DJ JoeyG

Hey guys, New to the form and my car

I just bought a 2005 545i sport with the SMG transmission. Let me first say i love the car.. when it drives. So here's whats going on and i could use some opinions and advice. So i'll run you through me first few hours of this car.

The guy i bought the car from delivers the car to my office. we do all the usual stuff and we're off! I move the car in the parking lot and go back into my office to finish up some things for the day. I come back out get in start her up and off i go to my house to pick up my wife and kid. It's about a 12 mile drive to my house. Get to the house and park the car in the drive way. throw the kiddo's car seat in the car and we take off back to the office to pick up my truck. we get back to the office i turn the car off. not even 2 min later i turn it back on and try to put it in to gear.

The display between the tach and speedometer shows it going into first, then automatically switches to second, then back to first. this continues.. well i let it continue for about 30 seconds. i then try to put it into reverse. you can hear the transmission to something but the display doesn't show it going into reverse. I decide to turn the car off, get out lock it wait 30 seconds then try this all again. and i get the same results. by now you can imagine my frustration since i bought the car less then 3 hours ago. We read on some other forms that the car needs to reset let is sit for up to 20 min we do that same result. then disconnected the battery for about a minute. same result. so we gave it more time. just to sit there. it finally went into 2nd gear. would not shift to 1st or 3rd i could drive it but not very far. so i moved it to a different area of the parking lot and we called it a day. I drove my truck back to the office the next day. got out of my truck in to the bimmer and it worked perfectly. right into 1st gear, drove. when into reverse no problem. so i thought to myself maybe it's just a 1 time weird thing. So about 4 hours later that day i drove to the DMV in the bimmer to get the title and plates done. drove there and back great. back tot he office 5:00 that day took off to the house. again drive great. got to the house and later when to run an errand and had the issue in the drive way. would not go into reverse. or 1st gear kept flipping between gears automatically.

So i have an ODB tool. that talks to my Android tablet. but i don't think it's a high enough level scanner it reported no issues. As a side note the SRS air bag and fasten seatbelt lights are on. but i dont think they would be related to this SMG transmission issue.

Does any one have any clues on this? I'm beginning to think it has something to do with something overheating.

Thanks in advance!

seanjordan20

Who did you buy the car from. I'm sure they can tell you what is wrong with the car. It is probably why they got rid of it. I would start at the oil temperature sensor but it sounds like the pump and pressure sensor is failing. Without the codes it is hard to tell what is going on. How many miles do you have on it. Personally I would give the car back because you are in for an expensive repair if it is not the temp sensor

twh

+1

DJ JoeyG

I bought the car form a guy on craigs list. the crappy part is i'v already registered it in my name and done the title work. Also the guy took off for Italy hours after i bought the car. I've been trying to contact him with no success. I test drove the car 2 days before i bought it and everything seemed great in the test drive. but i didnt turn the car off and then back on again then try to put it into gear. Aside from me wanting to bash some guys head in.... I brought it to an very reliable indy shop highly recommended from a good friend of mine. They are going to give it a full check up check the codes and let me know what needs fixed. i should know this week. It's got 142,000 miles on it. the body in in great shape and so is the interior.

seanjordan20

Worst case scenario you are looking at a $2500 to $3000 fix unless you are going to change out the whole trans. The SMGs are not the best for reliability. They are awesome when the are working though. Best of luck and post any new info please.

RTK

DJ - Did you get this worked out?

DJ JoeyG

RTK - Yes, I did! I brought it down to a very well known indy shop in Colorado Springs, CO. ISA - Import Speciality Auto. It was pretty interesting, they had never seen the issue before. they ran diagnostics on it but for the first few days could not get the problem to reproduce. I told then they probably weren't taking it for a long enough drive. So i told them i would come down and take them for a drive. So later that day we went for a ride and sure enough i replicated the issue. We actually sat on the side of the highway for a few hours while he messed with the computer attached to the car. he wound up preforming a Transmission gear resequence i believe. They kept it for a few more days and drove it over 100 miles (with my permission) they said they were pretty sure that fixed the issue. I never had that same problem again! It's been running great!