ride: E60 M5, F85 X5M
Damn that sucks Mark. But you are definitely lucky with it happening today. Hopefully everything will be resolved through the warranty and maybe even fixed by the time you get back. 
Oh and how about asking for a nice new F10 as a loaner and taking that on your trip??
Oh and how about asking for a nice new F10 as a loaner and taking that on your trip??
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Joined: Oct 2007
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From: Thousand Oaks, California
My Ride: 2008 550i Jet Black on Black Leather, SAT with Paddles, Logic 7, Comfort Seats, NAV, Sport Package, PDC, Xenons, Sirius, Trinity 12W LED Angel Eyes, RPi GT Exhaust, M rear spoiler, ACS Roof Spoiler, Tinted Tail Lights, Bimmian Carbon Fiber Pillar Trim, Bimmian Shadow 550i emblem, RPi Scoop, E60 Forum Cling, Mtec bulbs in fog lights, Mtec 2W LED for License Plate Light Bulbs, K&N Filter, Bimmian LED Smoked Side Markers, Blackout roundels, Carbon Fiber Kidney Grills.
Retired Rides - 1989 325i convertible, 1995 M3, 2002 X5, 2005 545i, 2008 X5 (Lemon)
That sucks Mark.....I hope it comes back faster than expected! 
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Joined: Aug 2008
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From: Originally from Koeln, Deutschland. Enjoying it in Bonita Springs, Florida Now :)
Sorry to hear the M is having trouble...glad you ok and that no one rear-ended you! Hope you ou get everything sorted out soon! Ita probably something small and stupid that caused all this...
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Joined: May 2007
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From: Pittsburgh, PA
My Ride: 2008 Alpine White 550i Sport, Cream Beige Interior, 6-Sp Manual - retired 9/2011
Sorry, Mark....I've had my car towed 3 times in the past 8 months or so, with throttle issues, and 3 different "tow" pics like the one you posted. . It's embarrassing sitting there by the side of the road. Hope it all works out.
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Joined: Feb 2008
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From: Rhode Island
My Ride: See my signature
Thanks guys. I should hear from the dealer this morning.
They actually offered me a loaner (As they always do anyway), but I declined. I would rather take my wife's TL and not be responsible for one of their loaners in Canada. It killed me to say no since they do have a few nice E60 535 as loaners. 
Wow Dave. Have you posted about that? I had no idea. Sorry to hear that. You said it best. It was completely embarrassing standing on the side of the road. Of course I got a few idiots that made comments as they drove by in their POS cars. 
John to be honest with you I've read about 2006-2009's to have a failure like this. It happens more frequently in the 2006's. They did remedy the problem starting in 2007, but no SMG is truly safe from this. At the same time there a few guys on that M5 board that have 80K+ miles with no issues. Total crap shoot IMO.
John to be honest with you I've read about 2006-2009's to have a failure like this. It happens more frequently in the 2006's. They did remedy the problem starting in 2007, but no SMG is truly safe from this. At the same time there a few guys on that M5 board that have 80K+ miles with no issues. Total crap shoot IMO.
