my530i

Hi,

Does anyone with 530i Steptronic Transmission still experience early upshift and hesitate to downshift along with throttle lag? Does dealer fix it with what SW version?

Would someone please post the Service Bulletin if any?

So many thanks.

kscarrol

I definitely had the throttle lag, but never experienced the shifting issues you mention. I do have the steptronic in my Jan 2004 build 545. In Jan 2005, I had my software updated from the 11.x, which came with the car from the factory, to 15.0 as part of the emissions recall. That software update took care of the throttle lag in my car. Don't have a Service Bulletin for you though. Are you still on the original software that came with your car? If so, I would complain early and often to your dealer about the lag issue and anything else like slow iDrive boot/operation so that you can get the newest software under warranty.

sg530

Had throttle lag problem serious for a while and complained a lot here with little sympathy or ideas on how to fix that intermittent problem. Fortunately, as the miles accumulated (I assume that's the reason) the problem hasn't returned since I passed 5K miles. No service was performed either. I just had 1 yr maintenance and little was changed that I could tell. My guess <_< is the car/transmission had to learn my driving pattern. What bothers me is the length of time it took to do so. An alternative explanation is the breakin of the engine also allowed for breakin of the transmission. Late shifts and the like may be due to tight tolerances on seals insde the transmission that lengthen response time beyond what the electronics 'said or ordered' the hydraulics to perform. My impression was that the problem became less frequent as time went on.
I also conducted a poll here to see if the problem was clustered on 530 vs 545. The 545 people had significantly less complaints about this lag (my observation in spite of the comments most left on the board). The smaller engine 530, 525, 520 gas engines had the most of the complaints although some came from 545 owners too. Transmission type with the most incidents of this problem were steptronic.
Now, some might say that the results are biased by the numbers of owners with 530 vs 545. I agree, but in this forum, a lot of the fans have 545's and those are the most vocal as a group.
Watch now, as they (545ers) come back to respond to these opinions of mine....

kscarrol

We're baaack! Us 545ers. No, seriously, you may be on to something, but in my case, it did not improve at all until the software upgrade and that was when I had nearly 10,000 miles on the car. At least not that I took notice of.

JDN

Good observations - all the way.