Help - Bizarre meltdown of car

[bimmerfiver]

1). Start car, engine is fine.
2). Place auto tranny into 'reverse' and tap gas, car will not move.
3). Place tranny into 'drive' and it lurches forward and drives forward as if I am dragging 50K pounds behind me...barely moving.
4). Place car in 'Park' and curse, yell and curse.
5). Place car into 'Neutral' and attempt to push it in reverse and the car will not budge backwards...the rear end sounded like it was clicking and felt locked, I could not move the car in a reverse motion at all.

6). Turn car off and curse some more.

7). No CEL ever came on. Hoped it was a CEL for a cam or crank sensor. Checked the emergency brake grasping at straws. Called for a tow truck...they tell me it's a two hour wait. Again placed the car in Neutral and tried to physically push it backwards and it would not move. Sit and curse a little more in a cold car, raining, wait for tow truck.
8). Turn car back ON to get warm...and place the tranny into 'Drive'...it moved forward smoothly. Place car in 'Reverse' and it moves smoothly. Car drives perfectly for 15 miles to my local shop. No CEL or a Tranny Light on dash ever, at all.
9). Drive to my local shop and they have an Autoboss V-30, pretty powerful scanner and it comes up with NO CODES for the Engine or Transmission. Scanned the entire car and nothing.

10). I drive away and within a few miles, from the rear end a quick, audible BANG end was heard and felt. NO CEL and NO Tranny lights whatsoever.

Is this my rear axle, rear differential or transmission? I just removed both rear axles last Saturday and rehabbed both inner CV joints. I am leaning towards staring at them tomorrow afternoon.

Please offer some help, input, ideas and thank you. G035308 are the last 7 of the VIN, 2003 525 auto (A5S 325Z Tranny I believe according to web research).

[16valex]

That's really sucks! One way to find out is to disconnect the drive shaft and see if the tranny still work.

I think your differential is toast, but hope your transmission is still good, this way you can get a differential from the junk yard for cheap or maybe upgrade to LSD.

I feel your pain man.

[E39bmw]

First check your rear shoes. i remember back in the day on my honda, they got stuck enabled and car WOULD NOT move at all.

[clarkitect]

First check your rear shoes. i remember back in the day on my honda, they got stuck enabled and car WOULD NOT move at all.

+1. Parking brake shoes or stuck cable. Maybe seized caliper?

[mattmartindrift]

First check your rear shoes. i remember back in the day on my honda, they got stuck enabled and car WOULD NOT move at all.

congratulations, you have made a post I agree with! That is if he parks his woman-transmissioned car with the parking brake engaged.

try lubricating the parking brake cables.

[bimmerfiver]

1). I hear you on the parking brake. It crossed my mind during the episode.
2). Car had very very very slight "surges" the past few weeks as if something was catching, dragging or slipping. Happened like 5 times and lasted fractions of seconds fyi fwiw.
3). Hearing the loud "bang" last night from the rear end felt axel-ish or differential-ish. Could be parking brake, long shot and will inspect it all this afternoon on lift.

[rf900rkw]

While we can't say it's not the transmission, it certainly isn't a normal pattern failure for that unit. The lack of codes is inconclusive, binds would be a lot harder to detect than a slip. My first thought has already been covered, brake bind. I've seen parking brake shoe linings delaminate, float around, and wedge at random intervals.

[AnotherGeezer]

I think your third member has passed over rainbow bridge.

[bimmerfiver]

Anyone who is smart on this thread, PM me your cell phone number because by some point this afternoon I will have my car on a lift and I will be doing one of the following:

1). Shooting an e39 with #8 slugs from a Remington Model 1100.
2). Celebrating as I come to find out it's the parking brake.

It could be the infamous "lost reverse" BMW tranny syndrome. It could be all of the above...this sucks and I'm hating my car right now bigtime. Odd this occurs days after I remove my half shafts and perform an overhaul on the inner CV's...hmmm. And odd it occurred after sitting in the rain for 8 hours (did this make the parking brake finally give up the ghost as it sat?).

[AnotherGeezer]

I'm, too sexy for my phone, too sexy for my phone too sexy.

[D. Hitchcock]

This happened shortly after you were in there working on the axles/dif?

This gives me a bad feeling and I suspect the problem is not your parking brake.

You need to recheck everything you just did.

Sucks. I hate being there too.

Good luck,
d.hitchcock

[rf900rkw]

If it eases your mind any, the infamous 5HP19 "loses reverse" problem results in a free revving engine, and you should still be able to push the car backwards.


AND IT DOESN"T FIX ITSELF!!!


It literally blows the end right out of an aluminum clutch housing. It is possible that something freaky went on inside the transmission; never say never; but it's not very likely.

[Mark@EAC]

Just a wild guess here but maybe your shift position switch is going out. You might see the car says its in R or N up top, but the trans may never be getting the message to play along.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...87&hg=24&fg=15

That doesn't explain the bang noise I suppose, but we are talking to a guy who has admitted to having someone drive him around while he had a stethoscope in his ears to find a suspension squeak! Could have been unrelated. I wasn't there.

[Gumbi4u]

If its not the shoes (highly doubt it) then its time to open that diff and see what got screwed up during the half shaft install. It most likely has to do with locking the shafts in place.

[Jason5driver]

1).

10). I drive away and within a few miles, from the rear end a quick, audible BANG end was heard and felt. NO CEL and NO Tranny lights whatsoever.

This ^ reminds me of a failing MAF.
A bad MAF will send your transmission into fail-safe/ limp mode, and the transmission will clunk, hard, trying to shift.
However, when that happens, the gear symbol on your dash lights up, along with the service engine soon light...

Just a guess...


Jason

[kaineb]

I had the issue you described after working on my vehicle and forgot to reconnect the wiring harness for the transmission. Exact symptoms.

[g00dwagen]

My vote for a mechanical failure. Broken cv joint cage comes to mind.

[bimmerfiver]

1). I had to work in their shop today from noon to 6pm to get a lift, but it was well worth it.
2). Placed car on lift and did the look-about underneath and nothing to the eye stood out.
3). Rotated driveshaft by hand, same for CV joints and nothing shouted out.
4). Spun wheels by hand and nothing showed up, though I mentioned to my mechanic friend, "The drive side wheel seems difficult to spin." He disagreed and said it was fine.
5). Started car on lift and placed it in 'Drive'. Gave it some gas and got her up to 35mph and you could easily hear a loud scraping noise from the driver-side rear wheel's revolution.
6). Focused on that wheel. Removed wheel and spun rotor...was scraping noise from caliper/pads or emergency brake shoes or CV? Removed caliper and the noise was still present...twas the e-brake shoes.
7). Removed rotor and adjusted emergency brake shoes.
8). Re-installed rotor/pads and all friction was removed, all was well, noise gone.

Was this caused by a hung-up e-brake? Have to say yes. Is the inner CV tweeked as re-assembly of one of them last weekend was rather difficult? I drive the car and as I do I dwell on the inner CV's I did last weekend and if one of them is not A+. Welp tomorrow afternoon I will:

A). Replace both half shafts.
B). Drop the tranny pan, filter and drain fluid. Install new filter and Pentosin fluid.

This will put my mind at ease. I do believe the e-brake is to blame, but I also harbor doubt in one of my inner CV's, so I want to eliminate them. I also planned on doing my tranny at 100K miles and never found the time, so I will tackle it tomorrow.

This Spring I will install 2 new camshaft sensors and the 1 crank sensor. I have 137K miles on them, they owe me nothing and I want to increase my car's reliabilty. And I swear to Skeletor I will get my hands on a driveshaft to eliminate vibration. I also need to do rear brakes in April and I will do the e-brakes for sure (for now they are fine).

Thank you to all and your advice/input. I felt all along this was mechanical so e-brake fix, new half shafts should cure the concern from my mind and I know it's the right thing to do.

[AnotherGeezer]

This is good news Keith. I'm glad you've nailed it down to a simple repair versus the ugly alternatives.

[16valex]

That's good news! Glad to hear it was just hand brakes. Way to go fiver.

[Xeniczone]

Good news! My sister had the same problem with her Jetta, no reverse, crappy drive. She keep driving it and one of the gears exploded and shot through the case. Like $2500 dollars of damage.

Thought about giving a sex change operation, but after driving my car for about a month she decided she didn't like driving manual daily.

[bimmerfiver]

1). Went to BMW to pick up a tranny pan gasket.
2). Loud and strong "clunk" and it feels transmision-ish.
3). If indeed I need a new tranny....what is the best route? Live on Long Island, NY and want a reliable solution. Is there a place that sells reman'd transmission?

Ideas, thanks.

[Graham E39 528i]

Great news Lord Bimmerfiver!

[bimmerfiver]

Great news Lord Bimmerfiver!

You missed the important part, post # 22 above:

1). Went to BMW to pick up a tranny pan gasket.
2). Loud and strong "clunk" and it feels transmission-ish.
3). If indeed I need a new tranny....what is the best route? Live on Long Island, NY and want a reliable solution. Is there a place that sells reman'd transmission?

NEED ideas, thanks.

[Jason5driver]

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...php?p=11785670

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=152336

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...www.google.com

Might be the D clutch has failed...
Common on your transmission...

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