DCT shift level malfunct. leads to transmission replacement

[Ti-Jean]

I bought a pre-owned 08 M3 about 6 months ago and all was good until I got this message on the iDrive: "Shift Level malfunct" (see picture below). I turn off the car, restarted and everything was fine. I still decided to take it in to make sure.

The step of events from there were:

1) Take the car to dealer
2) They replaced the level selector
3) Went on my way for about 2 weeks
4) Message appears again but this time it was worst.

I couldn't put in in reverse and the car would not get out of the "D" mode. It also had a really bad lag at start. People behind me probably thought I didn't know how to drive! I made it painfully back home and left it parked for the night

5) Next morning, started the car and everything was working normally. Took it to the dealer to have it looked at.
6) It's been there ~1.5 week and just got a call that BMW has authorized to replaced the transmission.

Although I'm happy that they will replace the transmission under the warranty, this makes me worry as I'm approaching the end of the original warranty period. I initially was not planning on purchasing the extended warranty but this problem is making me rethink my decision as this is an expensive repair. I got an E-mail with the parts ordered and decided to check the price on Tischer.

SPECIAL ORDER PART# DESCRIPTION QORD PRICE
BM28-00-7-842-585 REPLACEMENT, DUAL-CL 1 $9,899.60
BM11-62-7-830-668 GASKET RING 1 $8.24

Anybody else has seen a similar problem? I tried a couple search but couldn't find anything recent. My car currently has slightly over 42K miles (as seen on the picture). What if this happened 8K miles later...

By the way, this is my first post so please go easy on me!

[mkoesel]

Sorry to hear it. No telling what the original owner did to the car, so it might have been the result of misuse. My warranty just expired on mine, and I opted to go without the extended warranty. So we'll see what happens.

Too bad we'll never know exactly what went wrong, but it's great you'll get it replaced for free.

[WillC310]

You should have offered to pay for the gasket ring.

Most likely BMW has no idea what's wrong with the car and they're just replacing the whole thing.

[e46e92love]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Sorry to hear it. No telling what the original owner did to the car, so it might have been the result of misuse. My warranty just expired on mine, and I opted to go without the extended warranty. So we'll see what happens.

Too bad we'll never know exactly what went wrong, but it's great you'll get it replaced for free.

For once, I actually disagree with mkoesel, I would never own an ///M out of warranty unless non was available (car over 100k miles), ESPECIALLY one I was not the original owner as I would have no idea how the car had been treated......just my opinion.

Cheers,
e46e92

[M3er]

Originally Posted by Ti-Jean

I bought a pre-owned 08 M3 about 6 months ago and all was good until I got this message on the iDrive: "Shift Level malfunct" (see picture below). I turn off the car, restarted and everything was fine. I still decided to take it in to make sure.

The step of events from there were:

1) Take the car to dealer
2) They replaced the level selector
3) Went on my way for about 2 weeks
4) Message appears again but this time it was worst.

I couldn't put in in reverse and the car would not get out of the "D" mode. It also had a really bad lag at start. People behind me probably thought I didn't know how to drive! I made it painfully back home and left it parked for the night

5) Next morning, started the car and everything was working normally. Took it to the dealer to have it looked at.
6) It's been there ~1.5 week and just got a call that BMW has authorized to replaced the transmission.

Although I'm happy that they will replace the transmission under the warranty, this makes me worry as I'm approaching the end of the original warranty period. I initially was not planning on purchasing the extended warranty but this problem is making me rethink my decision as this is an expensive repair. I got an E-mail with the parts ordered and decided to check the price on Tischer.

SPECIAL ORDER PART# DESCRIPTION QORD PRICE
BM28-00-7-842-585 REPLACEMENT, DUAL-CL 1 $9,899.60
BM11-62-7-830-668 GASKET RING 1 $8.24

Anybody else has seen a similar problem? I tried a couple search but couldn't find anything recent. My car currently has slightly over 42K miles (as seen on the picture). What if this happened 8K miles later...

By the way, this is my first post so please go easy on me!

I think if they put a brand new clutch you should be all set.
It is more likely that the previous owner 'malfunction' it...
It is highly unlikely that you will get this issue again.
Purchasing a warranty maybe a good idea if you don't have a local indy shop
you could trust...but I heard its expensive
How much is it do you know?

[midwest 340xi 6sp]

Originally Posted by e46e92love

For once, I actually disagree with mkoesel, I would never own an ///M out of warranty unless non was available (car over 100k miles), ESPECIALLY one I was not the original owner as I would have no idea how the car had been treated......just my opinion.

Cheers,
e46e92

Hell, I wouldn't own ANY BMW out of warranty (let along an M car)...

Best $$ I ever spent was the $1200 on our sons 04 325xi. That damn thing has paid for itself many times over...Just recently $2600 for condenser unit and fan belt clutch.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by e46e92love

For once, I actually disagree with mkoesel, I would never own an ///M out of warranty unless non was available (car over 100k miles), ESPECIALLY one I was not the original owner as I would have no idea how the car had been treated......just my opinion.

Cheers,
e46e92

No problem, man. Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to give advice there. Just mentioning mine is out of warranty.

FWIW, my I sold my e46 M3 at 125k miles with no issues (only had one minor issue out or warranty - ignition coil IIRC). I'm hoping to have the same experience with the e93. Knock on wood.

Originally Posted by Midwest X6

Hell, I wouldn't own ANY BMW out of warranty (let along an M car)...

Best $$ I ever spent was the $1200 on our sons 04 325xi. That damn thing has paid for itself many times over...Just recently $2600 for condenser unit and fan belt clutch.

At $1200 its a no brainer. At about $6k for the full BMW OEM extended warranty, which only gives you 6yr/100k AFAIK, its not such an easy decision. There was a thread about this recently, and it seems more than just a few people have chosen not to get the extended warranty.

[midwest 340xi 6sp]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

No problem, man. Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to give advice there. Just mentioning mine is out of warranty.

FWIW, my I sold my e46 M3 at 125k miles with no issues (only had one minor issue out or warranty - ignition coil IIRC). I'm hoping to have the same experience with the e93. Knock on wood.




At $1200 its a no brainer. At about $6k for the full BMW OEM extended warranty, which only gives you 6yr/100k AFAIK, its not such an easy decision. There was a thread about this recently, and it seems more than just a few people have chosen not to get the extended warranty.

Agreed...$6k is a whole other deal..

[Ti-Jean]

Originally Posted by WillC310

You should have offered to pay for the gasket ring.

Most likely BMW has no idea what's wrong with the car and they're just replacing the whole thing.

If they would have given me the choice to pay for one and they pay for the other, I definitely would have picked the gasket out of my pocket.

That's also my thinking that they don't really know what's wrong with it. I'm happy they're replacing the whole thing but still it doesn't give me a warm feeling being that close to being out of warranty.

I did look into the extended warranty and it was priced at:

Gold 2 more years 100,000 at $5100
Gold 3 more years 100,000 at $6350

Still don't know what to do, it's pretty expensive.

[saeedg48]

dct is terrible

[Ti-Jean]

Originally Posted by saeedg48

dct is terrible

Other than repair cost, I have to say that I absolutely love it. I have always drove MT and actually was initially shopping for a M3 MT. But after I test drove a DCT one, I fell in love with it.

My take is that it comes down to personal preference, not which one is better.

[FASTTOYS]

Originally Posted by Ti-Jean

I bought a pre-owned 08 M3 about 6 months ago and all was good until I got this message on the iDrive: "Shift Level malfunct" (see picture below). I turn off the car, restarted and everything was fine. I still decided to take it in to make sure.

The step of events from there were:

1) Take the car to dealer
2) They replaced the level selector
3) Went on my way for about 2 weeks
4) Message appears again but this time it was worst.

I couldn't put in in reverse and the car would not get out of the "D" mode. It also had a really bad lag at start. People behind me probably thought I didn't know how to drive! I made it painfully back home and left it parked for the night

5) Next morning, started the car and everything was working normally. Took it to the dealer to have it looked at.
6) It's been there ~1.5 week and just got a call that BMW has authorized to replaced the transmission.

Although I'm happy that they will replace the transmission under the warranty, this makes me worry as I'm approaching the end of the original warranty period. I initially was not planning on purchasing the extended warranty but this problem is making me rethink my decision as this is an expensive repair. I got an E-mail with the parts ordered and decided to check the price on Tischer.

SPECIAL ORDER PART# DESCRIPTION QORD PRICE
BM28-00-7-842-585 REPLACEMENT, DUAL-CL 1 $9,899.60
BM11-62-7-830-668 GASKET RING 1 $8.24

Anybody else has seen a similar problem? I tried a couple search but couldn't find anything recent. My car currently has slightly over 42K miles (as seen on the picture). What if this happened 8K miles later...

By the way, this is my first post so please go easy on me!

1st gen DCT I would exspect some issues

[Rshane]

Well, at least they are replacing it under warranty, you should be good to go after that. It does suck to be without your M for a few weeks though.

BTW, the price for parts is ridiculous. Anybody else think it is highway robbery to spend $8.24 for a rubber gasket? Then again, it cost me $30 for a clear piece of plastic to protect the screen of my iPad.

[SenorFunkyPants]

You have to wonder why a shift "lever" malfunction warrants a gearbox replacement!

[meyergru]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

No telling what the original owner did to the car, so it might have been the result of misuse.

I wonder what kind of misuse that would have been? Something like "driving it"?

I thought that DCT actually prevents one from performing some bonehead maneuver like a money shift. Otherwise, it's just wear and tear from driving it hard - which is what M cars are all about.

[mkoesel]

DCT does not prevent abuse, no. Give me 24 hrs on a track with a DCT M3 - or any car with any transmission, even one that is considered bullet proof - and I will hand it back with the dash lit up like a x-mas tree. First order of business - let's experiment with brake torquing to see just what the ECU allows. Second, we'll see what running up and down the gears, aggressively (and needlessly) for an hour straight does to the clutches. Etc, etc, etc. You get the idea.

Sure, they give the car a thorough inspection for CPO, but that doesn't mean it won't have issues.

Originally Posted by meyergru

I wonder what kind of misuse that would have been? Something like "driving it"?

I thought that DCT actually prevents one from performing some bonehead maneuver like a money shift. Otherwise, it's just wear and tear from driving it hard - which is what M cars are all about.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

You have to wonder why a shift "lever" malfunction warrants a gearbox replacement!

Exactly. Sometimes those fault descriptions are red herrings. Either BMW programmed it to not report what is really wrong in this case deliberately, or perhaps more likely, something out of place in one part of the system causes a malfunction somewhere completely different. Like I said earlier, its too bad we'll never get to know what really happened.

[Ti-Jean]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

No telling what the original owner did to the car, so it might have been the result of misuse.

Originally Posted by meyergru

I wonder what kind of misuse that would have been? Something like "driving it"? .

I will never know what the previous owner did or didn't do but I did pull the service history as part of my decision process to buy or not the extended warranty. It came out perfectly clean except for bulbs replacement. You would think that something should have popped out before if the previous owner was in the habit of misusing his car.

[riyatch]

Originally Posted by Ti-Jean

If they would have given me the choice to pay for one and they pay for the other, I definitely would have picked the gasket out of my pocket.

That's also my thinking that they don't really know what's wrong with it. I'm happy they're replacing the whole thing but still it doesn't give me a warm feeling being that close to being out of warranty.

I did look into the extended warranty and it was priced at:

Gold 2 more years 100,000 at $5100
Gold 3 more years 100,000 at $6350

Still don't know what to do, it's pretty expensive.

I was told that the extended warranty does not include dct.

[Gulu100]

Just curious what is your build date?

[Ti-Jean]

Originally Posted by Gulu100

Just curious what is your build date?

July 2008

[SenorFunkyPants]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Exactly. Sometimes those fault descriptions are red herrings. Either BMW programmed it to not report what is really wrong in this case deliberately, or perhaps more likely, something out of place in one part of the system causes a malfunction somewhere completely different. Like I said earlier, its too bad we'll never get to know what really happened.

Or they replaced the shift lever assembly with another one that was also faulty.
The problem with computer led fault diagnosis is that it removes the need for technicians to think for themselves. I have an ongoing problem with randomly losing battery charge but because the on board system and the off board diagnostic equipment can find no fault to explain the low battery warnings then nothing is done but a recharge.