XSeries-forum

  So I've been working in Austria for 5 weeks and yesterday the wife was driving my X5 back in Canada.  A mile or two into the journey she realised the car wasn't giving power and then she saw it had shifted into neutral.  After pulling over she saw the 'transmission fault' message.  The car wouldn't shift from neutral into drive.  She turned off the engine which then wouldn't restart although it cranked ok.

The car has been recovered to the local dealer where we bought it and where it has always been serviced.  Latest diagnosis is that the crankshaft speed sensor isn't giving any output.  If that's the problem its going to be about 800 Canadian (plus tax) to fix.  BUT if its the reluctance wheel (whatever that is) then the transmission has to come off and it will be another 2000 on top of the 800.

As you'd imagine I'm none too happy about this.  Car is Feb 2010 and it has less than 60000 miles on it.  Frankly it has had a pampered life as I have a light right foot and Canada is hardly an assertive driving environment.  Garage say if its the reluctance wheel they will ask for a goodwill gesture from BMW but I didn't get a warm feeling about how likely that would be.

The car hadn't been driven for a couple of weeks but the garage is adamant the problem is not the battery.  Any words of wisdom from the assembled might of the E70/71 community?  All help gratefully received!!!

Peter T

Not good!

The 'reluctance wheel' and its sensor is just a rotational speed sensor and may be telling the gearbox how fast the torque converter output is spinning (or gearbox input) shaft is spinning.

I'm guessing the sensor cannot be replaced externally, hence the box coming off.

My 1st gen box failed at less than 40k miles in 2008.

Fingers crossed about the BMW goodwill, especially given it's a dealer maintained car, and pampered too.

Richard

Thanks Richard.  Next update will be Monday so as you say fingers crossed.
Peter T

Just spoke with the dealer and the crankshaft speed sensor was the problem.  At least that's better than the reluctance wheel but its still currently a bill of 780 Canadian including tax ( a little less than I was expecting)  The technician will be asking if they can do anything in terms of goodwill but I expect this will be the cost of parts paid for at best.  Still, that's 130 Canadian so not to be sniffed at.

Pleased the car is running again though.  The wife had joined CAA (Canada equivalent of RAC recovery) 2 weeks before the failure: clever girl!!!

Peter T

Result....sort of.

You can use the money saved to buy her an extra Chrissy Pressie.... :xmaskiss:

Richard

...so in the end we paid just over 600 Canadian for the repair - about 340 sterling.  Got the part for free and a (little) bit of discount on the labour.  A reasonable compromise given that the car is almost 9 months outside its 4 year warranty. 
Peter T

That's good you've got it going, I replaced the same sensor on my E39, part was around £70 and took me about 30 mins to replace, if I were you I'd be looking for another garage to do my repairs, seems like a massive rate for labour though I've no idea how much a mechanic (sorry technician) is paid in Canada.

Thanks for the note.  Problem is I'm working in Austria and the car is in Canada so it's not been possible for me to interrogate the dealer to the extent I'd have liked.  It's possible the job is more difficult on an e70 I guess.  I've not had too many problems with them to be honest but I'll bear this in mind when I am next talking with them.
Peter t