325i transmission light and slippage

When my wife starts up the car, the tranny light stays on and it slips really bad in lower gears. I followed the procedure and filled the fluid. I start it and it drives great, no light.

The only time this happens is when she drives it. It's happened 3 times on her. Otherwise, the tranny seems fine, no slippage at all.

My question is this- It only seems to happen when the car is started and the light stays on (the little ! in the gear) If the light goes off at startup, the car runs fine. It NEVER comes on while driving and the tranny never slips if that light turns off at startup. Is there some solenoid or relay that engages during startup that could be causing the issue?

And no, I don't want to put a manual tranny in it. And yes, the fluid is the correct level... And yes, this is my first BMW and blah blah...

I did some digging and came up with E36 BMW Limp Mode. So now I know what it's called at least. There are a number of things that can cause this- low trans fluid, TCM, transmission control solenoid, Low alternator output, loose connections at the firewall and others...
So I'll go through the list.
Since it goes into limp mode on startup, and never while driving, and I know it's full, I can probably rule out the fluid level.
It could be any one of the others or maybe even something else.
I doubt there's an easy solution to this, just trial and error.

You can only rule out fluid level by checking the fluid level. Do a quick google search for the procedure, it is simpler than it looks.

Yeah, that's already been done. I followed the whole procedure. It actually needed close to a quart of fluid. It drove around great then she went to drive it a few days ago and it went into limp mode upon startup. She turned it off, then back on and it was still in it. I came out and started it and it was fine, no light, no limp mode.

Wait. Down a quart?!?

Very good chance of it being serious with that bit o' knowledge.

There is a solenoid that engages the shift lever to lock it in park until you put your foot on the brake. Mine was doing something very similar when that started to go. Turned out in my case it was a bad connector that gave intermittent problems. Once replaced I haven't had any more issues.

Thank you, I believe it's something like that. I'll make sure all the connections are tight before I move on to the next thing

read the codes on the transmission, it will tell you why it is going into limp mode. You need snap on scanner for that

Originally Posted by HakenTT

read the codes on the transmission, it will tell you why it is going into limp mode. You need snap on scanner for that

According to you, my head is cracked and my engine is junk, get a new one. I wonder why I would listen to your advice now?

Lol! Bazinga!

Originally Posted by 93az325is

According to you, my head is cracked and my engine is junk, get a new one. I wonder why I would listen to your advice now?

You are the one who said seller is a crook and he suckered you into lemon. Besides M50 heads are known to crack very easy, expecialy here in HOT phoenix

Yes I am. And yes, he misrepresented the car, and I bought it on a whim. Fortunately, I stuck to it and and fixed the problem, relatively cheaply. Thank you for your input.

Originally Posted by 93az325is

Yes I am. And yes, he misrepresented the car, and I bought it on a whim. Fortunately, I stuck to it and and fixed the problem, relatively cheaply. Thank you for your input.

How did he misrepresented the car? You test drove it, ran fine, you bought it cheap. The next day insulation on the coil cracked, causing spark to shoot into cylinder head instead of the spark plug and you had misfire. You buy an old car for cheap and if the next day something goes bad you call a seller a crook, you are not reasonable at all.

Alright, alright. That was a different thread. Lets keep this one on the rails.