2005 SMG coming out of gear! Help!!

Ok, it's my wife's car and of course it's up to me to get that puppy back on the road. Here's the deal, she states that when she's rolling all of a sudden the tranny would come out of gear and smoothly just go into neutral! This happens on the freeway, streets, where ever, with no warning. It then does nothing, she turns the car off, waits a few minutes, then after a while it starts and she can then bring it home. It's happen one too many times...I'm thinking of taking it to work so I can see what's really going on, but I'm sure someone knows the answer. I had a minute to check the car and the smg light is on (the orange cogg of death) but no slipping. I do not have the code tool yet, so I'm hoping that someone has gone through this problem and will be gracious enough to share so I can get the M back on the road.

I have searched but did not find a similar problem. BM's are new to me, but not for long! 60k on tranny.

Thanks fellahs,

WarpDriveKid

Originally Posted by WarpDriveKid

Ok, it's my wife's car and of course it's up to me to get that puppy back on the road. Here's the deal, she states that when she's rolling all of a sudden the tranny would come out of gear and smoothly just go into neutral! This happens on the freeway, streets, where ever, with no warning. It then does nothing, she turns the car off, waits a few minutes, then after a while it starts and she can then bring it home. It's happen one too many times...I'm thinking of taking it to work so I can see what's really going on, but I'm sure someone knows the answer. I had a minute to check the car and the smg light is on (the orange cogg of death) but no slipping. I do not have the code tool yet, so I'm hoping that someone has gone through this problem and will be gracious enough to share so I can get the M back on the road.

I have searched but did not find a similar problem. BM's are new to me, but not for long! 60k on tranny.

Thanks fellahs,

WarpDriveKid

Probably better asked to the M3 board. I do know the SMG's are all problematic. Most times it the actuator pump or seals that go inside it that cause issues. Search SMG and maybe you'll get more.

I just had an issue with mine where it would get stuck in a gear. The dealer said the code was for a shorted SMG relay and pump. They replaced it as a goodwill service (yeah Thompson BMW!) and everything seems to be fine.

The situation you describe sounds a lot like a problem I had when the car was new. It would
"slip" into neutral with out warning. In my case I was able to switch to automated mode and it would pick a gear and I could keep going. It was intermittent and didn't throw a code for a while. When it finally did, they replaced the wiring harness and everything was fine.

Mine is SSG (wish i had an M3 ) but i've had similar problems before ... when in sport mode shifting up from 2nd gear to third it would kick back into 'N' it seems that the ECU gearbox cant properly match with the engine speed to engage the gear properly ... a software update for the engine and gearbox resolved that issue and i've never had that problem ever since ... it could be a software issue whereby you might have the latest software update for the engine but your gearbox software is not ... sent it to your dealership and see if that is the case ...

Hey thank you guys for the swift input, i'll look into the software updates and hopefully this will fix it! I will also post in the M3 section, which I should have double checked which forum I was initially posting in! In this case it seems to be a good idea because of the feedback I have now received!

WarpDriveKid

PS. thanks mod for the move!

I had the exact thing happen to me - 2004 M3. Was driving when it slipped into Neutral. Was unable to start the car for 5 minutes. Then it would happen again intermittently. Just got my M3 back tonite and they had replaced the Relay Changer and the Pressure Accumulator for Hydraulic unit. Problem solved.

Originally Posted by sweetm3

I had the exact thing happen to me - 2004 M3. Was driving when it slipped into Neutral. Was unable to start the car for 5 minutes. Then it would happen again intermittently. Just got my M3 back tonite and they had replaced the Relay Changer and the Pressure Accumulator for Hydraulic unit. Problem solved.

SweetM3: How much did they charge you?

What you have to do is change the relay yourself (cost about $20.-) and see if this solves the problem. If not then you will have to go to the pros because the pump is more involved as you can see in this DIY http://www.nugadgets.com/customcontent/SmgDiyMain.html

Originally Posted by vm

What you have to do is change the relay yourself (cost about $20.-) and see if this solves the problem. If not then you will have to go to the pros because the pump is more involved as you can see in this DIY http://www.nugadgets.com/customcontent/SmgDiyMain.html

Hey VM: Thanks for the pic and info...I'll order the relay tonight, if I find it online. If not I'll have to go the stealership and pick one up. I do not mind wrenching on my own cars, but the software I do not have, that's gonna be a problem. Not sure what's the deal there.

I had a chance to drive the car this evening and I did the trans reset by holding both paddles, at least the check engine service light went out....I think? lol I still have the cogg and a red ! sign, it's been there since the nuts that sold me the car changed the tires for me. That too should be a simple reset....I'll keep you guys up dated once I get that relay.

Thanks everyone for all of the good info!

Warp

I am very happy to announce that it seem the M is back on track! :-) I replaced the salmon colored relay and all is well thus far. I drove the car for 107 miles yesterday with no issues on start up or during the commute. Bit thumbs up to those that chimed in! Now, it's time to search on how to get rid of that yellow cog light!

Warp

Here is what I did when my transmission light came on, usually after I drove my 2003 M3 pretty hard. Take the car out and do 35 MPH, then put it in neutral and pull both the paddles shifters on the steering wheel at the same time and hold it for about ten seconds. Then, put the car back in drive pull over and shut the car off. Leave the car off for minute or so and restart---this SHOULD remove the SMG light, HOWEVER, you likely have the dreaded check engine light on too. So in order to get rid of the check engine light do the following: Unplug the negative battery wire and leave it unplugged for a few minutes. Then, replug the cable back in and turn the car on and see if this removed the check engine light. If it did not, then do the following: unplug the negative battery cable again, then pull out fuses 10 and 34. Now, replug the negative battery cable and turn the car on, you will notice you will have no instrument cluster on the dash, including gas gauge, temp, etc but you WILL have the background light on the dash board. Then shut the car off and put the fuses back in. Then restart the car and this should remove the check engine light.

The reason this worked for me is because when the SMG light comes on it trips the Service Engine light to come on as well. When you did the paddle shifter and cleared the SMG problem, that does not clear the service engine light. So in order to clear the service engine light you need to remove power to the computer and instrument panel. When you replug those back in the computer does not realize there is a problem to trip the service engine light again because the SMG light/problem has been cleared. This is what the mechanic I had told me to do, and it worked perfectly. Granted this could be a serious problem with your SMG, I don't know, but for me the dealer said there was nothing wrong with my transmission, but BMW has these instruments so touchy that one small thing could set them off. I did not have any problem with the car again, I had to reset my clock, and the transmission had to start over in remembering my driving pattern, but other than that it was a very simple fix.

How much did those 2 things cost you?