Just bought a 2003 530i from a dealer in Dallas. Had a number of issues with it, but most got fixed in 3 or 4 visits to the dealership (so much for buying a BMW certified car). I just have two issues left that dealer claims are not issues.

1. Fan comes on every time I start the car, regardless of whether it was turned off or on last time I used the car. It will start with the same settings I had it on when I used the A/C or Heater last. Basically, every morning I start the car and fan comes on, I kill it and next time I start the car it is back on. Is this normal? Anybody had this problem before?

2. Transmission. Had it reprogrammed right away because when it would down shift in 1st gear it jerked very hard and dealer suggested reprogramming it. Now, I have another problem. Every time I shift from park to drive or reverse, I have to step on the brakes as hard as I can, otherwise the car jerks hard and brakes squeak. If the car is cold the jerk is even harder. Dealer repeatedly said that all BMW transmissions are rough like that. Dealer also replaced a drive shaft for no apparent reason right before this started to happen. Any suggestions?

I will appreciate any comments or insights...

I've had the same 2 experiences:

1. the fan comes on automatically 95% of the times I restart the car after turning it off. I have no idea why it stays off the other 5%.

2. if the auto trans has hard downshifts something is wrong and the first step in fixing it is to have the dealer download the new software BMW has recently made available to all dealers. It worked for me.

Congrats on your purchase, they are great cars.:)

Congrats on the purchase! You must be using John Roberts BMW. Don't loose faith on some of the remaining isues you have. We have all gone thru them at some point in time or another. But in the end, it's all about "The Ultimate Driving Machine."

I'll keep an eye open for ya on the road! Welcome aboard.

With respect to #1, I'm not sure if I'm completely clear on what you're relating, but on my E39 when I start the car, the heater/AC fan will automatically start on the last setting I had it, unless I had it completely turned off, in which case it will start on the lowest setting (one LED bar showing). This seems like a logical arrangement to me...

The electrics in these cars can be a bit quirky at times. On mine, for example, every once in a while when I start the car, the numbers on the digital clock or the numbers on the audio panel will be completely blank, even though the radio is playing. If I turn the radio off and on, everything comes right back up completely normal. A minor annoyance... I think I read somewhere on here that the key to solving the electrical glitches on a BMW is to hang a dead chicken by its feet from the rear-view mirror... :)

Hotswimmer: This is exactly what my car does. I really hate that feature though. My other BMWs never did it. Even with one bar showing it gets very hot in the car in a hurry.

540i6sport:
Tried Classic and John Roberts, both are equally bad. John Roberts actually completely destroyed my '97 328i and I was hoping with a new ownership, the service department changed, but apparently all the old managers/service advisers are still there. I really hate driving stupid Dodge Durango for 3 days at a time, but I guess I will have to bring it back and make sure they reprogram the transmission right this time.

On my 2002 530i I leave the automatic climate control alone. On startup it has one bar and after a few minutes the fan turns ON to control the climate temparature inside the cabin. If it is really hot inside, it does a good job of turning the fans as fast as possible so to cool the inside of the car. So far I've never experienced (knock on wood) any quirkiness of the electronics on this car.

hotswimmer - As far as your radio is concerned, it may be more problems down the road. It had the same symptoms and I bought a spare MID and head unit. I swapped the MID and it still had those problems. It turns out teh head unit is directly under the ac vent and the condensation drips onto the head unit and it shorts out the internals.

Just bought a 2003 530i from a dealer in Dallas. Had a number of issues with it, but most got fixed in 3 or 4 visits to the dealership (so much for buying a BMW certified car). I just have two issues left that dealer claims are not issues.

1. Fan comes on every time I start the car, regardless of whether it was turned off or on last time I used the car. It will start with the same settings I had it on when I used the A/C or Heater last. Basically, every morning I start the car and fan comes on, I kill it and next time I start the car it is back on. Is this normal? Anybody had this problem before?

2. Transmission. Had it reprogrammed right away because when it would down shift in 1st gear it jerked very hard and dealer suggested reprogramming it. Now, I have another problem. Every time I shift from park to drive or reverse, I have to step on the brakes as hard as I can, otherwise the car jerks hard and brakes squeak. If the car is cold the jerk is even harder. Dealer repeatedly said that all BMW transmissions are rough like that. Dealer also replaced a drive shaft for no apparent reason right before this started to happen. Any suggestions?

I will appreciate any comments or insights...

1) go to dealer, have them goto Car and Key Memory, and go to the option for Air recirculation memory for the Heating/Air Conditioning/Ventilation. And set it to Not Active. By default, it is not active.

Air recirculation is retained after restarting. This function is not key dependant.

2) Your symptoms lead me to believe that you have bad U-Joints. So it seems like the dealer didnt install the drive shaft properly. go back and ask them to fix it for free. or call BMWNA and ask them for help.

Killcrap: so, are you saying that fan will restart everytime I start the car regardless? " Air recirculation is retained after restarting. This function is not key dependant."

Called BMW USA few days ago, they promised that Service Manager will be giving me a call, but nobody called yet...The car is under full warranty, it just seems like every time there is some research involved in figuring out what is wrong with the car they refuse to spend their precious time and do the research. Do they get paid for the diagnostic time by BMW?

no, you can turn this feature off at the dealer.

yes 80% of all work done at a BMW dealership is warranty/recall work. the other 20% is customer pay. the tech has less FRU(flat rate units) to get a vehicle done than if a customer pays. seems like the dealer doesnt like you verymuch. as they have constantly lied to you in the recent past.

1) "repeatedly said that all BMW transmissions are rough like that"
not true (u-joint failure/driveshaft replacement/new program)
2) dealer states that the IHKA is constantly on and nothing can be done about it. not true (read my last post)


they just seem like they dont like you.

1. Fan comes on every time I start the car, regardless of whether it was turned off or on last time I used the car. It will start with the same settings I had it on when I used the A/C or Heater last. Basically, every morning I start the car and fan comes on, I kill it and next time I start the car it is back on. Is this normal? Anybody had this problem before?

Is your automatic temp control "on". If so, the system will automatically regulate the air flow.



Dealer repeatedly said that all BMW transmissions are rough like that. Dealer also replaced a drive shaft for no apparent reason right before this started to happen. Any suggestions?

I have a 2002 530 with an auto. Mine shifts very smoothly in either "D" or "S" mode. If you have to stand on the brakes, that's not normal. I have never heard of ANY car where you have to depress the brakes as hard as you described.

If you had the drive shaft replaced, I ASSUME the dealer looked at the u-joints and found them to be OK. So I'm puzzled and can only speculate what the cause is.

Keep us posted and enjoy the car!!

Hotswimmer: This is exactly what my car does. I really hate that feature though. My other BMWs never did it. Even with one bar showing it gets very hot in the car in a hurry.

540i6sport:
Tried Classic and John Roberts, both are equally bad. John Roberts actually completely destroyed my '97 328i and I was hoping with a new ownership, the service department changed, but apparently all the old managers/service advisers are still there. I really hate driving stupid Dodge Durango for 3 days at a time, but I guess I will have to bring it back and make sure they reprogram the transmission right this time.

I'm sorry to hear that. You're probably thinking....."alright, two strikes you're out." I just had my first experience at a BMW dealership a couple months ago. I ended up taking it to Moritz out in Arlington. After a little Q&A with some friends and coworkers it seemed like the best of the three dealerships. I was extremely pleased with the service. So much so that I even wrote a "Kudos" letter to the service manager on what a great job they did. A rare thing for me to do.

It would be a long way across town for you but might be your only hope. My service guy is Daniel Shaw. Great guy who helped with Inspection 1 and having the pixel problem serviced. I plan on returning again.

Hope you have better luck in the future. :(

Will print this thread out and take it to the dealer.

JR is bad and Classic is really bad. Here is an example. I bought my car from Classic and it was BMW certified. The minute I paid for it, it went to the shop for a week to get all the major issues resolved. Aren't they supposed to take care of all the problems when they certify their cars? I actually had a dash warning light on, which they couldn't miss. Will go to Moritz next time JR fails (it's a 40 mile drive).

My A/C auto is not on, so I guess this is something they can just configure.

Driveshaft: I heard a hollow metal to metal noise when shifting from P to D in the morning. Dealer said that it is a drive shaft making few revolutions before it catches on. Drive shaft is replaced. The noise is still there but not as prominent, but now I have this shifting problem. I will have them look at u-joints now. Will see what they say.

As far as them not liking me, the feeling is mutual :)

hey while your there, give them :finger22 for me

BMW universal joints are not replacable. They come on the new dshaft. Other areas that could cause driveline issues: the rubber flex disc between the transmission output and the dshaft or the dshaft center bearing. Highly unlikely that the differential is messed up, but the rubber mount for it could be worn. Trans mount or engine mounts could be worn.

People drive automatics funny. I see people that change directions(forward to reverse and vise versa) without slowing the car down much, so as a result the trans grabs hard. That could have caused the issue.

This is actually my first automatic car and that's why I wasn't sure if the auto Bimmers shift hard. The issue I am talking about happens when I shift out of park, so there is no user error for sure.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=DT63&mospid=47587&btnr=26_0188&hg=26&fg=10

The issue I am talking about happens when I shift out of park, so there is no user error for sure.

Right, but the wear occurs from the use I spoke of.