Jacob Lagercrantz

I have a 2008 535xi e60 that won’t go out of limp mode. It displays the messages “Engine failure” and “transmission fault”. I can put it into drive or reverse but it immediately puts it back into park.

Here’s how this started. Noticed it was losing oil as I had to add a bit (about half a liter) every couple weeks (didn’t notice any oil leaks on the ground though). Took it to a BMW specialist in town who said it was leaking a lot of oil, at least from the oil filter housing gasket but couldn’t tell if elsewhere as well because everything was covered in oil. It still drove fine at this point so I took it home and researched this issue and found it’s pretty common. Ordered all the parts for the DIY. A couple days after, it started leaking A LOT of oil, leaving a huge puddle every time I parked. Had to drive it one more time to get it home a few KMs and in the middle of that drive, the “Engine failure, continued driving possible message” came on (the transmission fault message may have come on too, not sure). Drove it home slowly and turned it off. Tried starting it up again and the messages came on right away its also slow to fire. It cranks maybe 5-6 times before starting where before it was instant. So I leave it alone until my parts arrive.

Parts arrive and I have to drive it over to my friends garage about a kilometer away to do the work there. Starting it up now, I got no engine or transmission messages. Still drove slowly over to friends garage and the messages come on again just before I get there. Performed the DIY without any real issues. There was indeed a large amount of oil under the oil filter housing gasket. I replaced both the housing gasket and the other gasket that goes to the oil/coolant housing while I had it all apart. I had bought a new belt and pulleys too but didn’t want to replace them yet before testing my gasket diy. I just degreased the engine and cleaned off most of the leaked oil from belts etc.

Now starting it up, the “Engine failure” and “transmission fault” come on right away and it’s again slow to fire up. I can clear the engine codes but they come back immediately. I don’t notice any oil leak but it hasn’t been very long either.

These are the codes I get with Carly for BMW:

Transmission – 0051A6
Engine – Boost Pressure Control 2 – 003100 (I understand this is just the turbo disabled due to limp mode)
Engine – Crankshaft sensor signal incorrect – 002A94

From doing a bit of reading, it sounds like a bad crankshaft sensor can throw all these codes and disable the car from being put into gear. It would be an awful coincidence if this sensor just happened to fail at the same time as this big oil leak so are they likely related and if so how?

I took the sensor out and visually it looks fine, no oil/dirt in the wiring contacts etc.

I’m about to replace but at $220 (Canadian) a pop, I wanted to check here first if there is anything else I should look at?

julienjj

1- Test the wiring between the DME and the actual crankshaft sensor connector.
2- take out the sensor, plug only the 5v and ground, put multimeter on signal output, then use a steel wrench to test if the voltage varies from 0-5v when putting the wrench near or far the sensor.

3- replace sensor as required

It's about 100$ CAD on rockauto

audiophool

Since the crank position sensor (CPS) is at the back of the engine (driver's side, beneath starter), I doubt an oil leak at the front would affect unless it got in the wiring. Not sure if the wiring to the CPS is in the area of the OFH though.

That said, I had a bad CPS that pushed me into 'limp home' mode and threw 'transmission failure' messages, and caused long crank issues. YMMV.

Johntee540

I just dealt with this same issue after doing the Oil Filter Housing Gasket yesterday. The connector to the CPS will go bad and need to be replaced. Be sure to check that. CPS was fine. Just the connector (European recycleable plastic dies from heat) needed to be replaced. J