SMG Problem

[JeffBZZZZ4]

After 60K miles my SMG has started to act up. About 2 weeks ago while driving on the freeway my transmission light came on (yellow). For the duration of the drive home I could not shift above 3rd gear. I called the local dealer and he told me to get to a point where I shut the car off and perhaps it would clear itself upon cooling. It did.

That weekend I left on a 10 day business trip and left the car sittling in my garage. When I returned I tried to start the car and could not get the SMG into neutral to start it. All of the other electrical components seem to work fine. I just cannot get the car into neutral to start it. I do notice that the hydraulic pump noise priming does not occur when I unlock the car now. My guess is that either the SMG relay or hydraulic pump is bad. I will likely have to tow the car to the dealer for repairs

Has anyone else had any issues with similar to what I describe? Any suggestions or experience to share?

[Reach]

Software. The 2003s had many problems, most of which were corrected with several incremental software updates. I'm sure your dealer will check this as a part of the inspection, but have them dump your current SMG software and check it against the latest. I have had the software updated on mine and have never had any of the gear lockout problems reported on earlier models. I do not know if these are 100% correlated though, as I have a later model and there were several other changes as well.

I really haven't heard of very many cases of smg hydraulic pump failure on the Z4 SMG, unlike the M3 SMG II.

[JeffBZZZZ4]

Thanks!

I hope you are right. i will post a follow up later in the week after I get the car to the dealer. I will ask them too reload the SMG sw first.

[Hallatauer]

I have a 2003 and it got 2 different SMG software upgrades over the years. I never had a major problem but did experience the slow shifting from R to 1st when I first bought it. The first upgrade eliminated that. Seemed fine to me after that. They upgraded again and I disliked it. Seemed the shifting up thru the gears in normal mode was a bit slow. I drive it in Sport mode a lot to make up for it since the dealer wouldn't put the old ECU unit back in.

Hopefully the service dept is just behind in upgrading or your ECU is bad and just needs replacing. Takes 10 minutes but I'm sure they'll charge you an arm and a leg to do it if it isn't under warranty. Good luck!

[JeffBZZZZ4]

The dealer says I have multiple relay and pump faults. The bill to replace both is $900. I decided that was the safe way to go.

[mrnemo]

Back from the dead thread, but my SMG has been doing the exact same thing since it hit exactly 60K (lol like it was programmed to fail at 60,001). I have had it in the dealer a few times and they seem to ignore my pleas and give the car back untouched. I got the newest software ($185) and it did not help. I will add the solution to the mix as well as the price ($900 sounds cheap!).

[Hallatauer]

$900 for a BMW transmission fix.. yeah... sounds about right. Glad it's working again.

Nemo... did they run the OBD II for fault codes? Sounds like they tried to short cut it.