Hello,
Posting on here to document and get some questions about my DCT.
I bought a 2011 e93 M3 with 65k miles as a project. I knew the transmission was faulty in some way and would need fixed. Plugged in a Foxwell scanner and it was unable to communicate with the transmission, wouldn't even connect to the module. I'm not super experienced with INPA and ISTA, but tried that route and could not reach it either.
(I should add that when I got the car, the Vin on the DME did not match the car, I am also working to rewrite the vin on the DME. So would a mismatched vin not allow the transmission to communicate? I would think it doesn't matter.)
Did a lot of reading on forums and figured it could be wiring harness related. Did some looking and nothing was out of the ordinary from what I could tell (not brittle, connections seemed okay). Then I figured it could be the mechatronics unit. I wanted to check the fluid level in the transmission, so I opened the fill plug... nothing. I went to crack open the drain plug and what came out was about 2 liters of "egg-nog" (attachment 1)
After seeing this, I figured the only place coolant could get in was the intercooler on top of the transmission. I knew the whole DCT had to come out, so I started that process and eventually got it out. I opened up the mechatronics side panel and found more egg-nog fluid and a bunch of dirty sludge. (attachment 2).
I don't know how water could get in the transmission (besides a broken intercooler), and from what I know and can tell about the rest of the car, has not been in a flood.
Has anyone seen anything like this? I would guess that the water that got in the transmission fried the mechatronics unit and then it wasn't able to communicate with the vehicle or any scanners.
I have ordered a used transmission with 44k miles and a bunch of fluid, gaskets, O rings, bolts, etc to make sure it doesn't leak, as I've seen that be a common problem on these. Still waiting on the arrival of the transmission, so fingers crossed I can plug it in and it works.
I can provide some of the codes I got as well for the car when I plugged a scan tool into it.
Also wondering if the two DC-DC torque converter modules next to the DME (part numbers 61429253208 and 61429253209) would cause any of this if they were toast or mismatched in the wiring harness?
Will keep updating as this progresses. In the meantime, any ideas for moving forward once I get the transmission in?