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SMG failure

3K views 27 replies 19 participants last post by  M CRISIS 
#1 ·
Got this on sunday as we were about getting ready to go for grocery with entire cricket team in the car. Thankfully it happened in front of the house, so that's good. From what the SA tells me, its the shifter assembly and I should get it back tomorrow. hmmm
 

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#2 ·
Another day, another SMG failure - isn't there someone at BMW directly responsible for this fiasco? grrrrrrr
 
#5 ·
$85k and all I got was this trailer queen...
 
#6 ·
GTCM5 said:
$85k and all I got was this trailer queen...
'Bet you're happy to have that Viper as a backup, heh??
 
#7 ·
trol said:
Got this on sunday as we were about getting ready to go for grocery with entire cricket team in the car. Thankfully it happened in front of the house, so that's good. From what the SA tells me, its the shifter assembly and I should get it back tomorrow. hmmm
The folks at Princeton BMW wanted me to consider buying yours instead of waiting for mine, luckily I insisted on waiting (but I am sorry this happened to you!)
 
#9 ·
Well, technically, I now qualify for the lemonade under new jersey's definitions of a lemon, thanks in part to the 2 week backlog on optical sensor where I was forced to drive the car in a much reduced capacity and compromised safety for nearly 18 days (turn signals wouldn't work, acceleration just not there etc.). Today marks 20th day of unavailability or reduced performance, which qualifies me for lemon protection. This does not mean I want to dump the car, I can't imagine driving anything else after this but, I do need assurance that this will not repeat and if it does, a change over to another fault free m5 (2006 or later). Letter to manufacturer in the mail tomorrow.
 
#10 ·
trol said:
Well, technically, I now qualify for the lemonade under new jersey's definitions of a lemon, thanks in part to the 2 week backlog on optical sensor where I was forced to drive the car in a much reduced capacity and compromised safety for nearly 18 days (turn signals wouldn't work, acceleration just not there etc.). Today marks 20th day of unavailability or reduced performance, which qualifies me for lemon protection. This does not mean I want to dump the car, I can't imagine driving anything else after this but, I do need assurance that this will not repeat and if it does, a change over to another fault free m5 (2006 or later). Letter to manufacturer in the mail tomorrow.
I would use that to get them to put you into an 07!
 
#11 ·
I am sadly stunned at the number of cars I see on here sitting on flatbeds. I really hope that BMW gets their act together and gets this figured out.
 
#12 ·
Another day another SMG failure.

I hope your's is only some minor fault, but i'd wager you'll be getting a new SMG Hydraulic system of entire transmission & you'll get your car back in 2-4wks. Sorry to be the potential bearer of bad news.
 
#13 ·
w8pmc said:
Another day another SMG failure.

I hope your's is only some minor fault, but i'd wager you'll be getting a new SMG Hydraulic system of entire transmission & you'll get your car back in 2-4wks. Sorry to be the potential bearer of bad news.
Well, as I quoted the SA above, he thinks its just the shifter assembly and technically I should have it back today, though, I haven't heard from him yet and he hasn't quite returned my (today's) call so you may be onto something. hmmm
 
#14 ·
More delays

Letter to BMW NA asking for a MY07 or return sent yesterday. The latest twist involves further delays as shifter assembly changes did not reset the fault and the next part up the chain is backordered. What are these people smoking? Why can't they get their act together? Man its frustrating hmmm
 
#16 ·
When changing
car park.
After asking poor wife and kids to push car into a park i rang BMW service and told them where the car was and wished them best of luck retreiving it!
The SMG lever is now completely jammed so it may even be locked in gear !
After reading all of the SMG failures on this board I am having serious doubts on the reliability of this car.
Is it really possible to drive this car and believe you are going to arrive at your destination?
I never had these sorts of problems with the SMG in the M3.
I have a 2005 M5 with 20K on the clock and this car seems to be continually in the service center for some warning or other.
Any other Australian M5 owners with these sorts of problems?
 
#17 ·
does the car make strange mechanical sounds or is the only problem this warning.

Please see the "lucky M driver" thread.

If you do not notice any mechanical problem with the car, my bet is its sensor related. there is a bad steering angle sensor that has been recalled. it can cause this. if you reset the idrive it usually clears it.

to reset the idrive:
press the volume button/ radio on/off button and press the single cd drive and dvd rom/nav dvd drive eject buttons all at once. hold down all 3 and wait for the system to reset. Ive done this while in motion, but I prefer to do it when stopped just to be safe.
 
#18 ·
Sorry about the non sensical post as i was doing it on my laptop in bed and it obviously stuffed up. Anyway what happened was that I was changng down from 3rd to 2nd using the paddle and there was a terrible noise which was basically gear teeth mashing together. It seems as though the clutch didnt even work but the gears were trying to operate. I immediately got the red cog and failure message. Next morning this seemed to dissappear and I drove my family to a show. When parking the car 3 levels down in an underground carpark guess what ...red cogs yellow cogs... error messages etc etc etc. My wife and kids obliged by pushing me into a park where it had to remain until the service truck came to get it!!! God knows how they retrievd it from down there as the smg lever was totally jammed and I dont know if anyone here has tried to steer an M5 with no power steering but it is EXTREMELY DIFICULT ! To cut a long story short yes I tried the ctrl alt delete trick but no joy. I am about to ring up the service people and discover how long (again) I will be without my car. I'm wishing I hadnt "upgraded" from my M3!
 
#20 ·
Bye bye BMW NA

They have just offered me 2000 dollars for all the trouble I have been through. I had asked for two month's payment for the time this piece of **** has been unusable and they came back with 20 days in dealer as the only time they would allocate for such purposes (no stability controls, hardened steering and lack of s6/acceleration is not usable as far as an M5 goes). He also assured me there is no such thing as 100K miles/6 year warranty extension and dealers are wrong to sell this - I am extremely frustrated and disappointed in their customer relations department - This has to be the worst way to deal with your most profitable customers, ones that buy your most expensive car every 4 years.
 
#21 ·
trol said:
They have just offered me 2000 dollars for all the trouble I have been through. I had asked for two month's payment for the time this piece of **** has been unusable and they came back with 20 days in dealer as the only time they would allocate for such purposes (no stability controls, hardened steering and lack of s6/acceleration is not usable as far as an M5 goes). He also assured me there is no such thing as 100K miles/6 year warranty extension and dealers are wrong to sell this - I am extremely frustrated and disappointed in their customer relations department - This has to be the worst way to deal with your most profitable customers, ones that buy your most expensive car every 4 years.
Do you have the car back finally Trol? What was the underlying cause if the issue?
 
#22 ·
TiSiBeast said:
Do you have the car back finally Trol? What was the underlying cause if the issue?
No explanations (shifter assembly is not acceptable explanation, especially, when once you claimed to have fixed the shifter assembly, a part was flown down from germany to fix components further down the driveline).

The car drives, but S6 takes 200-300 milliseconds to shift gears and during those 200-300 ms, the car loses momentum (slows down or appears to be slowing down). Its going back in on october 31st, but bmwna contacted me to sign a piece of paper saying my claims with them are finished (if I accept the 2000 amount).
 
#24 ·
trol said:
No explanations (shifter assembly is not acceptable explanation, especially, when once you claimed to have fixed the shifter assembly, a part was flown down from germany to fix components further down the driveline).

The car drives, but S6 takes 200-300 milliseconds to shift gears and during those 200-300 ms, the car loses momentum (slows down or appears to be slowing down). Its going back in on october 31st, but bmwna contacted me to sign a piece of paper saying my claims with them are finished (if I accept the 2000 amount).
trol that sucks!!! Especially after that run out on jones beach. Hope they get it right and I hope this SMG problem doesnt hit my car or anyone else's car because that's just not cool.....knock on wood.
 
#25 ·
DinodealM5 said:
trol that sucks!!! Especially after that run out on jones beach. Hope they get it right and I hope this SMG problem doesnt hit my car or anyone else's car because that's just not cool.....knock on wood.
I know, it just kills me to know that I am paying twice the amount I needed to, if it was 550i performance I was going to get.
 
#26 ·
bavaria1 said:
did you buy it at Autobahn? how many SMG failures have they had ?.....was their service good.....

My 07 comes in a couple of weeks....
Got mine at Moritz. Knock on wood, no probs.
 
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