Phurocious

2008 535 dead battery can't get car out of park. A flatbed arrives and hooks up to the front end, attempts to bring the car onto the bed but both the back wheels are locked and dragging. I was not present at the time of towing, my friend offered to tow the car down to the dealership he works at using his AAA

Upon arrival at the dealership there is a noticeable leakage of power steering fluid under the car. The power steering malfunction message is trigger. (red hazard triangle). With this heavy leakage it completely empty the fluids within 1-2 days

Is it possible my car was damaged in the tow due to improper towing procedure of such car and given the condition of being stuck in park.

would I have a case against the towing company for compensation for the damage of my power steering because of their improper tow?

Just wanted to get some insights, I'm awaiting bmw to determine whether its plausible that the damage was caused by improper towing and will proceed accordingly

Black Thunder

Just curious, did they try to jump the battery or put the car in Neutral manually before towing? I wouldn't try towing my car knowing that the rear wheels are still locked.

twh

Depends on where the leak is coming from. Another possibility is that perhaps the tow truck driver secured the car on the flat bed with something that hooked onto or moved around some power steering part. Find out where the leak is coming from first and then look for evidence under the car.

DanL

First, you don't need power to put the car into Neutral. The instructions are in your owner's manual. Pop off the shift boot cover, insert a screw driver into a special hole near the front (there's a screw driver in the tool kit that came with the car), and pull back until it clicks into place. Once you remove the screw driver it will automatically revert back to Park.

Sounds to me that not only did they not shift it into Neutral, they didn't use the tow hook that comes with the car. Did they tow it onto the flat bed from the front or the back? If you have the sports package and they towed it from the front by connecting the cable to the subframe, they may have damaged one or both of the active suspension fluid lines going to the stabilizer bar. That would be very easy to do and that's one of the reasons why the owner's manual says to always tow using the supplied tow hook.

Phurocious

update -

bmw said its a possibility but they would need to diagnose and tear it down to identify the leakage and even then weren't sure if they would be able to locate it.

A claim was filed with AAA for the possible damage so another update to follow within 72hours after their follow up

@black thunder - no they did not try to jump the car, but I did forget to mention that day previous the car was stuck in my girlfriends driveway and we called AAA to tow it from there this was then they attempted to jump the car from the front end and back end numerous times . (back end pointing to street). AAA said a flatbed was required to tow my specific vehicle but the driver said there was no possible way for him to tow it while in park without possible damage to it, so he left and request a tow truck that had dollys. This tow driver lifted up the back end used that T-shape thingy lol, and attached dollys to the front end which resulted that all 4 tires were in the air. (I just had it towed out of the driveway so I wasn't blocking it and made it easier for my friend to tow it the following day)

-because of this I believe I could relate to this towing, that the towing which towed it to the dealership which is about 50miles away was improperly done and caused damage.

@DanL - yes there is that option to disengage the park for the car, but it wasn't used. The car was attached from the front end using the car's factory hitch from the trunk kit to attach to the front. My friend said the car was basically dragged up onto the bed, and also let slide back down at an angle to get the car off the bed. Which let me to believe the components were stressed and caused a weak point somewhere which has caused a heavy leak.

@twh - bmw believes its damaged to the steering rack, the leak happens roughly at the left side near the wheel

twh

Long time ago, had an car towed on a flatbed and the guy secured the car by hooking on to something under the car that was inappropriate. I think it was the pitman arm, if I remember correctly. Messed up the steering.

Gee_115

You have to show more reverence to your ride. How can you have your car voluntarily towed without being present? If you are having the car towed you need to be present to at least make sure they are using a flatbed. What's done is done but for future reference stay with the car.

To get the car out of park just pull up on the cover around the shift knob, top right corner there will be a little tab, on mine it is painted red, push the tab back and hold it while pulling the shifter, once the shifter is released you can let go of the tab. You can even use your finger to push it.

The dragging wouldn't damage the steering but if they hooked it up wrong that could do it.