Help! Transmission Fault, gear won't engage

[Ash1971]

Hi all. I'm a newbie on this forum and have a problem. I drive a 2010 E70 40d currently at about 92k miles. Woke up today to find this problem with no warning yesterday that something was amiss. Car was driving perfectly then this. Essentially it starts fine but with this error message and the gear selector won't engage any gear forward or reverse. I can't move the car - of course I have tried to restart but no luck. I have also tried the 25 sec reset I've read about on here but no luck. It seems to me to be electrical rather than mechanical, as the car drove fine yesterday but who knows, right? Before I call the recovery people and BMW has to attach diagnostics to find the cause of the problem has anyone had this and is there another soft reset I can try? Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks all.

[X5Sport]

Could be a bad/flat battery?  Other than that the only easy thing to try is to disconnect the battery for 30 mins (it resets everything) and after reconnecting see what happens.  If you get a 4x4 light come on then just move the steering from lock to lock and it will clear.

Richard

[Ash1971]

You could be onto something there. Let me investigate with jump leads to another car. The X5 starts fine but the low battery indicator did show. Thanks for now, will update later.

[X5Sport]

These cars are overly sensitive to low battery volts and the transmission error was very common on the E53 version when the battery wasn't 100%.

Richard

[Ash1971]

Well it's been a long day and the upshot from 1 independent visit and 2 RAC visits - one with a flatbed - is that the car is still in the driveway. It cannot be recovered because nobody can get it into Neutral for a tilt and slide recovery vehicle, and so because of the way the car is parked and the incline of my driveway, I need to contract a HIAB and lift it up. The E70 LCI is just too clever for its own good. The only way to get it into Neutral is to get underneath the car and manually tighten a screw on the gearbox itself and that required removal of the floor plate. A BMW main dealer and BMW Emergency Services themselves don't seem to have a way of getting it into Neutral in an electronic manner. Frustrated and soon out of pocket in a big way as these HIABs are not cheap, and yet no closer to fixing the car itself...

[X5Sport]

Have you charged the battery and removed it for 30 mins to see if it will reset?

If there is no power on the vehicle, or the transmission has locked out, then you cannot electrically release the transmission lock.  The ONLY way is as you say, raise the car and remove the underbody shielding.

Pre-LCI cars had a way to get at it from above and it was a silly idea to change it, but then that was down to ZF who make the box.

If you've got RAC cover, why aren't they dealing?  If they were clever then they would lift each end in turn and put a dolly under it - whilst stopping it from rolling.  With two dollies under the wheel sets then you're away....I've seen single axle recoveries done that way with AWD cars - one pair of wheels airborne and the others on a dolly - no wheels are rolling so no transmission issues.  Surely even the RAC can work that one out!

Richard

[Ash1971]

Richard - you're a star for helping out a newbie - thank you.

The car starts and runs fine. The battery was charged and then disconnected but for 1-2 min, no longer.  Does it need 30 min? If so I'll try that tomorrow.

RAC subcontracted the work to a recovery company who walked away saying the slope of my driveway is too steep to safely use a dolly. See pic - perhaps I need to get a 2nd opinion?

Ash

[iff26]

[quote="X5Sport"]
These cars are overly sensitive to low battery volts and the transmission error was very common on the E53 version when the battery wasn't 100%.

Richard
[/quote]
I totally agree with voltage issue. My X5 did it a same thing few times over 3 weeks and result was alternator failure not battery,replaced it and all sorted!

[X5Sport]

The battery reset is a BMW standard trick - the automotive equivalent of "take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning" and it is to allow all of the systems to fully discharge hence needing about 30 mins.

Shame they can't get the flat deck close enough to allow the car to move onto it.

I think it's still the RAC's issue to resolve as you're paying for them.  They need to find someone who knows what they are doing by the sounds of it.

And all members on here are always happy to help anyone with an issue....regardless of newbie or old lifer status.

Richard

[petert]

Ash - see my recent thread titled 'my e70 35d is poorly' from a couple of weeks ago.  Had a very similar issue on my 2010 car and it turned out to be the crankshaft speed signal generator.  Can't guarantee its that but worth a read.  Good luck!
Peter t

[Ash1971]

Hi Peter, I did actually read your message as my search must have picked up "transmission fault" in your text. At the time it didin't help me get my car into Neutral, but now...

So my problem was two-fold:
1) car stuck on sloping driveway; everyone tells me a crane is required to collect it and
2) the diagnosis and repair of the "transmission fault"

So 1) was solved. Thanks amongst others to Richard on here, I pushed the RAC to take responsibility and get on with the recovery as that's what we members pay for. So at 9pm on Tuesday night my street was lit up with floodlights and loads of men loading my treasured two-tonne family vehicle onto a flatbed. Sorted. Cost me £35 only because I wanted the car taken further than the 10 miles away I was entitled to.

2) Car was diagnosed late Wednesday afternoon by BMW who called me up to say they think it's the mechatronics control unit on the gearbox, but they're not sure. So they suggested they go ahead and replace the mechatronics and go from there. Cost: £3600+. WTF??

I'm afraid many of us have this nowadays - BMW reads "the computer", fixes what "the computer" says, reinserts the diagnostics (I cross my fingers, they can't give a damn) and hope that fixed it. If not rip something out and replace it until "the computer" gives the all clear. No good old fashioned logical thinking or mechanics work takes place any more with main dealers.

I have a 3rd party warranty (which is not BMW unfortunately) on the car and they've asked for my permission to take the car to a specialist transmission company nearby who they have good experience with, and do take the time to understand exactly what's really going on with the gearbox, and will fix it accordingly. I hope. My warranty covers the first £2k repairs; the rest is my cost, so I'm happy to go with the flow. Their initial estimate to do the exact work BMW was going to do was £1,000 less than the main dealer, using new OEM parts, so that's a promising start.

So it will be collected on Monday.... the saga continues. Now I'm left to transport my family of 5 around in my daily runabout, a two-seater MX5. I don't dare rent a car for fear the X5 will run into thousands anyway.

Have a nice weekend everyone, and thanks for the input so far guys.

Ash

[X5Sport]

I'm glad you are finally getting somewhere.

BMW will not 'repair' only 'replace' and at vast expense.  I had a mech unit fail on my E53 and the cost from a specialist was less than half what BMW had quoted, and that was for a brand new one which just needed to be programmed to know what type of car it was fitted to.

If I remember correctly it was about £1500 fitted and programmed.  Paid for by Warranty Direct.  BMW wanted about what they have quoted you plus £7k for the gearbox - which was fixed for £2k, and again paid for by WD.

Richard

[Ash1971]

Ugh that would have been painful if you'd have to have paid for it.

Trouble is they're shameless about it. When BMW called me they said it in such a matter-of-fact way, as if all their customers simply accept a £3600 outlay for something that might or might not fix the car. So I paused at the news and took a breath and the voice came back "so shall I go ahead with that then as I will need to order the part". As if it was "you need a new bulb for your license plate". Maybe it's just me but a little empathy at my situation would have made the whole thing far more palatable.

[X5Sport]

I had the same, and told them that WD would be collecting the car.  The service drone just said oh alright then......just as if it was a surprise that a customer would not want them to do it.  And BMW offered no goodwill at all even though the car had less than 40k on it.

Richard

[petert]

Wow! £3600 for something they aren't sure will fix the issue is brutal.  I feel now that I was pretty lucky that it turned out to be a relatively simple fix for mine.  I hope the 3rd party warranty people come up with something less costly for you.  I'd certainly mention my experience to them just in case - you never know...
Hope it turns out well for you.
Peter t