drjochen

In my way home from work, I suddenly fely a jerk in the SMG shifting from 4th to 5th. The i-drive menu gave me a very dramatic error message telling me that I only have R, N, 3, and 5 available and once I have switched off the engine, I will not be able to restart it and that I am supposed to have it towed to the dealer.
Well, I called roadside assistance and they are on their way now.

However, I just tried the car again now and the error meaasge is gone - also check control has nothing on it!!! Its just like it never happened!!! The dealer will think I am crazy.

Any ideas of what is going on here? Is it safe to drive the thing?

Jochen

530E60NL

Very strange.. I think your dealer should be able to make a readout of the errormessages.

kigerka

Take it to the dealer. Hopefully they will find out why. Very strange indeed. Better to get towed then to have possible problems later.

Good luck

drjochen

Well, it was a sad view. The flatbed just loaded my 545 and disappeared into the night with it...
The worst was that my neighbors had their after Thanksgiving dinner entertainemt, I think the entire street was at the window...
I'll have to call the dealer tomorrow and find out whats going on.

Jochen

JDN

Gee. You didn't even get a loaner, did you? Maybe BMW Assist will let you rent.

drjochen

Nothing. I got to find a way to get to the dealer (~ 30 miles...). It sucks.

Jochen

Guest

It seems all the SMG cars have alot of problems, I was reading earlier BMW Car, UK mag and the M5 they planed to test had an SMG fault that BMW had to get another car, it is alarming to even have that published.

pennetta

I had never had a SMG fault but I did have two Dynamic Drive and Active Sterring Faults, All of which corrected themselves after restarting the car. This also cleared the error message so the dealer could not find anything. If anything happens now, drive srtaight to the dealer and do not turn off the car before they can download the error info.
My car seems to have big swings in volts, my radar detector has a low/high volt gauge and it displays it frequently.

realtyman

Guest, I have almost 14,000 miles on my SMG. Yes, I did get an error message or two over the past 7 months but never have I had a mechanical failure with the transmission. I don't see where there are "alot of problems" with the SMG. Some people have issues with the way it shifts (but those issues usually go away after a few thousand miles - once the driver gets more comfortable with how the car shifts).
I still like, and still recommend SMG. I have even been using the Automatic mode more over the past couple of months and I find that I like having it as an option.

Some people really like a traditional manual tranny - great, get it.
Some like the smooth shifting automatic tranny - great, get it.
Some like the what the SMG tranny has to offer - great, get it.

It's nice that BMW gives us these three options (especially when looking at what MB has to offer)!
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drjochen, I hope yours is just a software glitch as well. If not, you have done the right thing by having it towed. If it is just software (re-boot), just think that it could have been worse.

drjochen

Here is an update: spent ~ 1 hour at my dealer today only to find out that they couldn't take a look at the car until Monday!

They finally got me a Ford Tarus from Hertz as a free rental, at least is makes me appreciate my 545.

I asked them about the Bluetooth upgrade discussed on this board, they had NEVER heard about it... They told me it was a feature that could be activated, but they were not sure about anything. I don't think I want them to screw around with my software, the car might be there for 2 months...

Jochen