DCT shifted itself to neutral? Safety feature or malfunction??

motosan · 02-25-2011, 01:43 AM

Guys:
Something really strange occured to me today... I went to buy dinner, and as I was driving out of the plaza, all of a sudden my car shifted itself to neutral. Even when i tried to shift to manual to D, DCT wouldn't respond. I also stepped on gas but the engine wouldn't rev. However, I didn't feel that the engine was completely off. It only seemed that DCT got stuck at Neutral, and engine was running but unresponsive to the gas paddle....What's more bizarre was that when I pressed the "Start Engine" button, the engine actually started up and everything back to normal...

Situation: I was making a wide turn a corner away the plaza exit, but I couldn't full turn so I had to stop and wait for the oncoming traffic from cars entering the plaza to pass...And that is when my car shifted itself to N.

Question:
1. If I could restart the engine, that implied the engine should have been off, but I didn't feel the engine was completely off. Is this even possible, or the engine WAS off and my memory fooled me again!!!

2. Someone in another thread talked about certain safety feature... Can this be one of them? Wide turn with close range hitting oncoming traffic at really low speed???

Side Note:
About a month back my car acted up too. Only this time I was waiting at the traffic light, and all of a sudden the car revved the engine by itself (yes, this time i am sure my foot was on the break and the car was at full stop) to around 1000-1500 rpm. I freaked out because I could have hit the car in front of me if I released the break. So i shut off the engine and restarted and everything went OK.

My car is new and only had a bit over 5k miles.... Anyone ever experienced something similar???? I will schedule with the dealer to bring the car back but I doubt they will find out anything since these issues come and go....

Thank you!

SECRET M · 02-25-2011, 01:48 AM

auto start/stop malfunction??

Mahmood07 · 02-25-2011, 01:49 AM

Isnt that the Auto start-stop function on the 2011s?

esquire · 02-25-2011, 01:56 AM

This has GOT to be the auto start-stop function. Look at your center console beneath your CD player. You'll see a button for auto-start stop. make sure its set to off (from what i understand this is function is supposed to be off by default on the car. that's how it is on mine at least).

mkoesel · 02-25-2011, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motosan

1. If I could restart the engine, that implied the engine should have been off, but I didn't feel the engine was completely off. Is this even possible, or the engine WAS off and my memory fooled me again!!!

Sounds to me like the engine must have stalled, yes. That definitely should not have happened, of course. I suppose it either could have been an underrev caused by a DCT glitch, or some issue with the start/stop as others suggested above. Could have been a one time freak thing, but you might want to take it in and see if there are any codes stored.

TMR · 02-25-2011, 01:29 PM

This has happened to me. The car stalls and i was stuck in the middle of the street. Just restarted it and back to normal.

Echo M3 · 02-25-2011, 01:45 PM

This has happened to me too. My car jumped into neutral at an intersection when I had 2k miles on it, and I'm positive I did not bump the shifter by accident (plus, my foot was off the brake). It hasn't happened again - I attribute it to just a DCT quirk.

emthreeboy · 02-25-2011, 02:33 PM

No car is perfect, pretty sure it was a glitch or auto start.stop incident.

Looper · 02-25-2011, 02:58 PM

I had mine actually stall in a parking lot pulling up to a stop sign at slow speeds, only did it once but I knew it had stalled because the tach was laying on zero.... That damn tach does come in handy sometimes. Mine is a DCT with no stop start BS.

08E92M3 · 02-25-2011, 04:45 PM

Happened to my 2008 E92, the M-DCT has a mind of it's own & switched to N, wouldn't response to anything, including trying to switched to D mode. I had just came to a complete stop to make a right turn, then it happened. Ended up restarting the car, took 2 trips to the dealer during a 2-3 weeks period to get it fixed. First they adjusted the clutch pressure, which gave me DSC malfunction warning the very next day, then they contacted BMW NA & uploaded the data to them, while NA contact Germany. My car was at the dealership while waiting on a software update from Germany for about a week (it was finally ready for download on around 12/23/2010).

motosan · 02-27-2011, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 08E92M3

Happened to my 2008 E92, the M-DCT has a mind of it's own & switched to N, wouldn't response to anything, including trying to switched to D mode. I had just came to a complete stop to make a right turn, then it happened. Ended up restarting the car, took 2 trips to the dealer during a 2-3 weeks period to get it fixed. First they adjusted the clutch pressure, which gave me DSC malfunction warning the very next day, then they contacted BMW NA & uploaded the data to them, while NA contact Germany. My car was at the dealership while waiting on a software update from Germany for about a week (it was finally ready for download on around 12/23/2010).

Thanks for the detailed information... I will be making an appointment with my dealer and make sure I reserve a loaner car (wonder if they have 135 or even mini loaner which is what I am looking into buying as a commute car next)

NELSON.MLGB · 08-16-2014, 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motosan

Quote:

Originally Posted by 08E92M3

Happened to my 2008 E92, the M-DCT has a mind of it's own & switched to N, wouldn't response to anything, including trying to switched to D mode. I had just came to a complete stop to make a right turn, then it happened. Ended up restarting the car, took 2 trips to the dealer during a 2-3 weeks period to get it fixed. First they adjusted the clutch pressure, which gave me DSC malfunction warning the very next day, then they contacted BMW NA & uploaded the data to them, while NA contact Germany. My car was at the dealership while waiting on a software update from Germany for about a week (it was finally ready for download on around 12/23/2010).

Thanks for the detailed information... I will be making an appointment with my dealer and make sure I reserve a loaner car (wonder if they have 135 or even mini loaner which is what I am looking into buying as a commute car next)

Did you ever figured out the problem?

02-25-2011, 01:43 AM	#1
motosan Private First Class 25 Rep 109 Posts Drives: 2011 E92 ZCP M3 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: CA iTrader: (1)	DCT shifted itself to neutral? Safety feature or malfunction?? Guys: Something really strange occured to me today... I went to buy dinner, and as I was driving out of the plaza, all of a sudden my car shifted itself to neutral. Even when i tried to shift to manual to D, DCT wouldn't respond. I also stepped on gas but the engine wouldn't rev. However, I didn't feel that the engine was completely off. It only seemed that DCT got stuck at Neutral, and engine was running but unresponsive to the gas paddle....What's more bizarre was that when I pressed the "Start Engine" button, the engine actually started up and everything back to normal... Situation: I was making a wide turn a corner away the plaza exit, but I couldn't full turn so I had to stop and wait for the oncoming traffic from cars entering the plaza to pass...And that is when my car shifted itself to N. Question: 1. If I could restart the engine, that implied the engine should have been off, but I didn't feel the engine was completely off. Is this even possible, or the engine WAS off and my memory fooled me again!!! 2. Someone in another thread talked about certain safety feature... Can this be one of them? Wide turn with close range hitting oncoming traffic at really low speed??? Side Note: About a month back my car acted up too. Only this time I was waiting at the traffic light, and all of a sudden the car revved the engine by itself (yes, this time i am sure my foot was on the break and the car was at full stop) to around 1000-1500 rpm. I freaked out because I could have hit the car in front of me if I released the break. So i shut off the engine and restarted and everything went OK. My car is new and only had a bit over 5k miles.... Anyone ever experienced something similar???? I will schedule with the dealer to bring the car back but I doubt they will find out anything since these issues come and go.... Thank you!
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02-25-2011, 01:48 AM	#2
SECRET M Engineer 36 Rep 277 Posts Drives: N/A Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Northern California iTrader: (1)	auto start/stop malfunction?? __________________ [Sold] 2008 BMW ///M3 :: Space Gray\|Black
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02-25-2011, 01:49 AM	#3
Mahmood07 Captain 86 Rep 856 Posts Drives: E92 M3 + F85 X5M Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Boston->San Diego->Bahrain iTrader: (0)	Isnt that the Auto start-stop function on the 2011s? __________________ ///M3 Mods: \| Eisenmann Race Exhaust \| Primary Cats Delete (TTP) \| ESS Tune \| 19" Advan RS \| Eibach Springs \| MS Air Filter \| BMW Perf. Spoiler \| BMW Perf. Splitters \| Euro LCI Tail lights \| Angel iBright v.3.0 \| 20% Tint \| Matte black Kidney Grills \| CF Side Gills \| Painted Reflectors \| Black M3 emblem
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02-25-2011, 01:56 AM	#4
esquire Brigadier General 478 Rep 3,044 Posts Drives: 2011 Dakar Yellow M3, 2018 M5 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Orange County, California iTrader: (0)	This has GOT to be the auto start-stop function. Look at your center console beneath your CD player. You'll see a button for auto-start stop. make sure its set to off (from what i understand this is function is supposed to be off by default on the car. that's how it is on mine at least). __________________ [ESS VT2-625] [Akrapovic Evolution Exhaust] [KW Clubsports] [OSS Angel Eyes] [Revinora r-CRT Lip] [Vorsteiner Boot] [Challenge Race Diffuser] [See the Build Thread HERE]
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02-25-2011, 01:29 PM	#6
TMR Brigadier General 394 Rep 3,161 Posts Drives: M3 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Torrance iTrader: (12)	This has happened to me. The car stalls and i was stuck in the middle of the street. Just restarted it and back to normal. __________________ 2015 M3 BPM Tuned, Eibach, Magnaflow and more www.tmrmzine.com/m3/f80 SOLD E92 Slēk Carbon Fiber Widebody M3 www.tmrmzine.com/m3/slek/ SOLD E92 335i Stage 3+ with all the toys www.tmrmzine.com/335/ SOLD E39 M5 Modded, What a great car! www.tmrmzine.com/m5/
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02-25-2011, 01:45 PM	#7
Echo M3 Major 123 Rep 1,432 Posts Drives: E90 M3 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: NY iTrader: (0)	This has happened to me too. My car jumped into neutral at an intersection when I had 2k miles on it, and I'm positive I did not bump the shifter by accident (plus, my foot was off the brake). It hasn't happened again - I attribute it to just a DCT quirk.
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02-25-2011, 02:33 PM	#8
emthreeboy Captain 37 Rep 917 Posts Drives: E92 M3 & E46 M3 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: socal iTrader: (2)	No car is perfect, pretty sure it was a glitch or auto start.stop incident. __________________ -09 e92 SPACE GRAY/// m3 w/ m-dct! -06 E46 JET BLACK/// m3 6MT!
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02-25-2011, 02:58 PM	#9
Looper BEAST 2 Rep 152 Posts Drives: 2011 M3 E92 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Fabulous Tampa Florida iTrader: (0)	I had mine actually stall in a parking lot pulling up to a stop sign at slow speeds, only did it once but I knew it had stalled because the tach was laying on zero.... That damn tach does come in handy sometimes. Mine is a DCT with no stop start BS.
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02-25-2011, 04:45 PM	#10
08E92M3 Private 2 Rep 94 Posts Drives: E92 M3 Coupe Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Dublin iTrader: (0)	Happened to my 2008 E92, the M-DCT has a mind of it's own & switched to N, wouldn't response to anything, including trying to switched to D mode. I had just came to a complete stop to make a right turn, then it happened. Ended up restarting the car, took 2 trips to the dealer during a 2-3 weeks period to get it fixed. First they adjusted the clutch pressure, which gave me DSC malfunction warning the very next day, then they contacted BMW NA & uploaded the data to them, while NA contact Germany. My car was at the dealership while waiting on a software update from Germany for about a week (it was finally ready for download on around 12/23/2010).
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