New DCT Problem:"Transmission Malfunction"

[GMWNashville]

ive had a few cars do that when PDI'ing them...after they went to sleep overnight they were fine. so yea idk what the issue is...theres no bulletins and every time ive had the issue its gone away and stayed away..(im a tech)

[MDCTFTW]

Will we get updates for SW? I mean we're not supposed to take the car in after 1200 miles until 15000 miles. I don't want to wait that long if there's an update. Plus I want to get my alarm coded for free with a sw update.

[sfbimmer13]

Originally Posted by MDCTFTW

Will we get updates for SW? I mean we're not supposed to take the car in after 1200 miles until 15000 miles. I don't want to wait that long if there's an update. Plus I want to get my alarm coded for free with a sw update.

if the SW update is crucial we will all get notified - could also be that only a certain number of cars are affected, i.e. productions date xx.xx to xx.xx - those would than get a recall too.

I had a long conversation with my service manager about it and they promised me to give me a call if a SW update becomes available. Not that I have any issues

[04RC51]

Originally Posted by ugetem91

I've gotten the same message three times now, sucks when you are out on a date with a girl for the first time, and your car starts posting that in big letters on the screen.

How f'n ironic! That's EXACTLY what happened to me tonight. Happened once and then went away for a few 100 miles. Then the malfuction alerts came back and won't go away. Just so happens I was out w/ a girl for the 1st time (not my first date EVER, just my first w/ her) when the malfunction alerts came back and wouldn't go away. Still runs fine, but it's going in for service on monday when they open back up.

Even with this glitch, I'm still blown away with my 3 days I've spent w/ my car. It's SO much more than I imagined it'd be.

[Powerslide]

Add another M DCT car to the list for failure in Park - message popped up after only about 150 miles - shut off car for 20 minutes, and never came back on again. I took the car to the dealer a couple days later (again, the error light had not come back on again), and the service's dept's diagnostics did find a fault code - apparently there was a part that has to be replaced, and I'm hoping to get the car back tomorrow (dropped it off two days ago). For those of you with this problem - I would highly recommend bringing it back to the dealer to get it checked out - my car was driving just fine in all of the D and S modes, and I was almost tempted to not bother bringing it in.

I'll update this post when I get my car back so all of you know exactly what the problem was.

[Tut]

I have contacted BMW,NA, about this malfunction message and their response was to discuss it with the Service Manager and apologized for the inconvenience I am taking the car in next week since I just hit the 1200 mi mark and I'll keep you posted about what they have to say. I am still getting the message every once in a while, I took pictures of the message as promised but I'm having hard time uploading them because of the file size limitation, I'll try to take pictures with lower resolution to be able to post them, unless you guys have different recommendation..

[gtr]

Originally Posted by Tut

I have contacted BMW,NA, about this malfunction message and their response was to discuss it with the Service Manager and apologized for the inconvenience I am taking the car in next week since I just hit the 1200 mi mark and I'll keep you posted about what they have to say. I am still getting the message every once in a while, I took pictures of the message as promised but I'm having hard time uploading them because of the file size limitation, I'll try to take pictures with lower resolution to be able to post them, unless you guys have different recommendation..

You don't have to take another picture. Just download and install irfanview.

http://www.irfanview.com/

Open the pic with this program and go under (IMAGE) and then click resize. Resize to 640x480 and save as JPEG and you're all set

[booforty]

Seems to be a lot of DCT issues at the moment. I hope BMW get them sorted and quick!

[04RC51]

Originally Posted by Tut

I have contacted BMW,NA, about this malfunction message and their response was to discuss it with the Service Manager and apologized for the inconvenience I am taking the car in next week since I just hit the 1200 mi mark and I'll keep you posted about what they have to say. I am still getting the message every once in a while, I took pictures of the message as promised but I'm having hard time uploading them because of the file size limitation, I'll try to take pictures with lower resolution to be able to post them, unless you guys have different recommendation..

Here's my error message. I've gotten it a few times but haven't seen it in the last 400+ miles.

[DonM3]

Yep I have had a similar message twice. Its gone away after I switched the car off and started it up again

[M-Maika]

Originally Posted by DonM3

Yep I have had a similar message twice. Its gone away after I switched the car off and started it up again

Same for me.

Best Regards, Maika

[Tut]

Originally Posted by gtr

You don't have to take another picture. Just download and install irfanview.

http://www.irfanview.com/

Open the pic with this program and go under (IMAGE) and then click resize. Resize to 640x480 and save as JPEG and you're all set

Thanks a lot for the info. I can see that someone had posted the picture but I'll go ahead and follow your recommendation for the future. I dropped by my dealer today and gave them the picture so they can research next week before I take my car in for the 1200 mi-service.

[Powerslide]

Originally Posted by 04RC51

Here's my error message. I've gotten it a few times but haven't seen it in the last 400+ miles.

I just picked up my car tonight from the dealer - I was told that in September BMW will have a software patch available (confirming the previous posts), and assuming the car continues to drive normally, no need to worry if that error message comes up again (on the way home, it did not). Good news is that mechanically, the car is just fine (now I just need to get to 1200 miles)

[04RC51]

Originally Posted by Powerslide

I just picked up my car tonight from the dealer - I was told that in September BMW will have a software patch available (confirming the previous posts), and assuming the car continues to drive normally, no need to worry if that error message comes up again (on the way home, it did not). Good news is that mechanically, the car is just fine (now I just need to get to 1200 miles)

Just got mine back from the 1200 mi service and they said the same thing. They actually did their own legwork and narrowed it down to a faulty transmission solenoid but that was just the computer returning that error when the solenoid was/is actually good. As posted above, they said it would be fixed in the next sw update.

Also had a loose roof trim piece fixed and a small ding the detailers didn't catch fixed. Small hiccups that got fixed quickly and correctly. I couldn't be any happier!

[emkmd]

1300 miles and just got the message today for the first time. Stopped for 20 minutes at the wine store and when I restarted, the message was gone. Will try to listen for the click. Not happy about the glitch, no such problems with my SMG.

[Tut]

I just got my 1200 mi service done on my E92 w/M-DCT. Transmission fluid wasn't changed but they changed the rear diff. fluid, Air Filter, and engine oil. The Microfilter was supposed to be replaced but was on back order. As far as the transmission malfunction message, they also confirmed what we've been hearing about the sw patch/update due in mid September. The nice thing was that they put in writing on the ticket that "the car can be driven as normal, and no damage to trans will occur". This has been my experience since it started happening, but it's so damn frustrating to be driving home with stupid red car outline in the middle of the instrument cluster. I think it has something to do with the Summer heat, It's been happening much more frequently these days after the car has been parked at work for 11 hours and temperatures above 90 degrees. Has any one made a similar observation?
The car still drives grrrrreat.

[berniec]

Originally Posted by Tut

I just got my 1200 mi service done on my E92 w/M-DCT. Transmission fluid wasn't changed but they changed the rear diff. fluid, Air Filter, and engine oil. The Microfilter was supposed to be replaced but was on back order. As far as the transmission malfunction message, they also confirmed what we've been hearing about the sw patch/update due in mid September. The nice thing was that they put in writing on the ticket that "the car can be driven as normal, and no damage to trans will occur". This has been my experience since it started happening, but it's so damn frustrating to be driving home with stupid red car outline in the middle of the instrument cluster. I think it has something to do with the Summer heat, It's been happening much more frequently these days after the car has been parked at work for 11 hours and temperatures above 90 degrees. Has any one made a similar observation?
The car still drives grrrrreat.

thats a good point. I've never driven my car to work, and it's always garaged at home. Today i drove it into the city and left it parked outside for 8 hours, got in and BAM first time i ever saw that message.

Was in the car with one of my co-workers who wanted to see the car for the first time, was quite embarrassing to have this big error flashing up on the screen after having it for only about a week

[Captain Scott]

Hi everbody, I just signed up at 4:47 am this morning. I could not sleep knowing my car has a problem.

Want to guess what brought me to your web site? I just took home a new M3convertible this afternoon with a DCT, and you will shit when I tell you what happend.

Before I signed on the dotted line, I wanted to take my ordered car out for a spin. As the sales lady and myself moved about a foot the transmission failure light came on. I said what the hell is this? drove the car into the service area and was told just to reset the light by turning off the car.I was told it was just a fluke.

I drove the car 10 miles home and as I was about to turn into my driveway the car stalled and the same light came on again, restarted and drove a few feet only to have the car stall again.

They told me to bring the car in. I had no idea this car was having problems with the new DCT.

I am bringing the car back in a few hours and telling them I am putting a stop on my check I wrote them if the car needs a new tranny.

Any Ideas? Also has anyone noticed when starting out in first, it takes a lot of throttle to get the car moving? or is that also part of a tranny problem?

Thanks for anyones input.

Scott

[emkmd]

Scott,
This does not sound good. What exactly did the warning say? This is not right that there was a warning before you even bought it. I am sure you were so happy to be getting the car, that you accepted their explanation. I agree with stopping the check if there is a big problem.
Regarding the throttle response from a stop, this has been discussed a lot. This is "normal", and I don't like it, but am getting so used to it, that I do not really notice it anymore. Totally different than the SMG.

[Captain Scott]

Originally Posted by emkmd

Scott,
This does not sound good. What exactly did the warning say? This is not right that there was a warning before you even bought it. I am sure you were so happy to be getting the car, that you accepted their explanation. I agree with stopping the check if there is a big problem.
Regarding the throttle response from a stop, this has been discussed a lot. This is "normal", and I don't like it, but am getting so used to it, that I do not really notice it anymore. Totally different than the SMG.

Thank you for your response. I am getting the same warning that every one else is getting on the forum, Picture posted on the last page.

The only difference is my car stalled twice while in gear,and the car was brand new with only a few miles on it.

The car is in the shop, and I will see what they want to do on Monday. The sales manager said he will take the car back if it needs a new tranny with no problem.

I hope it is just a software problem. I can tell you this, it did turn up two fault codes when they did the test on it this morning.

They told me they need to bring BMW/ NA into the loop before they can do anything. I want to keep the car unless they want to replace the tranny.

Scott

[emkmd]

My car stalled once in a parking garage when I quickly went into reverse from 1st, with about 200mi on it. I got the P malfunction the other day with 1200mi. Bringing it in for the 1200mi service tom, so we'll see what they say.

[Tut]

On July 25 I posted my suspicions about the possible correlation between the heat and the "Transmission Malfunction......" error message. Today in Kansas City, we are having a heat wave (relatively speaking to those of you living in Dallas and Phoenix) with temp around 100 degrees.. I got the error message after every start between 11 and 2 PM, not just that but the car stalled and the engine died twice when taking off after a stop light... Thank God no damage and managed to restart the engine immediately and kept on going, pretty scary
I think BMW should release the software update as soon as possible before things get really ugly when the Summer heat is going to be with us for another 2 months.

Originally Posted by Tut

I just got my 1200 mi service done on my E92 w/M-DCT. Transmission fluid wasn't changed but they changed the rear diff. fluid, Air Filter, and engine oil. The Microfilter was supposed to be replaced but was on back order. As far as the transmission malfunction message, they also confirmed what we've been hearing about the sw patch/update due in mid September. The nice thing was that they put in writing on the ticket that "the car can be driven as normal, and no damage to trans will occur". This has been my experience since it started happening, but it's so damn frustrating to be driving home with stupid red car outline in the middle of the instrument cluster. I think it has something to do with the Summer heat, It's been happening much more frequently these days after the car has been parked at work for 11 hours and temperatures above 90 degrees. Has any one made a similar observation?
The car still drives grrrrreat.