aharper

At around 30-35mph steady on the gas I noticed the car seemed to not know which gear it should be in. It was like the car "between" gears kinda up shifting and down shifting over and over. The mpg meter would raise and lower while this was happening. I only had a little less than a quarter mile driving like this but is this the beginning of something??? I have an extended warranty that just started a couple weeks ago, thank God. I don't think I could replicate the problem for a dealer so I'll have to hold off doing anything about it now. I drove around after it happened and didn't have any trouble. Ugh thinking of what may be down the road. I'm taking the car to the dealer on Tuesday to have them replace the blower motor under warranty ($0 deductible - yeah). Is there anything in particular they should look at? I have around 87k miles on the car.

the awakening

Same thing happening to me. My car is at the dealer now. They fixed a leaking transmission seal which did not fix the issue. That was $600. Next step is to see what they say about the car on Monday. Supposedly a lot of others have experienced this issue. Not really sure what to think bout it...

rctmthouse

are you referring to the gasket leak? If it's the gasket leak, then chances are they probably re-use the fluid since they only charge you $ 600. If the problem is not fixed, try a complete fluid change.

Shlooky

ok I am having the same problem, it happens only in 5th gear (I have an automatic transmission) Please try this test...

In a hot day, drive the car in manual mode and put it in 5th gear..M5 and feather the gas. Mine only gives me this problem in 5th gear wether it's in D, DS or M5.

When I reset it all works fine, I don't think it's the transmission itself per say, I think its the software that controls the shifting.

Thanks,

the awakening

Got my car back finally. They specifically said it was a "transmission seal" that needed to be fixed. They did it and told me that the problem seemed better but I needed a new transmission since there was "the possibility of internal damage" to the transmission from running on extremely low fluid levels due to the leakage. I asked them to flush the old fluid when they added the new fluid. My SA told me she would ask them to do so but that since they were adding mostly new fluid to the system it wasn't completely necessary. Driving the car, it seems to be completely better, knock on wood. Hopefully it stays like this considering they quoted me a whopping $7500 for a new trans. Anyway, dharper, if you bring it in, definitely ask them to check for leaks/low fluid, etc in the trans and get it solved before that warranty runs out.

turboawd

thats what i hate about the bmw setup. you cant check the trans fluid level unless you lift the car and go through a whole fiasco.

rctmthouse

supposedly you can check the fluid when the engine is cold; lift it up, remove the fill plug and stick your finger in there. If you can sense the fluid right away, it means that it's a operate-able level since the pan holds around 3.5 liters before leaking when refilling. Please don't flame me on this method. I just read about it somewhere.

turboawd

fluid level is supposed to be checked with the engine running and trans at a certain temp. plus the car has to be lifted level, and you have to remove underbody panels. NOT an easy job.

Rizbel

And do not, REPEAT, do not remove fill plug when engine is not running (in neutral of course, with parking brake on); unless you have an oil pan ready to catch the surge of oil coming out. It was messy .

rctmthouse

Thanks for the heads up guys. Need to scratch that method out of my play book now.