Maybe an upgrade to a manual or SMG will fix it?

 

 

I may have a possible answer. We were in stop and go traffic and I noticed same jerking prob. I took the trans out of DS and prob went away immedaitely.

 

I don't know if my situation is the same as yours, but it sounds similar:

I am experiencing the following with my brand new 2006 530xi:

When coming to a complete stop at a traffic light, the car is idling and I am still in Drive mode, a slight lurch back and forth occurrs. This happens only once and it happens almost everytime I stop at a traffic light. I don't know if I should call it a silent clunk, but it feels like someone softly bumped into the back of your car.

It doesn't seem like a rough idle, maybe it has to do with the type of gas in the tank (I am still on the first tank from the dealer).

This is disturbing, since I already have my foot on the brake and at a dead stop, but then a couple of seconds later, the car sort of hiccups and you feel it and you feel unstable all of a sudden.

I have never experienced this in my previous BMWs let along any other car I have owned. It is annoying to me that a new car has this type of refinement taken away from it.

My service advisor says he has heard of this before and it's normal and there is no official fix for this. He wants me to bring it in to check out, but what can they do? Others have told me that it's the engine learning your braking habits and this issue will eventually go away. That sounds wacky to me, but for some reason I still hope this could be the case.

Any other suggestions? Thanks again!

 

What you are talking about is something different. I agree with you that it's noticeable and I never noticed it on my 2002 530i to the extent I do on my 2006. This is maybe why BMW came out with soft-stop in 2006. I took delivery of my 2006 in May so it does not soft-stop.

I drove several demos. All the same.

I have driven several other types of cars. They all have it to some degree, but not like my 2006 530i.

I think the problem the others were talking about was a jerk forward after coming to a stop and barely getting back on the gas in stop and go traffic. For that I eliminated that by taking out of the sport mode.

 

isnt that lowish idle RPM ?

 

Thanks for your words of comfort and confirming I am not the only one experiencing this. So are you getting used to this issue or is still bothering you?

A family member of mine has a 2001 530i and I drove it the other day and it's rock solid when you stop, no slight lurching.

You can definitely notice it on my my 2006 530xi, especially not that you expect or are more sensitive to it (sort of looking for it). I was told by a service advisor today that he heard about this issue with the new 3 series and there was some software fix, however he did not go into detail and of course has not heard about this in the 5 series as of yet.

I will continue to put more miles on the car and wait a couple of days to see if there is possibly any improvement over this break in time.

 

My 2006 530i does exactly what you describe!!! It also idles really rough in the morning for a minute.

 

Sounds like lean burn, especially when cold. And I even have a similar experience with my 6-speed, especially when I need to accelerate in second from relatively low RPM (I'd call it bucking).

You probably may get more pronounced jerking/bucking if your AC is on.

Otherwise, the most BMW jerking you get is from your sales person.....

Cheers,
Ray Hull

 

My 545i is in the shop as of yesterday. I have had this problem for about a year. I have taken it to the dealer on three occasions and they tell me that there were no fault codes so they did not know what to do. BMW Car Club tech. told me that not all problems produce a fault code, and that I should insist on service.

It only becomes very dangerous (backing up out of a parking slot or going very slow or stopped at a light or sign) when the air conditioning is on. Since the temperature in Arizona has been in the 90's I have been turning the air on every day. The problem seemed to be getting worse, my wife drove my car and brought it back saying that she will never drive the car again until it is fixed. She likes her 7 series.

So yesterday I took the 545i to the dealer and had the service advisor in the car, "driving" the car, she promptly called for the service manager and he drove the car (with me in the car) and the car behaved like a bucking bronco. Finally the car jerked and acted up when someone was in the car.

The service manager told me that he suspected that the problem was carbon buildup. He seemed to think that the problem was the bad quality of gas in Arizona. They tell you to go to this web site called Toptier.com. He said that they will have to get rid of the carbon build up and that this should help. (we shall see) He also said that the valve system that this car uses is especially affected by the poor quality of gas. He suggested that every other tank put a can of cleaner in the gas and the other time a can of octane boost. I will let you know how it goes.