SMG ok so far

hey heyhey!! what's going on here!!!??? :eeps:

no problems so far.. it's going in for Inspection in 1000km

had mine for 2months now and i have had no problems yet.
let me know how this pans out

 

So I've been having an intermmitent problem with the transmission
where I hear a beep and the car is stuck in whatever gear it's in
at the time. If I turn the car off and back on everything is fine. It started
in May but disappeared Jun-Sep. The first cold morning in Oct it started
again. Yesterday it happend and the SES light came on. The dealer
said that the SMG relay and pump have a short. Cost: $900. I just
wanted to check to see if anyone else has had a similar issue and if $900
sounds about right.

-C.

What you`re experiencing seems to be fairly common among SMG (SSG) transmissions, and is probably the # 1 complaint among SMG owners....IMHO, the trans itself is`nt too bad, but the control system is the weak point. In any event, BMWNA must have seen the writing on the wall, because the trans was pulled from production after a very short run. Good luck !

Regards,
Bob

 

So I may have to change the title of this thread to Thompson BMW is great. The relay and pump were replaced as a BMW Goodwill service! My SA said that is was a judgement call, but they basically felt that this was something that shouldn't ever fail.

Thompson BMW is the best!

 

Hi. For future reference if anybody else experiences the same problems as above these are EXACTLY the same symptoms iv recently experienced and after numerous people looking for the problem it turned out to be the hydraulic pump losing pressure and intermittently failing. In England a new pump is £2200+VAT, wheras a complete new gearbox including pump is £2300+VAT (330i SSG) so may as well change the whole thing. Currently looking into repairing the broken pump, hoping the seals can be replaced with custom made ones. Will let you know how I get on with the repair.

 

Hi Creed, have been having the exact same problem as yours. When the SES light came on, did it disappear when you restarted the engine? How did the dealer know of the problem, did it throw a code? Coz i just got the car back from the dealer and they said that there wasnt any problem since they did not find any error codes.

 

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. I kind of answered this in one of your other posts. When it first started back in Mar-Apr, it only got stuck in gear when sitting at a light. I heard a beep, but when I looked at the dashboard it was clear. I didn't know anything was wrong until i tried to shift. At the time it didn't throw a code so the dealer made a note of the issue but didn't do anything. i had no problems all summer, but the problem returned in the fall. It seems like when it got really cold (below 40 is my definition) it would get stuck while driving, but still the same beep, but the dash was clear. Finally it happened where the it beeped, the SES light came on and stayed on until I turned the car off. When I went back to the dealer, they said it there was a code and they fixed the problem.

 

Hey Creed, thanks for the reply, i brought my car to my friend who owns a shop repairing bmw's a while ago and the diagnosis was the hydraulic pump. Is this the same pump that they changed in your car?

Apparently, as you read the the manual, the buzzer that i hear was a sign that the gearbox is overheating.

As i connect what has been happening to my car with the diagnosis, the hydraulic pump supplies fluid to the gears right? So if the pump is faulty, no fluid is supplied causing the gearbox to overheat. Is my analysis of what has been happening before correct?

Pls. give me your insights BMW gurus.

 

Just had the car in the shop and the diagnosis was the same problem, hydraulic pump and relay switch and harness replaced as well as a software update. this was covered by extended warranty.. $0 cost to me. Then a week later I got the transmission malfunction light, now the problem is the clutch sensor which is being replaced as I write, also covered by warranty... these two visits paid would have cost me out of pocket more that what I paid for the warranty. Never had a problem with the trans in the four years I've owned the car, before factory warranty was up, dealer replaced the clutch and slave cylinder because I was experiencing clutch shudder from take off or going over speed bumps.... my car has 46k miles on it.

 

ayu88: I'm sure it's the same pump that they replaced on my car. I believe there is only one hydraulic pump for the clutch. I didn't have the overheating issue, but your thinking sounds reasonable to me.

And just to add a data-point, I also had to have the clutch replaced at about 46-48K miles due to clutch chatter. I thought it odd since SMG is supposed to extend clutch life!

 

update - FYI

So I'm now at $125K and needed to have the pump replaced again. This
time I had to pay for it. The total was $5900 including a new clutch. It was
approx. $4K for pump (what they called the hydrolic unit), $300 for the
clutch and the rest was labor.

Just thought I'd post the data point.

-C.