BMW e39 DSC light on and "gun firing back"

Dear fanatics,

I just bought a "new" 1997 e39 540i. Currently have a 2001 e46 330xi. Am impressed by both, but even more by the 540i. Sure it needs work, but that´s what I like about the whole thing.
Please help with a first problem: my car has the DSC light on and, worse, it gives these terrible "burps", with a quite violent stroke (like a gun firing back), when I change speeds after cruising, as if it doesn´t want to change gears in the automatic step transmission. A mechanic I know said it might be related to the DSC light and a possible traction failure. He suggests it coukd be fixed by the DSC wheel sensors.
Does it make sense to anyone? Has anyone had the same problem?
Thanks !
Ralph

Get the codes read by a BMW DIS, and go from there.

It could be a wheel sensor or a bad ABS module. If you have the system scanned it will tell you if there is a bad sensor and it's location.
Your car has ASC not DCS, they are two completely different systems.

Originally Posted by JimLev

If you have the system scanned it will tell you if there is a bad sensor and it's location.

Hi Jim,
Are you sure about that?
The OP doesn't seem to have the trifecta, so, maybe it's different when just the ASC light is lit (and not the BRAKE and/or ABS lights) ... but with the trifecta, a "system scan" is generally useless because (as 540iman has often repeated), the diagnostic tools are not hooked up between the sensor and the ABS control module - so what you get in that case is whatever anomaly the ABS control module is thinking ... which often is wrong (almost always, if not always since it never implicates itself).

Thanks to all. What does ASC stand for?